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THE  POLISH  PEASANT 
IN  EUROPE  AND  AMERICA 


SOME  BORZOI  TEXTS  IN  SOCIOLOGY 

AN    INTRODUCTION"  TO    MODERN    SOCIAL 'PROBLEMS 
by  Philip  A.  Parsons 

THE   POLISH    PEASANT   IN    EUROPE   AND   AMERICA 
by  IVilliam  I.  Thomas  and  Florian  Znaniecki 

THE   RACIAL   BASIS   OF    CIVILIZATION 
by  Frank  H.  Hankins 

AN    INTRODUCTION    TO    SOCIOLOGY 
by  Wilson  D.  JVallis 

CRIME   AND   THE    CRIMINAL 
by  Philip  A.  Parsons 

AMERICA   IN    CIVILIZATION 
by  Ralph  E.  Turner 

SOCIAL   ADJUSTMENT 
by  Robert  C.  Dexter 

,      URBAN    SOCIOLOGY 
by  Nels  Anderson 


THE  POLISH  PEASANT 

IN 

EUROPE  AND  AMERICA 

BY 

WILLIAM  I.  THOMAS 


AND 

FLORIAN  ZNANIECKI 


VOLUME    ONE 


NEW   YORK 
ALFRED- A- KNOPF 

1927 


COPYRIGHT    I918,    I919,    1920,    1927,   BY   ALFRED   A.    KNOPF,    INC 


MANUFACTURED  IN   THE  UNITED   STATES   OF   AMERICA 


1^  1-^ 


GRATEFULLY    DEDICATED 
TO 

Helen  Culver 


319348 


PREFACE  TO  FIRST  EDITION 

Among  the  questions  included  in  the  as  yet  relatively 
unformulated  field  of  social  science  (without  reference  t;o 
logical  order)  are:  immigration;  racial  prejudice;  cultural 
assimilation;  the  comparative  mental  and  moral  worth  of 
races  and  nationalities;  crime,  alcoholism,  vagabondage, 
and  other  forms  of  anti-social  behavior;  nationalism  and 
internationalism;  democracy  and  class-hierarchization;  effi- 
ciency and  happiness,  particularly  as  functions  of  the  rela- 
tion of  the  individual  to  the  social  framework  containing 
his  activities;  the  rate  of  individualization  possible  without 
disorganization;  the  difference  between  unreflective  social 
cohesion  brought  about  by  tradition,  and  reflective  social 
co-operation  brought  about  by  rational  selection  of  common 
ends  and  means;  the  introduction  of  new  and  desirable 
attitudes  and  values  without  recourse  to  the  way  of  revolu- 
tion; and,  more  generally,  the  determination  of  the  most 
general  and  particular  laws  of  social  reality,  preliminary 
to  the  introduction  of  a  social  control  as  satisfactory,  or  as 
increasingly  satisfactory,  as  is  our  control  of  the  material 
world,  resulting  from  the  study  of  the  laws  of  physical 
reality. 

Now  we  are  ourselves  primarily  interested  in  these  prob- 
lems, but  we  are  convinced  of  the  necessity  of  approaching 
these  and  other  social  problems  by  isolating  given  societies 
and  studying  them,  first,  in  the  totality  of  their  objective 
complexity,  and  then  comparatively.  The  present  study 
was  not,  in  fact,  undertaken  exclusively  or  even  primarily 
as  an  expression  of  interest  in  the  Polish  peasant  (although 
our  selection  of  this  society  was  influenced  by  the  question 
of  immigration  and  by  other  considerations  named  below, 


viii  PREFACE 

pp.  74ff.)>  but  the  Polish  peasant  was  selected  rather  as  a 
convenient  object  for  the  exemplification  of  a  standpoint 
and  method  outlined  in  the  methodological  note  forming 
the  first  pages  of  the  present  volume.  The  scope  of  our 
study  will  be  best  appreciated  by  having  this  fact  in 
mind. 

The  work  consists  of  five  volumes,  largely  documentary 
in  their  character.  Volumes  I  and  II  comprise  a  study  of 
the  organization  of  the  peasant  primary  groups  (family 
and  community),  and  of  the  partial  evolution  of  this  system 
of  organization  under  the  influence  of  the  new  industrial 
system  and  of  immigration  to  America  and  Germany. 
Volume  III  is  the  autobiography  (with  critical  treatment) 
of  an  immigrant  of  peasant  origin  but  belonging  by  occupa- 
tion to  the  lower  city  class,  and  illustrates  the  tendency  to 
disorganization  of  the  individual  under  the  conditions  in- 
volved in  a  rapid  transition  from  one  type  of  social  organiza- 
tion to  another.  Volume  IV  treats  the  dissolution  of  the 
primary  group  and  the  social  and  political  reorganization 
and  unification  of  peasant  communities  in  Poland  on  the 
new  ground  of  rational  co-operation.  Volume  V  is  based 
on  studies  of  the  Polish  immigrant  in  America  and  shows 
the  degrees  and  forms  of  disorganization  associated  with 
a  too-rapid  and  inadequately  mediated  individualization, 
with  a  sketch  of  the  beginnings  of  reorganization. 

We  are  unable  to  record  here  in  a  detailed  way  our 
recognition  of  the  generous  assistance  we  have  received  from 
many  sources,  but  wish  to  express  a  particular  apprecia- 
tion to  the  following  individuals,  societies,  periodicals, 
courts,  etc.: 

Professor  Fr.  Bujak,  University  of  Cracow;  Professor 
Stefan  Surzycki,  University  of  Cracow;  Dr.  S.  Hupka, 
Cracow;  Mr.  Roman  Dmowski,  Warsaw;  Mr.  Wiadyslaw 
Grabski,  Warsaw;  Mr.  Jerzy  Goscicki,  Warsaw;  Priest  Jan 


PREFACE  ix 

Gralewski,  Starawies;  Mr.  A.  Kulikowski,  Vilna;  Mrs. 
Eileen  Znaniecka,  Chicago. 

The  Emigrants'  Protective  Association  of  Warsaw 
{Towarzystwo  Opicki  nad  Wychodzcami);  the  Cracow 
Academy  of  Sciences  {Akademia  Umiej^tnosci  w  Krakowie) ; 
the  Society  for  the  Knowledge  of  the  Country  {Towarzys- 
two Krajoznawcze);  the  Society  of  United  Women  Land- 
Residents  {Toivarzystwo  Zjednoczonych  Ziemianek) ;  Amerika 
Institut  (Berlin:  Dr.  R.  W.  Drechsler,  Dr.  Karl  0.  Bertling). 

Gazeta  Swiqteczna  (Warsaw:  Tadeusz  Proszynski,  Mrs. 
Burtnowska);  Zaranie  (Mr.  M.  M.  Malinowski,  Miss 
Stanislawa  Malinowska,  Miss  Irene  Kosmowska) ;  Tygodnik 
Polski  (Warsaw:  Gustaw  Simon);  Narod  (Warsaw:  Mr. 
A.  S.  Gol^biowski) ;  Zorza  (Mr.  Stanislaw  Rutkowski, 
Mr.  Stanislaw  Domanski);  Poradnik  Gospodarski  (Posen: 
Mr.  K.  Brownsford);  Dziennik  Poznanski  (Posen);  Zgoda 
(Chicago);  Dziennik  Chicagoski  (Chicago). 

Chief  Justice  Harry  Olson,  the  Municipal  Court  of 
Chicago;  Judge  Merritt  W.  Pinckney,  Judge  Victor  P. 
Arnold,  Judge  Mary  Bartelme,  Chief  Probation  Officer 
Joel  D.  Hunter,  and  the  probation  officers  and  keepers  of 
the  probation  records  of  the  Juvenile  Court  of  Cook  County ; 
the  officials  of  the  United  Charities  of  Chicago,  particularly 
of  the  Northwest  District;  the  officials  of  the  Legal  Aid 
Society  of  Chicago;  the  keepers  of  the  records  of  the  Cook 
County  Criminal  Court;   the  keepers  of  the  records  of  the 

Cook  County  Coroner's  Office. 

W.  L  T. 
F.  Z. 


PREFACE  TO  SECOND  EDITION 

This  edition  is  not  abridged  in  any  way  and  remains 
unaltered  except  for  the  correction  of  a  few  textual  er- 
rors, the  repagination,  the  transposition  of  what  was 
originally  Volume  III  (the  autobiography)  to  the  end  of 
Volume  II,  and  the  addition  of  an  index. 

W.  I.  T. 

F.  Z. 


CONTENTS 

VOLUiAIE  ONE 
PART  I :     PRIMARY  GROUP  ORGANIZATION 


PAGE 


JMethodological   Note i 

Introduction 87 

■-  The  Peasant  Family 87 

Marriage io5 

The  Class- System  in  Polish  Society 128 

Social  Environment .■     .  140 

Economic  Life .      .      .156 

'  Religious  and  Magical  Attitudes 205 

Theoretic  and  Aesthetic  Interests 288 

Form  and  Function  of  the  Peasant  Letter  ....   303 
Specimen  Peasant  Letters 308 

Correspondence  between  Members  of  Family-Groups  .   316 

Borek  Series 317 

Wroblewski   Series         325 

Stelmach  Series 379 

Osinski  Series 394 

Gosciak   Series 451 

Markiewicz   Series         455 

Kozlowski   Series 527 

Jackowski    Series 556 

Kanikula  Series 574 

Topolski  Series 579 

Sekowski  Series 587 

Makowski   Series 606 

xiii 


^;iv  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Cugowski  Series 615 

Barszczewski  Series 634 

Halicki   Series 647 

Rzepkowski  Series 665 

Kalinowicz  Series 675 

Wickowski    Series 684 

Serczynski   Series 690 

Terlecki  Series 696 

Raczkowski  Series 706 

Rembienska  Series         775 

Butkowski   Series 782 

Radwanski   Series 792 

Dobiecki   Series 799 

Konstancya  Walerych  Series 803 

Feliks  P.  Series 807 

Winkowski  Series 809 

Individual  Letters  and  Fragments  of  Letters  Showing 

THE  Dissolution  of  Familial  Solidarity       .      .      .  814 

Correspondence  between  Husbands  and  Wives  .      .      .  822 

Pawlak   Series 824 

Kukielka   Series 829 

Jankoski   Series 835 

Lazowska  Series 837 

Olszak   Series 842 

Starkiewicz   Series    .      .      , 847 

Kluch  Series 854 

Strucinski  Series 858 

Borkowski  Series 869 

Porzycki  Series 901 

Jablkowski   Series 932 

Personal  Relations  Outside  of  ^Lvrriage  and  the  Fam- 
ily         959 

Hejmej  Series 961 


CONTENTS  XV 


PAGE 


Pedewski  Series 967 

Kazimierz  F.  Series 971 

Arciszewski  Series 975 

Kowalski   Series 981 

Fryzowicz  Series 988 

Osiniak   Series 995 

Krupa  Series 1009 

Piotrowski   Series 1029 

Lipniacki  Series 1093 

Jasinski  Series 1102 

Index  to  Letter  Series 1115 


PART  I 
PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 


METHODOLOGICAL  NOTE 

One  of  the  most  significant  features  of  social  evolution 
is  the  growing  importance  which  a  conscious  and  rational 
technique  tends  to  assume  in  social  life.  We  are  less  and 
less  ready  to  let  any  social  processes  go  on  without  our 
active  interference  and  we  feel  more  and  more  dissatisfied 
^ith  any  active  interference  based  upon  a  mere  whim  of  an 
individual  or  a  social  body,  or  upon  preconceived  philosoph- 
ical, religious,  or  moral  generalizations. 

The  marvelous  results  attained  by  a  rational  technique 
in  the  sphere  of  material  reality  invite  us  to  apply  some 
analogous  procedure  to  social  reality.  Our  success  in^ 
controlling  nature  gives  us  confidence  that  we  shall  eventu- 
ally be  able  to  control  the  social  world  in  the  same  measure. 
Our  actual  inefficiency  in  this  line  is  due,  not  to  any  funda- 
mental limitation  of  our  reason,  but_5iiliply  to  the  historical 
fact  that  the  objective  attitude  toward  social  reality  is  a 
recent  acquisition. 

While  our  realization  that  nature  can  be  controlled 
only  by  treating  it  as  independent  of  any  immediate  act 
of  our  will  or  reason  is  four  centuries  old,  our  confidence 
in  "legislation"  and  in  "moral  suasion"  shows  that  this 
idea  is  not  yet  generally  realized  with  regard  to  the  social 
world.  But  the  tendency  to  rational  control  is  growing  in 
this  field  also  and  constitutes  at  present  an  insistent  demand 
on  the  social  sciences. 

This  demand  for  a  rational  control  results  from  the 
increasing  rapidity  of  social  evolution.  The  old  forms  of 
control  were  based  upon  the  assumption  of  an  essential 
stability  of  the  whole  social  framework  and  were  effective 
only  in  so  far  as  this  stability  was  real.     In  a  stable  social 


2  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

organization  there  is  time  enough  to  develop  in  a  purely 
empirical  way,  through  innumerable  experiments  and 
failures,  approximately  sufficient  means  of  control  with 
regard  to  the  ordinary  and  frequent  social  phenomena, 
while  the  errors  made  in  treating  the  uncommon  and  rare 
phenomena  seldom  affect  social  life  in  such  a  manner  as  to 
imperil  the  existence  of  the  group;  if  they  do,  thep  the 
catastrophe  is  accepted  as  incomprehensible  and  inevitable. 
Thus — to  take  an  example — the  Polish  peasant  community 
has  developed  during  many  centuries  complicated  systems 
of  beliefs  and  rules  of  behavior  sufficient  to  control  social 
life  under  ordinary  circumstances,  and  the  cohesion  of 
the  group  and  the  persistence  of  its  membership  are  strong 
enough  to  withstand  passively  the  influence  of  eventual 
extraordinary  occurrences,  although  there  is  no  adequate 
method  of  meeting  them.  And  if  the  crisis  is  too  serious 
and  the  old  unity  or  prosperity  of  the  group  breaks  down, 
this  is  usually  treated  at  first  as  a  result  of  superior  forces 
against  which  no  fight  is  possible. 

But  when,  owing  to  the  breakdown  of  the  isolation  of  the 
group  and  its  contact  with  a  more  complex  and  fluid  world, 
the  social  evolution  becomes  more  rapid  and  the  crises 
more  frequent  and  varied,  there  is  no  time  for  the  same 
gradual,  empirical,  unmethodical  elaboration  of  approxi- 
mately adequate  means  of  control,  and  no  crisis  can  be 
passively  borne,  but  every  one  must  be  met  in  a  more  or 
less  adequate  way,  for  they  are  too  various  and  frequent  not 
to  imperil  social  life  unless  controlled  in  time.  The  substitu- 
tion of  a  conscious  technique  for  a  half-conscious  routine 
has  become,  therefore,  a  social  necessity,  thougl^  it  is  evi- 
dent that  the  development  of  this  technique  could  be  only 
gradual,  and  that  even  now  we  find  in  it  many  implicit  or 
explicit  ideas  and  methods  corresponding  to  stages  of  human 
thought  passed  hundreds  or  even  thousands  of  years  ago. 


METHODOLOGICAL  NOTE  3 

The  oldest  but  most  persistent  form  of  social  technique 
is  that  of  "  ordering-and-f orbidding " — ^that  is,  meeting  a 
crisis  by  an  ar"bitrary  act  of  will  decreeing  the  disappearance 
of  the  undesirable  or  the  appearance  of  the  desirable  phenom- 
ena, and  using  arbitrary  physical  action  to  enforce  the 
decree.  This  method  corresponds  exactly  to  the  magical 
phas^'of  natural  technique.  In  both,  the  essential  means 
of  bringing  a  determined  effect  is  more  or  less  consciously 
thought  to  reside  in  the  act  of  will  itself  by  which  the  effect 
is  decreed  as  desirable  and  of  which  the  action  is  merely 
an  indispensable  vehicle  or  instrument;  in  both,  the  process 
by  which  the  cause  (act  of  will  and  physical  action)  is 
supposed  to  bring  its  effect  to  realization  remains  out  of 
reach  of  investigation;  in  both,  finally,  if  the  result  is  not 
attained,  some  new  act  of  will  with  new  material  acces- 
sories is  introduced,  instead  of  trying  to  find  and  remove 
the  perturbing  causes.  A  good  instance  of  this  in  the 
socia^  field  is  the  typical  legislative  procedure  of  today. 

It  frequently  happens  both  in  magic  and  in  the  ordering- 
and-forbidding  technique  that  the  means  by  which  the  act 
of  will  is  helped  are  really  effective,  and  thus  the  result  is 
attained,  but,  as  the  process  of  causation,  being  unknown, 
cannot  be  controlled,  the  success  is  always  more  or  less 
accidental  and  dependent  upon  the  stability  of  general 
conditions;  when  these  are  changed,  the  intended  effect 
fails  to  appear,  the  subject  is  unable  to  account  for  the 
reasons  of  the  failure  and  can  only  try  by  guesswork  some 
other  means.  And  even  more  frequent  than  this  accidental 
success  is  the  result  that  the  action  brings  some  effect,  but 
not  the  desired  one. 

There  is,  indeed,  one  difference  between  the  ordering- 
and-forbidding  technique  and  magic.  In  social  life  an 
expressed  act  of  will  may  be  sometimes  a  real  cause,  when 
the  person  or  body  from  which  it  emanates  has  a  particular 


4  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

authority  in  the  eyes  of  those  to  whom  the  order  or  pro- 
hibition apphes.  But  this  does  not  change  the  nature  of 
the  technique  as  such.  The  prestige  of  rulers,  ecclesiastics, 
and  legislators  was  a  condition  making  an  act  of  will  an 
efficient  cause  under  the  old  regimes,  but  it  loses  its  value 
in  the  modern  partly  or  completely  republican  organizations. 

A  more  effective  technique,  based  upon  "common  Sjpnse" 
and  represented  by  "practical"  sociology,  has  naturally 
originated  in  those  lines  of  social  action  in  which  there  was 
either  no  place  for  legislative  measures  or  in  which  the  hoc 
volo,  sic  juheo  proved  too  evidently  inefficient — in  business, 
in  charity  and  philanthropy,  in  diplomacy,  in  personal 
association,  etc.  Here,  indeed,  the  act  of  will  having  been 
recognized  as  inefficient  in  directing  the  causal  process,  real 
causes  are  sought  for  every  phenomenon,  and  an  endeavor 
is  made  to  control  the  effects  by  acting  upon  the  causes, 
and,  though  it  is  often  partly  successful,  many  fallacies  are 
impHcitly  involved  in  this  technique;  it  has  still  iciany 
characters  of  a  planless  empiricism,  trying  to  get  at  the 
real  cause  by  a  rather  haphazard  selection  of  various 
possibilities,  directed  only  by  a  rough  and  popular  reflection, 
and  its  deficiencies  have  to  be  shown  and  removed  if  a  new^ 
and  more  efficient  method  of  action  is  to  be  introduced. 

The  first  of  these  fallacies  has  often  been  exposed.  It 
is  the  latent  or  manifest  supposition  that  we  know  social 
reality  because  we  live  in  it,  and  that  we  can  assume  things 
and  relations  as  certain  on  the  basis  of  our  empiricaC 
acquaintance  with  them.  The  attitude  is  here  about  the 
same  as  in  the  ancient  assumption  that  we  know  the  physical 
world  because  we  live  and  act  in  it,  and  that  therefore  we 
have  the  right  of  generalizing  without  a  special  and  thorough 
investigation,  on  the  mere  basis  of  "common  sense."  The 
history  of  physical  science  gives  us  many  good  examples 
of  the  results  to  which  common  sense  can  lead,  such  as  the 


METHODOLOGICAL  NOTE  5 

geocentric  system  of  astronomy  and  the  mediaeval  ideas 
about  motion.  And  it  is  easy  to  show  that  not  even  the 
widest  individual  acquaintance  with  social  reality,  not  even 
the  most  evident  success  of  individual  adaptation  to  this 
reality,  can  offer  any  serious  guaranty  of  the  validity  of  the 
common-sense  generalizations. 

Incleed,  the  individual's  sphere  of  practical  acquaintance 
with  social  reality,  however  vast  it  may  be  as  compared 
with  that  of  others,  is  always  limited  and  constitutes  only 
a  small  part  of  the  whole  complexity  of  social  facts.  It 
usually  extends  over  only  one  society,  often  over  only  one 
class  of  this  society;  this  we  may  call  the  exterior  limitation. 
In  addition  there  is  an  interior  limitation,  still  more  impor- 
tant, due  to  the  fact  that  among  all  the  experiences  which  the 
individual  meets  within  the  sphere  of  his  social  life  a  large, 
perhaps  the  larger,  part  is  left  unheeded,  never  becoming  a 
basis  Df  common-sense  generalizations.  This  selection  of 
experi^ces  is  the  result  of  individual  temperament  on  the 
one  hand  and  of  individual  interest  on  the  other.  In  any 
case,  whether  temperamental  inclinations  or  practical 
considerations  operate,  the  selection  is  subjective — that  is, 
valid  only  for  this  particular  individual  in  this  particular 
social  position — -and  thereby  it  is  quite  different  from,  and 
incommensurable  with,  the  selection  which  a  scientist  would 
make  in  face  of  the  same  body  of  data  from  an  objective, 
impersonal  viewpoint. 

Nor  is  the  practical  success  of  the  individual  within  his 
sphere  of  activity  a  guaranty  of  his  knowledge  of  the  rela- 
tions between  the  social  phenomena  which  he  is  able  to 
control.  Of  course  there  must  be  some  objective  validity 
in  his  schemes  of  social  facts — otherwise  he  could  not  live 
in  society — but  the  truth  of  these  schemes  is  always  only 
a  rough  approximation  and  is  mixed  with  an  enormous 
amount    of    error.     When    we    assume    that   a    successful 


6  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

adaptation  of  the  individual  to  his  environment  is  a  proof 
that  he  knows  this  environment  thoroughly,  we  forget  that 
there  are  degrees  of  success,  that  the  standard  of  success 
is  to  a  large  extent  subjective,  and  that  all  the  standards  of 
success  applied  in  human  society  may  be — and  really  are — 
very  low,  because  they  make  allowance  for  a  very  large 
number  of  partial  failures,  each  of  which  denotes  "one  or 
many  errors.  Two  elements  are  found  in  varying  pro- 
portions in  every  adaptation;  one  is  the  actual  control 
exercised  over  the  environment;  the  other  is  the  claims 
which  this  control  serves  to  satisfy.  The  adaptation  may  be 
perfect,  either  because  of  particularly  successful  and  wide 
control  or  because  of  particularly  limited  claims.  WTienever 
the  control  within  the  given  range  of  claims  proves  in- 
sufficient, the  individual  or  the  group  can  either  develop  a 
better  control  or  limit  the  claims.  And,  in  fact,  in  every 
activity  the  second  method,  of  adaptation  by  failures,  plays 
a  very  important  role.  Thus  the  individual's  kno^vledge 
of  his  environment  can  be  considered  as  real  only  in  the 
particular  matters  in  which  he  does  actually  control  it; 
his  schemes  can  be  true  only  in  so  far  as  they  are  perfectly, 
absolutely  successful.  And  if  we  remember  how  much  of 
practical  success  is  due  to  mere  chance  and  luck,  even  this 
limited  number  of  truths  becomes  doubtful.  Finally,  the 
truths  that  stand  the  test  of  individual  practice  are  always 
schemes  of  the  concrete  and  singular,  as  are  the  situations 
in  which  the  individual  finds  himself. 

In  this  way  the  acquaintance  with  social  data  and  the 
know^ledge  of  social  relations  which  we  acquire  in  practice 
are  always  more  or  less  subjective,  limited  both  in  number 
and  in  generality.  Thence  comes  the  well-known  fact  that 
the  really  valuable  part  of  practical  wisdom  acquired  by 
the  individual  during  his  life  is  incommunicable — cannot  be 
stated  in  general  terms;  everyone  must  acquire  it  afresh 


METHODOLOGICAL  NOTE  7 

by  a  kind  of  apprenticeship  to  life — that  is,  by  learning  to 
select  experiences  according  to  the  demands  of  his  own 
personality  and  to  construct  for  his  own  use  particular 
schemes  of  the  concrete  situations  which  he  encounters. 
Thus,  all  the  generalizations  constituting  the  common- 
sense  social  theory  and  based  on  individual  experience  are 
both  insignificant  and  subject  to  innumerable  exceptions. 
A  sociology  that  accepts  them  necessarily  condemns  itself 
to  remain  in  the  same  methodological  stage,  and  a  practice 
based  upon  them  must  be  as  insecure  and  as  full  of  failures 
as  is  the  activity  of  every  individual. 

Whenever,  now,  this  "practical"  sociology  makes  an 
effort  to  get  above  the  level  of  popular  generalizations 
by  the  study  of  social  reality  instead  of  relying  upon  indi- 
vidual experience,  it  still  preserves  the  same  method  as  the 
individual  in  his  personal  reflection;  investigation  always 
goes  pn  with  an  immediate  reference  to  practical  aims,  and 
the  standards  of  the  desirable  and  undesirable  are  the 
ground  upon  which  theoretic  problems  are  approached. 
This  is  the  second  fallacy  of  the  practical  sociology,  and 
the  results  of  work  from  this  standpoint  are  quite  dis- 
proportionate to  the  enormous  efforts  that  have  recently 
been  put  forth  in  the  collection  and  elaboration  of  materials 
preparatory  to  social  reforms.  The  example  of  physical 
science  and  material  technique  should  have  shown  long  ago 
that  only  a  scientific  investigation,  which  is  quite  free  from 
any  dependence  on  practice,  can  become  practically  useful 
in  its  applications.  Of  course  this  does  not  mean  that  the 
scientist  should  not  select  for  investigation  problems  whose 
solution  has  actual  practical  importance ;  the  sociologist  may 
study  crime  or  war  as  the  chemist  studies  dyestuffs.  But 
from  the  method  of  the  study  itself  all  practical  considera- 
tions must  be  excluded  if  we  want  the  results  to  be  valid. 
And  this  has  not  yet  been  realized  by  practical  sociology. 


8  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

The  usual  standpoint  here  is  that  of  an  explicit  or 
implicit  norm  with  which  reality  should  comply.  The  norm 
may  be  intrinsic  to  the  reality,  as  wherx  it  is  presumed  that 
the  actually  prevailing  traditional  or  customary  state  of 
things  is  normal;  or  it  may  be  extrinsic,  as  when  moral, 
religious,  or  aesthetic  standards  are  applied  to  social  reality 
and  the  prevailing  state  of  things  is  found  in  disaccord  with 
the  norm,  and  in  so  far  abnormal.  But  this  difference  has 
no  essential  importance.  In  both  cases  the  normal,  agreeing 
with  the  norm,  is  supposed  to  be  kno^^m  either  by  practical 
acquaintance  or  by  some  particular  kind  of  rational  or 
irrational  evidence;  the  problem  is  supposed  to  lie  in  the 
abnormal,  the  disharmony  with  the  norm.  In  the  first 
case  the  abnormal  is  the  exceptional,  in  the  second  case  it 
is  the  usual,  while  the  normal  constitutes  an  exception,  but 
the  general  method  of  investigation  remains  the  same. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  the  application  of  norms  to 
reality  had  a  historical  merit;  investigation  was  provoked 
in  this  way  and  the  "abnormal"  became  the  first  object  of 
empirical  studies.  It  is  the  morally  indignant  observer  of 
vice  and  crime  and  the  political  idealist-reformer  who  start 
positive  investigations.  But  as  soon  as  the  investigation 
is  started  both  indignation  and  idealism  should  be  put  aside. 
For  in  treating  a  certain  body  of  material  as  representing 
tlie  normal,  another  body  of  material  as  standing  for  the 
abnormal,  we  introduce  at  once  a  division  that  is  necessarily 
artificial;  for  if  these  terms  have  a  meaning  it  can  be 
determined  only  on  the  basis  of  investigation,  and  the 
criterion  of  normality  must  be  such  as  to  allow  us  to  include 
in  the  normal,  not  only  a  certain  determined  stage  of  social 
life  and  a  limited  class  of  facts,'  but  also  the  whole  series  of 
different  stages  through  which  social  life  passes,  and  the 
whole  variety  of  social  phenomena.  The  definition  a  priori 
of  a  group  of  facts  that  we  are  going  to  investigate  a? 


METHODOLOGICAL  NOTE  9 

abnormal  has  two  immediate  consequences.  First,  our 
attention  is  turned  to  such  facts  as  seem  the  most  important 
practically,  as  being  most  conspicuously  contrary  to  the 
norm  and  calling  most  insistently  for  reform.  But  the 
things  that  are  practically  important  may  be  quite  insig- 
nificant theoretically  and,  on  the  contrary,  those  which 
seem  to  have  no  importance  from  the  practical  point  of 
view  may  be  the  source  of  important  scientific  discoveries. 
The  scientific  value  of  a  fact  depends  on  its  connection  with 
other  facts,  and  in  this  connection  the  most  commonplace 
facts  are  often  precisely  the  most  valuable  ones,  while 
a  fact  that  strikes  the  imagination  or  stirs  the  moral  feeling 
may  be  really  either  isolated  or  exceptional,  or  so  simple  as 
to  involve  hardly  any  problems.  Again,  by  sepajating  ^^<^ 
abnormal  frcmi-4bo— normal -we-ldeprive^^uFS€l^v^€s--ol---tlie 
opportunity  of  studying  them  in  their  connection  with  each 
other,  while  only  in  this  connection  can  their  study  be  fully 
fruitful.  There  is  no  break  in  continuity  between  the 
normaTand  the  abnormal  in  concrete  life  that  would  permit 
any  exact  separation  of  the  corresponding  bodies  of  material, 
and  the  nature  of  the  normal  and  the  abnormal  as  deter- 
mined by  theoretic  abstraction  can  be  perfectly  understood 
only  with  the  help  of  comparison. 

But  there  are  other  consequences  of  this  fallacy.  When 
the  norm  is  not  a  result  but  a  starting-point  of  the  investiga-, 
tion,  as  it  is  in  this  case,  every  practical  custom  or  habit,! 
every  moral,  political,  religious  view,  claims  to  be  the  norm! 
and  to  treat  as  abnormal  whatever  does  not  agree  with  it. 
The  result  is  harmful  both  in  practice  and  in  theory.  In 
practice,  as  history  shows  and  as  we  see  at  every  moment, 
a  social  technique  based  upon  pre-existing  norms  tends  to 
suppress  all  the  social  energies  which  seem  to  act  in  a  way 
contrary  to  the  demands  of  the  norm,  and  to  ignore  all  the 
social  energies  not  included  in  the  sphere  embraced  by  the 


lo  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

norm.  This  limits  still  more  the  practical  importance  of 
the  technique  and  often  makes  it  simply  harmful  instead  of 
useful.  In  theor}^,  a  sociolog}^  using  norms  as  its  basis 
deprives  itself  of  the  possibility  of  understanding  and 
controlling  any  important  facts  of  social  evolution.  Indeed, 
every  social  process  of  real  importance  always  includes  a 
change  of  the  norms  themselves,  not  alone  of  the  acti\'ity 
embraced  by  the  norms.  Traditions  and  customs,  morality 
and  religion,  undergo  an  evolution  that  is  more  and  more 
rapid,  and  it  is  evident  that  a  sociology-  proceeding  on  the 
assumption  that  a  certain  norm  is  vahd  and  that  whatever 
does  not  comply  with  it  is  abnormal  finds  itself  absolutely 
helpless  when  it  suddenly  realizes  that  this  norm  has  lost 
all  social  significance  and  that  some  other  norm  has  appeared 
in  its  place.  This  helplessness  is  particularly  striking  in 
moments  of  great  social  crisis  when  the  evolution  of  norms 
becomes  exceptionally  rapid.  We  notice  it,  for  example, 
with  particular  vividness  during  the  present  war,  when  the 
whole  individualistic  system  of  norms  elaborated  during  the 
last  two  centuries  begins  to  retreat  before  a  quite  different 
system,  which  may  be  a  state  sociaUsm  or  something 
quite  new. 

Tkp  thirrl  f?],11arynf  the  common-scnsc  sociology  is  the 
implicit  assumption  that  any  group  of  social  facts  can  be 
treated  theoretically  and  practically  in  an  arbitrary'  isolation 
from  the  rest  of  the  life  of  the  given  society.  This  assump- 
tion is  perhaps  unconsciously  drawn  from  the  general  form 
of  social  organization,  in  which  the  real  isolation  of  certain 
groups  of  facts  is  a  result  of  the  demands  of  practical  life. 
In  any  line  of  organized  human  acti\dty  only  actions  of  a 
certain  kind  are  used,  and  it  is  assumed  that  only  such 
individuals  \nl\  take  part  in  this  particular  organization 
as  are  able  and  willing  to  perform  these  actions,  and  that 
they  will  not  bring  into  this  sphere  of  activity  any  tendencies 


METHODOLOGICAL  NOTE  II 

that  may  destroy  the  organization.  The  factory  and  the 
army  corps  are  typical  examples  of  such  organizations.  The 
isolation  of  a  group  of  facts  from  the  rest  of  social  life  is  here 
really  and  practically  performed.  But  exactly  in  so  far 
as  such  a  system  functions  in  a  perfect  manner  there  is  no 
place  at  all  for  social  science  or  social  practice;  the  only 
thing  required  is  a  material  division  and  organization  of 
these  isolated  human  actions.  The  task  of  social  theory 
and  social  technique  lies  outside  of  these  systems;  it  begins, 
for  example,  whenever  external  tendencies  not  harmonizing 
with  the  organized  activities  are  introduced  into  the  system, 
when  the  workmen  in  the  factory  start  a  strike  or  the  soldiers 
of  the  army  corps  a  mutiny.  Then  the  isolation  disappears; 
the  system  enters,  through  the  individuals  who  are  its 
members,  into  relation  with  the  whole  complexity  of  social 
life.  And  this  lack  of  real  isolation,  which  characterizes 
a  system  of  organized  activity  only  at  moments  of  crisis, 
is  a  permanent  feature  of  all  the  artificial,  abstractly  formed 
groups  of  facts  such  as  "prostitution,"  "crime,"  "educa- 
tion," "war,"  etc.  Every  single  fact  included  under  these 
generalizations  is  connected  by  innumerable  ties  with  an 
indefinite  number  of  other  facts  belonging  to  various  groups, 
and  these  relations  give  to  every  fact  a  different  character. 
If  we  start  to  study  these  facts  as  a  whole,  without  heeding 
their  connection  with  the  rest  of  the  social  world,  we  must 
necessarily  come  to  quite  arbitrary  generalizations.  If  we 
start  to  act  upon  these  facts  in  a  uniform  way  simply  because 
their  abstract  essence  seems  to  be  the  same,  we  must  neces- 
sarily produce  quite  different  results,  var}'ing  with  the  rela- 
tions of  every  particular  case  to  the  rest  of  the  social  world. 
This  does  not  mean  that  it  is  not  possible  to  isolate  such 
groups  of  facts  for  theoretic  investigation  or  practical  activ- 
ity, but  simply  that  the  isolation  must  come,  not  a  priori, 
but    a   posteriori,    in   the    same    way    as   the    distinction 


12  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

between  the  normal  and  the  abnormal.  The  facts  must 
first  be  taken  in  connection  with  the  whole  to  which  they 
belong,  and  the  question  of  a  later  isolation  is  a  method- 
ological problem  which  we  shall  treat  in  a  later  part  of 
this  note. 

There  are  two  other  fallacies  involved  to  a  certain  extent 
in  social  practice,  although  practical  sociology  has  already 
repudiated  them.  The  reason  for  their  persistence  in 
practice  is  that,  even  if  the  erroneousness  of  the  old  assump- 
tions has  been  recognized,  no  new  working  ideas  have  been 
put  in  their  place.  These  assumptions  are:  (i)  that  men 
react  in  the  same  way  to  the  same  influences  regardless  of 
their  individual  or  social  past,  and  that  therefore  it  is 
possible  to  provoke  identical  behavior  in  various  individuals 
by  identical  means;  (2)  that  men  develop  spontaneously, 
without  external  influence,  tendencies  which  enable  them 
to  profit  in  a  full  and  uniform  way  from  given  conditions, 
and  that  therefore  it  is  sufficient  to  create  favorable  or 
remove  unfavorable  conditions  in  order  to  give  birth  to  or 
suppress  given  tendencies. 

The  assumption  of  identical  reactions  to  identical 
influences  is  found  in  the  most  various  lines  of  traditional 
social  activity ;  the  examples  of  legal  practice  and  of  educa- 
tion are  sufficient  to  illustrate  it.  In  the  former  all  the 
assumptions  about  the  "motives"  of  the  behavior  of  the 
parties,  all  the  rules  and  forms  of  investigation  and  examina- 
tion, all  the  decisions  of  the  courts,  are  essentially  based 
upon  this  principle.  Considerations  of  the  variety  of 
traditions,  habits,  temperaments,  etc.,  enter  only  inciden- 
tally and  secondarily,  and  usually  in  doubtful  cases,  by  the 
initiative  of  the  lawyers;  they  are  the  result  of  common- 
sense  psychological  observations,  but  find  little  if  any  place 
in  the  objective  system  of  laws  and  rules.  And  where,  as 
in  the  American  juvenile  courts,  an  attempt  is  made  to  base 


METHODOLOGICAL  NOTE  13 

legal  practice  upon  these  considerations,  all  legal  apparatus 
is  properly  waived,  and  the  whole  procedure  rests  upon  the 
personal  qualifications  of  the  judge.  In  education  the 
same  principle  is  exhibited  in  the  identity  of  curricula,  and 
is  even  carried  so  far  as  to  require  identical  work  from 
students  in  connection  with  the  courses  they  follow,  instead 
of  leaving  to  everyone  as  much  field  as  possible  for  personal 
initiative.  Here  again  the  fallaciousness  of  the  principle  is 
corrected  only  by  the  efforts  of  those  individual  teachers 
who  try  to  adapt  their  methods  to  the  personalities  of  the 
pupils,  using  practical  tact  and  individual  acquaintance. 
But  as  yet  no  objective  principles  have  been  generally 
substituted  for  the  traditional  uniformity. 

The  assumption  of  the  spontaneous  development  of 
tendencies  if  the  material  conditions  are  given  is  found  in 
the  exaggerated  importance  ascribed  by  social  reformers  to 
changes  of  material  environment  and  in  the  easy  conclusions 
drawn  from  material  conditions  on  the  mentality  and 
character  of  individuals  and  groups.  For  example,  it  is 
assumed  that  good  housing  conditions  will  create  a  good 
family  life,  that  the  abolition  of  saloons  will  stop  drinking, 
that  the  organization  of  a  well-endowed  institution  is  all 
that  is  necessary  to  make  the  public  realize  its  value  in 
practice.  To  be  sure,  material  conditions  do  help  or  hinder 
to  a  large  extent  the  development  of  corresponding  lines 
of  behavior,  but  only  if  the  tendency  is  already  there,  for 
the  way  in  which  they  will  be  used  depends  on  the  people 
who  use  them.  The  normal  way  of  social  action  would  be 
to  develop  the  tendency  and  to  create  the  condition  simul- 
taneously, and,  if  this  is  impossible,  attention  should  be  paid 
rather  to  the  development  of  tendencies  than  to  the  change 
of  the  conditions,  because  a  strong  social  tendency  will 
always  find  its  expression  by  modifying  the  conditions, 
while  the  contrary  is  not  true.     For  example,  a  perfect 


14  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

family  life  may  exist  in  a  Polish  peasant  community  in 
conditions  which  would  probably  be  considered  in  America 
as  a  necessary  breeding-place  of  crime  and  pauperism,  while 
uncommonly  favorable  external  conditions  in  the  Polish 
aristocratic  class  do  not  hinder  a  decay  of  family  life.  In 
Southern  France  and  Northern  Italy  there  is  less  drunk- 
enness with  the  saloon  than  in  the  prohibition  states  of 
America.  In  Russian  Poland  alone,  without  a  PoHsh 
university  and  with  only  a  private  philosophical  association, 
more  than  twice  as  much  original  philosophical  literature 
has  been  published  recently  as  in  Russia  with  her  eleven 
endowed  universities.  And  innumerable  examples  could 
be  cited  from  all  departments  of  social  life.  But  it  is  easy 
to  understand  that  in  the  absence  of  a  science  of  behavior 
social  reformers  pay  more  attention  to  the  material  con- 
ditions of  the  people  than  to  the  psychology  of  the  people 
who  live  in  these  conditions;  for  the  conditions  are  concrete 
and  tangible,  and  we  know  how  to  grasp  them  and  to  con- 
ceive and  realize  almost  perfect  plans  of  material  improve- 
ments, while  in  the  absence  of  a  science  the  reformer  has 
no  objective  principles  on  which  he  can  rely,  and  uncon- 
sciously tends  to  ascribe  a  preponderating  importance  to 
the  material  side  of  social  life. 

And  these  fallacies  of  the  common-sense  sociology  are 
not  always  due  to  a  lack  of  theoretic  abUity  or  of  a  serious 
scientific  attitude  on  the  part  of  the  men  who  do  the  work. 
They  are  the  unavoidable  consequence  of  the  necessity  of  / 
meeting  actual  situations  at  once.  Social  life  goes  on 
without  interruption  and  has  to  be  controlled  at  every 
moment.  The  business  man  or  politician,  the  educator  or 
charity- worker,  finds  himself  continually  confronted  by 
new  social  problems  which  he  must  solve,  however  imperfect 
and  provisional  he  knows  his  solutions  to  be,  for  the  stream 
of  evolution  does  not  wait  for  him.     He  must  have  imme- 


METHODOLOGICAL  NOTE  15 

diate  results,  and  it  is  a  merit  on  his  part  if  he  tries  to 
reconcile  the  claims  of  actuality  with  those  of  scientific 
objectivity,  as  far  as  they  can  be  reconciled,  and  endeavors 
to  understand  the  social  reality  as  well  as  he  can  before 
acting.  Certainly  social  life  is  improved  by  even  such  a 
control  as  common-sense  sociology  is  able  to  give ;  certainly 
no  effort  should  be  discouraged,  for  the  ultimate  balance 
proves  usually  favorable.  But  in  social  activity,  even  more 
than  in  material  activity,  the  common-sense  method  is  the 
most  wasteful  method,  and  to  replace  it  gradually  by  a 
more  efficient  one  will  be  a  good  investment. 

While,  then,  there  is  no  doubt  that  actual  situations 
must  be  handled  immediately,  we  see  that  they  cannot  be 
solved  adequately  as  long  as  theoretical  reflection  has  their 
immediate  solution  in  view.  But  there  is  evidently  one 
issue  from  this  dilemma,  and  it  is  the  same  as  in  material 
technique  and  physical  science.  We  must  be  able  to  foresee 
future  situations  and  prepare  for  them,  and  we  must  have 
in  stock  a  large  body  of  secure  and  objective  knowledge 
capable  of  being  applied  to  any  situation,  whether  foreseen 
or  unexpected.  This  means  that  we  must  have  an  empirical 
and  exact  social  science  ready  for  eventual  application. 
And  such  a  science  can  be  constituted  only  if  we  treat  it 
as  an  end  in  itself,  not  as  a  means  to  something  else,  and 
if  we  give  it  time  and  opportunity  to  develop  along  all  the 
lines  of  investigation  possible,  even  if  we  do  not  see  what 
may  be  the  eventual  applications  of  one  or  another  of  its 
results.  The  example  of  physical  science  and  its  applica- 
tions show  that  the  only  practically  economical  way  of 
creating  an  efficient  technique  is  to  create  a  science  inde- 
pendent of  any  technical  limitations  and  then  to  take  every 
one  of  its  results  and  try  where  and  in  what  way  they  can 
be  practically  applied.  The  contrary  attitude,  the  refusal 
to  recognize  any  science  that  does  not  work  to  solve  practical 


1 6  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

problems,  in  addition  to  leading  to  that  inefficiency  of  both 
science  and  practice  which  we  have  analyzed  above,  shows 
a  curious  narrowness  of  mental  horizon.  We  do  not  know 
what  the  future  science  will  be  before  it  is  constituted  and 
what  may  be  the  applications  of  its  discoveries  before  they 
are  applied;  we  do  not  know  what  will  be  the  future  of 
society  and  what  social  problems  may  arise  demanding 
solution.  Thejonly  practically  justifiable  attitude  toward 
science  is  absolute  liberty  and  disinterested  help. 

Of  course  this  does  not  mean  that  the  actual  social 
technique  should  wait  until  the  science  is  constituted;  such 
as  it  is,  it  is  incomparably  better  than  none.  But,  just  as 
in  material  technique,  as  soon  as  a  scientific  discovery  is 
at  hand  an  effort  should  be  made  to  find  for  it  a  practical 
application,  and  if  it  can  be  applied  in  some  particular 
field  a  new  technique  should  take  the  place  of  the  old  in 
this  field. 

But  if  no  practical  aims  should  be  introduced  beforehand 
into  scientific  investigation,  social  practice  has,  nevertheless, 
the  right  to  demand  from  social  theory  that  at  least  some 
of  its  results  shall  be  applicable  at  once,  and  that  the  number 
and  importance  of  such  results  shall  continually  increase. 
As  one  of  the  pragmatists  has  expressed  it,  practical  life 
can  and  must  give  credit  to  science,  but  sooner  or  later 
science  must  pay  her  debts,  and  the  longer  the  delay  the 
greater  the  interest  required.  This  demand  of  ultimate 
practical  applicability  is  as  important  for  science  itself  as 
for  practice ;  it  is  a  test,  not  only  of  the  practical,  but  of  the 
theoretical,  value  of  the  science.  A  science  whose  results 
can  be  applied  proves  thereby  that  it  is  really  based  upon 
experience,  that  it  is  able  to  grasp  a  great  variety  of  prob- 
lems, that  its  method  is  really  exact — that  it  is  vahd.  The 
test  of  applicability  is  a  salutary  responsibility  which 
science  must  assume  in  her  own  interest. 


METHODOLOGICAL  NOTE  17 

If  we  attempt  now  to  determine  what  should  be  the 
object-matter  and  the  method  of  a  social  theory  that  would 
be  able  to  satisfy  the  demands  of  modern  social  practice,  it 
is  evident  that  its  main  object  should  be  the  actual  civilized 
society  in  its  full  development  and  with  all  its  complexity 
of  situations,  for  it  is  the  control  of  the  actual  civilized 
society  that  is  sought  in  most  endeavors  of  rational  practice. 
But  here,  as  in  every  other  science,  a  determined  body  of 
material  assumes  its  full  significance  only  if  we  can  use 
comparison  freely,  in  order  to  distinguish  the  essential 
from  the  accidental,  the  simple  from  the  complex,  the 
primary  from  the  derived.  And  fortunately  social  life 
gives  us  favorable  conditions  for  comparative  studies, 
particularly  at  the  present  stage  of  evolution,  in  the  coexist- 
ence of  a  certain  number  of  civilized  societies  sufficiently 
alike  in  their  fundamental  cultural  problems  to  make 
comparison  possible,  and  differing  sufficiently  in  their 
traditions,  customs,  and  general  national  spirit  to  make 
comparison  fruitful.  And  from  the  list  of  these  civilized 
societies  we  should  by  no  means  exclude  those  non-white 
societies,  like  the  Chinese,  whose  organization  and  attitudes 
differ  profoundly  from  our  own,  but  which  interest  us  both 
as  social  experiments  and  as  situations  with  which  we  have 
to  reconcile  our  own  future. 

In  contrast  with  this  study  of  the  various  present 
civilized  societies,  the  lines  along  which  most  of  the  purely 
scientific  sociological  work  has  been  done  up  to  the  present 
— that  is,  ethnography  of  primitive  societies  and  social 
history — have  a  secondary,  though  by  no  means  a  negligible, 
importance.  Their  relation  to  social  practice  is  only 
mediate;  they  can  help  the  practitioner  to  solve  actual 
cultural  problems  only  to  the  degree  that  they  help  the 
scientist  to  understand  actual  cultural  life;  they  are  aux- 
iliary, and  their  own  scientific  value  will  increase  with  the 


i8  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

progress  of  the  main  sphere  of  studies.  In  all  the  endeavors 
to  understand  and  interpret  the  past  and  the  savage  we 
must  use,  consciously  or  not,  our  knowledge  of  our  civilized 
present  life,  which  remains  always  a  basis  of  comparison, 
whether  the  past  and  the  primitive  are  conceived  as  anal- 
ogous with,  or  as  different  from,  the  present  and  the  civilized. 
The  less  objective  and  critical  our  knowledge  of  the  present, 
the  more  subjective  and  unmethodical  is  our  interpretation 
of  the  past  and  the  primitive;  unable  to  see  the  relative 
and  limited  character  of  the  culture  within  which  we  live, 
we  unconsciously  bend  every  unfamiliar  phenomenon  to  the 
limitations  of  our  own  social  personality.  A  really  objective 
understanding  of  history  and  ethnography  can  therefore 
be  expected  only  as  a  result  of  a  methodical  knowledge  of 
present  cultural  societies. 

Another  point  to  be  emphasized  with  regard  to  the 
question  of  the  object-matter  of  social  theory  is  the  necessity 
of  taking  into  account  the  whole  life  of  a  given  society 
instead  of  arbitrarily  selecting  and  isolating  beforehand 
certain  particular  groups  of  facts.  We  have  seen  already 
that  the  contrary  procedure  constitutes  one  of  the  fallacies 
of  the  common-sense  sociology.  It  is  also  a  fallacy  usually 
committed  by  the  observers  of  their  own  or  of  other  socie- 
ties— litterateurs,  journalists,  travelers,  popular  psycholo- 
gists, etc.  In  describing  a  given  society  they  pick  out  the 
most  prominent  situations,  the  most  evident  problems, 
thinking  to  characterize  thereby  the  life  of  the  given  group. 
Still  more  harmful  for  the  development  of  science  is  this 
fallacy  when  used  in  the  comparative  sociology  which 
studies  an  institution,  an  idea,  a  myth,  a  legal  or  moral 
norm,  a  form  of  art,  etc.,  by  simply  comparing  its  content 
in  various  societies  without  studying  it  in  the  whole  meaning 
which  it  has  in  a  particular  society  and  then  comparing  this 
with  the  whole  meaning  which  it  has  in  the  various  societies. 


METHODOLOGICAL  NOTE  19 

We  are  all  more  or  less  guilty  of  this  fault,  but  it  pleases  us 
to  attribute  it  mainly  to  Herbert  Spencer. 

In  order  to  avoid  arbitrary  limitations  and  subjective 
interpretations  there  are  only  two  possible  courses  open. 
We  can  study  monographically  whole  concrete  societies 
with  the  total  complexity  of  problems  and  situations  which 
constitute  their  cultural  life;  or  we  can  work  on  special 
social  problems,  following  the  problem  in  a  certain  limited 
number  of  concrete  social  groups  and  studying  it  in  every 
group  with  regard  to  the  particular  form  which  it  assumes 
under  the  influence  of  the  conditions  prevailing  in  this 
society,  taking  into  account  the  complex  meaning  which  a 
concrete  cultural  phenomenon  has  in  a  determined  cultural 
environment.  In  studying  the  society  we  go  from  the 
whole  social  context  to  the  problem,  and  in  studying  the 
problem  we  go  from  the  problem  to  the  whole  social  context. 
And  in  both  types  of  work  the  only  safe  method  is  to  start 
with  the  assurnption^that  we  know  absolutely  nothing  about 
the  group  or  the  problem  we  are  to  investigate  except  such 
purely  formal  criteria  as  enable  us  to  distinguish  materials 
belonging  to  our  sphere  of  interest  from  those  which  do  not 
belong  there.  But  this  attitude  of  indiscriminate  recep- 
tivity toward  any  concrete  data  should  mark  only  the  first  / 
stage  of  investigation — that  of  limiting  the  field.  As  soon 
as  we  become  acquainted  with  the  materials  we  begin  to 
select  them  with  the  help  of  criteria  which  involve  certain 
methodological  generalizations  and  scientific  hypotheses. 
This  inust  be  done,  since  the  whole  empirical  concreteness 
cannot  be  introduced  into  science,  cannot  be  described  or 
explained.  We  have  to  limit  ourselves  to  certain  theoreti- 
cally important  data,  but  we  must  know  how  to  distinguish 
the  data  which  are  important.  And  every  further  step  of 
the  investigation  will  bring  with  it  new  methodological 
problems — analysis   of   the   complete   concrete   data   into 


20  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

elements,  systematiaation  of  these  elements,  definition  of 
social  facts,  establishing  of  social  laws.  All  these  stages  of 
scientific  procedure  must  be  exactly  and  carefully  defined 
if  social  theory  is  to  become  a  science  conscious  of  its  own 
methods  and  able  to  apply  them  with  precision,  as  is  the 
case  with  the  more  mature  and  advanced  physical  and 
biological  sciences.  And  it  is  always  the  question  of  an 
ultimate  practical  applicability  which,  according  to  our 
previous  discussion,  will  constitute  the  criterion — the  only 
secure  and  intrinsic  criterion — of  a  science. 

Now  there  are  two  fundamental  practical  problems  which 
have  constituted  the  center  of  attention  of  reflective  social 
practice  in  all  times.  These  are  (i)  the  problem  of  the 
/  ,  I  dependence  of  the  individual  upon  social  organization  and 
culture,  and  (2)  the  problem  of  the  dependence  of  social 
organization  and  culture  upon  the  individual.  Practically, 
the  first  problem  is  expressed  in  the  question,  How  shall  we 
produce  with  the  help  of  the  existing  social  organization  and 
culture  the  desirable  mental  and  moral  characteristics  in  the 
individuals  constituting  the  social  group  ?  And  the  second 
problem  means  in  practice.  How  shall  we  produce,  with  the 
help  of  the  existing  mental  and  moral  characteristics  of  the 
individual  members  of  the  group,  the  desirable  type  of 
social  organization  and  culture  ?' 

If  social  theory  is  to  become  the  basis  of  social  technique 
and  to  solve  these  problems  really,  it  is  evident  that  it  must 
include  both  kinds  of  data  involved  in  them — namely,  the 
,  objective  cultural  elements  of  social  life  and  the  subjective 
characteristics  of  the  members  of  the  social  group — and 
that  the  two  kinds  of  data  must  be  taken  as  correlated. 

'  Of  course  a  concrete  practical  task  may  include  both  problems,  as  when  we 
attempt,  by  appealing  to  the  existing  attitudes,  to  establish  educational  institu- 
tions which  will  be  so  organized  as  to  produce  or  generalize  certain  desirable 
attitudes. 


METHODOLOGICAL  NOTE  21 

For  these  data  we  shall  use  now  and  in  the  future  the  terms 
"social  values"  (or  simply  "values")  and  "attitudes." 

By  a  social  value  we  understand  any  datum  having  an 
empirical  content  accessible  to  the  members  of  some  social 
group  and  a  meaning  with  regard  to  which  it  is  or  may  be  an 
object  of  activity.  Thus,  a  foodstuff,  an  instrument,  a 
coin,  a  piece  of  poetry,  a  university,  a  myth,  a  scientific 
theory,  are  social  values.  Each  of  them  has  a  content  that 
is  sensual  in  the  case  of  the  foodstuff,  the  instrument,  the 
coin;  partly  sensual,  partly  imaginary  in  the  piece  of  poetry, 
whose  content  is  constituted,  not  only  by  the  written  or 
spoken  words,  but  also  by  the  images  which  they  evoke,  and 
in  the  case  of  the  university,  whose  content  is  the  whole 
complex  of  men,  buildings,  material  accessories,  and  images 
representing  its  activity;  or,  finally,  only  imaginary  in  the 
case  of  a  mythical  personality  or  a  scientific  theory.  The 
meaning  of  these  values  becomes  explicit  when  we  take  them 
in  connection  with  human  actions.  The  meaning  of  the 
foodstuff  is  its  reference  to  its  eventual  consumption;  that 
of  an  instrument,  its  reference  to  the  work  for  which  it  is 
designed;  that  of  a  coin,  the  possibilities  of  buying  and 
selling  or  the  pleasures  of  spending  which  it  involves;  that 
of  the  piece  of  poetry,  the  sentimental  and  intellectual  reac- 
tions which  it  arouses;  that  of  the  university,  the  social 
activities  which  it  performs;  that  of  the  mythical  personal- 
ity, the  cult  of  which  it  is  the  object  and  the  actions  of  which 
it  is  supposed  to  be  the  author;  that  of  the  scientific  theory, 
the  possibilities  of  control  of  experience  by  idea  or  action 
that  it  permits.  The  social  value  is  thus  opposed  to  the 
natural  thing,  which  has  a  content  but,  as  a  part  of  nature, 
has  no  meaning  for  human  activity,  is  treated  as  "valueless" ; 
when  the  natural  thing  assumes  a  meaning,  it  becomes 
thereby  a  social  value.     And  naturally  a  social  value  may 


22  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

have  many  meanings,  for  it  may  refer  to  many  different 
kinds  of  activity. 

By  attitude  we  understand  a  process  of  individual  con- 
sciousness which  determines  real  or  possible  activity  of  the 
individual  in  the  social  world.  Thus,  hunger  that  compels 
the  consumption  of  the  foodstuff;  the  workman's  decision 
to  use  the  tool ;  the  tendency  of  the  spendthrift  to  spend  the 
coin;  the  poet's  feelings  and  ideas  expressed  in  the  poem 
and  the  reader's  sympathy  and  admiration ;  the  needs  which 
the  institution  tries  to  satisfy  and  the  response  it  pro- 
vokes; the  fear  and  devotion  manifested  in  the  cult  of  the 
divinity;  the  interest  in  creating,  understanding,  or  apply- 
ing a  scientific  theory  and  the  ways  of  thinking  implied  in  it 
— all, these  are  attitudes.  The  attitude  is  thus  thejjidividual 
counterpart  of  the  social  value;  activity,  in  whatever  form, 
is  the  bond  between  them.  By  its  reference  to  activity 
and  thereby  to  individual  consciousness  the  value  is  distin- 
guished from  the  natural  thing.  By  its  reference  to  activity 
and  thereby  to  the  social  world  the  attitude  is  distinguished 
from  the  psychical  state.  In  the  examples  quoted  above 
we  were  obliged  to  use  with  reference  to  ideas  and  vohtions 
words  that  have  become  terms  of  individual  psychology- 
by  being  abstracted  from  the  objective  social  reahty  to 
which  they  apply,  but  originally  they  were  designed  to 
express  attitudes,  not  psychological  processes.  i\_£s>Tho- 
logical  process  is  an  attitude  treated  as  an  object  in  uSelf, 
isolated  by  a  reflective  act  of  attention,  and  taken  first  of  all 
in  connection  with  other  states  of  the  same  indi\ddual.  An 
a^i^ude  is  a  psychological  process  treated  as  primarily  mani- 
fested in  its  reference  to  the  social  world  and  taken  first  of 
all  in  connection  with  some  social  \'alue.  Individual  psy- 
chology^ may  later  re-establish  the  connection  j^tween  the 
psychological  process  and  the  objective  realitp^which  has 
been  severed  by  reflection;    it  may  study  psychological 


METHODOLOGICAL  NOTE  23 

processes  as  conditioned  by  the  facts  going  on  in  the  objec- 
tive world.  In  the  same  way  social  theory  may  later  con- 
nect various  attitudes  of  an  individual  and  determine  his 
social  character.  But  it  is  the  original  (usually  uncon- 
sciously occupied)  standpoints  which  determine  at  once  the 
subsequent  methods  of  these  two  sciences.  The  psycho- 
logical process  remains  always  fundamentally  a  state  of 
somebody;  the  attitude  remains  always  fundamentally  an 
attitude  toward  something. 

Taking  this  fundamental  distinction  of  standpoint  into 
account,  we  may  continue  to  use  for  different  classes  of 
attitudes  the  same  terms  which  individual  psychology  has 
used  for  psychological  processes,  since  these  terms  constitute 
the  common  property  of  all  reflection  about  conscious  life. 
The  exact  meaning  of  all  these  terms  from  the  standpoint 
of  social  theory  must  be  established  during  the  process  of 
investigation,  so  that  every  term  shall  be  defined  in  view 
of  its  application  and  its  methodological  validity  tested  in 
actual  use.  It  would  be  therefore  impractical  to  attempt  to 
establish  in  advance  the  whole  terminology  of  attitudes. 

But  when  we  say  that  the  data  of  social  theory  are  atti- 
tudes and  values,  this  is  not  yet  a  sufficient  determination  of 
the  object  of  this  science,  for  the  field  thus  defined  would 
embrace  the  whole  of  human  culture  and  include  the  object- 
matter  of  philology  and  economics,  theory  of  art,  theory  of 
science,  etc.  A  more  exact  definition  is  therefore  necessary 
in  order  to  distinguish  social  theory  from  these  sciences, 
established  long  ago  and  having  their  own  methods  and  their 
own  aims. 

This  limitation  of  the  field  of  social  theory  arises  quite 
naturally  from  the  necessity  of  choosing  between  attitudes 
or  values  as  fundamental  data — that  is,  as  data  whose  char- 
acters will  serve  as  a  basis  for  scientific  generalization. 
There  are  numerous  values  corresponding  to  every  attitude, 


24  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

and  numerous  attitudes  corresponding  to  every  value;  if, 
therefore,  we  compare  different  actions  with  regard  to 
the  attitudes  manifested  in  them  and  form,  for  example,  the 
general  concept  of  the  attitude  of  solidarity,  this  means  that 
we  have  neglected  the  whole  variety  of  values  which  are 
produced  by  these  actions  and  which  may  be  political  or 
economical,  religious  or  scientific,  etc.  If,  on  the  contrar}', 
we  compare  the  values  produced  by  different  actions  and 
form,  for  example,  the  general  concepts  of  economic  or  reli- 
gious values,  this  means  that  we  have  neglected  the  whole 
variety  of  attitudes  which  are  manifested  in  these  actions. 
Scientific  generalization  must  always  base  itself  upon  such 
characters  of  its  data  as  can  be  considered  essential  to  its 
purposes,  and  the  essential  characters  of  human  actions  are 
completely  different  when  we  treat  them  from  the  stand- 
point of  attitudes  and  when  we  are  interested  in  them  as 
values.  There  is  therefore  no  possibility  of  giving  to  atti- 
tudes and  values  the  same  importance  in  a  methodical  scien- 
tific investigation ;  either  attitudes  must  be  subordinated  to 
values  or  the  contrary. 

Now  in  all  the  sciences  which  deal  with  separate  domains 
of  human  culture  like  language,  art,  science,  economics,  it 
is  the  attitudes  which  are  subordinated  to  values — a  stand- 
point which  results  necessarily  from  the  very  specialization 
of  these  sciences  in  the  study  of  certain  classes  of  cultural 
values.  For  a  theorician  of  art  or  an  economist  an  attitude 
is  important  and  is  taken  into  consideration  only  in  so  far 
as  it  manifests  itself  in  changes  introduced  into  the  sphere 
of  aesthetic  or  economic  values,  and  is  defined  exclusively 
by  these  changes — that  is,  by  the  pre-existing  complex  of 
objective  data  upon  which  it  acted  and  by  the  objective 
results  of  this  activity.  But  unless  there  is  a  special  class 
of  cultural  values  which  are  not  the  object-matter  of  any 
other  science,  and  unless  there  are  special  reasons  for  assign- 


METHODOLOGICAL  NOTE  25 

ing  this  class  to  social  theory — a  problem  which  we  shall 
discuss  presently — the  latter  cannot  take  the  same  stand- 
point and  subordinate  attitudes  to  values,  for  this  would 
mean  a  useless  duplication  of  existing  sciences.  There  may 
be,  as  we  shall  see,  some  doubts  whether  such  groups  of 
phenomena  as  religion  or  morality  should  be  for  special 
reasons  included  in  the  field  of  social  theory  or  should  con- 
stitute the  object-matter  of  distinct  sciences;  but  there  is 
no  doubt  that  language  and  literature,  art  and  science, 
economics  and  technique,  are  already  more  or  less  adequately 
treated  by  the  respective  disciplines  and,  while  needing  per- 
haps some  internal  reforms,  do  not  call  for  a  supplementary 
treatment  by  sociology  or  "folk-psychology"  (Wundt). 

But  there  is  also  no  doubt  that  a  study  of  the  social  world 
from  the  opposite  standpoint — that  is,  taking  attitudes  as 
special  object-matter  and  subordinating  values  to  them — is 
necessary,  and  that  an  exact  methodology  of  such  a  study  is 
lacking.  Ethics,  psychology,  ethnology,  sociology,  have  an 
interest  in  this  field  and  each  has  occupied  it  in  a  fragmentary 
and  unmethodical  way.  But  in  ethics  the  study  of  attitudes 
has  been  subordinated  to  the  problem  of  ideal  norms  of 
behavior,  not  treated  as  an  end  in  itself,  and  under  these 
conditions  no  adequate  method  of  a  purely  theoretic  investi- 
gation can  be  worked  out.  Ethnology  has  contributed 
valuable  data  for  the  study  of  attitudes  and  values  as  found 
in  the  various  social  groups,  particularly  the  "lower"  races, 
but  its  work  is  mainly  descriptive.  Of  the  sociological 
method  in  the  exact  sense  of  the  term  we  shall  speak  pres- 
ently. Psychology  is,  however,  the  science  which  has  been 
definitely  identified  with  the  study  of  consciousness,  and  the 
main  question  at  this  point  is  how  far  psychology  has  covered 
or  is  capable  of  covering  the  field  of  attitudes. 

As  we  have  indicated  above,  the  attitude  is  not  a  psy- 
chological datum  in  the  sense  given  to  this  term  by  individual 


26  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

psychology,  and  this  is  true  regardless  of  the  differences  be- 
tween psychological  schools.  Concretely  speaking,  any 
method  of  research  which  takes  the  individual  as  a  distinct 
entity  and  isolates  him  from  his  social  environment,  whether 
in  order  to  determine  by  introspective  analysis  the  content 
and  form  of  his  conscious  processes,  or  in  order  to  investigate 
the  organic  facts  accompanying  these  processes,  or,  finally, 
in  order  to  study  experimentally  his  behavior  as  reaction  to 
certain  stimuli,  finds  necessarily  only  psychical,  physical,  or 
biological  facts  essentially  and  indissolubly  connected  with 
the  individual  as  a  psychical,  physical,  or  generally  biologi- 
cal reality.  In  order  to  reach  scientific  generalizations,  such 
a  method  must  work  on  the  assumption  of  the  universal 
permanence  and  identity  of  human  nature  as  far  as  expressed 
in  these  facts;  that  is,  its  fundamental  concepts  must  be 
such  as  to  apply  to  all  human  beings,  some  of  them  even  to 
all  conscious  beings,  and  individual  differences  must  be 
reconstructed  with  the  help  of  these  concepts  as  variations 
of  the  same  fundamental  background,  due  to  varying  inten- 
sities, qualities,  and  combinations  of  essentially  the  same 
universal  processes.  Indeed,  as  every  psychological  fact  is 
a  state  of  the  individual  as  fundamental  reality,  the  uniform- 
ity of  these  facts  depends  on  the  permanence  and  uniformity 
of  such  individual  realities.  The  central  field  of  individual 
psychology  is  therefore  constituted  by  the  most  elementary 
conscious  phenomena,  which  are  the  only  ones  that  can  be 
adequately  treated  as  essentially  identical  in  all  conscious 
beings ;  phenomena  which  are  limited  to  a  certain  number  of 
individuals  either  must  be  treated  as  complex  and  analyzed 
into  elementary  and  universal  elements,  or,  if  this  cannot  be 
done,  then  their  content,  varying  with  the  variation  of  social 
milieu,  must  be  omitted  and  only  the  form  of  their  occurrence 
reconstructed  as  presumably  the  same  wherever  and  when- 
ever they  happen. 


METHODOLOGICAL  NOTE  27 

But  psychology  is  not  exclusively  individual  psychology. 
We  find  numerous  monographs  listed  as  psychological,  but 
studying  conscious  phenomena  which  are  not  supposed  to 
have  their  source  in  "human  nature"  in  general,  but  in 
special  social  conditions,  which  can  vary  with  the  variation 
of  these  conditions  and  still  be  common  to  all  individuals 
in  the  same  conditions,  and  which  are  therefore  treated,  not 
as  mere  states  of  individual  beings,  but  as  self-sufficient  data 
to  be  studied  without  any  necessary  assumptions  about  the 
psychological,  physiological,  or  biological  constitution  of  the 
individuals  composing  the  group.  To  this  sphere  of  psy- 
chology belong  all  investigations  that  concern  conscious 
phenomena  particular  to  races,  nationalities,  religious, 
political,  professional  groups,  corresponding  to  special  occu- 
pations and  interests,  provoked  by  special  influences  of  a 
social  milieu,  developed  by  educational  activities  and  legal 
measures,  etc.  The  term  "social  psychology"  has  become 
current  for  this  type  of  investigations.  The  distinction  of 
social  from  individual  psychology  and  the  methodological 
unity  of  social  psychology  as  a  separate  science  have  not 
been  sufficiently  discussed,  but  we  shall  attempt  to  show 
that  social  psychology  is  precisely  the  science  of  attitudes  and 
that,  while  its  methods  are  essentially  different  from  the 
methods  of  individual  psychology,  its  field  is  as  wide  as 
conscious  life. 

Indeed,  every  manifestation  of  conscious  life,  however 
simple  or  complex,  general  or  particular,  can  be  treated  as 
an  attitude,  because  every  one  involves  a  tendency  to  action, 
whether  this  action  is  a  process  of  mechanical  activity  pro- 
ducing physical  changes  in  the  material  world,  or  an  attempt 
to  influence  the  attitudes  of  others  by  speech  and  gesture,  or 
a  mental  activity  which  4oes  not  at  the  given  moment  find 
a  social  expression,  or  even  a  mere  process  of  sensual  apper- 
ception.    And  all  the  objects  of  these  actions  can  be  treated 


28  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

as  social  A'alues,  for  they  all  have  some  content  which  is  or 
ma>'  be  accessible  to  other  individuals — even  a  personal 
"idea"  can  be  communicated  to  others — and  a  meaning  by 
which  they  may  become  the  objects  of  the  activity  of  others. 
And  thus  social  psychology,  when  it  undertakes  to  study  the 
conscious  phenomena  found  in  a  given  social  group,  has  no 
reasons  a  priori  which  force  it  to  limit  itself  to  a  certain  class 
of  such  phenomena  to  the  exclusion  of  others;  any  mani- 
festation of  the  conscious  life  of  any  member  of  the  group  is 
an  attitude  when  taken  in  connection  with  the  values  which 
constitute  the  sphere  of  experience  of  this  group,  and  this 
sphere  includes  data  of  the  natural  environment  as  well  as 
artistic  works  or  religious  beliefs,  technical  products  and 
economic  relations  as  well  as  scientific  theories.  If,  there- 
fore, monographs  in  social  psychology  limit  themselves  to 
such  special  problems  as,  for  example,  the  study  of  general 
conscious  phenomena  produced  in  a  social  group  by  certain 
physical,  biological,  economic,  political  influences,  by  com- 
mon occupation,  common  religious  beliefs,  etc.,  the  limita- 
tion may  be  justified  by  the  social  importance  of  these 
phenomena  or  even  by  only  a  particular  interest  of  the 
author,  but  it  is  not  necessitated  by  the  nature  of  social 
psychology,  which  can  study  among  the  conscious  phenom- 
ena occurring  within  the  given  social  group,  not  only  such 
as  are  peculiar  to  this  group  as  a  whole,  but  also,  on  the  one 
hand,  such  as  individual  psycholog}'  assumes  to  be  common 
to  all  conscious  beings,  and,  on  the  other  hand,  such  as  may 
be  peculiar  to  only  one  individual  member  of  the  group. 

But  of  course  not  all  the  attitudes  found  in  the  conscious 
life  of  a  social  group  have  the  same  importance  for  the  pur- 
poses of  social  psychology  at  a  given  moment,  or  even  for 
its  general  purposes  as  a  science  of  the  social  world.  On 
the  one  hand,  the  task  of  every  science  in  describing  and 
generalizing  the  data  is  to  reduce  as  far  as  possible  the  limit- 


METHODOLOGICAL  NOTE  29 

less  complexity  of  experience  to  a  limited  number  of  con- 
cepts, and  therefore  those  elements  of  reality  are  the  most 
important  which  are  most  generally  found  in  that  part  of 
experience  which  constitutes  the  object-matter  of  a  science. 
And  thus  for  social  psychology  the  importance  of  an  attitude 
is  proportionate  to  the  number  and  variety  of  actions  in 
which  this  attitude  is  manifested.  The  more  generally  an 
attitude  is  shared  by  the  members  of  the  given  social  group 
and  the  greater  the  part  which  it  plays  in  the  life  of  every 
member,  the  stronger  the  interest  which  it  provokes  in  the 
social  psychologist,  while  attitudes  which  are  either  peculiar 
to  a  few  members  of  the  group  or  which  manifest  themselves 
only  on  rare  occasions  have  as  such  a  relatively  secondary 
significance,  but  may  become  significant  through  some  con- 
nection with  more  general  and  fundamental  attitudes.^ 

On  the  other  hand,  scientific  generalizations  are  produc- 
tive and  valuable  only  in  so  far  as  they  help  to  discover  cer- 
tain relations  between  various  classes  of  the  generalized 
data  and  to  establish  a  systematic  classification  by  a  logical 
subordination  and  co-ordination  of  concepts;  a  generaliza- 
tion which  bears  no  relation  to  others  is  useless.  Now,  as 
the  main  body  of  the  materials  of  social  psychology  is  con- 
stituted by  cultural  attitudes,  corresponding  to  variable  and 
multiform  cultural  values,  such  elementary  natural  attitudes 
as  correspond  to  stable  and  uniform  physical  conditions — 
for  example,  attitudes  manifested  in  sensual  perception  or 
in  the  action  of  eating — in  spite  of  their  generality  and  prac- 
tical importance  for  the  human  race,  can  be  usefully  investi- 
gated within  the  limits  of  this  science  only  if  a  connection 

'  In  connection,  indeed,  with  the  problems  of  both  the  creation  and  the  de- 
struction of  social  values,  the  most  exceptional  and  divergent  attitudes  may  prove 
the  most  important  ones,  because  they  may  introduce  a  crisis  and  an  element  of 
disorder.  And  to  the  social  theorist  and  technician  the  disorderly  individual  is 
of  peculiar  interest  as  a  destroyer  of  values,  as  in  the  case  of  the  anti-social  indi- 
vidual, and  as  a  creator  of  values,  as  in  the  case  of  the  man  of  genius. 


30  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

can  be  found  between  them  and  the  cultural  attitudes — if, 
for  example,  it  can  be  shown  that  sensual  perception  or  the 
organic  attitude  of  disgust  varies  within  certain  limits  with 
the  variation  of  social  conditions.  As  long  as  there  is  no 
possibility  of  an  actual  subordination  or  co-ordination  as 
between  the  cultural  and  the  natural  attitudes,  the  natural 
attitudes  have  no  immediate  interest  for  social  psychology, 
and  their  investigation  remains  a  task  of  individual  psychol- 
ogy. In  other  words,  those  conscious  phenomena  cor- 
responding to  the  physical  world  can  be  introduced  into 
social  psychology  only  if  it  can  be  shown  that  they  are 
not  purely  "natural" — independent  of  social  conditions — 
but  also  in  some  measure  cultural — influenced  by  social 
values. 

Thus,  the  field  of  social  psychology  practically  comprises 
first  of  all  the  attitudes  which  are  more  or  less  generally 
found  among  the  members  of  a  social  group,  have  a  real 
importance  in  the  life-organization  of  the  individuals  who 
have  developed  them,  and  manifest  themselves  in  social 
activities  of  these  individuals.  This  field  can  be  indefinitely 
enlarged  in  two  directions  if  the  concrete  problems  of  social 
psychology  demand  it.  It  may  include  attitudes  which 
are  particular  to  certain  members  of  the  social  group  or 
appear  in  the  group  only  on  rare  occasions,  as  soon  as  they 
acquire  for  some  reason  a  social  importance;  thus,  some 
personal  sexual  idiosyncrasy  will  interest  social  psychology 
only  if  it  becomes  an  object  of  imitation  or  of  indignation 
to  other  members  of  the  group  or  if  it  helps  to  an  under- 
standing of  more  general  sexual  attitudes.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  field  of  social  psychology  may  be  extended  to  such 
attitudes  as  manifest  themselves  with  regard,  not  to  the 
social,  but  to  the  physical,  environment  of  the  individual, 
as  soon  as  they  show  themselves  affected  by  social  culture; 
for  example,  the  perception  of  colors  would  become  a  socio- 


METHODOLOGICAL  NOTE  31 

psychological  problem  if  it  proved  to  have  evolved  during 
the  cultural  evolution  under  the  influence  of  decorative  arts. 

Social  psychology  has  thus  to  perform  the  part  of  a 
general  science  of  the  subjective  side  of  social  culture  which 
we  have  heretofore  usually  ascribed  to  individual  psychol- 
ogy or  to  "psychology  in  general."  It  may  claim  to  be  the 
science  of  consciousness  as  manifested  in  culture,  and  its 
function  is  to  render  service,  as  a  general  auxiliary  science, 
to  all  the  special  sciences  dealing  with  various  spheres  of 
social  values.  This  does  not  mean  that  social  psychology 
can  ever  supplant  individual  psychology;  the  methods  and 
standpoints  of  these  two  sciences  are  too  different  to  permit 
either  of  them  to  fulfil  the  function  of  the  other,  and,  if  it 
were  not  for  the  traditional  use  of  the  term  "psychology" 
for  both  t3^es  of  research,  it  would  be  even  advisable  to 
emphasize  this  difference  by  a  distinct  terminology. 

But  when  we  study  the  life  of  a  concrete  social  group  we 
find  a  certain  very  important  side  of  this  life  which  social 
psychology  cannot  adequately  take  into  account,  which 
none  of  the  special  sciences  of  culture  treats  as  its  proper 
object-matter,  and  which  during  the  last  fifty  years  has  con- 
stituted the  central  sphere  of  interest  of  the  various  re- 
searches called  sociology.  Among  the  attitudes  prevailing 
within  a  group  some  express  themselves  only  in  individual 
actions — uniform  or  multiform,  isolated  or  combined — but 
only  in  actions.  But  there  are  other  attitudes — usually, 
though  not  always,  the  most  general  ones — -which,  besides 
expressing  themselves  directly,  like  the  first,  in  actions,  find 
also  an  indirect  manifestation  in  more  or  less  explicit  and 
formal  rules  of  behavior  by  which  the  group  tends  to  main- 
tain, to  regulate,  and  to  make  more  general  and  more  fre- 
quent the  corresponding  type  of  actions  among  its  members. 
These  rules — customs  and  rituals,  legal  and  educational 
norms,  obligatory  beliefs  and  aims,  etc. — arouse  a  twofold 


32  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

interest.  We  may  treat  them,  like  actions,  as  manifesta- 
tions of  attitudes,  as  indices  showing  that,  since  the  group 
demands  a  certain  kind  of  actions,  the  attitude  which  is 
supposed  to  manifest  itself  in  these  actions  is  shared  by  all 
those  who  uphold  the  rule.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  the  ver}' 
existence  of  a  rule  shows  that  there  are  some,  even  if  only 
weak  and  isolated,  attitudes  which  do  not  fully  harmonize 
with  the  one  expressed  in^thejule,  and  that  the  group  feels 
the  necessity  of  preventing  these  attitudes  from  passing  into 
action.  Precisely  as  far  as  the  rule  is  consciously  realized 
as  binding  by  individual  members  of  the  group  from  whom 
it  demands  a  certain  adaptation,  it  has  for  every  individual 
a  certain  content  and  a  certain  meaning  and  is  a  value. 
Furthermore,  the  action  of  an  individual  viewed  by  the 
group,  by  another  individual,  or  even  by  himself  in  reflec- 
tion, with  regard  to  this  action's  agreement  or  disagreement 
with  the  rule,  becomes  also  a  value  to  which  a  certain  atti- 
tude of  appreciation  or  depreciation  is  attached  in  various 
forms.  In  this  way  rules  and  actions,  taken,  not  with  regard 
to  the  attitudes  expressed  in  them,  but  with  regard  to  the 
attitudes  provoked  by  them,  are  quite  analogous  to  any  other 
values — economic,  artistic,  scientific,  religious,  etc.  There 
may  be  many  various  attitudes  corresponding  to  a  rule  or 
action  as  objects  of  individual  reflection  and  appreciation, 
and  a  certain  attitude — such  as,  for  example,  the  desire  for 
personal  freedom  or  the  feeling  of  social  righteousness — ^may 
bear  positively  or  negatively  upon  many  rules  and  actions, 
varying  from  group  to  group  and  from  individual  to  indi- 
vidual. These  values  cannot,  therefore,  be  the  object- 
matter  of  social  psychology;  they  constitute  a  special  group 
of  objective  cultural  data  alongside  the  special  domains  of 
other  cultural  sciences  like  economics,  theory  of  art,  phflol- 
ogy,  etc.  The  rules  of  behavior,  and  the  actions  viewed 
as  conforming  or  not  conforming  with  these  rules,  constitute 


METHODOLOGICAL  NOTE  33 

with  regard  to  their  objective  significance  a  certain  number 
of  more  or  less  connected  and  harmonious  systems  which 
can  be  generally  called  sociqlJnsiituHons,  and  the  totality 
of  institutions  found  in  a  concrete  social  group  constitutes 
the  social^^e^ganization  of  this  group.  And  when  studying 
the  social  organization  as  such  we  must  subordinate  atti- 
tudes to  values  as  we  do  in  other  special  cultural  sciences; 
that  is,  attitudes  count  for  us  only  as  influencing  and  modi- 
fying rules  of  behavior  and  social  institutions. 

Sociology,  as  theory  of  social  organization,  is  thus  a 
special  science  of  culture  like  economics  or  philology,  and  is 
in  so  far  opposed  to  social  psychology  as  the  general  science 
of  the  subjective  side  of  culture.  But  at  the  same  time  it 
has  this  in  common  with  social  psychology :  that  the  values 
which  it  studies  draw  all  their  reality,  all  their  power  to 
influence  human  life,  from  the  social  attitudes  which  arc 
expressed  or  supposedly  expressed  in  them ;  if  the  individual 
in  his  behavior  is  so  largely  determined  by  the  rules  prevail- 
ing in  his  social  group,  it  is  certainly  due  neither  to  the 
rationality  of  these  rules  nor  to  the  physical  consequences 
which  their  following  or  breaking  may  have,  but  to  his  con- 
sciousness that  these  rules  represent  attitudes  of  his  group 
and  to  his  realization  of  the  social  consequences  which  will 
ensue  for  him  if  he  follows  or  breaks  the  rules.  And  there- 
fore both  social  psychology  and  sociology  can  be  embraced 
under  the  general  term  of  social  theory,  as  they  are  both 
concerned  with  the  relation  between  the  individual  and  the 
concrete  social  group,  though  their  standpoints  on  this  com- 
mon ground  are  quite  opposite,  and  though  their  fields  are 
not  equally  wide,  social  psychology  comprising  the  attitudes 
of  the  individual  toward  all  cultural  values  of  the  given 
social  group,  while  sociology  can  study  only  one  type  of 
these  values — ^social  rules — in  their  relation  to  individual 
attitudes. 


34  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

We  have  seen  that  social  psychology  has  a  central  field 
of  interest  including  the  most  general  and  fundamental  cul- 
tural attitudes  found  within  concrete  societies.  In  the  same 
manner  there  is  a  certain  domain  which  constitutes  the 
methodological  center  of  sociological  interest.  It  includes 
those  rules  of  behavior  which  concern  more  especially  the 
active  relations  between  individual  members  of  the  group 
and  between  each  member  and  the  group  as  a  whole.  It  is 
these  rules,  indeed,  manifested  as  mores,  laws,  and  group- 
ideals  and  systematized  in  such  institutions  as  the  family, 
the  tribe,  the  community,  the  free  association,  the  state,  etc., 
which  constitute  the  central  part  of  social  organization  and 
provide  through  this  organization  the  essential  conditions 
of  the  existence  of  a  group  as  a  distinct  cultural  entity  and 
not  a  mere  agglomeration  of  individuals;  and  hence  all 
other  rules  which  a  given  group  may  develop  and  treat  as 
obligator}^  have  a  secondar}^  sociological  importance  as 
compared  with  these.  But  this  does  not  mean  that  sociol- 
ogy should  not  extend  its  field  of  investigation  beyond  this 
methodological  center  of  interest.  Every  social  group, 
particularly  on  lower  stages  of  cultural  evolution,  is  inclined 
to  control  all  individual  activities,  not  alone  those  which 
attain  directly  its  fundamental  institutions.  Thus  we  find 
social  regulations  of  economic,  religious,  scientific,  artistic 
activities,  even  of  technique  and  speech,  and  the  break  of 
these  regulations  is  often  treated  as  affecting  the  ver>'  exist- 
ence of  the  group.  And  we  must  concede  that,  though  the 
effect  of  these  regulations  on  cultural  productivity  is  often 
more  than  doubtful,  they  do  contribute  as  long  as  they  last 
to  the  unity  of  the  group,  while,  on  the  other  hand,  the  close 
association  which  has  been  formed  between  these  rules  and 
the  fundamental  social  institutions  without  which  the  group 
cannot  exist  has  often  the  consequence  that  cultural  evolu- 
tion which  destroys  the  influence  of  these  secondar}'  regula- 


METHODOLOGICAL  NOTE  35 

tions  may  actually  disorganize  the  group.  Precisely  as  far 
as  these  social  rules  concerning  special  cultural  activities 
are  in  the  above-determined  way  connected  with  the  rules 
which  bear  on  social  relations  they  acquire  an  interest  for 
sociology.  Of  course  it  can  be  determined  only  a  posteriori 
how  far  the  field  of  sociology  should  be  extended  beyond  the 
investigation  of  fundamental  social  institutions,  and  the 
situation  varies  from  group  to  group  and  from  period  to 
period.  In  all  civilized  societies  some  part  of  every  cultural 
activity — religious,  economic,  scientific,  artistic,  etc. — is 
left  outside  of  social  regulation,  and  another,  perhaps  even 
larger,  part,  though  still  subjected  to  social  rules,  is  no 
longer  supposed  to  affect  directly  the  existence  or  coherence 
of  society  and  actually  does  not  affect  it.  It  is  therefore  a 
grave  methodological  error  to  attempt  to  include  generally 
in  the  field  of  sociology  such  cultural  domains  as  religion 
or  economics  on  the  ground  that  in  certain  social  groups 
religious  or  economic  norms  are  considered — and  in  some 
measure  even  really  are — a  part  of  social  organization,  for 
even  there  the  respective  values  have  a  content  which  cannot 
be  completely  reduced  to  social  rules  of  behavior,  and  their 
importance  for  social  organization  may  be  very  small  or 
even  none  in  other  societies  or  at  other  periods  of  evolution. 

The  fundamental  distinction  between  social  psychology 
and  sociology  appears  clearly  when  we  undertake  the  com- 
parative study  of  special  problems  in  various  societies,  for 
these  problems  naturally  divide  themselves  into  two  classes. 
We  may  attempt  to  explain  certain  attitudes  by  tracing  their 
origin  and  trying  to  determine  the  laws  of  their  appearance 
under  various  social  circumstances,  as,  for  example,  when 
we  investigate  sexual  love  or  feeling  of  group-solidarity, 
bashfulness  or  showing  off,  the  mystical  emotion  or  the 
aesthetic  amateur  attitude,  etc.     Or  we  may  attempt  to  give 


36  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

an  explanation  of  social  institutions  and  try  to  subject  to 
laws  their  appearance  under  various  socio-psychological 
conditions,  as  when  our  object-matter  is  marriage  or  family, 
criminal  legislation  or  censorship  of  scientific  opinions,  mili- 
tarism or  parliamentarism,  etc.  But  when  we  study  mono- 
graphically  a  concrete  social  group  with  all  its  fundamental 
attitudes  and  values,  it  is  difficult  to  make  a  thoroughgoing 
separation  of  socio-psychological  and  sociological  problems, 
for  any  concrete  body  of  material  contains  both.  Con- 
sequently, since  the  present  work,  and  particularly  its  first 
two  volumes,  is  precisely  a  monograph  of  a  concrete  social 
group,  we  cannot  go  into  a  detailed  analysis  of  methodologi- 
cal questions  concerning  exclusively  the  socio-psychological 
or  sociological  investigation  in  particular,  but  must  limit 
ourselves  to  such  general  methodological  indications  as 
concern  both.  Later,  in  connection  with  problems  treated 
in  subsequent  volumes,  more  special  methodological  dis^ 
cussions  may  be  necessary  and  will  be  introduced  in  their 
proper  place. 

The  chief  problems  of  modem  science  are  problems  of 

^  causal  explanation.  The  determination  and  systematiza- 
tion  of  data  is  only  the  first  step  in  scientific  investigation. 
If  a  science  wishes  to  lay  the  foundation  of  a  technique,  it 
must  attempt  to  understand  and  to  control  the  process  of 

,  becoming.  Social  theor}'  cannot  avoid  this  task,  and  there 
is  only  one  way  of  fulfilling  it.  Social  becoming,  like  natural 
becoming,  must  be  analyzed  into  a  plurality  of  facts,  each 
of  which  represents  a  succession  of  cause  and  effect.  The 
idea  of  social  theor}^  is  the  analysis  of  the  totality  of  social 
becoming  into  such  causal  processes  and  a  systematization 
permitting  us  to  understand  the  connections  between  these 
processes.  No  arguments  a  priori  trx'ing  to  demonstrate 
the  impossibility  of  application  of  the  principle  of  causality 
to  conscious  human  hfe  in  general  can  or  should  halt  social 


METHODOLOGICAL  NOTE  37 

theory  in  tending  to  this  idea,  whatever  difficulties  there 
may  be  in  the  way,  because  as  a  matter  of  fact  we  continually 
do  apply  the  principle  of  causality  to  the  social  world  in  our 
activity  and  in  our  thought,  and  we  shall  always  do  this  as 
long  as  we  try  to  control  social  becoming  in  any  form.  So, 
instead  of  fruitlessly  discussing  the  justification  of  this  appli- 
cation in  the  abstract,  social  theory  must  simply  strive  to 
make  it  more  methodical  and  perfect  in  the  concrete — by 
the  actual  process  of  investigation. 

But  if  the  general  philosophical  problem  of  free  will  and 
determinism  is  negligible,  the  particular  problem  of  the  best 
possible  method  of  causal  explanation  is  very  real.  Indeed, 
its  solution  is  the  fundamental  and  inevitable  introductory 
task  of  a  science  which,  like  social  theory,  is  still  in  the  period 
of  formation.  The  great  and  most  usual  illusion  of  the 
scientist  is  that  he  simply  takes  the  facts  as  they  are,  without 
any  methodological  prepossessions,  and  gets  his  explanation 
entirely  a  posteriori  from  pure  experience.  A  fact  by  itself 
is  already  an  abstraction;  we  isolate  a  certain  limited  aspect 
of  the  concrete  process  of  becoming,  rejecting,  at  least 
provisionally,  all  its  indefinite  complexity.  The  question 
is  oply  whether  we  perform  this  abstraction  methodically 
or  not,  whether  we  know  what  and  why  we  accept  and  reject, 
or  simply  take  uncritically  the  old  abstractions  of  "common 
sense."  If  we  want  to  reach  scientific  explanations,  we  must 
keep  in  midd  that  our  facts  must  be  determined  in  such  a 
way  as  to  permit  of  their  subordination  to  general  laws.  A 
fact  which  cannot  be  treated  as  a  manifestation  of  one  or 
several  laws  is  inexplicable  causally.  When,  for  example, 
the  historian  speaks  of  the  causes  of  the  present  war,  he  must 
assume  that  the  war  is  a  combination  of  the  effects  of  many 
causes,  each  of  which  may  repeat  itself  many  times  in  history 
and  must  have  always  the  same  effect,  although  such  a  com- 
bination of  these  causes  as  has  produced  the  present  war 


319342 


38  PRIIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

may  never  happen  again.  And  only  if  social  theory  suc- 
ceeds in  determining  causal  laws  can  it  become  a  basis  of 
social  technique,  for  technique  demands  the  possibility  of 
foreseeing  and  calculating  the  effects  of  given  causes,  and 
this  demand  is  realizable  only  if  we  know  that  certain  causes 
will  always  and  every^vhere  produce  certain  effects. 

Now,  the  chief  error  of  both  social  practice  and  social 
theory  has  been  that  they  determined,  consciously  or  uncon- 
sciously, social  facts  in  a  way  which  excluded  in  advance  the 
possibility  of  their  subordination  to  any  laws.  The  imphcit 
or  explicit  assumption  was  that  a  social  fact  is  composed  of 
two  elements,  a  cause  which  is  either  a  social  phenomenon 
or  an  individual  act,  and  an  effect  which  is  either  an  indi- 
vidual act  or  a  social  phenomenon.  Following  uncritically 
the  example  of  the  physical  sciences,  which  always  tend  to 
find  the  one  determined  phenomenon  which  is  the  necessary 
and  sufficient  condition  of  another  phenomenon,  social 
theory  and  social  practice  have  forgotten  to  take  into 
account  one  essential  difference  between  physical  and  social 
reality,  which  is  that,  while  the  eft'ect  of  a  physical  phenom- 
enon depends  exclusively  on  the  objective  nature  of  this 
phenomenon  and  can  be  calculated  on  the  ground  of  the 
latter's  empirical  content,  the  effect  of  a  social  phenomenon 
depends  in  addition  on  the  subjective  standpoint  taken  by 
the  individual  or  the  group  toward  this  phenomenon  and 
can  be  calculated  only  if  we  know,  not  only  the  objective 
content  of  the  assumed  cause,  but  also  the  meaning  which  it 
has  at  the  given  moment  for  the  given  conscious  beings. 
This  simple  consideration  should  have  shown  fo^ihe  social 
theorist  or  technician  that  a  social  cause  cannot  be  simple, 
like  a  physical  cause,  but  is  compound,  and  must  include 
both  an  objective  and  a  subjective  element,  a  value  and  an 
attitude.  Otherwise  the  effect  will  appear  accidental  and 
incalculable,  because  we  shall  have  to  search  in  every  par- 


METHODOLOGICAL  NOTE  39 

ticular  case  for  the  reasons  why  this  particular  individual 
or  this  particular  society  reacted  to  the  given  phenomenon 
in  this  way  and  not  in  any  other  way. 

In  fact,  a  social  value,  acting  upon  individual  members 
of  the  group,  produces  a  more  or  less  different  effect  on  every 
one  of  them;  even  when  acting  upon  the  same  individual  at 
various  moments  it  does  not  influence  him  uniformly.  The 
influence  of  a  work  of  art  is  a  typical  example.  And  such 
uniformities  as  exist  here  are  quite  irrelevant,  for  they  are 
not  absolute.  If  we  once  suppose  that  a  social  phenomenon 
is  the  cause — which  means  a  necessary  and  sufficient  cause, 
for  there  are  no  "insufficient"  causes — of  an  individual  re- 
action, then  our  statement  of  this  causal  dependence  has 
the  logical  claim  of  being  a  scientific  law  from  which  there 
can  be  no  exceptions;  that  is,  every  seeming  exception  must 
be  explained  by  the  action  of  some  other  cause,  an  action 
whose  formulation  becomes  another  scientific  law.  But  to 
explain  why  in  a  concrete  case  a  work  of  art  or  a  legal  pre- 
scription which,  according  to  our  supposed  law,  should  pro- 
voke in  the  individual  a  certain  reaction  A  provokes  instead 
a  reaction  B,  we  should  have  to  investigate  the  whole  past 
of  this  individual  and  repeat  this  investigation  in  every  case, 
with  regard  to  every  individual  whose  reaction  is  not  A, 
without  hoping  ever  to  subordinate  those  exceptions  to  a  new 
law,  for  the  life-history  of  every  individual  is  different.  Con- 
sequently social  theory  tries  to  avoid  this  methodological 
absurdity  by  closing  its  eyes  to  the  problem  itself.  It  is 
either  satisfied  with  statements  of  causal  influences  which 
hold  true  "on  the  average,"  "in  the  majority  of  cases" — a 
flat  self-contradiction,  for,  if  something  is  a  cause,  it  must 
have  by  its  very  definition,  always  and  necessarily  the  same 
effect,  otherwise  it  is  not  a  cause  at  all.  Or  it  tries  to  analyze 
phenomena  acting  upon  individuals  and  individual  reactions 
to  them  into  simpler  elements,  hoping  thus  to  find  simple 


40  -PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

facts,  while  the  trouble  is  not  with  the  complexity  of  data, 
but  with  the  complexity  of  the  context  on  which  these  data 
act  or  in  which  they  are  embodied — that  is,  of  the  human 
personality.  Thus,  as  far  as  the  complexity  of  social  data 
is  concerned,  the  principle  of  gravitation  and  the  smile  of 
Mona  Lisa  are  simple  in  their  objective  content,  while  their 
influence  on  human  attitudes  has  been  indefinitely  varied; 
the  complex  system  of  a  graphomaniac  or  the  elaborate 
picture  of  a  talentless  and  skilless  man  provokes  much  more 
uniform  reactions.  And,  on  the  individual  side,  the  simple 
attitude  of  anger  can  be  provoked  by  an  indefinite  variety 
of  social  phenomena,  while  the  very  complicated  attitude 
of  militant  patriotism  appears  usually  only  in  very  definite 
social  conditions. 

But  more  than  this.  Far  from  obviating  the  problem  of 
individual  variations,  such  uniformities  of  reaction  to  social 
influences  as  can  be  found  constitute  a  problem  in  them- 
selves. For  with  the  exception  of  the  elementary  reactions 
to  purely  physical  stimuli,  which  may  be  treated  as  identical 
because  of  the  identity  of  "human  nature"  and  as  such 
belong  to  individual  psychology,  all  uniformities  with  which 
social  psychology  has  to  deal  are  the  product  of  social  con- 
ditions. If  the  members  of  a  certain  group  react  in  an 
identical  way  to  certain  values,  it  is  because  they  have  been 
socially  trained  to  react  thus,  because  the  traditional  rules 
of  behavior  predominant  in  the  given  group  impose  upon 
every  member  certain  ways  of  defining  and  solving  the 
practical  situations  which  he  meets  in  his  life.  But  the  very 
success  of  this  social  training,  the  \ery  fact  that  individual 
members  do  accept  such  definitions  and  act  in  accordance 
with  them,  is  no  less  a  problem  than  the  opposite  fact — the 
frequent  insuccess  of  the  training,  the  growing  assertion  of 
the  personality,  the  growing  variation  of  reaction  to  social 
rules,  the  search  for  personal  definitions — which  character- 


METHODOLOGICAL  NOTE  41 

izes  civilized  societies.  And  thus,  even  if  we  find  that  all 
the  members  of  a  social  group  react  in  the  same  way  to  a 
certain  value,  still  we  cannot  assume  that  this  value  alone 
is  the  cause  of  this  reaction,  for  the  latter  is  also  conditioned 
by  the  uniformity  of  attitudes  prevailing  in  the  group ;  and 
this  uniformity  itself  cannot  be  taken  as  granted  and 
omitted — as  we  omit  the  uniformity  of  environing  conditions 
in  a  physical  fact — because  it  is  the  particular  effect  of  cer- 
tain social  rules  acting  upon  the  members  of  the  group  who, 
because  of  certain  predispositions,  have  accepted  these  rules, 
and  this  effect  may  be  at  any  moment  counterbalanced 
by  the  action  of  different  causes,  and  is  in  fact  counter- 
balanced more  and  more  frequently  with  the  progress  of 
civilization. 

In  short,  when  social  theory  assumes  that  a  certain  social 
value  is  of  itself  the  cause  of  a  certain  individual  reaction, 
it  is  then  forced  to  ask:  "But  why  did  this  value  produce 
this  particular  effect  when  acting- on  this  particular  indi- 
vidual or  group  at  this  particular  moment  ?  "  Certainly  no 
scientific  answer  to  such  a  question  is  possible,  since  in  order 
to  explain  this  "why"  we  should  have  to  know  the  whole 
past  of  the  individual,  of  the  society,  and  of  the  universe. 

Analogous  methodological  difficulties  arise  when  social 
theory  attempts  to  explain  a  change  in  social  organization  as 
a  result  of  the  activity  of  the  members  of  the  group.  If  we 
treat  individual  activity  as  a  cause  of  social  changes,  every 
change  appears  as  inexplicable,  particularly  when  it  is 
"original,"  presents  many  new  features.  Necessarily  this 
point  is  one  of  degree,  for  every  product  of  individual  activ- 
ity is  in  a  sense  a  new  value  and  in  so  far  original  as  it  has  not 
existed  before  this  activity,  but  in  certain  cases  the  impor- 
tance of  the  change  brought  by  the  individual  makes  its  incal- 
culable and  inexplicable  character  particularly  striking.  We 
have  therefore  almost  despaired  of  extending  consistently 


42  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

the  principle  of  causality  to  the  activities  of  "great  men," 
while  it  still  seems  to  us  that  we  do  understand  the  everj^day 
productive  activity  of  the  average  human  individual  or  of 
the  "masses."  From  the  methodological  standpoint,  how- 
ever, it  is  neither  more  nor  less  difficult  to  explain  the  greatest 
changes  brought  into  the  social  world  by  a  Charles  the  Great, 
a  Napoleon,  a  ]\Iarx,  or  a  Bismarck  than  to  explain  a  small 
change  brought  by  a  peasant  who  starts  a  lawsuit  against 
his  relatives  or  buys  a  piece  of  land  to  increase  his  farm. 
The  work  of  the  great  man,  like  that  of  the  ordinary  man, 
is  the  result  of  his  tendency  to  modify  the  existing  conditions, 
of  his  attitude  toward  his  social  environment  which  makes 
him  reject  certain  existing  values  and  produce  certain  new 
values.  The  difference  is  in  the  values  which  are  the  object 
of  the  activity,  in  the  nature,  importance,  complexity,  of  the 
social  problems  put  and  solved.  The  change  in  social  or- 
ganization produced  by  a  great  man  may  be  thus  equivalent 
to  an  accumulation  of  small  changes  brought  by  millions  of 
ordinary  men,  but  the  idea  that  a  creative  process  is  more 
explicable  when  it  lasts  for  several  generations  than  when 
it  is  performed  in  a  few  months  or  days,  or  that  by  dividing 
a  creative  process  into  a  million  small  parts  we  destroy  its 
irrationality,  is  equivalent  to  the  conception  that  by  a  proper 
combination  of  mechanical  elements  in  a  machine  we  can 
produce  a  perpetuum  mobile. 

The  simple  and  well-known  fact  is  that  the  social  results 
of  individual  activity  depend,  not  only  on  the  action  itself, 
but  also  on  the  social  conditions  in  which  it  is  performed; 
and  therefore  the  cause  of  a  social  change  must  include  both 
individual  and  social  elements.  By  ignoring  this,  social 
theory  faces  an  infinite  task  whenever  it  wants  to  explain  the 
simplest  social  change.  For  the  same  action  in  different 
social  conditions  produces  quite  different  results.  It  is  true 
that  if  social  conditions  are  sufficiently  stable  the  results  of 


METHODOLOGICAL  NOTE  43 

certain  individual  actions  are  jnore  or  less  determinable,  at 
least  in  a  sufficient  majority  of  cases  to  permit  an  approxi- 
mate practical  calculation.  We  know  that  the  result  of  the 
activity  of  a  factory-workman  will  be  a  certain  technical 
product,  that  the  result  of  the  peasant's  starting  a  lawsuit 
against  a  member  of  his  family  will  be  a  dissolution  of  family 
bonds  between  him  and  this  member,  that  the  result  of  a 
judge's  activity  in  a  criminal  case  will  be  the  condemnation 
and  incarceration  of  the  offender  if  he  is  convicted.  But  all 
this  holds  true  only  if  social  conditions  remain  stable.  In 
case  of  a  strike  in  the  factory,  the  workman  will  not  be 
allowed  to  finish  his  product ;  assuming  that  the  idea  of  family 
solidarity  has  ceased  to  prevail  in  a  peasant  group,  the  law- 
suit will  not  provoke  moral  indignation ;  if  the  action  upon 
which  the  judge  has  to  pronounce  this  verdict  ceases  to  be 
treated  as  a  crime  because  of  a  change  of  political  conditions 
or  of  public  opinion,  the  offender,  even  if  convicted,  will  be 
set  free.  A  method  which  permits  us  to  determine  only 
cases  of  stereotyped  activity  and  leaves  us  helpless  in  face 
of  changed  conditions  is  not  a  scientific  method  at  all,  and 
becomes  even  less  and  less  practically  useful  with  the  con- 
tinual increase  of  fluidity  in  modern  social  life. 

Moreover,  social  theory  forgets  also  that  the  uniformity 
of  results  of  certain  actions  is  itself  a  problem  and  demands 
explanation  exactly  as  much  as  do  the  variations.  For  the 
stability  of  social  conditions  upon  which  the  uniformity  of 
results  of  individual  activity  depends  is  itself  a  product  of 
former  activities,  not  an  original  natural  status  which  might 
be  assumed  as  granted.  Both  its  character  and  its  degree 
vary  from  group  to  group  and  from  epoch  to  epoch.  A  cer- 
tain action  may  have  indeed  determined  and  calculable 
effects  in  a  certain  society  and  at  a  certain  period,  but  will 
have  completely  different  effects  in  other  societies  and  at 
other  periods. 


44  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

And  thus  social  theory  is-agam  confronted  by  a  scien- 
tifically absurd  question.  Assuming  that  individual  activ- 
ity in  itself  is  the  cause  of  social  effects,  it  must  then  ask: 
"Why  does  a  certain  action  produce  this  particular  effect 
at  this  particular  moment  in  this  particular  society  ?  "  The 
answer  to  this  question  would  demand  a  complete  explana- 
tion of  the  whole  status  of  the  given  society  at  the  given 
moment,  and  thus  force  us  to  investigate  the  entire  past  of 
the  universe. 

The  fundamental  methodological  principle  of  both  social 
psychology  and  sociology — the  principle  wdthout  which  they 
can  never  reach  scientific  explanation — is  therefore  the  fol- 
lowing one : 

The  cause  of  a  social  or  individual  phenomenon  is  never 
I  another  social  or  individual  phenomenon  alone,  hut  always  a 
combination  of  a  social  and  an  individual  phenomenon. 

Or,  in  more  exact  terms : 

The  cause  of  a  value  or  of  an  attitude  is  never  an  attitude 
i  or  a  value  alone,  but  always  a  combination  of  an  attitude  and  a 
valued 

It  is  only  by  the  application  of  this  principle  that  we  can 
remove  the  difiiculties  with  which  social  theor>^  and  social 
practice  have  struggled.  If  we  wish  to  explain  the  appear- 
ance of  a  new  attitude — whether  in  one  individual  or  in  a 
whole  group — we  know  that  this  attitude  appeared  as  a  con- 
sequence of  the  influence  of  a  social  value  upon  the  individual 
or  the  group,  but  we  know  also  that  this  influence  itself 

'  It  may  be  objected  that  we  have  neglected  to  criticize  the  conception  accord- 
ing to  which  the  cause  of  a  social  phenomenon  is  to  be  sought,  not  in  cin  individual, 
but  exclusively  in  another  social  phenomenon  (Durkheim).  But  a  criticism  of 
this  conception  is  implied  in  the  previous  discussion  of  the  data  of  social  theorj-. 
As  these  data  are  both  v^alues  and  attitudes,  a  fact  must  include  both,  and  a  suc- 
cession of  values  alone  cannot  constitute  a  fact.  Of  course  much  depends  also  on 
what  we  call  a  "social"  phenomenon.  An  attitude  may  be  treated  as  a  social 
phenomenon  as  opposed  to  the  "state  of  consciousness"  of  individual  psycholog>'; 
but  it  is  individual,  even  if  common  to  all  members  of  a  group,  when  we  oppose 
it  to  a  value. 


METHODOLOGICAL  NOTE  45 

would  have  been  impossible  unless  there  had  been  some  pre- 
existing attitude,  some  wish,  emotional  habit,  or  intellec- 
tual tendency,  to  which  this  value  has  in  some  way  appealed, 
favoring  it,  contradicting  it,  giving  it  a  new  direction,  or 
stabilizing  its  hesitating  expressions.  Our  problem  is  there- 
fore to  find  both  the  value  and  the  pre-existing  attitude  upon 
which  it  has  acted  and  get  in  their  combination  the  neces- 
sary and  sufficient  cause  of  the  new  attitude.  We  shall  not 
be  forced  then  to  ask:  "Why  did  this  value  provoke  in  this 
case  such  a  reaction  ?"  because  the  answer  will  be  included 
in  the  fact — ^in  the  pre-existing  attitude  to  which  this  value 
appealed.  Our  fact  will  bear  its  explanation  in  itself,  just 
as  the  physical  fact  of  the  movement  of  an  elastic  body  B 
when  struck  by  another  elastic  moving  body  A  bears  its 
explanation  in  itself.  We  may,  if  we  wish,  ask  for  a  more 
detailed  explanation,  not  only  of  the  appearance  of  the  new 
attitude,  but  also  for  certain  specific  characters  of  this  atti- 
tude, in  the  same  way  as  we  may  ask  for  an  explanation,  not 
only  of  the  movement  of  the  body  B  in  general,  but  also  of 
the  rapidity  and  direction  of  this  movement ;  but  the  prob- 
lem always  remains  limited,  and  the  explanation  is  within 
the  fact,  in  the  character  of  the  pre-existing  attitude  and  of 
the  influencing  value,  or  in  the  masses  of  the  bodies  A  and  B 
and  the  rapidity  and  direction  of  their  movements  previous 
to  their  meeting.  We  can  indeed  pass  from  the  given  fact 
to  the  new  one — ask,  for  example,  "How  did  it  happen  that 
this  attitude  to  which  the  value  appealed  was  there?"  or, 
"How  did  it  happen  that  the  body  A  moved  toward  B  until 
they  met  ?  "  But  this  question  again  will  find  its  limited  and 
definite  answer  if  we  search  in  the  same  way  for  the  cause 
of  the  pre-existing  attitude  in  some  other  attitude  and  value, 
or  of  the  movement  in  some  other  movement. 

Let  us  take  some  examples  from  the  following  volumes. 
Two  individuals,  under  the  influence  of  a  tyrannical  behavior 


46  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

in  their  fathers,  develop  completely  different  attitudes. 
One  shows  submission,  the  other  secret  revolt  and  resent- 
ment. If  the  father's  tyranny  is  supposed  to  be  the  cause 
of  these  opposite  attitudes,  we  must  know  the  whole  char- 
acter of  these  individuals  and  their  whole  past  in  order  to 
explain  the  difference  of  effect.  But  if  we  reaHze  that  the 
tyranny  is  not  the  sole  cause  of  both  facts,  but  only  a  com- 
mon element  which  enters  into  the  composition  of  two  differ- 
ent causes,  our  simple  task  will  be  to  find  the  other  elements 
of  these  causes.  We  can  find  them,  if  our  materials  are 
sufficient,  in  certain  persisting  attitudes  of  these  individuals 
as  expressed  in  words  or  actions.  We  form  hypotheses 
which  acquire  more  and  more  certainty  as  we  compare  many 
similar  cases.  We  thus  reach  the  conclusion  that  the  other 
element  of  the  cause  is,  in  the  first  case,  the  attitude  of 
familial  soHdarity,  in  the  second  case,  the  indi\4dualistic 
tendency  to  assert  one's  owti  personal  desires.  We  have 
thus  two  completely  different  facts,  and  we  do  not  need  to 
search  farther.  The  difference  of  eff"ects  is  obviously  ex- 
plained by  the  difference  of  causes  and  is  necessarily  what 
it  is.  The  cause  of  the  attitude  of  submission  is  the  attitude 
of  familial  solidarity  plus  the  tyranny  of  the  father;  the  cause 
of  the  attitude  of  revolt  is  the  tendency  to  seK-assertion 
plus  the  tyranny  of  the  father. 

As  another  example — this  time  a  mass-phenomenon — we 
take  the  case  of  the  Polish  peasants  from  certain  western 
communities  who  go  to  Germany  for  season-work  and  show 
there  uniformly  a  desire  to  do  as  much  piece-work  as  pos- 
sible and  work  as  hard  as  they  can  in  order  to  increase  their 
earnings,  while  peasants  of  these  same  communities  and  even 
the  same  individual  peasants  when  they  stay  at  home  and 
work  during  the  season  on  the  PoHsh  estates  accept  only 
day-work  and  refuse  piece-work  under  the  most  ridiculous 
pretexts.     We  should  be  inclined  to  ascribe  this  dift'erence 


METHODOLOGICAL  NOTE 


47 


of  attitudes  to  the  difference  of  conditions,  and  in  fact  both 
the  peasants  and  the  PoHsh  estate-owners  give  this  explana- 
tion, though  they  differ  as  to  the  nature  of  causes.  The 
peasants  say  that  the  conditions  of  piece-work  are  less 
favorable  in  Poland  than  in  Germany;  the  estate-owners 
claim  that  the  peasants  in  Germany  are  more  laborious 
because  intimidated  by  the  despotism  of  German  estate- 
owners  and  farm-managers.  Both  contentions  are  wrong. 
The  conditions  of  piece-work  as  compared  with  day-work 
are  certainly  not  less  favorable  in  Poland  than  in  Germany, 
and  the  peasants  are  more  laborious  in  Germany  on  their 
own  account,  regardless  of  the  very  real  despotism  which 
they  find  there.  To  be  sure,  the  conditions  are  different;  the 
whole  social  environment  differs.  The  environment,  how- 
ever, is  not  the  sufficient  cause  of  the  attitudes.  The  point  is 
that  the  peasant  who  goes  to  Germany  is  led  there  by  the 
desire  of  economic  advance,  and  this  attitude  predominates 
during  the  whole  period  of  season- work,  not  on  account  of  the 
conditions  themselves,  but  through  the  feeling  of  being  in 
definite  new  conditions,  and  produces  the  desire  to  earn  more 
by  piece-work.  On  the  contrary,  the  peasant  who  stays  at 
home  preserves  for  the  time  being  his  old  attitude  toward 
work  as  a  "necessary  evil,"  and  this  attitude,  under  the 
influence  of  traditional  ideas  about  the  conditions  of  work 
on  an  estate,  produces  the  unwillingness  to  accept  piece- 
work. Here  both  components  of  the  cause — pre-existing 
attitude  and  value-idea — differ,  and  evidently  the  effects 
must  be  different. 

If  now  we  have  to  explain  the  appearance  of  a  social 
value,  we  know  that  this  value  is  a  product  of  the  activity 
of  an  individual  or  a  number  of  individuals,  and  in  so  far 
dependent  on  the  attitude  of  which  this  activity  is  the  expres- 
sion. But  we  know  also  that  this  result  is  inexplicable 
unless  we  take  into  consideration  the  value  (or  complex  of 


48  rRIMARV-GROUr  ORGANIZATION 

values)  whicli  was  tlie  starting-point  and  the  social  material 
of  acti\ily  and  wliich  has  conditioned  the  result  as  much  as 
did  the  attitude  itself.  The  new  value  is  the  result  of  the 
solution  of  a  problem  set  by  the  pre-existing  value  and  the 
active  attitude  together;  it  is  the  common  effect  of  both  of 
them.  The  product  of  an  activity — even  of  a  mechanical 
activity,  such  as  a  manufactured  thing — acquires  its  full 
social  reality  only  when  it  enters  into  social  life,  becomes  the 
object  of  the  attitudes  of  the  group,  is  socially  valued.  And 
we  can  understand  this  meaning,  which  is  an  essential  part 
of  the  effect,  only  if  we  know  what  was  the  social  situa- 
tion when  the  activity  started,  what  was  the  social  value 
upon  which  the  individual  (or  individuals)  specially  acted 
and  w^hich  might  have  been  quite  different  from  the  one  upon 
which  he  intended  to  act  and  imagined  that  he  acted.  If 
we  once  introduce  this  pre-existing  value  into  the  fact  as  the 
necessary  component  of  the  cause,  the  effect — the  nev 
value — will  be  completely  explicable  and  we  shall  not  be 
forced  to  ask:  "Why  is  it  that  this  activity  has  brought  in 
these  conditions  this  particular  effect  instead  of  the  effect 
it  was  intended  to  bring  ?  "  any  more  than  physics  is  forced 
to  ask:  "Why  is  it  that  an  elastic  body  struck  by  another 
elastic  body  changes  the  direction  and  rapidity  of  its  move- 
ment instead  of  changing  merely  its  rapidity  or  merely  its 
direction  ?" 

To  take  some  further  examples,  the  American  social  insti- 
tutions tr}',  by  a  continuous  supervision  and  interference,  to 
develop  a  strong  marriage-group  organization  among  the 
Polish  immigrants  who  begin  to  show  certain  signs  of  decay 
of  family  life  or  among  whom  the  relation  between  husband 
and  wife  and  children  does  not  come  up  to  the  American 
standards  in  certain  respects.  The  results  of  this  activit} 
are  quite  baffling.  Far  from  being  constructive  of  new 
values,  the  interference  proves  rather  destructive  in  a  great 


METHODOLOGICAL  NOTE 


49 


majority  of  cases,  in  spite  of  the  best  efforts  of  the  most 
intelHgent  social  workers.  In  a  few  cases  it  does  not  seem 
to  affect  much  the  existing  state  of  things;  sometimes,  in- 
deed, though  very  seldom,  it  does  bring  good  results.  This 
very  variation  makes  the  problem  still  more  complicated  and 
difficult.  To  explain  the  effects,  the  social  workers  try  to 
take  into  consideration  the  whole  life-history  and  char- 
acter of  the  individuals  with  whom  they  deal,  but  without 
progressing  much  in  their  efforts.  The  whole  misunder- 
standing comes  from  the  lack  of  realization  that  the  Polish 
immigrants  here,  though  scattered  and  losing  most  of  their 
social  coherence,  are  still  not  entirely  devoid  of  this  coherence 
and  constitute  vague  and  changing  but  as  yet,  in  some 
measure,  real  communities,  and  that  these  communities 
have  brought  from  the  old  country  several  social  institutions, 
among  which  the  most  important  is  the  family  institution. 
In  new  conditions  these  institutions  gradually  dissolve,  and 
we  shall  study  this  process  in  later  volumes.  But  the  disso- 
lution is  not  sudden  or  universal,  and  thus  the  American 
social  worker  in  his  activity  meets,  without  realizing  it,  a 
set  of  social  values  which  are  completely  strange  to  him, 
and  which  his  activity  directly  affects  without  his  knowing 
it.  As  far  as  the  family  organization  is  concerned,  any  inter- 
ference of  external  powers— political  or  social  authorities — 
must  act  dissolvingly  upon  it,  because  it  affects  the  funda- 
mental principle  of  the  family  as  a  social  institution — the 
principle  of  solidarity.  An  individual  who  accepts  external 
interference  in  his  favor  against  a  family  member  sins  against 
this  principle,  and  a  break  of  family  relations  must  be 
thus  the  natural  consequence  of  the  well-intentioned  but 
insufficiently  enlightened  external  activities.  The  effect  is 
brought,  not  by  these  activities  alone,  but  by  the  combina- 
tion of  these  activities  and  the  pre-existing  peasant  family 
organization.     Of    course,    if    the    family  organization    is 


so  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

different — if,  for  example,  in  a  given  case  the  marriage-group 
has  ahead}'  taken  the  place  of  the  large  family — the  effect 
will  be  different  because  the  total  cause  is  different.  Or,  if 
instead  of  the  protective  and  for  the  peasant  incompre- 
hensible attitude  of  the  social  worker  or  court  officer  a 
different  attitude  is  brought  into  action — if,  for  example, 
the  family  is  surrounded  by  a  strong  and  solidary  community 
of  equals  who,  from  the  standpoint  of  communal  solidarity, 
interfere  with  family  relations,  just  as  they  do  in  the  old 
country- — again  the  effect  will  be  different  because  the  other 
component  of  the  cause — the  attitude  as  expressed  in  action 
— is  no  longer  the  same. 

Another  interesting  example  is  the  result  of  the  national 
persecution  of  the  Poles  in  Prussia,  the  aim  of  which  was  to 
destroy  Polish  national  cohesion.  Following  all  the  efforts 
which  the  powerful  Prussian  state  could  bring  against  the 
Poles,  national  cohesion  has  in  a  very  large  measure  in- 
creased, and  the  national  organization  has  included  such 
elements  as  were  before  the  persecution  quite  indifferent  to 
national  problems — the  majority  of  the  peasants  and  of  the 
lower  city  classes.  The  Prussian  government  had  not  real- 
ized the  existence  and  strength  of  the  communal  solidarity 
principle  in  the  low^er  classes  of  Polish  society,  and  by  attack- 
ing certain  vital  interests  of  these  classes,  religious  and 
economic,  it  contributed  more  than  the  positive  efforts  of 
the  intelligent  Polish  class  could  have  done  to  the  develop- 
ment of  this  principle  and  to  its  extension  over  the  whole 
PoUsh  society  in  Posen,  Silesia,  and  West  Prussia. 

These  examples  of  the  result  of  the  violation  of  our 
methodological  rule  could  be  multiplied  indefinitely  from  the 
field  of  social  reform.  The  common  tendency  of  reformers 
is  to  construct  a  rational  scheme  of  the  social  institution 
they  wish  to  see  produced  or  abolished,  and  then  to  formu- 
late an  ideal  plan  of  social  activities  which  would  perhaps 


METHODOLOGICAL  NOTE 


51 


lead  to  a  realization  of  their  scheme  if  social  Hfe  were  merely 
a  sum  of  individual  actions,  every  one  of  them  starting 
afresh  without  any  regard  for  tradition,  every  one  having  its 
source  exclusively  in  the  psychological  nature  of  the  indi- 
vidual and  capable  of  being  completely  directed,  by  well- 
selected  motives,  toward  definite  social  aims.  But  as  social 
reality  contains,  not  only  individual  acts,  but  also  social 
institutions,  not  only  attitudes,  but  also  values  fixed  by 
tradition  and  conditioning  the  attitudes,  these  values  co- 
operate in  the  production  of  the  final  effect  quite  independ- 
ently, and  often  in  spite  of  the  intentions  of  the  social 
reformer.  Thus  the  socialist,  if  he  presupposes  that  a  soli- 
dary and  well-directed  action  of  the  masses  will  realize  the 
scheme  of  a  perfect  socialistic  organization,  ignores  com- 
pletely the  influence  of  the  whole  existing  social  organization 
which  will  co-operate  with  the  revolutionary  attitudes  of 
the  masses  in  producing  the  new  organization,  and  this,  not 
only  because  of  the  opposition  of  those  who  will  hold  to  the 
traditional  values,  but  also  because  many  of  those  values,  as 
socially  sanctioned  rules  for  defining  situations,  will  continue 
to  condition  many  attitudes  of  the  masses  themselves  and 
will  thus  be  an  integral  part  of  the  causes  of  the  final  effect. 
Of  course  we  do  not  assert  that  the  proper  way  of  formu- 
lating social  facts  is  never  used  by  social  theory  or  reflective 
social  practice.  On  the  contrary,  we  very  frequently  find 
it  applied  in  the  study  of  particular  cases,  and  it  is  naively 
used  in  everyday  business  and  personal  relations.  We  use 
it  in  all  cases  involving  argument  and  persuasion.  The  busi- 
ness man,  the  shopkeeper,  and  the  politician  use  it  very 
subtly.  We  have  been  compelled  in  the  case  of  our  juvenile 
delinquents  to  allow  the  judges  to  waive  the  formal  and 
incorrect  conception  of  social  facts  and  to  substitute  in  the 
case  of  the  child  the  proper  formula.  But  the  point  is  that 
this  formula  has  never  been  appUed  with  any  consistency 


52  rRIMARV-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

and  systematic  development,  while  the  wrong  formula  has 
been  used  very  thoroughly  and  has  led  to  such  imposing 
systems  as,  in  reflective  practice,  the  whole  enormous  and 
continually  growing  complexity  of  positive  law,  and  in 
social  theory  to  the  more  recent  and  limited,  but  rapidly 
growing,  accumulation  of  works  on  political  science,  philos- 
ophy of  law,  ethics,  and  sociology.  At  every  step  we  try 
to  enforce  certain  attitudes  upon  other  individuals  without 
stopping  to  consider  what  are  their  dominant  attitudes  in 
general  or  their  prevailing  attitudes  at  the  given  moment; 
at  every  step  we  try  to  produce  certain  social  values  without 
taking  into  account  the  values  which  are  already  there  and 
upon  which  the  result  of  our  efforts  will  depend  as  much  as 
upon  our  intention  and  persistence. 

The  chi£f_SQurce  of  this  great  methodological  mistake, 
whose  various  consequences  we  have  shown  in  the  first  part 
of  this  note,  lay  probably  in  the  fact  that  social  theory  and 
reflective  practice  started  with  problems  of  political  and 
legal  organization.  Having  thus  to  deal  with  the  relatively 
uniform  attitudes  and  relatively  permanent  conditions  which 
characterized  civilized  societies  several  thousand  years  ago, 
and  relying  besides  upon  physical  force  as  a  supposedly  infal- 
lible instrument  for  the  production  of  social  uniformity  and 
stability  whenever  the  desirable  attitudes  were  absent, 
social  theory  and  reflective  practice  have  been  capable  of 
holding  and  of  developing,  without  remarking  its  absurdity, 
a  standpoint  which  would  be  scientifically  and  technically 
justifiable  only  if  human  attitudes  were  absolutely  and 
universally  uniform  and  social  conditions  absolutely  and 
universally  stable. 

A  systematic  application  and  development  of  the 
methodological  rules  stated  above  would  necessarily  lead 
in  a  completely  different  direction.     Its  final  result  would 


METHODOLOGICAL  NOTE 


53 


not  be  a  system  of  definitions,  like  law  and  special  parts  of 
political  science,  nor  a  system  of  the  philosophical  deter- 
mination of  the  essence  of  certain  data,  like  philosophy  of 
law,  the  general  part  of  political  science,  ethics,  and  many 
sociological  works,  nor  a  general  outline  of  social  evolution, 
like  the  sociology  of  the  Spencerian  school  or  the  philosophies 
of  history,  but  a  system  of  laws  of  social  becoming,  in  which 
definitions,  philosophical  determinations  of  essence,  and 
outlines  of  evolution  would  play  the  same  part  as  they  do  in 
physical  science — that  is,  would  constitute  either  instru- 
ments helping  to  analyze  reality  and  to  find  laws,  or  conclu- 
sions helping  to  understand  the  general  scientific  meaning 
and  the  connection  of  laws. 

It  is  evident  that  such  a  result  can  be  attained  only  by 
a  long  and  persistent  co-operation  of  social  theoricians.  It 
took  almost  four  centuries  to  constitute  physical  science  in 
its  present  form,  and,  though  the  work  of  the  social  scientist 
is  incalculably  facilitated  by  the  long  training  in  scientific 
thinking  in  general  which  has  been  acquired  by  mankind 
since  the  period  of  the  renaissance,  it  is  on  the  other  hand 
made  more  difficult  by  certain  characters  of  the  social  world 
as  compared  with  the  natural  world.  We  do  not  include 
among  these  difficulties  the  complexity  of  the  social  world 
which  has  been  so  often  and  unreflectively  emphasized. 
Complexity  is  a  relative  characteristic;  it  depends  on  the 
method  and  the  purpose  of  analysis.  Neither  the  social 
nor  the  natural  world  presents  any  ready  and  absolutely 
simple  elements,  and  in  this  sense  they  are  both  equally 
complex,  because  they  are  both  infinitely  complex.  But 
this  complexity  is  a  metaphysical,  not  a  scientific,  problem. 
In  science  we  treat  any  datum  as  a  simple  element  if  it  be- 
haves as  such  in  all  the  combinations  in  which  we  find  it,  and 
any  fact  is  a  simple  fact  which  can  indefinitely  repeat  itself — 
that  is,  in  which  the  relation  between  cause  and  effect  can 


54  rRIM.\RY-(;R(XTP  (M^GANIZATION 

be  assumed  to  be  permanent  and  necessary.  And  in  this 
respect  it  is  still  a  problem  whether  the  social  world  will  not 
pro\'e  much  less  com])lex  than  the  natural  world  if  only  w c 
analyze  its  data  and  determine  its  facts  by  proper  methods. 
The  ]")repossession  of  complexity  is  due  to  the  naturalistic  wa\ 
of  treating  the  social  reality.  If  it  is  maintained  that  the 
social  world  has  to  be  treated  as  an  expression  or  a  product 
of  the  psychological,  physiological,  or  biological  nature  of 
human  beings,  then,  of  course,  it  appears  as  incomparabl> 
more  complex  than  the  natural  world,  because  to  the  alreadx 
inexhaustibly  complex  conscious  human  organism  as  a  pari 
of  nature  is  added  the  fact  that  in  a  social  group  there  arc 
numerous  and  various  human  beings  interacting  in  the  most 
various  ways.  But  if  we  study  the  social  world,  without 
any  naturalistic  prepossessions,  simply  as  a  plurality  of 
specific  data,  causally  interconnected  in  a  process  of  becom- 
ing, the  question  of  complexity  is  no  more  baffling  for  social 
theory,  and  may  even  prove  less  so,  than  it  is  for  physical 
science. 

The  search  for  laws  does  not  actually  present  any  special 
difficulties  if  our  facts  have  been  adequately  determined. 
When  we  have  found  that  a  certain  effect  is  produced  by  a 
certain  cause,  the  formulation  of  this  causal  dependence  has 
in  itself  the  character  of  a  law;  that  is,  we  assume  that 
whenever  this  cause  repeats  itself  the  effect  wdll  necessarily 
follow.  The  further  need  is  to  explain  apparent  exceptions. 
But  this  need  of  explanation,  which  is  the  stumbling-block 
of  a  theory  that  has  defined  its  facts  inadequately,  becomes, 
on  the  contrary,  a  factor  of  progress  when  the  proper  method 
is  emplo}'ed.  For  when  we  know  that  a  certain  cause  can 
have  only  one  determined  effect,  when  we  have  assumed,  foi 
example,  that  the  attitude  A  plus  the  value  B  is  the  cause  oi 
the  attitude  C,  then  if  the  presumed  cause  A  -\-B  is  there  and 
the  expected  effect  C  does  not  appear,  this  means  either  that 


METHODOLOGICAL  NOTE  55 

we  have  been  mistaken  in  assuming  that  A  -\-B  was  the  cause 
of  C,  or  that  the  action  of  A-\-B  was  interfered  with  by  the 
action  of  some  other  cause  ^  +  F  or  X-{-B  or  X-\-  Y.  In  the 
first  case  the  exception  gives  us  the  possibiHty  of  correcting 
our  error;  in  the  second  case  it  permits  us  to  extend  our 
knowledge  by  finding  a  new  causal  connection,  by  determin- 
ing the  partly  or  totally  unknown  cause  ^  +  F  or  X-{-B  or 
X-{-Y  which  has  interfered  with  the  action  of  our  known 
case  A-}-B  and  brought  a  complex  effect  D  =  C-\-Z,  instead 
of  the  expected  C.  And  thus  the  exception  from  a  law 
becomes  the  starting-point  for  the  discovery  of  a  new  law. 

This  explanation  of  apparent  exceptions  being  the  only 
logical  demand  that  can  be  put  upon  a  law,  it  is  evident  that 
the  difference  between  particular  and  general  laws  is  only  a 
difference  of  the  field  of  application, not  one  of  logical  validity. 
Suppose  we  find  in  the  present  work  some  laws  concerning 
the  social  life  of  Polish  peasants  showing  that  whenever 
there  is  a  pre-existing  attitude  A  and  the  influence  of  a 
value  B,  another  attitude  C  appears,  or  whenever  there  is 
a  value  D  and  an  activity  directed  by  an  attitude  E,  a 
new  value  F  is  the  eft'ect.  If  the  causes  A-\-B  and  D-\-E 
are  found  only  in  the  social  Hfe  of  the  Polish  peasants  and 
nowhere  else,  because  some  of  their  components — the  atti- 
tudes or  values  involved — are  peculiar  to  the  Pohsh  peasants, 
then,  of  course,  the  laws  A-{-B  =  C  and  D+E  =  F  will  be 
particular  laws  applicable  only  to  the  Pohsh  peasant  society, 
but  within  these  Hmits  as  objectively  valid  as  others  which 
social  theory  may  eventually  find  of  applicabiHty  to  human- 
ity in  general.  We  cannot  extend  them  beyond  these 
limits  and  do  not  need  to  extend  them.  But  the  situation 
will  be  different  if  the  attitudes  A  and  E  and  the  values  B 
and  D  are  not  peculiar  to  the  Polish  peasant  society,  and 
thus  the  causes  A-{-B  and  D-\-E  can  be  found  also  in  other 
societies.     Then  the  laws  A  -j-B  =  C  and  D-\-E  =  F,  based  on 


56  PRI MARY  GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

facts  disccncrcd  among  Polish  peasants,  will  have  quite  a 
dilTercnt  meaning.  But  we  cannot  be  sure  whether  they  are 
valid  for  other  societies  until  we  have  found  that  in  other 
societies  the  causes  A-\-B  and  D-\-E  produce  the  same 
respective  effects  C  and  F.  And  since  we  cannot  know 
whether  these  values  and  attitudes  will  be  found  or  not  in 
other  societies  until  we  have  investigated  these  societies, 
the  character  of  our  laws  must  remain  until  then  unde- 
termined; we  cannot  say  definitely  whether  they  are  abso- 
lutely valid  though  applicable  only  to  the  Polish  peasants 
or  only  hypothetically  valid  although  applicable  to  all 
societies. 

The  problem  of  laws  being  the  most  important  one  of 
methodology,  we  shall  illustrate  it  in  detail  from  two  con- 
crete examples.  Of  course  we  do  not  really  assert  that  the 
supposed  laws  which  we  use  in  these  illustrations  are  alread}- 
established ;  some  of  them  are  still  hypotheses,  others  even 
mere  fictions.  The  purpose  is  to  give  an  insight  into  the 
mechanism  of  the  research. 

Let  us  take  as  the  first  example  the  evolution  of  the  eco- 
nomic life  of  the  Polish  peasant  as  described  in  the  intro- 
duction to  the  first  and  second  volumes  of  this  work.  We 
find  there,  first,  a  system  of  familial  economic  organization 
with  a  thoroughly  social  and  qualitative  character  of  eco- 
nomic social  values,  succeeded  by  an  individualistic  system 
with  a  quantification  of  the  values.  This  succession  as  such 
does  not  determine  any  social  fact;  'we  obtain  the  formula 
of  facts  only  if  we  find  the  attitude  that  constructs  the 
second  system  out  of  the  first.  Now,  this  attitude  is  the 
tendency  to  economic  advance,  and  thus  our  empirical  facts 
are  subsumed  to  the  formula :  familial  system — tendency  to 
advance — individualistic  system.  The  same  facts  being 
found  generally  among  Polish  peasants  of  various  localities, 
we  can  assume  that  this  formula  expresses  a  law,  but  whether 


METHODOLOGICAL  NOTE  57 

it  is  a  law  applicable  only  to  the  Polish  peasants  or  to  all 

societies   depends   on   whether   such   a   familial   economic 

organization  associated  with  a  tendency  to  advance  results 

always  and  everywhere  in  an  individualistic  system.     We 

may  further  determine  that  if  we  find  the  familial  system, 

but  instead  of  the  tendency  to  economic  advance  another 

attitude — for  example,  the  desire  to  concentrate  political 

power   in    the    family — the    result    will   be   different — ^for 

example,  the  feudal  system  of  hereditary  estate.     Or  we 

may  find  that  if  the  tendency  to  economic  advance  acts 

upon  a  dififerent  system — for  example,  a  fully  developed 

economic  individualism — it  will  also  lead  to  a  different  social 

formation — ^for    example,    to    the    constitution    of    trusts. 

These  other  classes  of  facts  may  become  in  turn  the  bases 

of  social  hypotheses  if  they  prove  sufficiently  general  and 

uniform.     But  certainly,  whether  the  law  is  particular  or 

general,  we  must  always  be  able  to  explain  every  seeming 

exception.     For  example,  we  find  the  familial  system  and 

the  tendency  to  advance  in  a  Polish  peasant  family  group, 

but  no  formation  of  the  individualistic  system— the  family 

tends  to  advance  as  a  whole.     In  this  case  we  must  suppose 

that  the  evolution  has  been  hindered  by  some  factors  which 

change  the  expected  results.     There  may  be,  for  example, 

a  very  strong  attitude  of  family  pride  developed  traditionally 

in  all  the  members,  as  in  families  of  peasant  nobility  who 

had  particular  privileges   during   the  period  of  Poland's 

I  independence.     In  this  case  famihal  pride  co-operating  with 

j  the  tendency  to  advance  will  produce  a  mixed  system  of 

i  economic  organization,  with  quantification  of  values  but 

1  without  individuahsm.     And  if  our  law  does  not  stand  all 

these  tests  we  have  to  drop  it.     But  even  then  we  may  still 

;  suppose  that  its  formulation  was  too  general,  that  within  the 

i  range  of  facts  covered  by  these  concepts  a  more  limited  and 

i  particular  law  could  be  discovered— for  example,  that  the 


58  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

system  of  'Svork  for  living,"  under  the  influence  of  the 
tendency  to  advance,  becomes  a  system  of  "work  for 
wages." 

As  another  t>'pe  of  example  we  select  a  particular  case 
of  legal  practice  and  attempt  to  show  what  assumptions  arc 
imphcitly  involved  in  it,  what  social  laws  are  uncritically 
assumed,  and  try  to  indicate  in  what  way  the  assumptions 
of  common  sense  could  be  verified,  modified,  complemented, 
or  rejected,  so  as  to  make  them  objectively  valid.  For, 
if  science  is  only  developed,  systematized,  and  perfected 
common  sense,  the  work  required  to  rectify  common  sense 
before  it  becomes  science  is  incomparably  greater  than  is 
usually  supposed. 

The  case  is  simple.  A  Polish  woman  (K)  has  loaned  to 
another  (T)  $300  at  various  times.  After  some  years  she 
claims  her  money  back;  the  other  refuses  to  pay.  K  goes 
to  court.  Both  bring  witnesses.  The  witnesses  are  exam- 
ined. First  assumption  of  legal  practice,  which  we  may  put 
into  the  form  of  a  social  law,  is:  "A  witness  who  has  sworn 
to  tell  the  truth  will  tell  the  truth,  unless  there  are  reasons 
for  exception."^  But  according  to  our  definition  there  can 
be  no  such  law  where  only  two  elements  are  given.  There 
might  be  a  law  if  we  had  (i)  the  oath  (a  social  value); 
(2)  an  individual  attitude  x,  still  to  be  determined;  (3)  a 
true  testimony.  But  here  the  second  element  is  lacking; 
nobody  has  determined  the  attitude  which,  in  connection 
with  the  oath,  results  in  a  true  testimony,  and  therefore,  of 
course,  nobody  knows  how  to  produce  such  an  attitude. 
It  is  supposed  that  the  necessary  attitude — whatever  it  is — 

■It  is  the  formal  side  of  this  assumption,  not  the  sphere  of  its  application. 
that  is  important.  Whether  we  admit  few  or  many  exceptions,  whether  we 
say,  "The  witness  often  [or  sometimes]  tells  the  truth,"  has  not  the  slightest 
bearing  on  the  problem  of  method.  There  is  a  general  statement  and  a  limitation 
of  this  statement,  and  both  statement  and  limitation  are  groundless — cannot  be 
explained  causally. 


METHODOLOGICAL  NOTE 


59 


appears  automatically  when  the  oath  is  taken.  Naturally 
in  many,  if  not  in  the  majority  of  cases,  the  supposition 
proves  false,  and  if  it  proves  true,  nobody  knows  why.  In 
our  case  it  proved  mainly  false.  Not  only  the  witnesses  of 
the  defense,  but  some  of  the  witnesses  of  the  plaintiff,  were 
lying.  What  explanation  is  possible  ?  We  could,  of 
course,  if  we  knew  what  attitude  is  necessary  for  true 
testimony,  determine  why  it  was  not  there  or  what  were  the 
influences  that  hindered  its  action.  But,  not  knowing  it, 
we  have  simply  to  use  some  other  common-sense  generaliza- 
tion, such  as:  "If  the  witnesses  are  lying  in  spite  of  the 
oath,  there  is  some  interest  involved — personal,  familial, 
friendly."  And  this  was  the  generalization  admitted  in 
this  case,  and  it  has  no  validity  whatever  because  it  cannot 
be  converted  into  a  law;  we  cannot  say  that  interest  is  the 
cause  making  people  lie,  but  we  must  have  again  the 
tertium  quid — the  attitude  upon  which  the  interest  must  act 
in  order  to  produce  a  lie.  And,  on  the  other  hand,  a  lie 
can  be  the  result  of  other  factors  acting  upon  certain  pre- 
existing attitudes,  and  this  was  precisely  the  case  in  the 
example  we  are  discussing.  The  Polish  peasants  lie  in  court 
because  they  bring  into  court  a  fighting  attitude.  Once 
the  suit  is  started,  it  becomes  a  fight  where  considerations 
of  honesty  or  altruism  are  no  longer  of  any  weight,  and  the 
only  problem  is — not  to  be  beaten.  Here  we  have,  indeed, 
a  formula  that  may  become,  if  sufficiently  verified,  a  socio- 
logical law — the  lawsuit  and  a  radical  fighting  attitude  result 
in  false  testimonies.  Apparent  exceptions  will  then  be 
explained  by  influences  changing  either  the  situation  of  the 
lawsuit  or  the  attitude.  Thus,  in  the  actual  case,  the 
essence  of  most  testimonies  for  the  plaintiff  was  true, 
namely,  the  claim  was  real.  But  the  claim  preceded  the 
lawsuit;  the  peasant  woman  would  probably  not  have 
started  the  lawsuit  without  a  just  claim,  for  as  long  as  the 


6o  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

suit  was  not  started  considerations  of  communal  solidarity 
were  accepted  as  binding,  and  a  false  claim  would  have 
been  considered  the  worst  possible  offense.  The  situation 
preceding  the  suit  was,  in  short:  law  permitting  the  recover}- 
of  money  that  the  debtor  refused  to  pay — creditor's  feeling 
of  being  wronged  and  desire  of  redress — legal  complaint. 
There  was  no  cause  making  a  false  claim  possible,  for  the 
law,  subjectively  for  the  peasant,  can  be  here  only  a  means 
of  redress,  not  a  means  of  illicit  wrong,  since  he  does  not 
master  it  sufficiently  to  use  it  in  a  wrong  way,  and  the  desire 
of  redress  is  the  only  attitude  not  offset  by  the  feeling  of 
communal  solidarity. 

It  would  lead  us  too  far  if  we  analyzed  all  the  assumptions 
made  by  legal  practice  in  this  particular  case,  but  we 
mention  one  other.  The  attorney  for  the  defense  treated 
as  absurd  the  claim  of  the  plaintiff  that  she  had  loaned 
money  without  any  determined  interest,  while  she  could 
have  invested  it  at  good  interest  and  in  a  more  secure  way. 
The  assumption  was  that,  being  given  various  possibilities 
of  investing  money,  the  subject  will  always  select  the  one 
that  is  most  economically  profitable.  We  see  here  again 
the  formal  error  of  stating  a  law  of  two  terms.  The  law 
can  be  binding  only  if  the  third  missing  term  is  inserted, 
namely,  an  attitude  of  the  subject  which  we  can  express 
approximately :  desire  to  increase  fortune  or  income.  Now, 
in  the  actual  case,  this  attitude,  if  existing  at  all,  was  offset 
by  the  attitude  of  communal  soHdarity,  and  among  the 
various  possibilities  of  investing  money,  not  the  one  that 
was  economically  profitable,  but  the  one  that  gave  satis- 
faction to  the  attitude  of  solidarity  was  selected. 

The  form  of  legal  generalization  is  typical  for  all  general- 
izations which  assume  only  one  datum  instead  of  two  as 
sufficient  to  determine  the  effect.  It  then  becomes  neces- 
sary to  add  as  many  new  generalizations  of  the  same  t}^e 


METHODOLOGICAL  NOTE  6l 

as  the  current  practice  requires  in  order  to  explain  the 
exceptions.  These  new  generaHzations  hmit  the  funda- 
mental one  without  increasing  positively  the  store  of  our 
knowledge,  and  the  task  is  inexhaustible.  Thus,  we  may 
enumerate  indefinitely  the  possible  reasons  for  a  witness 
not  telling  the  truth  in  spite  of  the  oath,  and  still  this  will 
not  help  us  to  understand  why  he  tells  the  truth  when  he 
tells  it.  And  with  any  one  of  these  reasons  of  exception 
the  case  is  the  same.  If  we  say  that  the  witness  does  not 
tell  the  truth  when  it  is  contrary  to  his  interest,  we  must 
again  add  indefinitely  reasons  of  exception  from  this  rule 
without  learning  why  the  witness  lies  when  the  truth  is  not 
contrary  to  his  interest  if  he  does.  And  so  on.  If  in 
practice  this  process  of  accounting  for  exceptions,  then  for 
exceptions  from  these  exceptions,  etc.,  does  not  go  on 
indefinitely,  it  is  simply  because,  in  a  given  situation,  we 
can  stop  at  a  certain  point  with  sufficient  approximation  to 
make  our  error  not  too  harmful  practically. 

It  is  evident  that  the  only  way  of  verifying,  correcting, 
and  complementing  the  generalizations  of  common  sense 
is  to  add  in  every  case  the  missing  third  element.  We 
cannot,  of  course,  say  in  advance  how  much  will  remain  of 
these  generahzations  after  such  a  conversion  into  exact 
sociological  laws;  probably,  as  far  as  social  theory  is  con- 
cerned, it  will  be  more  economical  to  disregard  almost 
completely  the  results  of  common  sense  and  to  investigate 
along  quite  new  and  independent  lines.  But  for  the  sake 
of  an  immediate  improvement  of  social  practice  it  may 
sometimes  prove  useful  to  take  different  domains  of  practi- 
cal activity  and  subject  them  to  criticism. 

In  view  of  the  prevalent  tendency  of  common-sense 
generalizations  to  neglect  the  differences  of  values  and 
attitudes  prevailing  in  various  social  groups — a  tendency 
well  manifested  in  the  foregoing  example— the  chief  danger 


02  PRIiMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

of  sociology  in  searching  for  laws  is  rather  to  overestimate 
than  to  underestimate  the  generality  of  the  laws  which  it 
may  discover.  We  must  therefore  remember  that  there  is 
less  risk  in  assuming  that  a  certain  law  applies  exclusively 
in  the  given  social  conditions  than  in  supposing  that  it  may 
be  extended  over  all  societies. 

The  ideal  of  social  theory,  as  of  every  other  nomo- 
thetic science,  is  to  interpret  as  many  facts  as  possible  by 
as  few  laws  as  possible,  that  is,  not  only  to  explain  causalh 
the  Kfe  of  particular  societies  at  particular  periods,  but  to 
subordinate  these  particular  laws  to  general  laws  applicable 
to  all  societies  at  all  times — taking  into  account  the  historical 
evolution  of  mankind  which  continually  brings  new  data 
and  new  facts  and  thus  forces  us  to  search  for  new  laws  in 
addition  to  those  already  discovered.  But  the  fact  that 
social  theory  as  such  cannot  test  its  results  by  the  laboratory- 
method,  but  must  rely  entirely  on  the  logical  perfection  of 
its  abstract  analysis  and  synthesis,  makes  the  problem  of 
control  of  the  validity  of  its  generalizations  particularly 
important.  The  insufficient  realization  of  the  character 
of  this  control  has  been  the  chief  reason  why  so  man}' 
sociological  works  bear  a  character  of  compositions,  inter- 
mediary between  philosophy  and  science  and  fulfilling  the 
demands  of  neither. 

We  have  mentioned  above  the  fact  that  social  theory  as 
nomothetic  science  must  be  clearly  distinguished  from  an}- 
philosophy  of  social  life  which  attempts  to  determine  the 
essence  of  social  reality  or  to  outline  the  unique  process  of 
social  evolution.  This  distinction  becomes  particularly 
marked  when  we  reach  the  problem  of  testing  the  generaliza- 
tions. Every  scientific  law  bears  upon  the  empirical  facts 
themselves  in  their  whole  variety,  not  upon  their  under- 
lying common  essence,  and  hence  every  new  discover}* 
in  the  domain  which  it  embraces  affects  it  directlv  and 


METHODOLOGICAL  NOTE  63 

immediately,  either  by  corroborating  it  or  by  invalidating 
it.  And,  as  scientific  laws  concern  facts  which  repeat 
themselves,  they  automatically  apply  to  the  future  as  well 
as  to  the  past,  and  new  happenings  in  the  domain  embraced 
by  the  law  must  be  taken  into  consideration  as  either 
justifying  or  contradicting  the  generalization  based  upon 
past  happenings,  or  demanding  that  this  generalization  be 
supplemented  by  a  new  one. 

And  thus  the  essential  criterion  of  social  science  as 
against  social  philosophy  is  the  direct  dependence  of  its 
generalizations  on  new  discoveries  and  new  happenings. 
If  a  social  generalization  is  not  permanently  qualified  by 
the  assumption  that  at  any  moment  a  single  new  experience 
may  contradict  it,  forcing  us  either  to  reject  it  or  to  supple- 
ment it  by  other  generalizations,  it  is  not  scientific  and  has 
no  place  in  social  theory,  unless  as  a  general  principle  helping 
to  systematize  the  properly  scientific  generalizations.  The 
physicist,  the  chemist,  and  the  biologist  have  learned  by  the 
use  of  experiment  that  their  generalizations  are  scientifically 
fruitful  only  if  they  are  subject  to  the  check  of  a  possible 
experimental  failure,  and  thus  the  use  of  experiment  has 
helped  them  to  pass  from  the  mediaeval  philosophia  naturalis 
to  the  modern  natural  science.  The  social  theorician  must 
follow  their  example  and  methodically  search  only  for  such 
generalizations  as  are  subject  to  the  check  of  a  possible 
contradiction  by  new  facts  and  should  leave  the  empirically 
unapproachable  essences  and  meanings  where  they  properly 
belong,  and  where  they  have  a  real  though  different  impor- 
tance and  validity — in  philosophy. 

The  ultimate  test  of  social  theory,  as  we  have  emphasized 
throughout  the  present  note,  will  be  its  application  in 
practice,  and  thus  its  generalizations  will  be  also  subject  in 
the  last  resort  to  the  check  of  a  possible  failure.  However, 
practical  application  is  not  experimentation.     The  results 


64  PRniARV-CROUP  ORGANIZATION 

of  the  physical  sciences  are  also  ultimately  tested  by  their 
application  in  industry,  but  this  does  not  alter  the  fact  that 
the  test  is  made  on  the  basis  of  laboratory  experiments. 
The  dilTerence  between  experiment  and  application  is 
twofold:  (i)  The  problems  themselves  usually  differ  in 
complexity.  The  experiment  by  which  we  test  a  scientific 
law  is  artificially  simplified  in  view  of  the  special  theoretic 
problem,  whereas  in  applying  scientific  results  to  attain  a 
practical  purpose  we  have  a  much  more  complex  situation 
to  deal  with,  necessitating  the  use  of  several  scientific  laws 
and  the  calculation  of  their  interference.  This  is  a  question 
with  which  we  shall  deal  presently.  (2)  In  laboratory 
experiments  the  question  of  the  immediate  practical  value 
of  success  or  failure  is  essentially  excluded  for  the  sake  of 
their  theoretical  value.  WTiether  the  chemist  in  trying  a 
new  combination  will  spoil  his  materials  and  have  to  buy 
a  new  supply,  whether  the  new  combination  will  be  worth 
more  or  less  money  than  the  elements  used,  are  from  the 
standpoint  of  science  completely  irrelevant  questions;  and 
even  a  failure  if  it  puts  the  scientist  on  the  trail  of  a  new  law 
will  be  more  valuable  than  a  success  if  it  merely  corroborates 
once  more  an  old  and  well-established  law.  But  in  applying 
scientific  results  in  practice  we  have  essentially  the  practical 
value  of  success  or -failure  in  view.  It  is  unthinkable  that 
a  chemist  asked  to  direct  the  production  of  a  new  kind  of 
soap  in  a  factory^  should  test  his  theory  by  direct  application 
and  risk  the  destruction  of  a  hundred  thousand  doUars 
worth  of  material,  instead  of  testing  it  previously  on  a  small 
scale  by  laborator}'  experiments.  Now  in  all  so-called 
social  experiments,  on  however  small  a  scale,  the  question 
of  practical  value  is  involved,  because  the  objects  of  these 
experiments  are  men;  the  social  scientist  cannot  exclude 
the  question  of  the  bearing  of  his  "experiments"  on  the 
future  of  those  who  are  affected  by  them.    He  is  therefore 


METHODOLOGICAL  NOTE  65 

seldom  or  never  justified  in  risking  a  failure  for  the  sake  of 
testing  his  theory.  Of  course  he  does  and  can  take  risks, 
not  as  a  scientist,  but  as  a  practical  man;  that  is,  he  is 
justified  in  taking  the  risk  of  bringing  some  harm  if  there 
are  more  chances  of  benefit  than  of  harm  to  those  on  whom 
he  operates.  His  risk  is  then  the  practical  risk  involved  in 
every  application  of  an  idea,  not  the  special  theoretic  risk 
involved  in  the  mere  testing  of  the  idea.  And,  in  order  to 
diminish  this  practical  risk,  he  must  try  to  make  his  theory 
as  certain  and  applicable  as  possible  before  trying  to  apply 
it  in  fact,  and  he  can  secure  this  result  and  hand  over  to 
the  social  practitioner  generalizations  at  least  approximately 
as  applicable  as  those  of  physical  science,  only  if  he  uses  the 
check  of  contradiction  by  new  experience.  This  means 
that  besides  using  only  such  generalizations  as  can  be 
contradicted  by  new  experiences  he  must  not  wait  till  new 
experiences  impose  themselves  on  him  by  accident,  but 
must  search  for  them,  must  institute  a  systematic  method 
\oi  observation.  And,  while  it  is  only  natural  that  a  scientist 
in  order  to  form  a  hypothesis  and  to  give  it  some  amount  of 
probability  has  to  search  first  of  all  for  such  experiences  as 
may  corroborate  it,  his  hypothesis  cannot  be  considered 
fully  tested  until  he  has  made  subsequently  a  systematic 
search  for  such  experiences  as  may  contradict  it,  and  proved 
those  contradictions  to  be  only  seeming,  exphcable  by  the 
interference  of  definite  factors. 

Assuming  now  that  social  theory  fulfils  its  task  satis- 
factorily and  goes  on  discovering  new  laws  which  can  be 
appHed  to  regulate  social  becoming,  what  will  be  the  effect 
of  this  on  social  practice  ?  First  of  all,  the  limitations  with 
which  social  practice  has  struggled  up  to  the  present  will 
be  gradually  removed.  Since  it  is  theoretically  possible  to 
find  what  social  influences  should  be  applied  to  certain 


66  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

already  existing  attitudes  in  order  to  produce  certain  new 
attitudes,  and  what  attitudes  should  be  developed  with 
regard  to  certain  already  existing  social  values  in  order  to 
make  the  individual  or  the  group  produce  certain  new  social 
values,  there  is  not  a  single  phenomenon  within  the  whole- 
sphere  of  human  life  that  conscious  control  cannot  reach 
sooner  or  later.  There  are  no  objective  obstacles  in  the 
nature  of  the  social  world  or  in  the  nature  of  the  human  mind 
which  would  essentially  prevent  social  practice  from  attain- 
ing gradually  the  same  degree  of  efficiency  as  that  of  indus- 
trial practice.     The  only  obstacles  are  of  a  subjective  kind. 

There  is,  first,  the  traditional  appreciation  of  social 
activity  as  meritorious  in  itself,  for  the  sake  of  its  intentions 
alone.  There  must,  indeed,  be  some  results  in  order  to 
make  the  good  intentions  count,  but,  since  anything  done  is 
regarded  as  meritorious,  the  standards  by  which  the  results 
are  appreciated  are  astonishingly  low.  Social  practice 
must  cease  to  be  a  matter  of  merit  and  be  treated  as  a 
necessity.  If  the  theorician  is  asked  to  be  sure  of  his 
generalizations  before  tr}dng  to  apply  them  in  practice,  it 
is  at  least  strange  that  persons  of  merely  good  mil  are 
permitted  to  try  out  on  society  indefinitely  and  irresponsibly 
their  vague  and  perhaps  sentimental  ideas. 

The  second  obstacle  to  the  development  of  a  perfect 
social  practice  is  the  well-known  unwillingness  of  the 
common-sense  man  to  accept  the  control  of  scientific 
technique.  Against  this  unwillingness  there  is  only  one 
weapon — success.  This  is  what  the  history  of  industrial 
technique  shows.  There  is  perhaps  not  a  single  case  where 
the  first  application  of  science  to  any  field  of  practice  held 
by  common  sense  and  tradition  did  not  provoke  the  opposi- 
tion of  the  practitioner.  It  is  still  within  the  memor}'  of 
man  that  the  old  farmer  with  his  common-sense  methods 
laughed  at  the  idea  that  the  city  chap  could  teach  him  any- 


METHODOLOGICAL  NOTE  67 

thing  about  farming,  and  was  more  than  skeptical  about  the 
appUcation  of  the  results  of  soil-analysis  to  the  growing  of 
crops.  The  fear  of  new  things  is  still  strong  even  among 
cultivated  persons,  and  the  social  technician  has  to  expect 
that  he  will  meet  at  almost  every  step  this  old  typical 
hostihty  of  common  sense  to  science.  He  can  only  accept 
it  and  interpret  it  as  a  demand  to  show  the  superiority  of  his 
methods  by  their  results. 

But  the  most  important  difficulty  which  social  practice 
has  to  overcome  before  reaching  a  level  of  efficiency  com- 
parable to  that  of  industrial  practice  lies  in  the  difficulty  of 
applying  scientific  generalizations.  The  laws  of  science  are 
abstract,  while  the  practical  situations  are  concrete,  and 
it  requires  a  special  intellectual  activity  to  find  what  are 
the  practical  questions  which  a  given  law  may  help  to  solve, 
or  what  are  the  scientific  laws  which  may  be  used  to  solve 
a  given  practical  question.  In  the  physical  sphere  this 
intellectual  activity  has  been  embodied  in  technology,  and 
it  is  only  since  the  technologist  has  intervened  between  the 
scientist  and  the  practitioner  that  material  practice  has 
acquired  definitely  the  character  of  a  self-conscious  and 
planfully  developing  technique  and  ceased  to  be  dependent 
on  irrational  and  often  unreasonable  traditional  rules. 
And  if  material  practice  needs  a  technology  in  spite  of  the 
fact  that  the  generalizations  which  physical  science  hands 
over  to  it  have  been  already  experimentally  tested,  this  need 
is  much  more  urgent  in  social  practice  where  the  application 
of  scientific  generalizations  is  their  first  and  only  experi- 
mental test. 

We  cannot  enter  here  into  detailed  indications  of  what 
social  technology  should  be,  but  we  must  take  into  account 
the  chief  point  of  its  method — the  general  form  which  every 
concrete  problem  of  social  technique  assumes.  Whatever 
may  be  the  aim  of  social  practice — modification  of  individual 


68  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

attitudes  or  of  social  institutions— in  trying  to  attain  this 
aim  we  never  find  the  elements  which  we  want  to  use  or  to 
modify  isolated  and  passively  waiting  for  our  activity,  hut 
always  embodied  in  active  practical  situations,  which  have 
been  formed  independently  of  us  and  with  which  our 
activity  has  to  comply. 

The  situation  is  the  set  of  values  and  attitudes  with  which 
/  the  individual  or  the  group  has  to  deal  in  a  process  of 

activity  and  with  regard  to  which  this  activity  is  planned  and 
its  results  appreciated.  Every  concrete  activity  is  the 
solution  of  a  situation.  The  situation  involves  three  kinds 
of  data:  (i)  The  objective  conditions  under  which  the 
individual  or  society  has  to  act,  that  is,  the  totality  of 
values — economic,  social,  religious,  intellectual,  etc.^ — 
which  at  the  given  moment  affect  directly  or  indirectly  the 
conscious  status  of  the  individual  or  the  group.  (2)  The 
pre-existing  attitudes  of  the  individual  or  the  group  which 
at  the  given  moment  have  an  actual  influence  upon  his 
behavior.  (3)  The  definition  of  the  situation,  that  is,  the 
more  or  less  clear  conception  of  the  conditions  and  conscious- 
ness of  the  attitudes.  And  the  definition  of  the  situation 
is  a  necessary  preliminary  to  any  act  of  the  wiU,  for  in  given 
conditions  and  with  a  given  set  of  attitudes  an  indefinite 
plurality  of  actions  is  possible,  and  one  definite  action  can 
appear  only  if  these  conditions  are  selected,  interpreted,  and 
combined  in  a  determined  way  and  if  a  certain  systematiza- 
tion  of  these  attitudes  is  reached,  so  that  one  of  them 
becomes  predominant  and  subordinates  the  others.  It 
happens,  indeed,  that  a  certain  value  imposes  itself  imme- 
diately and  unreflectively  and  leads  at  once  to  action,  or 
that  an  attitude  as  soon  as  it  appears  excludes  the  others 
and  expresses  itself  unhesitatingly  in  an  active  process. 
In  these  cases,  whose  most  radical  examples  are  found  in 
reflex  and  instinctive  actions,  the  definition  is  already  given 


METHODOLOGICAL  NOTE  69 

to  the  individual  by  external  conditions  or  by  his  own 
tendencies.  But  usually  there  is  a  process  of  reflection, 
after  which  either  a  ready  social  definition  is  applied  or  a 
new  personal  definition  worked  out. 

Let  us  take  a  typical  example  out  of  the  fifth  volume  of  the 
present  work,  concerning  the  family  life  of  the  immigrants 
in  America.  A  husband,  learning  of  his  wife's  infidehty, 
deserts  her.  The  objective  conditions  were:  (i)  the  social 
institution  of  marriage  with  all  the  rules  involved;  (2) 
the  wife,  the  other  man,  the  children,  the  neighbors,  and  in 
general  all  the  individuals  constituting  the  habitual  environ- 
ment of  the  husband  and,  in  a  sense,  given  to  him  as  values; 
(3)  certain  economic  conditions;  (4)  the  fact  of  the  wife's 
infidelity.  Toward  all  these  values  the  husband  had  certain 
attitudes,  some  of  them  traditional,  others  recently  devel- 
oped. Now,  perhaps  under  the  influence  of  the  discovery 
of  his  wife's  infidelity,  perhaps  after  having  developed  some 
new  attitude  toward  the  sexual  or  economic  side  of  marriage, 
perhaps  simply  influenced  by  the  advice  of  a  friend  in  the 
form  of  a  rudimentary  scheme  of  the  situation  helping  him 
to  "see  the  point,"  he  defines  the  situation  for  himself.  He 
takes  certain  conditions  into  account,  ignores  or  neglects 
others,  or  gives  them  a  certain  interpretation  in  view  of  some 
chief  value,  which  may  be  his  wife's  infidehty,  or  the  eco- 
nomic burdens  of  family  life  of  which  this  infidelity  gives  him 
the  pretext  to  rid  himself,  or  perhaps  some  other  woman,  or 
the  half-ironical  pity  of  his  neighbors,  etc.  And  in  this 
definition  some  one  attitude — sexual  jealousy,  or  desire  for 
economic  freedom,  or  love  for  the  other  woman,  or  offended 
desire  for  recognition — or  a  complex  of  these  attitudes,  or  a 
new  attitude  (hate,  disgust)  subordinates  to  itself  the 
others  and  manifests  itself  chiefly  in  the  subsequent 
action,  which  is  evidently  a  solution  of  the  situation,  and 
fully  determined  both  in  its  social  and  in  its  individual 


70  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

components  by  the  whole  set  of  values,  attitudes,  and 
rellective  schemes  which  the  situation  included.  .When  a 
situation  is  solved,  the  result  of  the  activity  becomes  an 
element  of  a  new  situation,  and  this  is  most  clearly  evi- 
denced in  cases  where  the  activity  brings  a  change  of  a 
social  institution  whose  unsatisfactory  functioning  was  the 
chief  element  of  the  first  situation. 

Now,  while  the  task  of  science  is  to  analyze  by  a  com- 
parative study  the  w^hole  process  of  activity  into  elementar\ 
facts,  and  it  must  therefore  ignore  the  variety  of  concrete 
situations  in  order  to  be  able  to  find  laws  of  causal  depend- 
ence of  abstractly  isolated  attitudes  or  values  on  other 
attitudes  and  values,  the  task  of  technique  is  to  provide  the 
means  of  a  rational  control  of  concrete  situations.  The 
situation  can  evidently  be  controlled  either  by  a  change  of 
conditions  or  by  a  change  of  attitudes,  or  by  both,  and  in 
this  respect  the  role  of  technique  as  application  of  science 
is  easily  characterized.  By  comparing  situations  of  a 
certain  type,  the  social  technician  must  find  what  are  the 
predominant  values  or  the  predominant  attitudes  w^hich 
determine  the  situation  more  than  others,  and  then  the 
question  is  to  modify  these  values  or  these  attitudes  in  the 
desired  way  by  using  the  knowledge  of  social  causation 
given  by  social  theory.  Thus,  we  may  find  that  some  of  the 
situations  among  the  Polish  immigrants  in  America  result- 
ing in  the  husband's  desertion  are  chiefly  determined  by  the 
wife's  infidelity,  others  by  her  quarrelsomeness,  others  b>' 
bad  economic  conditions,  still  others  by  the  husband's 
desire  for  freedom,  etc.  And,  if  in  a  given  case  we  know 
what  influences  to  apply  in  order  to  modify  these  dominating 
factors,  we  can  modify  the  situation  accordingly,  and  idealh 
we  can  provoke  in  the  individual  a  behavior  in  conformit\- 
with  any  given  scheme  of  attitudes  and  values. 

To  be  sure,  it  may  happen  that,  in  spite  of  an  adequate 
scientific   knowledge   of    the    social    laws    permitting    the 


METHODOLOGICAL  NOTE  71 

modification  of  those  factors  which  we  want  to  change,  our 
efforts  will  fail  to  influence  the  situation  or  will  produce  a 
situation  more  undesirable  than  the  one  we  wished  to 
avoid.  The  fault  is  then  with  our  technical  knowledge. 
That  is,  either  we  have  failed  in  determining  the  relative 
importance  of  the  various  factors,  or  we  have  failed  to 
foresee  the  influence  of  other  causes  which,  interfering  with 
our  activity,  produce  a  quite  unexpected  and  undesired 
effect.  And  since  it  is  impossible  to  expect  from  every 
practitioner  a  complete  scientific  training  and  still  more 
impossible  to  have  him  work  out  a  scientifically  justified  and 
detailed  plan  of  action  for  every  concrete  case  in  particular, 
the  special  task  of  the  social  technician  is  to  prepare,  with 
the  help  of  both  science  and  practical  observation,  thorough 
schemes  and  plans  of  action  for  all  the  various  types  of 
situations  which  may  be  found  in  a  given  line  of  social 
activity,  and  leave  to  the  practitioner  the  subordination 
of  the  given  concrete  situation  to  its  proper  type.  This  is 
actually  the  role  which  all  the  organizers  of  social  institu- 
tions have  played,  but  the  technique  itself  must  become 
more  conscious  and  methodically  perfect,  and  every  field  of 
social  activity  should  have  its  professional  technicians. 
The  evolution  of  social  life  makes  necessary  continual 
modifications  and  developments  of  social  technique,  and 
we  can  hope  that  the  evolution  of  social  theory  will  con- 
tinually put  new  and  useful  scientific  generalizations  within 
the  reach  of  the  social  technician ;  the  latter  must  therefore 
remain  in  permanent  touch  with  both  social  life  and  social 
theory,  and  this  requires  a  more  far-going  specialization 
than  we  actually  find. 

But,  however  efficient  this  type  of  social  technique  may 
become,  its  application  will  always  have  certain  limits 
beyond  which  a  different  type  of  technique  will  be  more 
useful.  Indeed,  the  form  of  social  control  outlined  above 
presupposes  that  the  individual — or  the  group — is  treated 


72  rRIiMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

as  a  passive  object  of  our  activity  and  that  we  change  the 
situations  for  him,  from  case  to  case,  in  accordance  with  our 
plans  and  intentions.  But  the  application  of  this  method 
becomes  more  and  more  difficult  as  the  situations  grow 
more  complex,  more  new  and  unexpected  from  case  to  case, 
and  more  influenced  by  the  individual's  own.  reflection. 
And,  indeed,  from  both  the  moral  and  the  hedonistic 
standpoints  and  also  from  the  standpoint  of  the  level  of 
efficiency  of  the  individual  and  of  the  group,  it  is  desirable 
to  develop  in  the  individuals  the  ability  to  control  spontane- 
ously their  o\\ti  activities  by  conscious  reflection.  To  use 
a  biological  comparison,  the  t}pe  of  control  where  the 
practitioner  prescribes  for  the  individual  a  scheme  of 
activity  appropriate  to  every  crisis  as  it  arises  corresponds 
to  the  tropic  or  reflex  t}^e  of  control  in  animal  life,  where 
the  activity  of  the  individual  is  controlled  mechanically  by 
stimulations  from  without,  while  the  reflective  and  individ- 
ualistic control  corresponds  to  the  type  of  activity  character- 
istic of  the  higher  conscious  organism,  where  the  control  is 
exercised  from  within  by  the  selective  mechanism  of  the 
nervous  system.  WTiile,  in  the  early  tribal,  communal, 
kinship,  and  religious  groups,  and  to  a  large  extent  in  the 
historic  state,  the  society  itself  provided  a  rigoristic  and 
particularistic  set  of  definitions  in  the  form  of  "customs"  or 
"mores,"  the  tendency  to  advance  is  associated  with  the 
liberty  of  the  individual  to  make  his  own  definitions. 

We  have  assumed  throughout  this  argument  that  if 
an  adequate  technique  is  developed  it  is  possible  to  produce 
any  desirable  attitudes  and  values,  but  this  assumption  is 
practically  justified  only  if  we  find  in  the  individual  attitudes 
which  cannot  avoid  response  to  the  class  of  stimulations 
which  society  is  able  to  apply  to  him.  And  apparently  we 
do  find  this  disposition.  Every  individual  has  a  vast 
variety  of  wishes  which  can  be  satisfied  only  by  his  incorpora- 


METHODOLOGICAL  NOTE 


73 


tion  in  a  society.  Among  his  general  patterns  of  wishes 
we  may  enumerate:  (i)  the  desire  for  new  experience,  for 
fresh  stimulations;  (2)  the  desire  for  recognition,  including, 
for  example,  sexual  response  and  general  social  appreciation, 
and  secured  by  devices  ranging  from  the  display  of  orna- 
ment to  the  demonstration  of  worth  through  scientific 
attainment;  (3)  the  desire  for  mastery,  or  the  "will  to 
power,"  exemplified  by  ownership,  domestic  tyranny, 
political  despotism,  based  on  the  instinct  of  hate,  but 
capable  of  being  sublimated  to  laudable  ambition;  (4)  the 
desire  for  security,  based  on  the  instinct  of  fear  and  exem- 
plified negatively  by  the  wretchedness  of  the  individual  in 
perpetual  solitude  or  under  social  taboo.  Society  is, 
indeed,  an  agent  for  the  repression  of  many  of  the  wishes 
in  the  individual;  it  demands  that  he  shall  be  moral  by 
repressing  at  least  the  wishes  which  are  irreconcilable  with 
the  welfare  of  the  group,  but  nevertheless  it  provides  the 
only  medium  within  which  any  of  his  schemes  or  wishes  can 
be  gratified.  And  it  would  be  superfluous  to  point  out  by 
examples  the  degree  to  which  society  has  in  the  past  been 
able  to  impose  its  schemes  of  attitudes  and  values  on  the 
individual.  Professor  Sumner's  volume,  Folkways,  is  prac- 
tically a  collection  of  such  examples,  and,  far  from  dis- 
couraging us  as  they  discourage  Professor  Sumner,  they 
should  be  regarded  as  proofs  of  the  ability  of  the  individual 
to  conform  to  any  definition,  to  accept  any  attitude,  pro- 
vided it  is  an  expression  of  the  public  will  or  represents  the 
appreciation  of  even  a  limited  group.  To  take  a  single 
example  from  the  present,  to  be  a  bastard  or  the  mother 
of  a  bastard  has  been  regarded  heretofore  as  anything  but 
[desirable,  but  we  have  at  this  moment  reports  that  one  of 
I  the  warring  European  nations  is  officially  impregnating  its 
(unmarried  women  and  girls  and  even  married  women  whose 
'husbands  are  at  the  front.     If  this  is  true  (which  we  do 


74  rRI.MARY-GROUP  ORGAMZATION 

not  assume)  we  have  a  new  definition  and  a  new  evaluation 
of  motherhood  arising  from  the  struggle  of  this  society 
against  death,  and  we  may  anticipate  a  new  attitude — that 
the  resulting  children  and  their  mothers  will  be  the  objects 
of  extraordinary  social  appreciation.  And  even  if  we  find , 
that  the  attitudes  are  not  so  tractable  as  we  have  assumed, 
that  it  is  not  possible  to  provoke  all  the  desirable  ones,  we 
shall  still  be  in  the  same  situation  as,  let  us  say,  physics  and 
mechanics:  we  shall  have  the  problem  of  securing  the! 
highest  degree  of  control  possible  in  view  of  the  nature  of 
our  materials. 

As  to  the  present  work,  it  evidently  cannot  in  any  sense 
pretend  to  establish  social  theory  on  a  definitely  scientific; 
basis.  It  is  clear  from  the  preceding  discussion  that  many 
workers  and  much  time  will  be  needed  before  we  free  our-' 
selves  from  the  traditional  ways  of  thinking,  develop  a 
completely  efficient  and  exact  w^orking  method,  and  reach 
a  system  of  scientifically  correct  generalizations.  Our 
present  very  limited  task  is  the  preparation  of  a  certain 
body  of  materials,  even  if  we  occasionally  go  beyond  it  and 
attempt  to  reach  some  generalizations. 

Our  object-matter  is  one  class  of  a  modern  society  in  the 
whole  concrete  complexity  of  its  life.  The  selection  of  the 
Polish  peasant  society,  motivated  at  first  by  somewhat 
incidental  reasons,  such  as  the  intensity  of  the  Polish 
.  immigration  and  the  facility  of  getting  materials  concerning 
the  Polish  peasant,  has  proved  during  the  investigation 
to  be  a  fortunate  one.  The  Polish  peasant  finds  himself  now 
in  a  period  of  transition  from  the  old  forms  of  social  organ- 
ization that  had  been  in  force,  with  only  insignificant 
changes,  for  many  centuries,  to  a  modern  form  of  life.  He 
has  preserved  enough  of  the  old  attitudes  to  make  their 
sociological  reconstruction  possible,  and  he  is  sufficienth 


METHODOLOGICAL  NOTE 


75 


advanced  upon  the  new  way  to  make  a  study  of  the  develop- 
ment of  modern'  attitudes  particularly  fruitful.     He  has 
been  invited  by  the  upper  classes  to  collaborate  in  the 
construction  of  Polish  national  life,  and  in  certain  lines 
his  development  is  due  to  the  conscious  educational  efforts 
of  his  leaders — the  nobility,  the  clergy,  the  middle  class. 
In  this  respect  he  has  the  value  of  an  experiment  in  social 
technique;    the  successes,  as  well  as  the  failures,  of  this 
educational  activity  of  the  upper  classes  are  very  significant 
for  social  work.     These  efforts  of  the  upper  classes  them- 
selves have  a  particular  sociological  importance  in  view  of 
the  conditions  in  which  Polish  society  has  lived  during  the 
last  century.     As  a  society  without  a  state,  divided  among 
three  states  and  constantly  hampered  in  all  its  efforts  to 
preserve  and  develop  a  distinct  and  unique  cultural  life, 
it  faced  a  dilemma — either  to  disappear  or  to  create  such 
substitutes  for  a  state  organization  as  would  enable  it  to 
resist  the  destructive  action  of  the  oppressing  states;    or, 
more  generally,  to  exist  without  the  framework  of  a  state. 
These  substitutes  were  created,  and  they  are  interesting  in 
two  respects.     First,  they  show,  in  an  exceptionally  inten- 
sified and  to  a  large  extent  isolated  form,  the  action  of 
certain  factors  of  social  unity  which  exist  in  every  society 
but  in  normal  conditions  are  subordinated  to  the  state 
Drganization    and    seldom    sufficiently    accounted    for    in 
sociological  reflection.     Secondly,  the  lack  of  permanence 
gjDf  every  social  institution  and  the  insecurity  of  every  social 
)n!^alue  in  general,  resulting  from  the  destructive  tendencies 
whf  the  dominating  foreign  states,  bring  with  them  a  necessity 
n-jDf  developing  and  keeping  constantly  alive  all  the  activities 
nt|ieeded  to  reconstruct  again  and  again  every  value  that  had 
:le|Deen  destroyed.     The  whole  mechanism  of  social  creation  is 
eii!;herefore  here  particularly  transparent  and  easy  to  under- 
tl)  itand,  and  in  general  the  role  of  human  attitudes  in  social 


76  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

life  becomes  much  more  evident  than  in  a  society  not  living 
under  the  same  strain,  but  able  to  rely  to  a  large  extent  upon 
the  inherited  formal  organization  for  the  preservation  of  its 
culture  and  unity. 

We  use  in  this  work  the  inductive  method  in  a  form 
which  gi\-es  the  least  possible  place  for  any  arbitrar>^  state- 
ments. The  basis  of  the  work  is  concrete  materials,  and 
only  in  the  selection  of  these  materials  some  necessar}- 
discrimination  has  been  used.  But  even  here  we  have  tried 
to  proceed  in  the  most  cautious  way  possible.  The  private 
letters  constituting  the  first  two  volumes  have  needed 
relatively  little  selection,  particularly  as  they  are  arranged 
in  family  series.  Our  task  has  been  limited  to  the  exclusion 
of  such  letters  from  among  the  whole  collection  as  contained 
nothing  but  a  repetition  of  situations  and  attitudes  more 
completely  represented  in  the  materials  which  we  publish 
here.  In  later  volumes  the  selection  can  be  more  severe,  as 
far  as  the  conclusions  of  the  preceding  volumes  can  be  used 
for  guidance. 

The  analysis  of  the  attitudes  and  characters  given  in 
notes  to  particular  letters  and  in  introductions  to  particulai 
series  contains  nothing  not  essentially  contained  in  the 
materials  themselves;  its  task  is  only  to  isolate  singU 
attitudes,  to  show  their  analogies  and  dependences,  and  tc 
interpret  them  in  relation  to  the  social  background  upor 
which  they  appear.  Our  acquaintance  with  the  Polisl 
society  simply  helps  us  in  noting  data  and  relations  whirl 
would  perhaps  not  be  noticed  so  easily  by  one  not  imme 
diately  acquainted  with  the  life  of  the  group. 

Finally,  the  synthesis  constituting  the  introductions  t( 

particular  volumes  is  also  based  upon  the  materials,  witl 

,  a  few  exceptions  where  it  was  thought  necessar}^  to  drav 

some  data  from  Polish  ethnological  publications  or  system 

atic  studies.     The  sources  are  always  quoted. 


METHODOLOGICAL  NOTE  77 

The  general  character  of  the  work  is  mainly  that  of  a 
systematization  and  classification  of  attitudes  and  values 
prevailing  in  a  concrete  group.  Every  attitude  and  every 
value,  as  we  have  said  above,  can  be  really  understood  only 
in  connection  with  the  whole  social  life  of  which  it  is  an 
element,  and  therefore  this  method  is  the  only  one  that 
gives  us  a  full  and  systematic  acquaintance  with  all  the 
complexity  of  social  life.  But  it  is  evident  that  this  mono- 
graph must  be  followed  by  many  others  if  we  want  our 
acquaintance  with  social  reality  to  be  complete.  Other 
Slavic  groups,  particularly  the  Russians;  the  French  and 
the  Germans,  as  representing  different  types  of  more 
efficient  societies;  the  Americans,  as  the  most  conspicuous 
experiment  in  individualism;  the  Jews,  as  representing 
particular  social  adaptations  under  peculiar  social  pressures ; 
the  Oriental,  with  his  widely  divergent  attitudes  and  values; 
the  Negro,  with  his  lower  cultural  level  and  unique  social 
position — these  and  other  social  groups  should  be  included 
in  a  series  of  monographs,  which  in  its  totality  will  give  for 
the  first  time  a  wide  and  secure  basis  for  any  sociological 
generalizations  whatever.  Naturally  the  value  of  every 
monograph  will  increase  with  the  development  of  the  work, 
for  not  only  will  the  method  continually  improve,  but  every 
social  group  will  help  to  understand  every  other. 

In  selecting  the  monographic  method  for  the  present 
work  and  in  urging  the  desirability  of  the  further  preparation 
of  large  bodies  of  materials  representing  the  total  life  of 
different  social  groups,  we  do  not  ignore  the  other  method  of 
approaching  a  scientific  social  theory  and  practice — the 
study  of  special  problems,  of  isolated  aspects  of  social  life. 
And  we  are  not  obliged  even  to  wait  until  all  the  societies 
have  been  studied  monographically,  in  their  whole  concrete 
reality,  before  beginning  the  comparative  study  of  particular 
problems.     Indeed,  the  study  of  a  single  society,  as  we  have 


78  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

undertaken  it  here,  is  often  enough  to  show  what  role  is 
played  b\-  a  i)ailicular  class  of  phenomena  in  the  total  life' 
of  a  group  and  to  give  us  in  this  way  sufficient  indications 
for  the  isolation  of  this  class  from  its  social  context  without 
omitting  any  important  interaction  that  may  exist  between 
phenomena  of  this  class  and  others,  and  we  can  then  use 
these  indications  in  taking  the  corresponding  kinds  of 
phenomena  in  other  societies  as  objects  of  comparati^'c■ 
research. 

By  way  of  examples,  we  point  out  here  certain  problems 
suggested  to  us  by  the  study  of  the  Polish  peasants  for 
which  this  study  affords  a  good  starting-point:^ 
'  I.  The  problem  of  individualization. — How  far  is  individ 
ualization  compatible  with  social  cohesion  ?  WTiat  are  the 
forms  of  individualization  that  can  be  considered  sociall) 
useful  or  socially  harmful  ?  What  are  the  forms  of  social 
organization  that  allow  for  the  greatest  amount  of 
individualism  ? 

We  have  been  led  to  the  suppositions  that,  generally 
speaking,  individualization  is  the  intermediary  stage  between 
one  form  of  social  organization  and  another;  that  its  social 
usefulness  depends  on  its  more  or  less  constructive  character 
— that  is,  upon  the  question  whether  it  does  really  lead  to  a 
new  organization  and  whether  the  latter  makes  the  social 
group  more  capable  of  resisting  disintegrating  influences; 
and  that,  finally,  an  organization  based  upon  a  conscious 
co-operation  in  view  of  a  common  aim  is  the  most  compatible 
with  individualism.  The  verification  of  these  supposition> 
and  their  application  to  concrete  problems  of  such  a  societ>- 
as  the  American  would  constitute  a  grateful  work. 

2 .  The  problem  of  efficiency. — Relation  between  individual 
and  social  efficiency.     Dependence  of  efficiency  upon  various 

'Points  2  and  8  following  are  more  directly  connected  with  materials  on  tl;c 
middle  and  upper  classes  of  Polish  society  which  do  not  appear  in  the  present  work . 


METHODOLOGICAL  NOTE  79 

individual    attitudes    and    upon    various   forms   of   social 
organization. 

The  Polish  society  shows  in  most  lines  of  activity  a 
particularly  larg^j-aiige  of  variation  of  individual  efficiency 
with  a  relatively  low  scale  of  social  efficiency.  We  have 
come  to  the  conclusion  that  both  phenomena  are  due  to  the 
lack  of  a  sufficiently  persistent  and  detailed  frame  of  social 
organization,  resulting  from  the  loss  of  state-independence. 
Under  these  conditions  individual  efficiency  depends  upon 
individual  attitudes  much  more  than  upon  social  conditions. 
An  individual  may  be  very  efficient  because  there  is  little 
!to  hinder  his  activity  in  any  line  he  selects,  but  he  may  also 
I  be  very  inefficient  because  there  is  little  to  push  him  or  to 
'help  him.  The  total  social  result  of  individual  activities 
iunder  these  conditions  is  relatively  small,  because  social 
j  efficiency  depends,  not  only  on  the  average  efficiency  of  the 
lindividuals  that  constitute  the  group,  but  also  on  the  more 
lor  less  perfect  organization  of  individual  efforts.  Here, 
lagain,  the  application  of  these  conclusions  to  other  societies 
can  open  the  way  to  important  discoveries  in  this  particular 
isphere  by  showing  what  is  the  way  of  conciHating  the 
'highest  individual  with  the  highest  social  efficiency. 

3.  The  problem  of  abnormality — crime,  vagabondage,  pros- 
titution, alcoholism,  etc. — How  far  is  abnormality  the 
unavoidable  manifestation  of  inborn  tendencies  of  the 
'individual,  and  how  far  is  it  due  to  social  conditions  ? 
I  The  priests  in  Poland  have  a  theory  with  regard  to 
Itheir  peasant  parishioners  that  there  are  no  incorrigible 
lindividuals,  provided  that  the  influence  exercised  upon 
■them  is  skilful  and  steady  and  draws  into  play  all  of  the 
social  factors— familial  solidarity,  social  opinion  of  the 
[community,  religion  and  magic,  economic  and  intellectual 
Imotives,  etc.  And  in  his  recent  book  on  The  Individual 
■Delinquent,  Dr.  William  Healy  touches  the  problem  on  the 


So  PRIMARY  (.ROUP  ORGANIZATION 

same  side  in  the  following  remark:  "Frequently  one 
wonders  what  miglit  have  been  accomplished  with  this  or 
that  intlividual  if  he  had  received  a  more  adequate  discipline 
during  his  childhood."  By  our  investigation  of  abnormal 
attitudes  in  connection  with  normal  attitudes  instead  of 
treating  them  isolately,  and  by  the  recognition  that  the 
individual  can  be  fully  understood  and  controlled  only  if 
all  the  influences  of  his  environment  are  properly  taken  into 
account,  we  could  hardly  avoid  the  suggestion  that  abnor- 
mality is  mainly,  if  not  exclusively,  a  matter  of  deficient 
social  organization.  There  is  hardly  any  human  attitude 
which,  if  properly  controlled  and  directed,  could  not  be 
used  in  a  socially  productive  way.  Of  course  there  must 
always  remain  a  quantitative  difference  of  efficiency  between 
individuals,  often  a  very  far-going  one,  but  we  can  see  no 
reason  for  a  permanent  qualitative  difference  between 
socially  normal  and  antisocial  actions.  And  from  this 
standpoint  the  question  of  the  antisocial  individual  assumes 
no  longer  the  form  of  the  right  of  society  to  protection,  but 
that  of  the  right  of  the  antisocial  individual  to  be  made 
useful. 

4.  The  occupational  problem. — The  modern  division  and 
organization  of  labor  brings  an  enormous  and  continually 
growing  quantitative  prevalence  of  occupations  which  are 
almost  completely  devoid  of  stimulation  and  therefore 
present  little  interest  for  the  workman.  This  fact  neces- 
sarily affects  human  happiness  profoundly,  and,  if  only  for 
this  reason,  the  restoration  of  stimulation  to  labor  is  among 
the  most  important  problems  confronting  society.  The 
present  industrial  organization  tends  also  to  develop  a  type 
of  human  being  as  abnormal  in  its  way  as  the  opposite  type 
of  individual  who  gets  the  full  amount  of  occupational 
stimulation  by  taking  a  line  of  interest  destructive  of  social 
order — the  criminal  or  vagabond.     If  the  latter  t}-pe   of 


METHODOLOGICAL  NOTE  8i 

abnormality  is  immediately  dangerous  for  the  present  state 
of  society,  the  former  is  more  menacing  for  the  future,  as 
leading  to  a  gradual  but  certain  degeneration  of  the  human 
type — whether  we  regard  this  degeneration  as  congenital 
or  acquired. 

The  analysis  of  this  problem  discloses  very  profound  and 

general  causes  of  the  evil,  but  also  the  way  of  an  eventual 

remedy.     It  is  a  fact  too  well  known  to  be  emphasized  that 

modem  organization  of  labor  is  based  on  an  almost  absolute 

j  prevalence   of   economic   interests— more   exactly,   on   the 

tendency  to  produce  or  acquire  the  highest  possible  amount 

of   economic    values — either   because    these    interests   are 

actually  so  universal  and  predominant  or  because  they 

express  themselves  in  social  organization  more  easily  than 

others — a  point  to  be  investigated.     The  moralist  complains 

of  the  materialization  of  men  and  expects  a  change  of  the 

social  organization  to  be  brought  about  by  moral  or  religious 

preaching;    the  economic  determinist  considers  the  whole 

social    organization    as    conditioned    fundamentally    and 

necessarily  by  economic  factors  and  expects  an  improve- 

I  ment    exclusively   from   a   possible   historically   necessary 

"i  modification  of  the  economic  organization  itself.     From  the 

ii  sociological  viewpoint  the  problem  looks  much  more  serious 

and  objective  than  the  moralist  conceives  it,  but  much  less 

;;  Hmited  and  determined  than  it  appears  to  the  economic 

|i  determinist.     The  economic  interests  are  only  one  class  of 

it:  human  attitudes  among  others,  and  every  attitude  can  be 

ii  modified  by  an  adequate  social  technique.     The  interest 

i  in  the  nature  of  work  is  frequently  as  strong  as,  or  stronger 

ii  than,  the  interest  in  the  economic  results  of  the  work,  and 

J!  often  finds  an  objective  expression  in  spite  of  the  fact  that 

■i  actual   social   organization   has   little   place   for   it.     The 

ij  protests,  in  fact,  represented  by  William  Morris  mean  that 

!  a  certain  class  of  work  has  visibly  passed  from  the  stage 


$2  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

where  it  was  stimulating  to  a  stage  where  it  is  not — that 
I  lie  liandicrafts  formerly  expressed  an  interest  in  the  work 
itself  rather  than  in  the  economic  returns  from  the  work. 
Since  ever>^  attitude  tends  to  influence  social  institutions, 
we  may  expect  that,  with  the  help  of  social  technique,  an 
organization  and  a  division  of  labor  based  on  occupational 
interests  may  gradually  replace  the  present  organization 
based  on  demands  of  economic  productivity.  In  other 
words,  with  the  appropriate  change  of  attitudes  and  values 
all  work  may  become  artistic  work. 

5.  The  relation  of  the  sexes. — Among  the  many  problems 
falling  under  this  head  tw^o  seem  to  us  of  fundamental 
importance,  the  first  mainly  socio-psychological,  the  second 
mainly  sociological:  (i)  In  the  relation  between  the  sexes 
how  can  a  'maximum  of  reciprocal  response  be  obtained 
with  the  minimum  of  interference  with  personal  interests  ? 
(2)  How  is  the  general  social  efficiency  of  a  group  affected  by 
the  various  systems  of  relations  between  man  and  woman  ? 

We  do  not  advance  at  this  point  any  definite  theories. 
A  number  of  interesting  concrete  points  wiU  appear  in  the 
later  volumes  of  our  materials.  But  a  few  suggestions  of  a 
general  character  arise  in  connection  wdth  the  study  of  a 
concrete  society.  In  matters  of  reciprocal  response  wt  find 
among  the  Polish  peasants  the  sexes  equally  dependent  on 
each  other,  though  their  demands  are  of  a  rather  limited  and 
unromantic  character,  while  at  the  same  time  this  response 
is  secured  at  the  cost  of  a  complete  subordination  of  their 
personalities  to  a  common  sphere  of  group-interests.  When 
the  development  of  personal  interests  begins,  this  original 
harmony  is  disturbed,  and  the  disharmony  is  particularly 
marked  among  the  immigrants  in  America,  w^here  it  often 
leads  to  a  complete  and  radical  disorganization  of  family  life. 
There  does  not  seem  to  be  as  yet  any  real  solution  in  view. 
In  this  respect  the  situation  of  the  Polish  peasants  may  throw 


METHODOLOGICAL  NOTE  83 

an  interesting  light  upon  the  general  situation  of  the  culti- 
vated classes  of  modern  society.  The  difference  between 
these  two  situations  lies  in  the  fact  that  among  the  peasants 
both  man  and  woman  begin  almost  simultaneously  to 
develop  personal  claims,  whereas  in  the  cultivated  classes 
the  personal  claims  of  the  man  have  been  developed  and  in  a 
large  measure  satisfied  long  ago,  and  the  present  problem 
is  almost  exclusively  limited  to  the  woman.  The  situations 
are  analogous,  however,  in  so  far  as  the  difficulty  of  solu- 
tion is  concerned. 

With  regard  to  social  efficiency,  our  Polish  materials 
tend  to  show  that,  under  conditions  in  which  the  activities 
of  the  woman  can  attain  an  objective  importance  more  or 
less  equal  to  those  of  the  man,  the  greatest  social  efficiency 
is  attained  by  a  systematic  collaboration  of  man  and  woman 
in  external  fields  rather  than  by  a  division  of  tasks  which 
limits  the  woman  to  "home  and  children."  The  line  along 
which  the  peasant  class  of  Polish  society  is  particularly 
efficient  is  economic  development  and  co-operation;  and 
precisely  in  this  line  the  collaboration  of  women  has  been 
particularly  wide  and  successful.  As  far  as  a  division  of 
labor  based  upon  differences  of  the  sexes  is  concerned,  there 
seems  to  be  at  least  one  point  at  which  a  certain  differentia- 
tion of  tasks  would  be  at  present  in  accordance  with  the 
demands  of  social  efficiency.  The  woman  shows  a  particular 
aptitude  of  mediation  between  the  formalism,  uniformity, 
and  permanence  of  social  organization  and  the  concrete, 
various,  and  changing  individualities.  And,  whether  this 
ability  of  the  woman  is  congenital  or  produced  by  cultural 
conditions,  it  could  certainly  be  made  socially  very  useful, 
for  it  is  precisely  the  ability  required  to  diminish  the 
innumerable  and  continually  growing  frictions  resulting 
from  the  misadaptations  of  individual  attitudes  to  social 
organization,  and  to  avoid  the  incalculable  waste  of  human 


S4  PRIMARV-CROUP  ORGANIZATION 

energy  which  contrasts  so  deplorably  in  our  modern  society 
witli  our  increasingly  efficient  use  of  natural  energies. 

6.  The  problem  of  social  happiness. — With  regard  to  this 
problem  we  can  hardly  make  any  positive  suggestions.  It 
is  certain  that  both  the  relation  of  the  sexes  and  the  economic 
situation  are  among  the  fundamental  conditions  of  human 
hai')pincss,  in  the  sense  of  making  it  and  of  spoiling  it. 
But  the  striking  point  is  that,  aside  from  abstract  philo- 
sophical discussion  and  some  popular  psychological  analysis, 
the  problem  of  happiness  has  never  been  seriously  studied 
since  the  epoch  of  Greek  hedonism,  and  of  course  the  con- 
clusions reached  by  the  Greeks,  even  if  they  were  more 
scientific  than  they  really  are,  could  hardly  be  applied  to 
the  present  time,  with  its  completely  changed  social  con- 
ditions. Has  this  problem  been  so  much  neglected  because 
of  its  difficulty  or  because,  under  the  influence  of  certain 
tendencies  immanent  in  Christianity,  happiness  is  still 
half-instinctively  regarded  as  more  or  less  sinful,  and  pain 
as  meritorious  ?  However  that  may  be,  the  fact  is  that  no 
things  of  real  significance  have  been  said  up  to  the  present 
about  happiness,  particularly  if  we  compare  them  with  the 
enormous  material  that  has  been  collected  and  the  innu- 
merable important  ideas  that  have  been  expressed  con- 
cerning unhappiness.  Moreover,  we  believe  that  the  prob- 
lem merits  a  very  particular  consideration,  both  from  the 
theoretical  and  from  the  practical  point  of  view%  and  that 
the  sociological  method  outlined  above  gives  the  most 
reliable  way  of  studying  it. 

7,  The  problem  of  the  fight  of  races  {nationalities)  and 
cultures. — Probably  in  this  respect  no  study  of  any  other 
society  can  give  so  interesting  sociological  indications  as  the 
study  of  the  Poles.  Surrounded  by  peoples  of  various 
degrees  of  cultural  development — Germans,  Austrians, 
Bohemians,    Ruthenians,    Russians,    Lithuanians — ha\'ing 


METHODOLOGICAL  NOTE  85 

on  her  own  territory  the  highest  percentage  of  the  most  *t<- 

jjnassimilable  of  races,  the  Jews,  Poland  is  fighting  at  every  .  ..^.^j;.  >ja.4*ra  - 
moment  for  the  preservation  of  her  racial  and  cultural      v.  .^.f'^'. 
status.     Moreover,   the  fight   assumes   the    most   various 
forms:  self-defense  against  oppressive  measures  promulgated    'iy^.i.*^'* 
by  Russia  and  Germany  in  the  interest  of  their  respective  '        .'^"Z*^^ 
races  and  cultures;   self-defense  against  the  peaceful  intru-  ,^{^^^  tt-^.   ^' 
sion  of  the  Austrian  culture  in  Galicia;   the  problem  of  the,. .   .vf, 
assimilation  of  foreign  colonists — German  or  Russian;   the 
political  fight  against  the  Ruthenians  in  Eastern  Galicia; 
peaceful  propaganda  and  efforts  to  maintain  the  supremacy    >  V^   ^ 
of  Polish  culture  on  the  vast  territory  between  the  Baltic       j  ^^^^ 
and   the  Black   seas   (populated  mainly  by  Lithuanians,  ',.      ,  ^ 
White    Ruthenians,    and    Ukrainians),    where    the    Poles 
constitute   the   cultivated  minority  of  estate-owners  and  ►v   f^ 

intellectual  bourgeoisie;    various  methods  of  dealing  with   .     '^"^  ^, 
the  Jews — passive^  toleration,   efforts   to  assimilate  them    ;«V*-»X  /H^ 
nationally  (not  religiously),  social  and  economic  boycott.  ^**' 

All  these  ways  of  fighting  develop  the  greatest  possible  _  •    >^ 

variety  of  attitudes.  Y^U^iv  ,»  f^**^ 

And   the   problem   itself   assumes   a   particular   actual   1  /,  ^  f     "ffjj^ 
importance  if  we  remember  that  the  present  war  is  a  fight  .  >* 

of  races  and  cultures,  which  has  assumed  the  form  of  war 
because  races  and  cultures  have  expressed  themselves  in  the  ■     '      f^ 
modern  state-organization.     The  fight  of  races  and  cultures  J/j  : 
is  the  predominant  fact  of  modern  historical  life,  and  it  [^tA^*^- 
must  assume  the  form  of  war  when  it  uses  the  present  form 
of  state-organization  as  its  means.     To  stop  wars  one  must  i    vj 
either  stop  the  fight  of  races  and  cultures  by  the  introduction   ^ 
of  new  schemes  of  attitudes  and  values  or  substitute  for  the 
isolated  national  state  as  instrument  of  cultural  expansion 
some  other  type  of  organization. 

8.  Closely  connected  with  the  foregoing  is  the  problem   • 
of  an  ideal  organization  of  culture.     This  is  the  widest  and 


86  I'KI MARY  GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

oldest  sociological  problem,  lying  on  the  border  between 
theor\-  anti  practice.  Is  there  one  perfect  form  of  organiza- 
tion that  would  unify  the  widest  individualism  and  the 
strongest  social  cohesion,  that  would  exclude  any  abnormal- 
it>'  by  making  use  of  all  human  tendencies,  that  would 
harmonize  the  highest  efficiency  with  the  greatest  happiness  ? 
And,  if  one  and  only  one  such  organization  is  possible,  will 
it  come  automatically,  as  a  result  of  the  fight  between 
cultures  and  as  an  expression  of  the  law  of  the  survival  of 
the  fittest,  so  that  finally  "the  world's  history  will  prove  the 
world's  tribunal"?  Or  must  such  an  organization  be 
brought  about  by  a  conscious  and  rational  social  technique 
modifying  the  historical  conditions  and  subordinating  all 
the  cultural  differences  to  one  perfect  system?  Or  is 
there,  on  the  contrary,  no  such  unique  ideal  possible  ? 
Perhaps  there  are  many  forms  of  a  perfect  organization  of 
society,  and,  the  differentiation  of  national  cultures  being 
impossible  to  overcome,  every  nation  should  simply  try  to 
bring  its  own  system  to  the  greatest  possible  perfection, 
profiting  by  the  experiences  of  others,  but  not  imitating 
them.  In  this  case  the  fight  of  races  and  cultures  could  be 
stopped,  not  by  the  destruction  of  historical  differences,  but 
by  the  recognition  of  their  value  for  the  world  and  by  a 
growing  reciprocal  acquaintance  and  estimation.  What- 
ever may  be  the  ultimate  solution  of  this  problem,  it  is 
evident  that  the  systematic  sociological  study  of  various 
cultures,  as  outlined  in  this  note  and  exemplified  in  its 
beginnings  in  the  main  body  of  the  work,  is  the  only  way 
to  solve  it. 


INTRODUCTION  TO  PART  I 

THE   PEASANT   FAMILY  \^<^  ^Vu-'^ 

The  Polish  peasant  family,  in  the  primary  and  larger 
sense  of  the  word,  is  a  social  group  including  all  the  blood- 
and  law-relatives  up  to  a  certain  variable  limit — usually 
the  fourth  degree.  The  family  in  the  narrower  sense, 
including  only  the  married  pair  with  their  children,  may  be 
termed  the  "marriage-group."  These  two  conceptions, 
family-group  and  marriage-group,  are  indispensable  to  an 
understanding  of  the  familial  life. 

The  family  cannot  be  represented  by  a  genealogical  tree 
because  it  includes  law-relationship  and  because  it  is  a 
strictly  social,  concrete,  living  group — not  a  religious, 
mythical,  heraldic,  or  economic  formation.  The  cult  of 
ancestors  is  completely  lacking;  the  religious  attention  to 
the  dead  is  practically  the  same  whoever  the  dead  family 
member — whether  father,  brother,  husband,  or  son.  We 
find,  indeed,  certain  legends  connected  with  family  names, 
especially  if  many  persons  of  the  same  name  live  in  one 
locality,  but  these  have  little  influence  on  the  family  life. 
Heraldic  considerations  have  some  place  among  the  peasant 
nobility  and  in  certain  villages  where  the  peasants  were 
granted  various  privileges  in  earlier  times,  but  the  social 
connection  based  upon  these  considerations  is  not  only 
looser  than  the*  real  familial  connection,  but  of  a  different 
type.  We  shall  speak  again  of  this  type  of  organization  in 
connection  with  class-distinctions  and  the  class-problem. 
Finally,  there  seems  to  be  a  certain  economic  basis  of  familial 
continuity  in  the  idea  of  ancestral  land;  but  we  shall  see 
that  the  importance  of  this  idea  is  derived  partly  from  the 
familial  organization  itself,  partly  from  communal  life. 

S7 


SS  TRIM ARY  GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

In  sliort,  the  idea  i)f  common  origin  does  not  determine 
tlie  unity  of  tlic  familial  group,  but  the  concrete  unity  of 
the  grouj)  does  determine  how  far  the  common  origin  will  be 
traced.  Common  descent  determines,  indeed,  the  unity  of 
the  grouji,  but  only  by  virtue  of  associational  ties  established 
within  each  new  generation.  And  if  we  find  examples  in 
which  common  origin  is  invoked  as  a  reason  for  keeping  or 
establishing  a  connection,  it  is  a  sign  that  the  primitive  unity 
is  in  deca}-,  while  the  sentiments  corresponding  with  this 
unity  still  persist  in  certain  individuals  who  attempt  to 
reconstruct  consciously  the  former  state  of  things  and  use 
the  idea  of  community  of  origin  as  an  argument,  just  as  it 
has  been  used  as  an  explanation  in  the  theories  of  family  and 
for  the  same  reason — -because  it  is  the  simplest  rational 
scheme  of  the  familial  relation.  But,  as  we  shall  see,  it  is  too 
simple  an  explanation. 

The  adequate  scheme  would  represent  the  family  as  a 
plurality  of  nuclei,  each  of  them  constituted  by  a  marriage- 
group  and  relations  radiating  from  each  of  them  toward  other 
marriage-groups  and  single  members,  up,  down,  and  on  both 
sides,  and  toward  older,  younger,  and  collateral  generations 
of  both  husband  and  wife.  But  it  must  be  kept  in  mind  that 
these  nuclei  are  neither  equally  consistent  within  them- 
selves nor  equally  important  with  regard  to  their  connection 
with  others  at  any  given  moment,  and  that  they  are  not 
static,  but  evolving  (in  a  normal  family)  toward  greater 
consistency  and  greater  importance.  ]  Tha  nucleus  only 
begins  to  constitute  itself  at  the  moment  of  marriage,  for 
then  the  relations  between  husband  and  wife  are  less  close 
than  those  uniting  each  of  them  to  the  corresponding  nuclei 
of  which  they  were  members;  the  nucleus  has  the  greatest 
relative  consistency  and  importance  when  it  is  the  oldest 
living  married  couple  with  the  greatest  number  of  children 
and  grandchildren.     Each  nucleus  is  a  center  around  which 


INTRODUCTION  89? 

a  circle  may  be  drawn  including  all  the  relatives  on  both 
sides  up  to,  let  us  say,  the  fourth  degree.  Abstractly  speak- 
ing, any  marriage-group  may  be  thus  selected  as  center  of 
the  family,  and  the  composition  of  the  latter  will  of  course 
vary  accordingly;  we  shall  have  as  many  partly  interfering, 
partly  different  families  as  there  are  marriage-groups.  But 
actually  among  all  these  family-groups  some  are  socially 
more  real  than  others,  as  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  they 
behave  more  consistently  as  units  with  regard  to  the  rest 
of  the  community.  For  example,  from  the  standpoint  of 
a  newly  married  couple  the  relatives  of  the  wife  in  the  fourth 
degree  may  belong  to  the  family,  but  they  do  not  belong  to  it 
from  the  standpoint  of  the  husband's  parents,  and  it  is 
the  latter  standpoint  which  is  socially  more  important  and 
the  one  assumed  by  the  community,  so  long  at  least  as  the 
parents  are  alive.  After  their  death,  and  when  the  married 
couple  grows  old,  its  standpoint  becomes  dominant  and  is 
adopted  by  the  community.  But  at  the  same  time  the 
husband  usually  has  brothers  and  sisters  who,  when  married, 
constitute  also  secondary  centers,  and  these  centers  become 
also  primary  in  the  course  of  time,  and  thus  the  family 
slowly  divides  and  re-forms  itself. 

The  family  is  thus  a  very  complex  group,  with  limits 
only  approximately  determined  and  with  very  various  kinds 
and  degrees  of  relationship  between  its  members.  But 
the  fundamental  familial  connection  is  one  and  irredu- 
cible; it  cannot  be  converted  into  any  other  type  of  group- 
relationship  nor  reduced  to  a  personal  relation  between 
otherwise  isolated  individuals.  It  may  be  termed  familial 
solidarity,  and  it  manifests  itself  both  in  assistance  rendered 
to,  and  in  control  exerted  over,  any  member  of  the  group 
by  any  other  member  representing  the  group  as  a  whole. 
It  is  totally  different  from  territorial,  religious,  economic, 
or  national  solidarity,  though  evidently  these  are  additional 


go  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

bonds  promoting  familial  solidarity,  and  we  shall  see 
presently  that  any  dissolution  of  them  certainly  exerts  a 
dissolving  inlluence  upon  the  family.  And  again,  the 
familial  solidarity  and  the  degree  of  assistance  and  of 
control  involved  should  not  depend  upon  the  personal 
character  of  the  members,  but  only  upon  the  kind 
and  degree  of  their  relationship;  the  familial  relation 
between  two  members  admits  no  gradation,  as  does  love 
or  friendship. 

In  this  light  all  the  familial  relations  in  their  ideal  form, 
that  is,  as  they  would  be  if  there  were  no  progressive  dis- 
integration of  the  family,  become  perfectly  plain. 

The  relation  of  husband  and  wife  is  controlled  by  both 
the  united  families,  and  husband  and  wife  are  not  individuals 
more  or  less  closely  connected  according  to  their  personal 
sentiments,  but  group-members  connected  absolutely  in  a 
single  way.  Therefore  the  marriage  norm  is  not  love,  but 
"respect,"  as  the  relation  which  can  be  controlled  and 
reinforced  by  the  family,  and  which  corresponds  also 
exactly  to  the  situation  of  the  other  party  as  member  of  a 
group  and  representing  the  dignity  of  that  group.  The 
norm  of  respect  from  wife  to  husband  includes  obedience, 
fidehty,  care  for  the  husband's  comfort  and  health;  from 
husband  to  wife,  good  treatment,  fidelity,  not  letting  the 
wife  do  hired  work  if  it  is  not  indispensable.  In  general, 
neither  husband  nor  wife  ought  to  do  anything  which  could 
lower  the  social  standing  of  the  other,  since  this  would  lead 
to  a  lowering  of  the  social  standing  of  the  other's  family. 
Affection  is  not  expUcitly  included  in  the  norm  of  respect, 
but  is  desirable.  As  to  sexual  love,  it  is  a  purely  personal 
matter,  is  not  and  ought  not  to  be  socialized  in  any  form; 
the  family  purposely  ignores  it,  and  the  slightest  indecency 
or  indiscreetness  with  regard  to  sexual  relations  in  marriage 
is  viewed  with  disgust  and  is  morally  condemned. 


INTRODUCTION  91 

The  familial  assistance  to  the  young  married  people  is 
given  in  the  form  of  the  dowry,  which  they  both  receive. 
Though  the  parents  usually  give  the  dowry,  a  grandfather 
or  grandmother,  brother,  or  uncle  may  just  as  well  endow 
the  boy  or  the  girl  or  help  to  do  so.  This  shows  the  familial 
character  of  the  institution,  and  this  character  is  still  more 
manifest  if  we  recognize  that  the  dowry  is  not  in  the  full 
sense  the  property  of  the  married  couple.  It  remains  a  part 
of  the  general  familial  property  to  the  extent  that  the 
married  couple  remains  a  part  of  the  family.  The  fact  that, 
not  the  future  husband  and  wife,  but  their  families,  repre- 
sented by  their  parents  and  by  the  matchmakers,  come  to 
an  understanding  on  this  point  is  another  proof  of  this 
relative  community  of  property.  The  assistance  must 
assume  the  form  of  dowry  simply  because  the  married 
couple,  composed  of  members  of  two  different  families, 
must  to  some  extent  isolate  itself  from  one  or  the  other  of 
these  families ;  but  the  isolation  is  not  an  individualization, 
it  is  only  an  addition  of  some  new  familial  ties  to  the  old 
ones,  a  beginning  of  a  new  nucleus. 

The  relation  of  parents  to  children  is  also  determined 
by  the  familial  organization.  The  parental  authority  is 
complex.  It  is,  first,  the  right  of  control  which  they  exercise 
as  members  of  the  group  over  other  members,  but  naturally 
the  control  is  unusually  strong  in  this  case  because  of  the 
particularly  intimate  relationship.  But  it  is  more  than  this. 
The  parents  are  privileged  representatives  of  the  group  as  a 
whole,  backed  by  every  other  member  in  the  exertion  of  their 
authority,  but  also  responsible  before  the  group  for  their 
actions.  The  power  of  this  authority  is  really  great;  a 
rebellious  child  finds  nowhere  any  help,  not  even  in  the 
younger  generation,  for  every  member  of  the  family  will 
side  with  the  child's  parents  if  he  considers  them  right,  and 
everyone  will  feel  the  familial  will  behind  him  and  will  play 


Q2  I'KIMARVCROUP  ORGANIZATION 

the  i>art  of  a  rcpR'scnlalive  of  the  group.  On  the  other 
hand,  I  ho  rosi^onsibOily  of  the  parents  to  the  familial  group 
is  very  clear  in  e\-ery  case  of  undue  severity  or  of  too  great 
leniency  on  their  part.  And  in  two  cases  the  family  always 
assumes  active  control — when  a  stepchild  is  mistreated  or 
when  a  mother  is  left  alone  with  boys,  whom  she  is  assumed 
to  be  unable  to  educate  suitably.  When  the  children 
grow  up  the  family  controls  the  attitude  of  the  parents  in 
economic  matters  and  in  the  problem  of  marriage.  The 
parents  are  morally  obliged  to  endow  their  children  as  well 
as  they  can,  simply  because  they  are  not  full  and  exclusive 
proprietors  but  rather  managers  of  their  inherited  property. 
This  property  has  been  constituted  mainly  by  the  father's 
and  mother's  dowries,  which  are  still  parts  of  the  respective 
familial  properties,  and  the  rest  of  the  family  retains  a  right 
of  control.  Even  if  the  fortune  has  been  earned  individually 
by  the  father,  the  traditional  familial  form  applies  to  it  more 
or  less.  Finally,  being  a  manager  rather  than  a  proprietor, 
the  father  naturally  has  to  retire  when  his  son  (usually  the 
oldest)  becomes  more  able  than  he  to  manage  the  main  bulk 
of  the  property — the  farm.  The  custom  of  retiring  is 
therefore  rooted  in  the  familial  organization,  and  the 
opinion  of  the  familial  group  obliges  the  old  people  to  retire 
even  if  they  hesitate.  In  the  matter  of  marriage  the 
parents,  while  usually  selecting  their  child's  partner,  must 
take  into  consideration,  not  only  the  child's  will,  but  also 
the  opinion  of  other  members  of  the  family.  The  con- 
sideration of  the  child's  will  results,  not  from  a  respect  for 
the  individual,  but  from  the  fact  that  the  child  is  a  member 
whose  importance  in  the  family  will  continually  grow  after 
his  marriage.  Regard  for  the  opinion  of  other  members  of 
the  family  is  clearly  indispensable,  since  through  marriage  a 
new  member  will  be  brought  into  the  family  and  through  his 
agency  a  connection  will  be  established  with  another  family. 


INTRODUCTION  93 

On  the  other  hand,  the  attitude  of  the  children  toward 
the  parents  is  also  to  be  explained  only  on  the  ground  of  a 
larger  familial  group  of  which  they  are  all  members.  The 
child  comes  to  exercise  a  control  over  the  parents,  not  con- 
ditioned by  any  individual  achievements  on  his  part,  but 
merely  by  the  growth  of  his  importance  within  the  family- 
group.  In  this  respect  the  boy's  position  is  always  more 
important  than  the  girl's,  because  the  boy  will  be  the  head 
of  a  future  marriage-group  and  because  he  is  the  presumptive 
manager  of  a  part  of  the  familial  fortune.  Thence  his 
greater  independence,  or  rather  his  greater  right  to  control 
his  parents.  In  a  boy's  life  there  are  four  (in  the  girl's  life 
usually  only  three)  periods  of  gradually  increasing  familial 
importance:  early  childhood,  before  the  beginning  of  man's 
work;  after  the  beginning  of  man's  work  until  marriage; 
after  marriage  until  the  parents'  retirement;  after  the 
parents'  retirement.  In  the  first  period  the  boy  has  no 
right  of  control  at  all ;  the  control  is  exerted  on  his  behalf  by 
the  family.  In  the  second  period  he  cannot  dispose  of  the 
money  which  he  earns  (it  is  not  a  matter  of  property,  but 
of  management)  and  is  obliged  to  give  it  to  his  father  to 
manage,  but  he  has  the  right  to  control  his  father  in  this 
management  and  to  appeal,  if  necessary,  to  the  rest  of  the 
family.  In  the  third  period  he  manages  his  part  of  the 
fortune  under  the  familial  control  and  has  the  right  to 
control  his  father's  management  of  the  remainder;  he  is 
almost  equal  to  his  father.  In  the  last  period  (which  the 
woman  does  not  attain)  he  takes  the  father's  place  as  head 
manager.  And  the  management  of  property  is  only  the 
clearest  manifestation  of  a  general  independence.  Thus, 
in  questions  of  marriage  the  choice  is  free  at  a  later  age,  and 
becomes  almost  completely  free  in  the  second  marriage. 
But  evidently  by  freedom  we  mean  only  independence  of  the 
special  control  of  the  parents  as  representatives  of  the 


().J 


PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 


j^roup,  not  freedom  from  a  general  control  of  the  group  or  of 
any  of  its  members. 

As  the  parents  are  obliged  to  assist  the  children  in 
proportion  to  their  right  to  exert  authority,  so  the  children's 
(liit\-  of  assistance  is  proportional  to  their  right  of  control. 
Helping  in  housework  and  turning  over  to  the  family  money 
earned  is  not  assistance,  but  the  duty  of  keeping  and  increas- 
ing the  familial  fortune.  Assistance  may  begin  indeed  at 
the  second  stage  (the  boy  doing  man's  work),  but  then  it  is 
expressly  stated  that  a  given  sum  of  money,  for  example, 
is  destined  to  cover  personal  expenses  of  the  parents,  and 
in  this  case  it  is  difficult  to  determine  whether  we  have  still 
the  primitive  familial  organization  or  a  certain  individualiza- 
tion of  relations.  In  short,  at  this  stage  simple  familial 
communism  in  economic  matters  and  familial  assistance  are 
not  sufficiently  differentiated.  But  the  differentiation  is 
complete  in  the  third  stage,  after  marriage.  If  the  married 
son  or  daughter  is  in  a  better  position  than  the  parents,  help 
is  perfectly  natural,  and  it  is  plainly  help,  not  communism,  to 
the  degree  that  the  division  of  property  is  real.  In  the  last 
stage,  when  the  parents  have  retired,  assistance  becomes  the 
fundamental  attitude;  and  it  is  now  a  consciously  moral 
duty  powerfully  reinforced  by  the  opinion  of  the  familial 
group. 

In  all  the  relations  between  parents  and  chUdren  the 
familial  organization  leaves  no  place  for  merely  personal 
affection.  Certainly  this  affection  exists,  but  it  cannot 
express  itself  in  socially  sanctioned  acts.  The  behavior  of 
the  parents  toward  the  children  and  the  contrary  must  be 
determined  exclusively  by  their  situations  as  family  mem- 
bers, not  by  individual  merits  or  preferences.  The  only 
justification  at  least,  on  either  side,  of  any  behavior  not  de- 
termined by  the  familial  situation  is  a  preceding  break  of 
the  familial  principle  by  one  of  the  members  in  question. 


INTRODUCTION  95 

Thus,  the  parents  usually  prefer  one  child  to  the  others,  but 
this  preference  should  be  based  upon  a  familial  superiority. 
The  preferred  child  is  usually  the  one  who  for  some  reason 
is  to  take  the  parental  farm  (the  oldest  son  in  Central 
Poland;  the  youngest  son  in  the  mountainous  districts  of 
the  south;  any  son  who  stays  at  home  while  others 
emigrate),  or  it  is  the  child  who  is  most  likely  to  raise  by  his 
personal  qualities  the  social  standing  of  the  family.  And, 
on  the  contrary,  a  voluntary  isolation  from  the  family  life, 
any  harm  brought  to  the  family-group,  a  break  of  familial 
solidarity,  are  sufficient  reasons,  and  the  only  sufficient  ones, 
for  treating  a  child  worse  than  others  and  even,  in  extreme 
cases,  for  disowning  it.  In  the  same  way  the  children  are 
justified  in  neglecting  the  bonds  of  solidarity  which  unite 
them  with  their  parents  only  if  the  latter  sin  against  the 
famihal  spirit,  for  example,  if  a  widower  (or  widow)  con- 
tracts a  new  marriage  in  old  age  and  in  such  a  way  that, 
instead  of  assimilating  his  wife  to  his  own  family,  he  becomes 
assimilated  to  hers. 

The  relation  between  brothers  and  sisters  assumes  a 
different  form, after  the  death  of  the  parents.  As  long  as  the 
parents  are  alive  the  soHdarity  between  children  is  rather 
mediate;  the  connection  between  parents  and  children  is 
much  closer  than  the  connection  between  brothers  and 
sisters,  because  neither  relation  is  merely  personal,  and  the 
parents  represent  the  familial  idea.  In  a  normal  familial 
organization,  therefore,  in  any  struggle  between  parents  and 
child  other  children  side  with  the  parents,  particularly  older 
children,  who  understand  fully  the  familial  solidarity,  unless, 
of  course,  the  parents  have  broken  this  solidarity  first. 
But  if  the  parents  are  dead,  the  relation  between  brothers 
and  sisters  becomes  much  closer;  indeed,  it  is  the  closest 
familial  relation  which  then  remains.  Thus  the  nucleus, 
constituted  by  the  marriage-group,  does  not  dissolve  after 


96  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

the  death  of  the  married  couple;  the  group  remains,  and  as  a 
group  it  resists  as  far  as  possible  any  dissolving  influences. 
It  is  true  that  the  guardians  take  the  place  of  the  parents 
as  representatives  of  the  familial  authority,  but  they  remain 
outside  the  nucleus,  while  the  parents  were  within  it.  This 
is  one  more  proof  that  the  familial  organization  is  not 
patriarchal,  or  else  the  patriarchal  organization  would 
dissolve  and  assimilate  this  parentless  group.  And  this 
phenomenon  cannot  be  interpreted  as  a  sign  of  sohdarity  of 
the  young  agamst  the  old,  for  among  the  brothers  and  sisters 
the  older  assume  an  attitude  of  authority,  and  in  this  case, 
as  well  as  during  the  life  of  the  parents,  any  member  of  the 
older  generation  has  a  right  of  control  over  all  the  members 
of  the  younger  generation. 

These  general  principles  of  control  and  of  assistance 
within  the  narrower  marriage-group  and  within  the  larger 
family,  and  from  any  member  to  any  member,  are  reinforced, 
not  only  by  the  opinion  of  the  family  itself,  but  also  by  the 
opinion  of  the  community  (village,  commune,  parish,  and 
loose-acquaintance  milieu)  within  w^hich  the  family  lives. 
The  reality  of  the  familial  ties  once  admitted,,  ever>^  member 
of  the  family  evidently  feels  responsible  for,  and  is  held 
responsible  for,  the  behavior  and  welfare  of  every  other 
member,  because,  in  peasant  thinking,  judgments  upon  the 
group  as  a  whole  are  constantly  made  on  the  basis  of  the 
behavior  of  members  of  the  family,  and  vice  versa.  On  this 
account  also  between  any  two  relatives,  wherever  found,  an 
immediate  nearness  is  assumed  which  normally  leads  to 
friendship. 

In  this  connection  it  is  noticeable  that  in  primitive 
peasant  life  all  the  attitudes  of  social  pride  are  primarily 
familial  and  only  secondarily  individual.  When  a  family 
has  lived  from  time  immemorial  in  the  same  locality,  when 
all  its  members  for  three  or  four  generations  are  known  or 


INTRODUCTION  97 

remembered,  every  individual  is  classified  first  of  all  as 
belonging  to  the  family,  and  appreciated  according  to  the 
appreciation  which  the  family  enjoys,  while  on  the  other 
hand  the  social  standing  of  the  family  is  influenced  by  the 
social  standing  of  its  members,  and  no  individual  can  rise 
or  fall  without  drawing  to  some  extent  the  group  with  him. 
And  at  the  same  time  no  individual  can  so  rise  or  fall  as  to 
remove  himself  from  the  familial  background  upon  which 
social  opinion  always  puts  him.  In  doing  this  social  opinion 
presupposes  the  familial  solidarity,  but  at  the  same  time  it 
helps  to  preserve  and  develop  it. 

As  to  the  personal  relations  based  upon  familial  connec- 
tion, it  can  be  said  that  the  ideal  of  the  familial  organiza- 
tion would  be  a  state  of  things  in  which  all  the  members  of 
the  family  were  personal  friends  and  had  no  friends  outside 
of  the  family.  This  ideal  is  expressed  even  in  the  terminol- 
ogy of  some  localities,  where  the  term  "friend"  is  reserved 
for  relatives.  This  does  not  mean  that  personal  friendship 
or  even  acquaintance  is  necessary  to  the  reality  of  the 
familial  connection.  On  the  contrary,  when  a  personal 
relation  is  thought  to  be  the  condition  of  active  solidarity, 
we  have  a  sign  of  the  disintegration  of  familial  life. 

An  interesting  point  in  the  familial  organization  is  the 
attitude  of  the  woman.  Generally  speaking,  the  woman 
has  the  familial  group-feelings  much  less  developed  than 
the  man  and  tends  unconsciously  to  substitute  for  them, 
wherever  possible,  personal  feelings,  adapted  to  the  individ- 
uality of  the  family  members.  She  wants  her  husband 
more  exclusively  for  herself  and  is  often  jealous  of  his  family; 
she  has  less  consideration  for  the  importance  of  the  familial 
group  as  a  whole  and  more  sympathy  with  individual  needs 
of  its  members;  she  often  divides  her  love  among  her 
children  without  regard  for  their  value  to  the  family;  she 
chooses  her  friends  more  under  the  influence  of  personal 


()S  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

huU^rs.  But  this  is  only  a  matter  of  degree;  the  familial 
iiical  is  nowhere  perfectly  realized,  and  on  the  other  hand 
no  woman  is  devoid  of  familial  group-feelings.  Neverthe- 
less, in  the  evolution  of  the  family  these  traits  of  the  woman 
certainly  exert  a  disintegrating  influence,  both  by  helping 
to  isolate  smaller  groups  and  by  assisting  family  members 
in  the  process  of  individualization. 

The  organization  here  sketched  is  the  general  traditional 
basis  of  familial  life,  but  actually  we  find  it  hardly  anywhere 
in  its  full  force.  The  familial  life  as  given  in  the  present 
materials  is  undergoing  a  profound  disintegration  along 
certain  lines  and  under  the  influence  of  various  factors.  The 
main  tendencies  of  this  disintegration  are:  isolation  of  the 
marriage-group,  and  personal  individualization.  Although 
these  processes  sometimes  follow  each  other  and  sometimes 
interact,  they  may  also  go  on  independently,  and  it  is 
therefore  better  to  consider  them  separately.  There  are, 
however,  some  common  factors  which,  by  leading  simply  to  a 
disintegration  of  the  traditional  organization,  leave  the  new 
form  of  familial  life  undetermined,  and  these  may  be  treated 
first  of  all. 

The  traditional  form  of  the  Polish  peasant  family  can 
evidently  subsist  only  in  an  agricultural  community,  settled 
at  least  for  four  or  five  generations  in  the  same  locality  and 
admitting  no  important  changes  of  class,  religion,  nation- 
ahty,  or  profession.  As  soon  as  these  changes  appear,  a 
disintegration  is  imminent.  The  marriage-group  or  the 
individual  enters  into  a  community  different  from  that  in 
which  the  rest  of  the  family  lives,  and  sooner  or  later  the 
old  bonds  must  be  weakened  or  broken.  The  last  fifty  years 
have  brought  many  such  social  changes  into  the  peasant 
life.  Emigration  into  PoHsh  cities,  to  America,  and  to 
Germany  scatters  the  family.     The  same  thing  results  from 


INTRODUCTION  99 

the  progressive  proletarization  of  the  inhabitants  of  the 
country,  which  obhges  many  farmers'  sons  and  daughters 
to  go  to  service  or  to  buy  '' colonies"  outside  of  their  own 
district.  The  industrial  development  of  the  country  leads 
to  changes  of  profession.  And,  finally,  there  is  a  very  rapid 
evolution  of  the  Polish  class-organization,  and,  thanks  to 
this,  peasants  may  pass  into  the  new  middle  or  at  least  lower 
middle  class  within  one  generation,  thus  effecting  an  almost 
complete  break  with  the  rest  of  the  family.  Changes  of 
religion  or  nationality  are  indeed  very  rare,  but,  whenever 
they  appear,  their  result  is  most  radical  and  immediate._\ 

In  analyzing  the  effect  of  these  changes  we  must  take 
into  consideration  the  problem  of  adaptation  to  the  new 
conditions.  Two  points  are  here  important :  the  facility  of 
adaptation  and  the  scale  of  adaptation.  For  example,  the 
adaptation  of  a  peasant  moving  to  a  Polish  city  as  a  work- 
man is  relatively  easy,  but  its  scale  is  small,  while  by 
emigrating  to  America  or  by  rising  in  the  social  hierarchy 
he  confronts  a  more  difficult  problem  of  adaptation,  but 
the  possible  scale  is  incomparably  wider. 

The  effect  of  these  differences  on  family  life  is  felt 
independently  of  the  nature  of  the  new  forms  of  familial 
organization  which  the  individual  (or  the  marriage-group) 
may  find  in  his  new  environment.  Indeed,  the  adaptation 
seldom  goes  so  far  as  to  imitate  the  familial  life  of  the  new 
milieu,  unless  the  individual  marries  within  this  milieu  and 
is  thus  completely  assimilated.  The  only  familial  organiza- 
tion imitated  by  the  peasant  who  rises  above  his  class  is  the 
agnatic  organization  of  the  Polish  nobility.  Except  for 
these  rare  cases,  the  evolution  of  the  family  is  due,  not  to 
the  positive  influence  of  any  other  forms  of  familial  life,  but 
merely  to  the  isolation  of  marriage-groups  and  individuals 
and  to  the  accompanying  changes  of  attitude  and  personality 
in  the  presence  of  a  new  external  world. 


lOO  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

If  this  process  is  difficult  or  unsuccessful,  the  isolated 
individual  or  marriage-group  will  have  a  strong  tendency  to 
return  to  the  old  milieu  and  will  particularly  appreciate  the 
famiUal  solidarity  through  which,  in  spite  of  its  imperfec- 
tions, the  struggle  for  existence  is  facilitated,  though  in  a 
limited  waw  We  say  in  a  limited  way,  because  familial 
solidarit>-  is  a  help  mainly  for  the  weak,  whom  the  family 
does  not  allow  to  fall  below  a  certain  minimal  standard  of 
life,  while  it  becomes  rather  a  burden  for  the  strong.  The 
result  of  an  unsuccessful  or  difficult  adaptation  will  therefore 
tend  to  be  a  conscious  revival  of  familial  feelings  and  even 
a  certain  idealization  of  familial  relations.  We  find  this 
attitude  in  many  marriage-groups  in  South  America  and 
Siberia,  among  soldiers  serving  in  the  Russian  army,  and 
among  a  few  unsuccessful  workmen  in  America,  in  Western 
Europe,  and  even  in  Polish  industrial  centers. 

If  the  process  of  adaptation  is  easy  but  limited — that 
is,  if  the  scale  of  control  which  the  individual  can  attain 
is  narrow  but  easily  attained  (as  is  usually  the  case  with 
workmen  in  Polish  cities) — the  result  is  more  complicated. 
There  is  still  the  longing  for  the  old  conditions  of  life,  but 
not  so  strong  as  to  make  the  organization  of  life  in  the  new 
conditions  unbearable.  The  familial  feelings  still  exist  in 
their  old  strength,  for  the  extra-familial  social  life  does  not 
give  full  satisfaction  to  the  sociable?  tendencies  of  the  indi- 
vidual, but  the  object  of  these  familial  feelings  is  reduced 
to  the  single  marriage-group.  When  territorially  isolated 
the  marriage-group  is  also  isolated  from  the  traditional  set 
of  rules,  valuations,  and  sentiments  of  the  old  community 
and  family,  and  with  the  disappearance  of  these  traditions 
the  family  becomes  merely  a  natural  organization  based  on 
personal  connections  between  its  members,  and  these  con- 
nections are  sufficient  only  to  keep  together  a  marriage- 
group,  including  perhaps  occasionally  a  few  near  relatives — 


•  INTRODUCTION  lOI 

the  parents,  brothers,  or  sisters  of  husband  or  wife.  Under 
these  circumstances,  and  with  economic  conditions  sufficient 
to  Kve  but  hardly  to  progress,  we  meet  in  towns  and  cities 
an  exclusiveness  and  egotism  in  the  marriage-group  never 
found  in  the  country.  In  the  Polish  towns  the  bourgeois 
type  of  familial  organization  tends  to  prevail  among  the 
lower  classes^single,  closed  marriage-groups  behaving  ( 
toward  the  rest  of  society  as  indissoluble  units,  egotistic, 
often  even  mutually  hostile.  And,  as  we  see  from  our 
materials,  the  constitution  of  such  groups  is  favored  and 
helped  by  the  women.  The  woman  appears  as  clearly 
hostile  to  any  social  relations  of  her  husband  in  the  new 
milieu,  and  thus  tends  to  isolate  the  marriage-group  from 
it;  of  the  old  familial  relations  she  keeps  only  those  based 
upon  personal  affection,  and  thus  helps  to  eliminate  the 
traditional  element.  Through  her  typical  feeling  of  eco- 
nomic insecurity,  resulting  from  her  insufficient  adaptation 
to  the  modern  conditions  of  industrial  life,  she  develops 
more  than  her  husband  the  egotism  of  the  marriage-group. 
The  third  form  of  adaptation — an  adaptation  relatively 
easy  and  successful — gives  birth  to  a  particular  kind  of 
individualization,  found  among  the  bulk  of  young  immi- 
grants of  both  sexes  in  America  and  among  many  season- 
immigrants  in  Germany.  The  success  of  this  adaptation — 
which  should  of  course  be  measured  by  the  standard  of  the 
immigrant,  not  of  the  country  to  which  he  comes — consists 
mainly  in  economic  development  and  the  growth  of  social 
influence.  In  both  America  and  Germany  this  is  due,  in 
the  first  place,  to  the  higher  wages,  but  in  democratic^ 
America  the  Polish  social  life  gives  the  immigrant  also  a 
feeling  of  importance  which  in  Polish  communal  life  is  the 
privilege  of  a  few  influential  farmers.  There  is  indeed  no 
such  field  for  the  development  of  self-consciousness  in 
Germany,  but  the  emigrant  returns  every  year  with  new 


I02  PRIAL^RY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

ex]XTiciuc  and  new  money  to  his  native  village,  and  thereby 
his  social  role  is  naturally  enlarged.  Formerly  the  individual 
counted  mainly  as  member  of  a  family;  now  he  counts  by 
himself,  and  still  more  than  formerly.  The  family  ceases 
to  be  necessary  at  all.  It  is  not  needed  for  assistance, 
because  the  individual  gets  on  alone.  It  is  not  needed  for 
the  satisfaction  of  sociable  tendencies,  because  these  tend- 
encies can  be  satisfied  among  friends  and  companions. 
A  community  of  experience  and  a  similarity  of  attitudes 
create  a  feeling  of  sohdarity  among  the  young  generation 
as  against  the  old  generation,  without  regard  to  family 
connections.  The  social  interests  and  the  familial  interests 
no  longer  coincide,  but  cross  each  other.  Externally  this 
stage  is  easily  observable  in  Polish  colonies  in  America  and 
in  Polish  districts  which  have  an  old  emigration.  Young 
people  keep  constantly  together,  apart  from  the  old,  and 
"good  company"  becomes  the  main  attraction,  inducing 
the  isolated  emigrant  to  join  his  group  in  America  or  return 
to  it  at  home,  but  at  the  same  time  drawing  the  boy  or  the 
girl  from  the  home  to  the  street. 

The  familial  feelings  do  not  indeed  disappear  entirety; 
the  change  which  the  individual  undergoes  is  not  profound 
enough  for  this.  But  the  character  of  their  manifestation 
changes.  There  is  no  longer  an  attitude  of  dependence 
on  the  family-group,  and  with  the  disappearance  of  this 
attitude  the  obligatory  character  of  familial  solidarity 
disappears  also;  but  at  the  same  time  a  new  feeling  of  self- 
importance  tends  to  manifest  itseK  in  an  attitude  of  superior- 
ity with  regard  to  other  members  of  the  group,  and  this 
superiority  demands  an  active  expression.  The  result  is  a 
curious,  sometimes  very  far-going,  sometimes  whimsical, 
generosity  which  the  individual  shows  toward  single  family 
members  regardless  of  the  vahdity  of  the  claim  w^hich  this 
member  could  put  forward  under  the  traditional  familial 


INTRODUCTION  103 

organization.  This  generosity  is  usually  completely  dis- 
interested from  the  economic  point  of  view;  no  return  is 
expected.  It  is  essentially  an  expression  of  personality,  a 
satisfaction  at  once  of  personal  affection  and  personal 
vanity.  It  is  shown  only  toward  persons  whom  ties  of 
affection  unite  with  the  giver,  sometimes  toward  friends  who 
do  not  even  belong  to  the  family.  Pity  is  a  motive  which 
strengthens  it  and  sometimes  is  even  sufhcient  in  itself. 
Any  allusion  to  obligation  offends  it.  Often  it  is  displayed 
in  an  unexpected  way  or  at  an  unexpected  moment,  with  the 
evident  desire  to  provoke  astonishment.  It  is  the  symptom 
of  an  expanding  personality. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  unequal  rate  at  which  the  process 
of  individualization  and  the  modification  of  traditional 
attitudes  takes  place  in  different  family  members  leads  often 
to  disintegration  of  both  the  familial  and  the  personal  life. 
This  is  seen  particularly  in  the  relations  of  parents  and 
children  as  it  appears  in  emigration.  When  the  boy  leaves 
his  family  in  Poland  and  comes  to  America,  he  at  first  raises 
no  questions  about  the  nature  of  his  duties  to  his  parents 
and  family  at  home.  He  plans  to  send  home  all  the  money 
possible ;  he  lives  in  the  cheapest  way  and  works  the  longest 
hours.  He  writes:  "Dear  Parents:  I  send  you  300  roubles, 
and  I  will  always  send  you  as  much  as  I  can  earn."  He  does 
not  even  feel  this  behavior  as  moral;  and  it  is  not  moral,  in 
the  sense  that  it  involves  no  reflection  and  no  inhibition. 
It  is  unreflective  social  behavior.  But  if  in  the  course  of 
time  he  has  established  new  and  individualistic  attitudes 
and  desires,  he  writes:  "Dear  Parents:  I  will  send  money; 
only  you  ask  too  much."  (See  in  this  connection  But- 
kowski  series.) 

But  the  most  complete  break  between  parents  and 
children — one  presenting  itself  every  day  in  our  juvenile 
courts — comes  with  the  emigration  of  the  family  as  a  whole 


104  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

to  America.  The  children  brought  with  the  family  or 
added  to  it  in  America  do  not  acquire  the  traditional  attitude 
of  familial  solidarity,  but  rather  the  American  individualis- 
tic ideals,  while  the  parents  remain  unchanged,  and  there 
frequently  results  a  complete  and  painful  antagonism  be- 
tween children  and  parents.  This  has  various  expressions, 
but  perhaps  the  most  definite  one  is  economic — the  demand 
of  the  parents  for  all  the  earnings  of  the  child,  and  eventually 
as  complete  an  avoidance  as  possible  of  the  parents  by  the 
child.  The  mutual  hate,  the  hardness,  unreasonableness, 
and  brutality  of  the  parents,  the  contempt  and  ridicule  of 
the  child — ridicule  of  the  speech  and  old-country  habits 
and  views  of  the  parents — become  almost  incredible.  The 
parents,  for  example,  resort  to  the  juvenile  court,  not  as  a 
means  of  reform,  but  as  an  instrument  of  vengeance;  they 
will  swear  away  the  character  of  their  girl,  call  her  a  "  whore  " 
and  a  "thief,"  when  there  is  not  the  slightest  ground  for  it. 
It  is  the  same  situation  we  shall  note  elsewhere  when  the 
peasant  is  unable  to  adjust  his  difficulties  with  his  neighbors 
by  social  means  and  resorts  to  the  courts  as  a  pure  expression 
of  enmity,  and  with  a  total  disregard  of  right  or  wrong.  A 
case  was  recently  brought  before  the  juvenile  court  in 
Chicago  which  illustrates  typically  how  completely  the 
father  may  be  unable  to  occupy  any  other  standpoint  than 
that  of  familial  solidarity.  The  girl  had  left  home  and  was 
on  the  streets.  When  appealed  to  by  the  court  for  sugges- 
tions and  co-operation,  the  father  always  replied  in  terms 
of  the  wages  of  the  girl — she  had  not  been  bringing  her 
earnings  home.  And  when  it  appeared  that  he  could  not 
completely  control  her  in  this  respect,  he  said:  "Do  what 
you  please  with  her.     She  ain't  no  use  to  me." 

The  last  type  of  adaptation — one  requiring  much  change, 
but  giving  also  much  control — is  typically  represented  by 
the  climbing  tendency  of  the  peasant  and  is  always  con- 


INTRODUCTION  105 

nected  with  an  intellectual  development.  This  adaptation 
brings  also  the  greatest  changes  in  the  familial  sentiments. 
Individualization  is  the  natural  result  of  rising  above  the 
primitive  group  and  becoming  practically  independent  of 
it.  But  at  the  same  time,  unlike  the  preceding  type,  this 
form  of  adaptation  leads  to  qualitative  changes  in  the 
concept  of  the  family.  Indeed,  the  individual  rises,  not 
only  above  the  family,  but  also  above  the  community,  and 
drops  most  of  the  traditional  elements,  and  in  this  respect 
the  result  is  analogous  to  that  of  the  second  type  of  adapta- 
tion. On  the  other  hand  he  meets  on  this  higher  cultural 
level  those  more  universal  and  conscious  traditions  which 
constitute  the  common  content  of  Christian  morality.  The 
Christian  elements  were  embodied  in  the  system  of  peasant 
traditions,  but  they  constituted  only  a  part  of  the  rich 
traditional  stock,  and  their  influence  in  peasant  life  was 
essentially  different  from  that  which  the  church  as  well  as 
the  popular  Christian  reflection  wished  it  to  be.  Their 
power  in  peasant  life  was  a  power  of  social  custom ,  while  on 
a  higher  level  of  intellectual  development  and  individualiza- 
tion they  claim  to  be  rational  norms,  directing  the  conscious 
individual  morality.  Thus,  the  familial  attitudes  of  a 
peasant  rising  above  his  class  undergo  a  double  evolution: 
they  are  simplified,  and  they  pass  from  the  sphere  of  custom 
to  that  of  conscious,  reflective  morality.  Only  a  few  funda- 
mental obligations  are  acknowledged,  and  in  the  sphere  of 
these  obligations  the  "moral"  family  coincides  neither  with 
the  "  traditional "  family  nor  with  the  "natural "  family — the 
marriage-group.  In  its  typical  form  it  includes  husband  or 
wife,  parents,  children,  brothers,  and  sisters.  Its  nucleus  is 
no  longer  a  group,  but  an  individual.  The  husband  has,  for 
example,  particular  moral  obligations  toward  his  own  parents, 
sisters,  and  brothers,  but  not  toward  the  family  of  his  wife. 
The  moral  obligations  toward  the  members  of  the  latter 


io6  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

do  nol  dilTor  from  those  toward  any  friends  or  acquaint- 
ances, are  not  particularly  familial  obligations.  And  the 
consistency  of  this  moral  family  does  not  depend  any  longer 
upon  social  factors,  but  merely  upon  the  moral  development 
of  the  individual — assuming,  of  course,  that  the  element  of 
custom  has  been  completely  eliminated,  which  is  seldom  the 
case.  We  find  individuals  who  feel  the  obligation  as  a  heav}^ 
burden  and  try  to  drop  it  as  soon  as  possible;  we  find  others 
who  accept  it  readily  and  treat  the  family  as  an  object  of 
moral  obligation  even  after  it  has  lost  its  social  reality. 

In  distinguishing  these  four  formal  types  of  evolution 
of  familial  life  we  have  of  course  abstractly  isolated  each 
of  them  and  studied  it  in  its  fullest  and  most  radical  expres- 
sion. In  reality,  however,  we  find  innumerable  interme- 
diary and  incomplete  forms,  and  we  must  take  this  fact  into 
consideration  when  examining  the  concrete  materials.^ 

MARRIAGE 

The  Polish  peasant  family,  as  we  have  seen,  is  organized 
as  a  plurality  of  interrelated  marriage-groups  which  are  so 
many  nuclei  of  fami  ial  life  and  whose  importance  is  various 

'  The  Polish  terminology  for  familial  relationship  corroborates  our  definition 
of  the  family.  We  must  distinguish,  first  of  all,  the  use  of  familial  names  when 
speaking  to  a  relative  and  about  a  relative  to  strangers.  In  the  latter  case  the 
proper  term  is  used,  whUe  in  the  first  there  is  a  tendency  to  substitute  for  it  another 
term,  indicating  a  much  closer  degree  of  relationship.  When  one  is  speaking  about 
a  relative  within  the  family,  both  usages  are  possible. 

The  proper  terms,  i.e.,  those  used  when  one  is  speaking  about  a  relative  to 
strangers,  are  of  three  kinds: 

a)  Terms  which  define  a  unique  relation,  such  as  mqz  ("husband"),  and  zona 
("wife"),  tesc  ('father-in-law"),  ojcicc  ("father").  Only  the  terms  "husband" 
and  "wife"  remain  unique  when  one  is  addressing  a  member  of  the  family,  while 
terms  for  blood-parents  and  blood-children  are  usually  substituted  for  those  which 
indicate  a  step-  or  law-relation  of  descent. 

b)  Terms  which  essentially  define  a  unique  relation,  but  can  be  extended  to 
any  relation  of  a  certain  degree.  Such  are,  for  example,  brat  ("brother"),  szwagier 
("brother-in-law"),  dziadek  ("grandfather"),  wuj  ("maternal  uncle"),  stryj 
("paternal  uncle").  Their  original  meaning  is  the  same  as  that  of  the  correspond- 
ing English  terms,  but  they  are  applied  also  to  remoter  degrees  of  relationship. 
If  exactness  is  required,  they  are  defined  by  special  adjectives,  but  habitually,  up 


INTRODUCTION  107 

and  changing.  The  process  of  constitution  and  evolution 
of  these  nuclei  is  therefore  the  essential  phenomenon  of 
familial  life.  But  at  the  same  time  there  culminate  in 
marriage  many  other  interests  of  the  peasant  life,  and  we 
must  take  the  role  of  these  into  consideration. 

I.  Marriage  from  the  familial  standpoint. — The  whole 
familial  system  of  attitudes  involves  absolutely  the  postulate 
of  marriage  for  every  member  of  the  young  generation.  The 
family  is  a  dynamic  organization,  and  changes  brought  by 
birth,  growth,  marriage,  and  death  have  nothing  of  the 
incidental  or  unexpected,  but  are  included  as  normal  in  the 
organization  itself,  continually  accounted  for  and  foreseen, 
and  the  whole  practical  life  of  the  family  is  adapted  to 
them.  A  person  who  does  not  marry  within  a  certain  time, 
as  well  as  an  old  man  who  does  not  die  at  a  certain  age, 
provokes  in  the  family-group  an  attitude  of  unfavorable 
astonishment ;  they  seem  to  have  stopped  in  the  midst  of  a 
continuous  movement,  and  they  are  passed  by  and  left 
alone.  There  are,  indeed,  exceptions.  A  boy  (or  girl)  with 
some  physical  or  intellectual  defect  is  not  supposed  to  marry, 

to  the  third  and  sometimes  the  fourth  degree,  no  adjectives  are  required.  Thus,  a 
cousin  of  second  degree  is  stryjeczny,  wiijeczny,  or  ciotcczny  brat  ("brother  through 
the  paternal  uncle,  maternal  uncle,  or  aunt"),  or  simply  brat;  a  father's  paternal 
uncle  is  stryjeczny  dziadck  ("grandfather  through  the  paternal  uncle"),  or  simply 
dziadek,  and  so  on.  A  wife's  or  husband's  relative  may  be  determined  in  the  same 
way,  with  the  addition  "of  my  wife"  or  "of  my  husband."  But  if  no  particular 
exactness  is  necessary,  this  qualification  is  also  omitted,  except  for  collateral 
members  (of  the  same  generation),  where  law-relationship  is  indicated  by  particular 
terms  {szwagier  instead  of  brat) .  In  addressing  a  member,  not  only  all  the  qualifi- 
cations are  omitted,  but  even  for  collateral  members  the  terms  "brother"  and 
"sister"  are  often  substituted  for  the  special  terms  indicating  law-relationship  of 
any  degree. 

c)  Terms  which  are  merely  class-names.  Of  these  there  are  only  two :  krewny 
and  powinoivaty,  "blood-"  and  "law-relative."  They  are  never  used  in  addressing 
a  person,  and  in  general  their  usage  is  limited  to  cases  where  the  degree  and  kind  of 
relationship  is  forgotten  or  when  the  speaker  does  not  desire  to  initiate  the  stranger 
more  exactly.  The  intelligent  classes  sometimes  use  the  French  word  cousin 
(Polonized,  kuzyn)  ,h\x\.  this  custom  has  reached  as  yet  only  the  lower  middle  class, 
not  the  peasant. 


loS  PRIIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

and  in  liis  early  childhood  a  corresponding  attitude  is 
adopted  b\-  I  he  family  and  a  place  for  him  is  provided 
beforehand.  His  eventual  marriage  will  then  provoke  the 
same  unfavorable  astonishment  as  the  bachelorship  of 
others. 

The  condemnation  attached  to  not  marrying  is  not  so 
strong  as  that  incurred  by  the  omission  of  some  elementary 
moral  or  religious  duty,  and  with  the  growing  complexity 
of  social  conditions  cases  are  more  and  more  frequent  where 
a  person  remains  unmarried  through  no  fault  of  his  own,  and 
so  the  condemnation  is  becoming  less  and  less.  But  the 
standard  binds  the  parents  of  the  marriageable  person  even 
more  than  the  latter,  and  we  see  in  many  letters  that  the 
parents  do  not  dare  to  put  any  obstacles  in  the  way  of  the 
marriage  of  their  child  even  if  they  foresee  bad  results  for 
themselves  from  this  marriage  (estrangement  of  the  child,  or 
economic  losses) ,  and  they  persuade  the  child  to  marry  even 
against  their  own  interest.  The  contrary  behavior  (see 
Sekowski  series)  incurs  immediate  and  strong  social  con- 
demnation. The  only  limitation  of  this  principle  is  the 
question  of  the  choice  of  the  partner.  But  even  this 
limitation  disappears  when  the  parents  have  no  certainty 
that  a  better  match  than  the  one  proposed  will  be  arranged. 
It  is  better  to  make  a  bad  marriage  than  not  to  marry  at  all. 

The  traditional  familial  factor  ceases  to  exert  any 
influence  upon  the  second  marriage;  no  determined  line  of 
conduct  is  prescribed  in  this  case  by  the  familial  organiza- 
tion except  that  marriage  is  viewed  unfavorably  after  a 
certain  age. 

The  family  not  only  requires  its  members  to  be  married, 
but  directs  their  choice.  This  is  neither  tyranny  nor  self- 
interest  on  the  part  of  the  parents  nor  solicitude  for  the 
future  of  the  child,  but  a  logical  consequence  of  the  individ- 
ual's situation  in  the  familial  group.     The  individual  is  a 


INTRODUCTION  109 

match  only  as  member  of  the  group  and  owing  to  the  social 
standing  of  the  family  within  the  community  and  to  the 
protection  and  help  in  social  and  economic  matters  given  by 
the  family.  He  has  therefore  corresponding  responsibilities; 
in  marrying  he  must  take,  not  only  his  own,  but  also  the 
family's  interests  into  consideration.  These  latter  interests 
condition  the  choice  of  the  partner  in  three  respects : 

a)  The  partner  in  marriage  is  an  outsider  who  through 
marriage  becomes  a  member  of  the  family.  The  family 
therefore  requires  in  this  individual  a  personality  which  will 
fit  easily  into  the  group  and  be  assimilated  to  the  group  with 
as  little  effort  as  possible.  Not  only  a  good  character,  but 
a  set  of  habits  similar  to  those  prevailing  in  the  family  to 
be  entered,  is  important.  Sometimes  the  prospective 
partner  is  unknown  to  the  family,  sometimes  even  unknown 
to  the  marrying  member  of  the  family,  and  in  this  case 
social  guaranties  are  demanded.  The  boy  or  girl  ought  to 
come  at  least  from  a  good  family,  belonging  to  the  same 
class  as  the  family  to  be  entered,  and  settled  if  possible  in 
the  same  district,  since  customs  and  habits  differ  from 
locality  to  locality.  The  occupation  of  a  boy  ought  to  be 
of  such  a  kind  as  not  to  develop  any  undesirable,  that  is, 
unassimilable,  traits.  A  girl  should  have  lived  at  home  and 
should  not  have  done  hired  work  habitually.  A  man  should 
never  have  an  occupation  against  which  a  prejudice  exists 
in  the  community.  In  this  matter  there  is  still  another 
motive  of  selection,  that  is,  vanity.  Finally,  a  widow  or  a 
widower  is  an  undesirable  partner,  because  more  difficult  to 
assimilate  than  a  young  girl  or  boy.  If  not  only  the  future 
partner,  but  even  his  family,  is  unknown,  the  parents,  or 
someone  in  their  place,  will  try  to  get  acquainted  personally 
with  some  of  his  relatives,  in  order  to  inspect  the  general 
type  of  their  character  and  behavior.  Thence  comes  the 
frequent  custom  of  arranging  marriages  through  friends  and 


no  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

relatives.  This  form  of  matchmaking  is  intermediary 
between  the  one  in  which  the  starting-point  is  personal 
acquaintance  and  the  other  in  which  the  connection  with 
a  certain  family  is  sought  first  through  the  swaty  (pro- 
fessional matchmaker)  and  personal  acquaintance  comes 
later.  In  this  intermediary  form  the  starting-point  is  the 
friendship  with  relatives  of  the  boy  or  the  girl.  It  is  sup- 
posed that  the  future  partner  resembles  his  relatives  in 
character,  and  at  the  same  time  that  the  family  to  which 
those  relatives  belong  is  worth  being  connected  with.  But 
this  leads  us  to  the  second  aspect  of  the  familial  control  of 
marriage. 

h)  The  candidate  for  marriage  belongs  himself  to  a 
famil}',  which  through  marriage  will  become  connected  with 
that  of  his  wife.  The  familial  group  therefore  assumes  the 
right  to  control  the  choice  of  its  member,  not  only  with 
regard  to  the  personal  qualities  of  the  future  partner,  but 
also  with  regard  to  the  nature  of  the  group  with  which  it 
will  be  allied.  The  standing  of  the  group  within  the  com- 
munity is  here  the  basis  of  selection.  This  standing  itself 
is  conditioned  by  various  factors — wealth,  morality,  intelli- 
gence, instruction,  religiousness,  political  and  social  in- 
fluence, connection  with  higher  classes,  soHdarity  between 
the  family  members,  kind  of  occupation,  numerousness  of 
the  family,  its  more  or  less  ancient  residence  in  the  locality, 
etc.  Every  family  naturally  tries  to  make  the  best  possible 
alliance;  at  the  same  time  it  tries  not  to  lower  its  own  dignity 
by  risking  a  refusal  or  by  accepting  at  once  even  the  best 
match  and  thereby  showing  too  great  eagerness.  Thence 
the  long  selection  and  hesitation,  real  or  pretended,  on  both 
sides,  while  the  problem  is  not  to  discourage  any  possible 
match,  for  the  range  of  possibilities  open  to  an  individual 
is  a  proof  of  the  high  standing  of  the  family.  Thence  also 
such  institutions  as  that  of  the  matchmaker,  whose  task  is 


INTRODUCTION  iii 

to  shorten  the  ceremonial  of  choosing  without  apparently 
lowering  the  dignity  of  the  families  involved.  The  relative 
freedom  given  to  the  individuals  themselves,  the  apparent 
yielding  to  individual  love,  has  in  many  cases  its  source  in 
the  desire  to  shorten  the  process  of  selection  by  shifting  the 
responsibility  from  the  group  to  the  individual.  In  the 
traditional  formal  swaty  is  embodied  this  familial  control 
of  marriage.  The  young  man,  accompanied  by  the  match- 
maker, visits  the  families  with  which  his  family  has  judged 
it  desirable  to  be  allied,  and  only  among  these  can  he  select 
a  girl.  He  is  received  by  the  parents  of  the  girl,  who  first 
learn  everything  about  him  and  his  family  and  then  encour- 
age him  to  call  further  or  reject  him  at  once.  And  the  girl  can 
select  a  suitor  only  among  those  encouraged  by  her  family. 

c)  A  particular  situation  is  created  when  widow  or 
widower  with  children  from  the  first  marriage  is  involved. 
Here  assimilation  is  very  difficult,  because  no  longer  an 
individual,  but  a  part  of  a  strange  marriage-group,  has  to  be 
assimilated.  At  the  same  time  the  connection  with  the 
widow's  or  widower's  family  will  be  incomplete,  because  the 
family  of  the  first  husband  or  wife  also  has  some  claims. 
Therefore  such  a  marriage  is  not  viewed  favorably,  and  there 
must  be  some  real  social  superiority  of  the  future  partner 
and  his  or  her  family  in  order  to  counterbalance  the  inferior- 
ity caused  by  the  peculiar  familial  situation.  A  second 
marriage  is  thus  "usually  one  which,  if  it  were  the  first,  would 
be  a  mesalliance. 

With  the  disintegration  of  the  familial  life  there  must 
come,  of  course,  a  certain  liberation  from  the  familial  claims 
in  matters  of  marriage.  But  this  liberation  itself  may 
assume  various  forms.  With  regard  to  the  personal  qualities 
iof  his  future  wife,  the  man  may  neglect  to  consult  his  family 
and  still  apply  the  same  principles  of  appreciation  which  his 


iia  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

famih-  would  -dppW — select  a  person  whose  character  and 
liabits  resemble  the  type  prevailing  in  his  own  family,  a 
person  whose  relatives  he  knows,  who  comes  perhaps  from 
the  same  locality,  etc.  Therefore,  for  example,  immigrants 
in  America  whose  individualization  has  only  begun  always 
tr\-  to  marr}'  boys  or  girls  fresh  from  the  old  country,  if 
possible  from  their  own  native  village. 

A  second  degree  of  individualization  manifests  itself  in 
a  more  reasoned  selection  of  such  qualities  as  the  individual 
wishes  his  future  mate  to  possess  in  view  of  his  own  personal 
happiness  and  regardless  of  the  family's  desire.  This  type 
of  selection  prevails,  for  example,  in  most  of  the  second 
marriages,  when  the  individual  has  become  fully  conscious 
of  what  he  desires  from  his  eventual  partner  and  when  the 
feeling  of  his  own  importance,  increasing  with  age,  teaches 
him  to  neglect  the  possible  protests  of  his  family.  It  is 
also  a  frequent  type  in  towns,  where  the  individual  associates 
with  persons  of  various  origins  and  habits.  The  typical  and 
universal  argument  opposed  here  against  any  familial 
protests  has  the  content:  "I  shall  live  with  this  person,  not 
you,  so  it  is  none  of  your  business." 

Finally,  the  highest  form  of  individualization  is  found 
in  the  real  love-marriage.  While  a  reasoned  determination 
of  the  qualities  which  the  individual  wishes  to  find  in  his 
future  mate  permits  of  some  discussion,  some  familial 
control,  and  some  influence  of  tradition,  in  the  love-marriage 
every  possibility  of  control  is  rejected  a  priori.  Here,  under 
the  influence  of  the  moment,  the  largest  opportunity  is  given 
for  matches  between  individuals  whose  social  determinism 
differs  most  widely,  though  this  difference  is  after  all  usually 
not  very  great,  since  the  feeling  of  love  requires  a  certain 
community  of  social  traditions. 

2.  Marriage  from  the  standpoint  of  other  social  groups: 
territorial   {community),   national,   religious,   professional. — 


INTRODUCTION  113 

The  claims  which  the  community  has  upon  the  individual 
in  matters  of  marriage  corroborate  those  of  the  family-group 
to  the  extent  that  every  individual  (except  a  future  priest) 
is  required  to  marry,  if  he  is  not  hindered  by  a  physical  or 
an  intellectual  defect.  The  community  demands  from  its 
members  Fa  steadiness  of  life  which  is  necessary  for  its 
interior  harmonyT^but  a  peasant  individual  can  acquire 
this  steadiness  only  after  his  marriage.  The  life  of  an 
unmarried  man  or  woman  bears  essentially  an  unfixed 
character.  A  single  person,  as  we  know,  cannot  remain 
indefinitely  with  his  family,  for  the  latter  is  organized  in 
view  of  the  marriage  of  all  of  its  members.  He  cannot 
carry  on  normal  occupational  activity  alone — cannot  farm 
or  keep  a  small  shop — he  can  be  either  only  a  hired  laborer, 
living  with  strangers,  or  a  servant.  In  both  cases  the 
sphere  of  his  interests  is  much  narrower  than  that  of  a 
married  couple  and  his  hfe  has  less  fixity.  A  single  person 
does  not  take  an  equal  share  with  married  couples  in  the  life 
of  the  community;  there  is  little  opportunity  for  a  reci- 
procity of  services,  still  less  for  co-operation.  He  cannot 
even  keep  a  house,  receive,  give  entertainments,  etc.  He 
has  nobody  to  provide  for,  no  reason  to  economize.  All 
these  features  of  single  life  tend  to  develop  either  a  spirit 
of  revelry,  vagabondage,  and  pauperism,  or  an  egotistic 
isolation  within  a  circle  of  personal  interests — both  opposed 
to  the  fundamental  set  of  peasant  attitudes  and  undesirable 
for  the  group. 

Accordingly,  the  community  gives  a  positive  sanction  to 
the  marriage  of  its  members.  This  is  done  in  three  ways: 
(i)  Each  wedding  is  a  social  event  in  itself,  not  limited 
to  the  famines  who  intermarry,  but  participated  in  by 
the  community,  and  the  pleasure  of  being  for  some 
days  the  center  of  interest  of  the  community  is  a  strong 
motive  in  favor  of  marriage.     (2)  The  community  gives  a 


114  1 '  '"^  I  ^  1 A  RY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

hi^'her  social  standing  to  its  married  members:  after 
marriage  they  are  addressed  as  ''you"  instead  of  "thou," 
they  begin  to  play  an  active  part  in  the  commune,  in  the 
parish,  in  associations,  etc.  Unmarried  individuals  have 
a  certain  kind  of  social  standing  as  members  of  families 
and  prospective  matches,  but  this  kind  of  a  standing 
decreases  with  age,  (3)  The  private  life  of  married  couples 
is  much  less  controlled  by  the  community  than  that  of 
unmarried  persons.  The  control  of  the  family  in  normal 
conditions  is  thought  perfectly  suflScient  for  the  first;  the 
community  interferes  only  in  extraordinary  cases  of  impor- 
tant familial  misunderstandings.  But  an  individual  who 
does  not  marr}^  in  due  time  is  supposed  not  to  be  sufficiently 
controlled  by  the  family,  and  the  community  allows  him  no 
privacy. 

But  the  community,  as  a  territorial  group,  assumes  also 
a  right  to  control  the  choice  of  its  members  whenever  the 
question  is  raised  of  taking  a  partner  from  a  different 
territorial  group.  The  same  right  is  claimed  by  the  pro- 
fessional, the  national,  the  refigious  groups,  \yhich  usually 
do  not  interfere  with  the  celibacy  of  their  members  nor 
with  their  marriage  so  long  as  this  remains  endogamous. 
In  this  respect  the  claims  of  these  groups  are  different 
from  the  claims  of  the  family,  and  may  even  be  contra- 
dictor>\ 

First  of  all,  an  individual  can  belong  at  once  to  two 
families,  but  not  normally  to  two  territorial,  professional, 
national,  or  religious  groups.  This  leads  to  important 
differences  of  standpoint. 

Let  us  take  first  the  case  of  a  member  of  a  social  group 
who,  by  marriage,  passes  into  a  different  group — moves  to 
another  locality,  takes  a  new  profession,  changes  his  national- 
ity or  his  religion.  For  the  family  such  a  fact  may  be  more 
or  less  unpleasant,  but  only  on  account  of  the  divergence  of 


INTRODUCTION  1 15 

attitudes  which  thus  arises  between  its  members;  but  the 
individual  who  has  passed  into  another  social  group  is  not 
necessarily  lost;  he  may  remain  (if  there  are  no  other  factors 
of  disintegration)  a  real,  solidary  member  of  the  family. 
On  the  contrary,  for  a  territorial,  professional,  national,  or 
religious  group  such  an  individual  is  lost,  and,  since  no 
group  likes  to  lose  its  members,  every  kind  of  exogamy 
which  involves  a  passage  into  another  group  incurs  a  social 
condemnation.  This  condemnation  is  particularly  strong 
if  the  individual,  by  passing  into  another  group,  renounces 
the  essential  values  of  his  first  group — customs,  traditions, 
ideals.  Formerly,  when  the  differences  of  custom  and 
tradition  between  communities  and  professions  were  much 
greater  than  now,  the  marriage  outside  of  a  community  or 
professional  group  was  condemned  very  strongly;  we  find 
many  traces  of  this  stage  in  folklore.  At  present  a  change  ^>^^^^'*"'" 
of  locality  incurs  a  relatively  slight  condemnation ;  a  change 
of  group  professionally  (as,  for  example,  when  a  peasant 
girl  marries  a  handworker)  is  only  ridiculed;  but  a  change 
of  nationality  or  religion  is  still  an  almost  unpardonable 
offense,  the  latter  even  a  crime.  And,  of  course,  the  family 
is  influenced  by  the  larger  social  group  to  which  it  belongs; 
the  national  and  religious  groups  usually  require  that  the 
family  shall  disown  a  renegade  member,  and  the  family  in 
general  complies  with  this  demand  and  rejects  such  an 
individual,  even  if  he  wishes  to  keep  the  familial  solidarity. 
The  other  side  of  the  case  is  presented  when  a  new 
member  is  brought  through  marriage  into  a  social  group. 
For  the  family,  as  we  know,  two  questions  are  here  involved : 
what  is  the  social  standing  of  the  new  member's  family 
within  the  larger  group  to  which  it  belongs,  and  what  is  the 
character  of  the  new  member.  But  for  the  social  group  the 
first  question  does  not  exist.  The  family  indeed  becomes 
connected  through  marriage  with  the  new  partner's  family; 


ii6  PRIiMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

and  to  it  the  social  standing  of  the  latter  is  important.  But 
the  community  at  large  does  not  enter  into  any  particular 
relation  with  another  group  by  the  mere  fact  of  receiving 
a  member  from  it,  and  it  cares  little  for  the  other  group's 
standing.  Therefore  the  family  may  occasionally  acquiesce 
in  the  fact  that  its  member  marries  a  girl  who  will  be 
assimilated  with  difHculty,  if  the  family  of  this  girl  has  a 
particularly  high  social  standing — is  very  rich,  instructed,  of 
good  origin,  or  influential.  The  benefit  of  being  connected 
with  such  a  family  may  be  greater  than  the  displeasure  of 
having  an  unadaptable  new  member.  But  for  the  com- 
munity those  reasons  cannot  overshadow  the  only  point 
which  counts  for  it,  namely,  how  will  the  new  member  be 
assimilated  ?  This  depends,  of  course,  upon  the  nature  of 
social  customs  and  traditions  which  he  brought  with  him, 
and  the  more  they  differ  from  those  which  prevail  in  the 
given  group  the  greater  is  the  social  condemnation  of 
exogamy.  This  condemnation  is  usually  strengthened  by 
the  jealousy  of  the  marriageable  members  of  the  group,  their 
parents  and  relatives.  The  exogamous  member  is  judged 
to  lack  the  feeling  of  solidarity  and  to  inflict  a  humiliation 
upon  the  group  by  selecting  a  stranger.  Sometimes  the 
attitude  of  the  group  is  rather  mixed,  as  when  a  person  of  a 
different  nationality  or  religion,  in  marrying  into  the  group, 
accepts  its  national  or  religious  ideals;  there  usually  remains 
enough  difference  of  traditions  and  habits  to  provoke  a 
certain  unreceptivity  in  the  group,  but  the  spirit  of  prosely- 
tism  is  flattered.  And  so  it  happens,  for  example,  that  a 
converted  Jew  is  laughed  at  within  the  Christian  community, 
but  defended  against  his  former  co-religionists. 

As  the  new  member  is  not  backed  by  his  old  group,  his 
position  is  usually  rather  helpless.  No  particular  social 
norm  arises  from  this  intermarriage  analogous  to  the  norm 
of  respect  between  husband  and  wife,  which  has  its  source  in 


INTRODUCTION  117 

the  fact  that  both  belong  still  to  their  respective  family- 
groups.  Only  a  complete  assimilation  neutralizes  the  lack 
of  cordiality  of  the  social  group  toward  the  new  member. 

3.  Marriage  from  the  economic  point  of  view. — In  order 
to  understand  the  economic  side  of  marriage  we  must 
remember  (i)  that  marriage  is  not  a  mere  relation  of  individ- 
uals but  the  constitution  of  a  new  social  unit,  the  marriage- 
group,  in  which  two  familial  groups  intersect,  while  each 
of  these  preserves  to  a  degree  its  own  integrity,  and  (2) 
that  the  question  of  property,  particularly  of  property  in 
land,  is  not  in  peasant  life  a  merely  economic,  but  a  social, 
question;  the  meaning  of  property  is  determined  by  social 
traditions. 

From  these  points  results  the  general  principle  that  both 
families  are  obliged  to  contribute  to  the  economic  existence 
of  the  newly  married  couple  by  giving  dowries  corresponding 
to  their  own  situation.  A  family  which  does  not  give  a 
sufficient  dowry  to  a  boy  or  girl  proves  either  that  it  is  poor 
or  that  it  lacks  solidarity,  and  in  general  lowers  its  own 
social  standing. 

Fundamentally  the  aim  of  the  dowry  is  not  merely  to 
help  the  married  couple  to  get  a  living,  but  to  enable  them 
to  keep  on  the  same  social  level  as  that  of  their  families — 
to  avoid  being  outclassed.  As  long  as  the  boy  and  girl  live 
with  their  parents  they  belong  to  the  latter's  class,  even  if 
they  have  then  nothing  of  their  own;  but  if  they  had  no 
iproperty  to  manage  when  starting  their  own  household, 
I  they  would  pass  into  the  class  of  hired  laborers.  The 
economic  form  in  which  this  tendency  to  avoid  being  out- 
classed expresses  itself  is  always  the  estabhshing  for  or  by 
ithe  newly  married  couple  of  a  business  of  their  own;  and 
this  principle  applies  indeed  to  all  the  old  social  classes — 
[handworkers,  bourgeoisie,  nobility — for  up  to  fifty  years 
ago  the  difference  between  hired  work  and  independent  work 


Ii8  rRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

constituted  a  sodal  as  well  as  an  economic  difference;  and 
to  a  certain  extent  this  remains  true  today.  Among  the 
jieasants  property  in  land  is  evidently  the  basis  of  this 
dillerence,  and  therefore  the  practice  of  dowry  is  adapted 
to  the  solution  of  the  problem  of  making  every  young 
married  couple  own  a  farm.  It  is  clear  also  that  in  most 
cases  this  problem  can  be  solved  only  by  a  contribution 
from  both  families.  Usually  these  contributions  are  so 
arranged  that  the  family  of  the  boy  gives  land,  the  family 
of  the  girl  money,  because  land  means  more  than  money 
and  a  husband  settling  on  his  wife's  land  loses  some  of  hrs 
dignity  as  head  of  the  marriage-group,  and  is  usually  looked 
down  upon  by  other  farmers. 

The  peasant  practice  of  inheritance  is  to  leave  the 
undivided  farm  to  one  son,  who  has  then  the  obligation  of 
paying  off  his  brothers  and  sisters,  and  for  this  purpose  he 
must  have  a  large  dowr}^  in  cash  from  his  wife.  The  father 
is  seldom  able  to  put  aside  money  enough  to  give  the  other 
children  their  parts,  and  mortgaging  the  farm,  in  view  of 
the  half-sacred  character  of  land  property,  is  hated  by  the 
peasant,  aside  from  the  fact  that  it  often  means  ruin.  The 
division  of  the  farm  is,  as  far  as  possible,  hmited  by  tradi 
tion;  below  a  certain  size  even  by  law.  The  sale  of  the 
farm  is  avoided  even  after  the  death  of  the  parents,  and  is 
never  possible  during  their  life.  Sale,  division,  or  mort- 
gaging of  the  farm  means  a  lowering  of  the  social  standing 
of  the  family.  The  head  of  the  family,  who  has  worked 
during  his  whole  life  upon  the  farm,  wants  his  work  to  he 
continued  by  his  son  on  the  same  scale.  In  short,  it  is  a 
familial  duty  of  one  son  at  least  to  marry  rich. 

But  even  if  the  farm  were  divided  or  sold,  each  sor 
would  hardly  be  able  to  farm  mthout  getting  some  dowry 
and  the  family  of  the  wife  would  never  allow  her  to  live  ir 
ver}^  poor  conditions  if  it  could  prevent  it.     The  same  is  tri  i 


INTRODUCTION  119 

of  the  sons  who  are  paid  off  by  their  brother;  they  seldom 
get  money  enough  to  buy  a  farm  sufficient  for  living,  espe- 
cially since  the  son  who  takes  the  farm  is  usually  favored 
in  the  settlement. 

There  are  of  course  cases  when  there  is  no  necessity  of 
taking  a  dowry.  For  example,  the  only  son  of  a  sufhciently 
rich  farmer  is  free  to  marry  without  money.  But  as  the 
dowry  has  not  only  a  practical  value,  but  is  also  an  expres- 
sion of  the  family's  importance  and  solidarity,  the  custom  is 
usually  kept  up  unless  the  family  of  the  poor  girl  has  for 
some  reason  a  relatively  high  social  standing  in  spite  of 
poverty. 

Exactly  the  same  social  and  economic  reasons  oblige  a 
girl  who  has  some  dowry  to  marry  a  boy  with  property. 
The  dowry  is  seldom  sufficient  to  buy  a  farm  and  thus  to 
keep  the  social  level  which  the  girl  had  in  her  family;  and 
even  if  it  should  he  large  enough,  the  girl's  family  will 
seldom  allow  her  to  marry  a  poor  boy,  because  it  would  be 
considered  a  proof  that  the  girl  had  no  suitors  of  a  higher 
social  standing,  and  therefore  that  she  had  some  personal 
defect. 

There  are  many  exceptions  to  this  general  rule,  but  they 
admit  of  special  explanations.  A  boy  or  girl  who  is  already 
declassed  or  whose  family  did  not  belong  originally  to  the 
class  of  farmers  (or  masters  of  handicraft)  is  not  socially 
obliged  to  marry  with  dowry.  It  is  customary  for  the  young 
couple  to  have  money  or  goods  enough  to  furnish  the  house, 
and  both  families  are  obliged  to  help  them  as  far  as  possible. 
The  familial  solidarity  is  still  strong;  but  since  property 
which  has  not  the  form  of  an  independent  business  does  not 
determine  the  social  standing  of  the  family  as  does  land  or 
a  master-workman's  position,  the  consideration  of  dowry 
""  plays  a  quite  subordinate  role  in  the  selection  of  a  mate. 
A  boy  who  has  money  enough  to  furnish  the  house  may 


120  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

marry  freely  a  girl  who  has  nothing  except  her  personal 
clothing  and  household  linen,  and  a  girl  with  some  money 
ma}-  marry  a  completely  poor  boy;  there  is  no  real  inequality 
in  either  case.  If  the  question  of  dowry  is  often  raised,  it  is 
rather  a  remnant  of  the  traditional  attitude,  or  an  imitation 
of  the  owning  classes,  not  an  actual  social  or  economic 
problem. 

A  real  marriage  for  money,  that  is,  one  in  which  a  poor 
boy  or  girl  selects  intentionally  a  partner  with  some  fortune, 
always  incurs  a  social  condemnation  or  at  least  ridicule. 
In  the  case  of  a  craftsman  who  needs  a  dowry  in  order  to 
establish  his  own  shop  the  condemnation  is  very  slight.  He 
ought  not,  indeed,  to  count  exclusively  upon  the  dowry,  but 
since  acquired  handicraft  was  equivalent  to  capital  in  the 
old  guild  tradition,  and  a  journeyman  was  often  pushed  into 
the  master-class  by  his  wife's  family,  dowry  under  these 
circumstances  has  lost  its  social  disapproval.  But  social 
opinion  knows  no  justification  for  a  poor  country  boy  or  girl 
who  by  making  a  rich  match  passes  into  the  farmer-class; 
the  members  of  the  latter  consider  it  the  worst  kind  of 
climbing.  And  it  is  still  worse  if  the  unskilled  city  workman 
marries  a  rich  girl.  He  cannot  use  the  dowry  productively 
in  any  line  of  handicraft,  and  so  is  supposed  to  make  the 
rich  marriage  only  for  the  sake  of  being  lazy  and  enjoying 
pleasure  at  his  wife's  expense.  In  the  two  latter  cases  the 
condemnation  is  perhaps  strengthened  by  the  fact  that  in 
such  matches  the  richer  party  is  usually  either  much  older, 
or  personally  unattractive,  or  with  some  moral  stain,  etc., 
since  otherv^dse  he  or  she  could  have  made  a  better  choice. 
Thus  a  marriage  which  is  most  evidently  made  for  the  sake 
of  money  is  most  clearly  considered  abnormal.  Even  if 
there  are  no  personal  disadvantages  on  the  side  of  the  richer 
party,  the  match  is  almost  certainly  concluded  against  the 
will  of  his  or  her  family  and  incurs  condemnation  from  this 


INTRODUCTION  I2I 

reason  also.  And,  generally  speaking,  the  economic  relation 
of  the  parties  in  marriage  is  subjected  to  a  moral  apprecia- 
tion, only  if  it  appears  as  a  personal,  not  a  familial,  arrange- 
ment, on  one  side  or  on  both. 

From  the  economic  point  of  view  a  second  marriage 
presents  a  particular  problem.  In  the  case  of  a  widow  or 
widower  the  normal  control  of  the  family  is  greatly  dimin- 
ished, since  these  have  more  importance  within  the  family- 
group  than  the  bachelor  or  girl,  and  their  private  life  has 
acquired  through  marriage  more  independence.  The  prob- 
lem of  keeping  the  same  social  standing  is  also  involved,  but 
usually  there  is  less  danger  of  losing  it,  for  the  widow  or 
widower  already  has  property.  In  this  case  the  personal 
help  of  the  second  husband  or  wife  in  keeping  the  farm  and 
household  going  is  normally  a  sufficient  economic  contribu- 
tion, and  no  capital  is  needed.  If  there  are  children  from  the 
first  marriage,  the  situation  is  more  complicated,  for  the 
family  of  their  parent  has  an  interest  in  them  and  in  the 
maintenance  of  their  social  position,  especially  in  view  of 
the  eventual  children  from  the  second  marriage.  The  lot 
of  these  children  must  also  be  considered,  and  a  dowry  is 
therefore  sometimes  required  even  in  a  second  marriage. 
But  it  is  much  more  difficult  to  get.  Indeed,  since  the 
widow's  or  widower's  marriage-value  is  much  lower  than 
that  of  a  maid  or  a  bachelor,  a  claim  of  this  kind  on  the 
basis  of  social,  and  therefore  also  of  economic,  equality 
would  be  unjustified. 

There  is  a  double  evolution  of  the  economic  side  of  mar- 
riage, influenced  on  the  one  hand  by  the  dissolution  of  the  old 
class-hierarchy  and  substitution  of  a  new  class-organization, 
and  on  the  other  by  the  process  of  economic  individualization. 

The  old  social  classes  are  becoming  mingled  and 
intermarriage  is  more  and  more  frequent.     At  the   same 


IJJ 


PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 


liino  new  criteria  of  social  superiority  appear  in  place  of 
the  oKl  ones,  or  along  with  them,  and  an  equilibration  of 
di  tie  rent  advantages  becomes  possible.  The  old  advantages 
of  fortune  or  good  birth  may  be  offset  by  instruction  or  off- 
set each  other.  Within  the  economic  sphere  itself  the  stand- 
point of  income  begins  to  compete  with  that  of  property; 
liired  work  loses  its  socially  depreciative  character,  etc. 
Thus  marriages  are  more  and  more  frequent  in  which  some 
other  social  superiority  is  put  forward  by  one  side  as  against 
the  property  brought  by  the  other  party,  and  such  mating 
becomes  more  and  more  normal  in  social  opinion  and  more 
and  more  easily  acknowledged  by  families  on  either  side. 
At  the  same  time  economically  unequilibrated  matches 
become  gradually  more  possible  because  of  the  liberation  of 
the  individual  from  the  pressure  of  the  family  and  com- 
munity. Still  it  is  clear  that  the  possibility  of  showing  a  real 
disinterestedness  depends  upon  the  economic  conditions  set 
by  the  environment.  We  must  remember  that  in  the 
Polish  country  life  of  the  lower  classes  the  possibility  of 
economic  advance  is  very  small,  as  compared  even  with  that 
of  the  Polish  city  life,  and  quite  insignificant  in  comparison 
with  that  of  American  life.  On  the  contrary,  there  are 
numerous  possibilities  of  retrogression  as  the  population 
increases.  Thus  a  married  couple  does  well  if  it  succeeds 
in  keeping  to  the  end  the  economic  standard  of  life  with 
which  it  started,  and  it  is  natural  for  them  to  try  to  start 
with  as  high  a  standard  as  possible.  Disinterestedness 
would  be  a  luxury  for  which  the  children  as  well  as  the 
parents  would  pay.  Marriages  quite  free  from  economic 
considerations  become,  therefore,  practically  possible  only 
in  some  parts  of  the  country  where  season-emigration  is 
practiced,  to  some  extent  in  Polish  industrial  cities,  and 
particularly  in  America,  where  they  are,  indeed,  almost  the 
rule. 


tU: 


INTRODUCTION  123 

4.  Marriage  from  the  sexual  point  of  view. — The  sexual 
factor,  as  a  mere  necessity  of  sexual  satisfaction,  aside  from 
the  question  of  individualized  love,  must  play  of  course  an 
important  role  as  a  motive  of  marriage  in  general,  although 
it  is  somewhat  difficult  to  determine  to  what  extent  the 
want  of  sexual  satisfaction  is  consciously  conceived  as  a 
reason  for  marriage.  Certainly  the  popular  songs  and 
jokes  of  young  people  show  that  sexual  tendencies  are 
developed  before  any  actual  sexual  intercourse.  Both  sexes  ^*^  ' 
mix  frequently   together   in   work   and   play,   and   sexual  1  ' 

desires  must  arise.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  their  develop- 
ment depends  upon  marriage  as  a  social  institution.  Indeed, 
the  social  activities  which  are  most  favorable  to  their 
development  have  all,  mediately  or  immediately,  marriage 
in  view.  There  is  a  stock  of  sexual  information  and  atti- 
tudes acquired  before  puberty,  and  this  is  not  conditioned 
by  the  idea  of  marriage.  But  after  puberty  the  boy  and  the 
girl  always  look  upon  each  other  as  possible  matches,  and 
social  intercourse  between  the  sexes  is  always  arranged  with 
marriage  in  view.  All  the  entertainments  which  are  not 
merely  ceremonial  have  this  aim.  An  interesting  fact 
shows  how  the  sexual  side  of  this  preliminary  intercourse 
is  institutional  and  socially  controlled.  No  indecent  allu-  '^,^r ' 
sions  are  ever  allowed  in  a  private  conversation  between 
boy  and  girl,  but  any  indecent  allusion  can  be  made  publicly, 
in  the  form  of  a  song  or  joke,  at  a  gathering  where  young 
people  of  both  sexes  are  present. 

And  marriage  is  the  only  form  in  which  sexual  satis-  ^^'^  ^^ 
^  faction  can  be  obtained.     Illegal  relations  before  marriage    t^^i 
are  relatively  rare,  not  so  much  because  of  any  particular  ^rj^jw^-    > 
moral  self-restraint  as,  once  more,  because  of  the  famihal     ^"^ 
control,  reinforced  by   the  control  of  social  opinion  and 
exerted  in  view  of  the  future  marriage.     Sexual  intercourse 
before  marriage  is  normally  and  immediately  treated  by  the 


1.-4  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

buy,  the  girl,  the  family,  and  the  community  as  an  illicit 
extension  of  the  sexual  preliminaries  of  marriage,  but 
anticipatory  of  marriage,  and  it  leads  almost  universally  to 
marriage,  even  when,  under  the  influence  of  disintegrating 
factors,  it  becomes  frequent.  The  idea  of  sexual  inter- 
course per  se,  without  relation  to  marriage,  plays  hardly 
any  part  in  the  primitive  peasant  organization  of  life. 
Therefore  the  main  reason  for  the  prohibition  of  sexual 
intercourse  before  marriage  is  to  be  sought  in  the  familial 
form  of  marriage  itself.  The  boy  and  girl  who  begin  sexual 
relations  before  marriage  begin  also  in  fact  the  marriage- 
relation,  thus  avoiding  the  familial  control  and  trifling  with 
the  social  sanction  expressed  in  the  whole  series  of  marriage- 
ceremonies.  This  must  evidently  lead  to  a  disorganization 
of  the  whole  marriage  system.  Even  if  a  match  arranged 
in  this  way  is  one  agreeable  to  the  respective  families,  still 
in  form  it  is  a  rebellion  against  the  familial  authority  and  a 
neglect  of  the  community. 

After  marriage  sexual  intercourse  ceases  almost  com- 
pletely to  be  a  social  problem ;  it  is  intentionally  ignored  by 
society.  Conjugal  infidelity  in  normal  conditions  is  not 
assumed  to  exist;  it  is  very  seldom  even  spoken  of,  and,  if 
it  occurs,  is  unconditionally  condemned,  equally  in  man 
and  woman.  But  even  the  legal  sexual  relation  between 
man  and  wife  is  the  object  of  a  ver\^  far-going  discretion. 
It  is  never  mentioned  when  one  is  talking  about  marriage; 
even  by  the  married  couple  itself,  in  private  conversation 
or  letters,  sexual  allusions  are  scrupulously  avoided.  In  a 
few  cases  where  we  find  them  they  are  accompanied  by 
apologies.  It  seems  as  if  the  whole  sexual  question  were 
felt,  not  so  much  as  impure,  as  incongruous  with  the  normal 
and  socially  sanctioned  conjugal  relation,  which,  for  the 
social  consciousness,  is  fundamentally  a  familial  relation, 
belonging  to  the  same  type  as  other  relations  between 


INTRODUCTION  125 

members  of  a  family.     Conjugal  sexual  life  is  not  institu- 
I  tionalized,  as  is  courtship,  nor  morally  regulated,  as  is  family 
i  life,  but  is  reduced  to  a  minimum  and  left  out  of  considera- 
tion.    It  is  a  curious  fact  that  in  spite  of  ten  centuries  of   -J^jj::^..*-^ 
Christian   influence   there   is   a   disharmony   between   the  . 

peasant  attitude  and  the  standpoint  of  the  church.  The  ^  ' 
latter  conceives  marriage  as  precisely  a  regulation  and 
institutionalization  of  sexual  intercourse  and,  far  from 
avoiding  allusions  to  sexual  matters,  subjects  them  to  an 
analysis  and  valuation  which,  though  mainly  negative,  is 
very  detailed.  Frequent  misunderstandings  therefore  arise 
between  the  priest  and  his  parishioners,  particularly  if  the 
former  is  not  of  peasant  origin. 

Sexual  life  in  general  is  thus  completely  subordinated  to 
marriage,  is  regulated  in  view  of  marriage  before  the 
ceremony  and  denied  any  independent  value  after  the 
ceremony.  In  a  later  volume  we  shall  treat  the  process 
which  leads  to  a  development  of  sexual  life  outside  and 
independent  of  marriage.  Here  we  can  only  indicate  that 
I  the  sexual  factor  is  beginning  to  play  a  more  important 
role  in  marriage  by  determining  more  and  more  its  selection. 

In  a  perfect  familial  and  social  organization  the  individual 
can  choose  his  partner  within  the  limits  indicated  above, 
but  this  free  choice  is  itself  not  exclusively  determined  by 
rsexual  love,  because  the  development  of  sexual  love  is 
dependent  upon  the  whole  system  of  courtship.  Not  only 
is  the  individual  prohibited  from  selecting  outside  of  the 
relatively  narrow  circle  of  socially  possible  matches,  but 
even  within  this  circle  his  possibilities  of  choice  are  further 
restrained  by  all  the  formalities  which  make  the  exclusive- 
ness  of  sexual  love  a  matter  of  the  gradual  elimination  of  all 
matches  but  one.  An  immediate  falling  in  love,  leading 
directly  to  engagement,  is  psychologically  impossible.  In 
most  cases  it  is  not  only  true  that  all  the  possible  partners 


126  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

are  kno\Mi  from  childhood — which  is  evidently  an  important 
obstacle  to  a  rapid  infatuation — but  indecision,  careful 
selecting,  taking  of  all  possibilities  into  account,  are  tradi- 
tional attitudes,  originating  in  familial  considerations,  but 
transferred  to  matters  of  lo\'e.  This  indecision  is  reinforced 
by  the  limitations  of  speech  mentioned  above;  expressions 
of  love  containing  even  the  faintest  sexual  allusion  are 
sociall}-  sanctioned  only  when  publicly  made  and  con- 
sequently impersonal  or  half -impersonal ;  private  declara- 
tions are  very'  limited.  For  the  normal  young  boy  or  girl, 
therefore,  there  are  a  certain  number  of  persons  of  the  other 
sex  more  or  less  pleasing,  and  all  of  them  are  sexually 
acceptable.  The  ultimate  choice  is  then  made  under  the 
influence  of  the  family,  or  for  various  reasons  all  these 
possibilities  fall  away  one  by  one  and  the  decision  settles 
upon  the  one  remaining.  The  only  case  when  this  "liking" 
of  one  person  among  others  can  ripen  into  love  before 
marriage  is  when  for  some  reason  the  two  individuals  have 
more  opportunity  to  meet  each  other  than  anyone  else. 
After  the  engagement,  and  particularly  after  marriage, 
exclusiveness  is  attained,  but  precisely  then  the  love-relation 
changes  into  the  respect-relation.  Of  course,  there  is  often 
love  shortly  before  and  after  the  wedding,  but  it  is  gradually 
submerged  by  familial  and  economic  interests. 

The  first  stage  of  the  Kberation  of  the  factor  of  sexual 
love  is  actually  the  illegal  sexual  intercourse  before  marriage. 
We  call  it  the  first  stage,  because  it  exists  at  the  very 
beginning  of  individualization,  if  external  conditions  are 
favorable.  Thus,  among  the  young  season-emigrants  to 
Germany,  and  even  among  wandering  season-laborers  on 
Polish  estates,  who  are  isolated  from  their  families  and  com- 
munities for  from  seven  to  ten  months  and  have  the  oppor- 
tunity to  meet  privately,  almost  50  per  cent  have  sexual 
intercourse  and  then  marr>'  after  coming  home,  or  even  send 


INTRODUCTION  127 

money  to  their  priest  during  the  season,  asking  for  the 
publication  of  their  banns.  Here  the  mere  "liking"  grows 
into  sexual  love,  thanks  to  the  actual  sexual  intercourse,  and 
may  become  strong  enougii  to  cause  the  young  people  to 
take  upon  themselves  the  whole  responsibility  for  their 
marriage,  though  usually  the  permission  of  the  parents 
is  obtained  before  the  priest  is  asked  to  publish  the 
banns. 

The  second  form  of  the  liberation  of  sexual  love  is  more 
normal,  because  it  requires  no  exceptional  conditions  and 
does  not  break  the  traditional  sexual  morality;  but  on  the 
other  hand  it  shows  a  higher  stage  of  individualization.  We 
find  it  particularly  often  in  America,  but  also  in  Polish 
cities.  It  consists  in  the  reduction  of  all  the  complicated 
process  of  selection  and  courtship  to  an  offhand  proposal 
to  a  girl  who  "pleases"  after  a  relatively  short  personal 
acquaintance.  If  the  girl  rejects  the  proposal,  the  boy  tries 
to  find  another  whom  he  "likes"  and  repeats  the  perfor- 
mance. This  way  of  concluding  a  marriage  shows  a  very 
important  evolution  of  the  traditional  attitudes.  It  is 
possible  only  when  all  the  familial,  social,  or  economic 
motives  have  lost  their  influence  and  the  indecision,  the 
hesitation  among  many  possibilities,  is  no  longer  artificially 
maintained.  The  boy  or  girl  desires  to  marry  in  general, 
and  in  this  mood,  after  the  liberation  from  all  social  pressure, 
the  slight  "liking"  (which  under  the  old  conditions  would 
only  suffice  to  put  the  person  liked  among  those  from  whom 
a  closer  selection  would  be  made)  becomes  a  sufficient 
impulse  to  start  the  decisive  action. 

Finally,  the  last  stage  is  attained  when  this  "liking," 
under  the  influence  of  a  .general  cultural  progress,  and 
particularly  of  a  development  of  imagination  and  feeling 
made  independent  of  practical  activity,  grows  into  a  typical 
"romantic"  love,  in  which  the  sexual  element  is  neither 


^ 


i:S  rRIMARV-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

stitled,  as  in  the  traditional  conditions,  nor  given  in  its 
crude  form,  as  in  sexual  intercourse  before  marriage,  but 
exalted  and  idealized,  and  the  exclusiveness  results  neither 
from  institutional  reasons  nor  from  habit,  but  from  a  rich 
complexity  of  feelings  and  ideas  connected  with  the  given 
person. 

THE   CLASS-SYSTEM  IN  POLISH   SOCIETY 

In  the  present  state  of  Polish  society  there  is  a  general 
revaluation  of  social  distinctions,  a  breaking  down  of  the  old 
social  hierarchy  and  an  establishment  of  a  new  one.  This 
process  is  going  on  more  rapidly  in  certain  parts  of  the 
country  (it  is  the  slowest  in  Galicia) ,  but  every\vhere  it 
includes  also  the  peasants  and  the  lower  city  classes  and 
exerts  a  great  influence  upon  the  psychology  of  the  younger 
generation  in  particular. 

The  old  class-organization  presents  two  independent  and 
partly  parallel  social  hierarchies — that  of  the  country  and 
that  of  the  town  population.  The  first  is  fundamental,  the 
second  additional. 

The  highest  rank  in  the  first  hierarchy  (and  completely 
dominating  the  second  as  well)  was  occupied  by  a  few 
families  of  great  nobility.  At  the  time  of  Poland's  inde- 
pendence they  occupied  the  highest  official  posts,  kept  their 
own  armies,  directed  politics,  etc.  After  Poland's  partition 
their  political  influence  disappeared.  At  present  fortune, 
tradition,  and  in  most  cases  title  (there  were  no  recognized 
titles  in  Poland  before  the  partition,  except  for  a  few 
Lithuanian  and  Ruthenian  princes)  are  all  that  distinguish 
these  forty  or  fifty  families  from  the  rest  of  the  nobility. 
The  numerous  middle  nobility  constitutes  the  second 
stratum.  Then  comes  th^^peasant  nobility,  distinguished 
from  the  middle  nobihty  by  the  lack  of  fortune  and  culture, 
from  the  peasant,  formerly  by  its  rights,  now  only  by 


INTRODUCTION  I2y 

tradition.^  Then  come  the  peasant  farmers,  formerly 
classified  into  crown  peasants  (almost  completely  free,  but 
having  no  political  rights),  church  peasants,  and  private 
serfs.  Finally  comes  the  landless  peasants.  It  was  in  fact 
not  possible  during  Poland's  independence  to  draw  an 
absolute  line  between  any  two  contiguous  classes;  particu- 
larly the  gradation  of  noble  families  on  one  side,  the  grada- 
tion of  peasant  families  on  the  other,  was  continuous,  and 
between  the  lowest  noble  and  the  highest  peasant  families 
the  distinction  was  political,  not  social.  But  the  position 
of  each  family  was  very  exactly  determined;  rising  and 
falling  were  possible,  but  very  seldom  within  a  single 
generation.  And  as  far  as  the  social  organization  still 
persists,  the  same  is  true  at  present. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  town  population  was  also  hier- 
archized,  mainly  upon  the  basis  of  fortune,  secondarily  upon 
that  of  culture  and  birth.  The  highest  place  was  occupied 
in  every  large  town  by  some  wealthy  trades-families;  then 
came  the  intellectual  workers  and  the  craftsmen;  then  the 
petty  merchants  and  unskilled  workers.  Politically  the 
rights  of  the  old  bourgeoisie,  except  in  town  administration, 
were  lower  than  those  of  the  nobility  in  general;  socially  the 
position  of  old  and  rich  bourgeois  families  ranked  with  that 

'"Peasant  nobility"  is  a  class  found  only  in  Poland  and  called  in  Polish 
szlachta  zasciankowa,  "village  nobility,"  szlachia  zagonowa,  "bed-nobility"  (refer- 
ring to  their  small  beds  of  land),  and  szlachta  szaraczkowa,  "gray  nobility."  They 
had  almost  full  political  rights,  and  coats-of-arms  like  the  rest  of  the  nobility. 
Usually  one  large  family  of  the  same  name  occupied  a  whole  village  and  even 
several  villages.  They  were  quite  independent  economically,  but  as  they  had  no 
serfs  they  were  in  the  same  economic  condition  as  the  peasants.  Their  origin 
dates  back  mainly  to  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries.  They  were  usually 
the  descendants  of  warriors  endowed  with  land  by  the  dukes,  and  sank  to  their 
low  econonuc  and  social  level  as  a  consequence  of  their  numerical  increase  and  the 
division  of  land.  They  were  and  are  still  particularly  numerous  in  the  ancient 
duchy  of  Mazovia  (unified  with  the  kingdom  of  Poland  in  1525-27);  thence  large 
numbers  of  them  emigrated  to,  and  organized  large  settlements  in,  Lithuania  and 
Ruthenia.  At  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century  they  outnumbered  the  middle 
nobility — 400,000  as  against  300,000. 


ISO 


PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 


oi  tho  niiddle  nobility.  Outside  of  both  hierarchies,  and  in 
fact,  with  rare  exceptions,  outside  of  PoUsh  social  hfe  in 
general,  was  the  Jew. 

As  early  as  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century  many 
factors  began  to  contribute  to  a  gradual  dissolution  of  this 
system,  and  the  process  of  dissolution  reached  the  lower 
classes  some  thirty  or  forty  years  ago.  The  "Constitution 
of  May  3"  (1791)  gave  political  rights  to  the  bourgeoisie, 
but  the  later  loss  of  independence  made  all  political  privileges 
illusory.  The  process  of  personal  and  economic  liberation 
of  the  peasants,  begun  before  the  second  partition  and 
carried  on  by  private  initiative  and  legal  acts,  was  completed 
in  1864.  The  development  of  industry,  the  ruin  of  many 
noble  families  after  each  revolution  through  confiscation 
of  their  fortunes,  the  agricultural  crisis  caused  by  foreign 
importation,  the  spread  of  instruction  and  democratic 
ideas,  are  all  factors  destroying  the  content  of  old  distinc- 
tions while  leaving  the  form.  The  process  is  still  going 
on,  and  the  actual  situation  may  be  stated  in  the  follow- 
ing way. 

First,  there  are  still  the  old  classes,  w^herever  the  con- 
ditions permit  a  certain  isolation  and  the  development 
of  a  strong  class-consciousness — that  is,  wherever  the  class 
is  at  the  same  time  a  social  group  with  real  intercourse  and 
common  interests.  The  factors  which  keep  the  old  class- 
consciousness  strong  are  mainly  territorial  vicinity  and 
identity  of  occupation.  Thus,  the  old  families  of  middle 
nobility  settled  in  some  district  or  province,  the  old  bourgeois 
families  in  large  towns,  the  peasant  families  or  the  peasant 
nobility  settled  in  the  same  village  or  parish  from  imme- 
morial time — these  have  still  a  class-feeling  strong  enough 
to  resist  any  external  influences.  They  do  not  admit 
anybody  from  a  lower  class,  and  they  do  not  try  to  get 
into   a   higher   class.      But    these    scattered   groups   have 


INTRODUCTION  131 

among  themselves  a  feeling  of  congeniality  and  of  equal- 
ity; and  intermarriage  creates  among  them  new  links  of 
solidarity. 

But  these  groups,  without  being  exactly  dissolved,  are 
diminishing  through  a  process  whose  mechanism  is  deter- 
mined by  the  nature  of  their  own  constitution  as  well  as  by 
the  changes  which  the  economic  and  political  evolution  of 
the  country  brings  with  it.  The  economic  form  corre- 
sponding to  the  social  system  expressed  in  these  groups  is 
that  of  familial  property,  that  is,  property,  parts  of  which  , 
are  under  the  management,  not  in  the  complete  ownership, 
of  the  individual.  In  this  form  of  economic  organization 
the  class  can  subsist  as  a  real  social  group  because  through 
it  territorial  vicinity  and  identity  of  occupation  can  be 
preserved  through  a  series  of  generations,  and  class- 
consciousness  can  persist  even  if  it  has  no  longer  any  real 
basis  in  the  political  organization.  Under  these  conditions, 
if  an  individual  is  unable  to  maintain  his  part  of  the  family 
fortune  the  family  helps  him  and  controls  him,  and  as  far 
as  possible  hinders  his  ruin.  But  this  control  and  help 
are  of  course  hmited.  The  family  may  be  unable  to  help, 
it  may  be  unwilling  to  help,  or  the  individual  may  be 
unwilling  to  accept  any  control,  if  for  some  reason  the 
attitude  of  solidarity  is  weakened  or  the  strain  is  too  great. 
And  the  economic  changes  of  the  last  century  make  the 
preservation  of  the  old  forms  of  property  more  and  more 
difficult,  particularly  since  the  lack  of  political  independence 
did  not  permit  the  development  of  any  adequate  social  ;,  /^^idi*^ 
mechanism  to  facilitate  the  modernization  of  the  ancients  , -t  ■'-^  ' 
economy  in  agriculture,  handiwork,  and  commerce.  Thus^f^-^ 
the  cases  in  which  the  family  cannot  save  the  individual  from  t^ 

ruin,  or  even  where  the  whole  family  is  ruined,  are  very  fre-  *^t''' 
quent.     And  when  the  modernization  of  economy  is  finally 
attained,  it  usually  proves  that  greater  individualization 


1  ^-" 


PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 


of  property  is  required,  the  familial  solidarity  is  thus 
weakened,  and  the  individual  is  left  more  or  less  to  his  own 
resources. 

But  any  member  of  the  class-group  who  ceases  to  be  a 
proprietor  is  declassed.  He  cannot  maintain  the  old  social 
relations  on  a  basis  of  equality;  he  must  usually  leave  his 
territorial  group  in  search  of  work;  he  loses  community  of 
interest  with  his  class,  and,  above  ail,  he  has  to  do  hired 
work — he  becomes  dependent.  Now  there  is  hardly  another 
economic  distinction  so  profoundly  rooted  in  Polish  con- 
sciousness as  that  between  independent  work  on  the  person's 
own  property  and  hired  work.  The  occasion  of  this,  as  is 
"shown  by  our  analysis  of  the  economic  attitudes,  is  threefold : 
(i)  hired  work,  before  the  development  of  industry,  meant 
almost  always  "service,"  including  personal  dependence  of 
the  employee  on  the  employer;  (2)  hired  work  in  whatever 
form  has  the  character  of  compulsory  work  as  opposed  to 
free  work;  (3)  hired  work  is  more  individual  than  inde- 
pendent work,  and  bears  no  direct  relation  to  the  familial 
organization.  (Of  course  professional  work,  based  on  fee, 
not  on  wages,  must  be  distinguished  from  hired  work.) 

The  loss  of  class  is  seldom  complete  in  the  first  genera- 
tion. The  individual  still  keeps  the  attitudes  of  his  class- 
group  and  personal  connection  with  its  members.  Even 
in  the  second,  sometimes  in  the  third,  generation  some 
attitudes  remain,  personal  relations  are  not  completely 
severed,  the  familial  tradition  is  kept  up,  and  the  question  of 
birth  plays  a  role. 

In  this  way,  during  the  last  century-  and  particularly 
during  the  last  fifty  years,  there  has  been  a  continually 
growing  number  of  those  who  have  lost  class,  derived  from 
all  the  social  classes  of  the  old  complicated  hierarchy.  But 
while  a  hundred  years  ago  these  outclassed  individuals 
hung  about  their  old  class  in  some  subordinate  position,  the 


INTRODUCTION  133 

industrial  and  commercial  development  of  the  country  has 
opened  for  them  new  lines  of  activity  and  new  fields  of 
interest,  while  the  progress  of  instruction  and  of  modern 
social  ideology  has  helped  to  construct  new  principles  of 
social  distinction,  class-solidarity,  and  class-hierarchy.  The 
result  is  that  along  with  the  declining,  but  still  strong,  old 
social  organization  there  exists  in  growing  strength  a  new 
organization,  based  upon  quite  different  principles  and 
tending  gradually  to  absorb  the  first. 

An  interesting  feature  of  this  new  organization,  dis- 
tinguishing it  from  parallel  social  structures  in  France, 
Germany,  or  Italy,  is  that  the  principle  of  hierarchization 
is  in  the  first  place  intellectual  achievement,  and  only  in  the 
second  place  wealth,  in  its  modern  forms  of  capital  and 
income.  This  is  due  mainly  to  two  factors.  First,  while 
in  other  societies  the  rich  bourgeoisie,  by  becoming  the 
capitalistic  class  in  the  modern  sense,  constituted  the 
nucleus  of  the  new  hierarchization,  in  Poland  the  old  Polish 
bourgeoisie  was  too  weak  to  play  the  same  role ;  its  number 
was  small,  its  wealth  limited.  Not  only  was  the  town  life 
less  developed  in  Poland  than  in  the  West,  but  the  Polish 
bourgeoisie  had  to  share  its  role  of  capitalistic  class  with  the 
Jews,  who,  being  themselves  outside  of  Polish  society,  could 
not  impose  the  capitalistic  principle  of  social  distinction. 
On  the  contrary,  the  fact  that  the  Jews  were  to  a  large 
extent  representatives  of  the  capitalistic  economy  has 
certainly  helped  to  maintain,  almost  up  to  the  present  time, 
a  certain  contempt  toward  "money-making"  and  the 
attitudes  of  business  in  general.  At  the  same  time,  after 
the  fall  of  Poland  the  conditions  were  not  favorable  for  the 
constitution  of  a  bureaucracy,  except,  to  a  certain  extent,  in 
Galicia.  The  "intellectual  aristocracy"  was  therefore 
almost  unrivaled,  and  succeeded  in  imposing  its  standard 
of  values  upon  the  whole  new  system.     The  second  factor 


; 


1^4  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

wliich  helped  the  intellectual  aristocracy  to  do  this  was  the 
loss  of  political  independence  and  the  subsequent  efforts 
to  keep  the  Polish  culture  in  spite  of  political  oppression. 
Every  intellectual  achievement  appeared  in  this  light  as 
bearing  a  general  national  value.  When  later  the  capital- 
istic class  grew  in  power,  it  had  to  accept,  more  or  less,  either 
the  standard  of  the  new  intellectual  class  or  that  of  the  old 
aristocracy,  and  it  still  hesitates  between  the  two,  but  with 
a  marked  inclination  toward  the  first.  Its  wealth  gives  it 
an  additional  superiority  over  the  intellectual,  not  over  the 
birth,  aristocracy,  and  it  is  easier  to  satisfy  the  intellectual- 
istic  standard  than  that  of  birth.  Thus,  the  new  hierarchy 
gains  in  extension,  while  at  the  same  time  the  intellectual 
criterion  becomes  complicated  by  that  of  wealth.  And 
those  criteria  go  down  to  the  lowest  strata  of  society. 

There  is,  of  course,  a  continual  passage  of  individuals 
from  the  old  hierarchy  to  the  new,  and  on  the  other  hand 
a  growing  infiltration  of  individuals  and  families  of  the 
new  class  into  the  old  class-groups  through  marriage  and 
property.  But  the  old  bourgeoisie  is  already  largely 
amalgamated  with  the  new  class-organization;  the  middle 
nobility  began  to  amalgamate  with  it  some  thirty  or  forty 
years  ago,  and  the  process  is  going  on,  although  rather 
slowly;  the  amalgamation  of  the  peasant  began  in  the 
present  generation.  Only  the  highest  aristocracy  and  the 
peasant  nobility  remain  still  isolated  in  their  class-groups, 
though  losing  members  continually. 

Finally,  the  individually  Polonized  Jews  and  foreigners, 
when  they  settle  in  Poland  and  become  assimilated,  are 
received  into  the  new  organization.  The  same  can  be  said 
of  the  bureaucrats. 

In  this  new  hierarchy  we  can  distinguish  four  classes. 
The  highest  class  is  constituted  by  those  who,  besides  a 
sufficient  degree  of  instruction  (university)  and  an  indispen- 


INTRODUCTION  135 

sable  social  refinement,  have  some  particular  superiority  in 
any  line — wealth,  talent,  very  good  birth,  high  political, 
bureaucratic,  or  social  position.  The  middle  class — the 
essential  part  of  this  hierarchy — is  composed  of  profes- 
sionals: lawyers,  physicians,  professors,  higher  technicians, 
literary  men,  tradesmen  of  middle  fortune,  higher  employees. 
University  instruction  and  a  certain  minimum  of  good 
manners  are,  generally  speaking,  the  criteria  delimiting  this 
class  from  the  lower  middle  class.  The  latter  is  the  most 
important  for  us  in  the  present  connection,  because  it  is 
the  usual  medium  through  which  the  peasant  rises  above 
his  own  class,  for  in  the  old  social  hierarchy  he  could  not  do 
this.  His  old  social  position  corresponds,  in  fact,  somewhat 
to  one  between  the  lower  middle  class  and  the  workman 
class,  and  he  may  now  rise  to  the  one  or  fall  to  the  other. 

In  the  city  the  lower  middle  class  is  composed  of  shop- 
keepers, craftsmen,  lower  post  and  governmental  officials, 
railway  officials,  private  clerks  and  salesmen,  etc.  To  this 
class  in  the  country  belong  manor  officials  (farm-managers, 
stewards,  clerks,  distillers,  foresters) ;  commune  secretaries, 
teachers,  organists;  rich  shopkeepers  and  mill-owners,  etc. 
But  we  must  remember  that  the  criterion  is  not  so  much  the 
position  itself  as  the  degree  of  instruction  which  this  requires 
and  the  average  cultural  level  of  the  men  who  occupy  it,  and 
that  a  man  of  good  birth,  good  manners,  and  higher  instruc- 
tion, even  if  filling  an  inferior  position,  does  not  fall  below 
the  middle  class.  On  the  other  hand,  lack  of  instruction 
and  bad  manners  hardly  permit  even  a  relatively  rich  man 
to  rise  to  the  middle-class  level.  Thus  it  may  happen  that 
a  clerk  belongs  to  a  higher  social  niveau  than  his  employer 
and  is  received  in  circles  which  are  closed  to  the  latter. 

In  the  city  the  lower  middle  class  is  connected  by 
imperceptible  gradations  with  the  working  class  and  in  the 
country  with  that  of  manor  servants;  the  differences  become 


136  rRniARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

smaller  the  lower  the  social  level.  While  education  still 
retains  its  value,  the  kind  of  occupation,  money,  dress,  are 
beginning  to  play  a  more  important  role.  The  criteria 
which  usually  exclude  a  man  definitely  from  the  lower 
middle  class  and  place  him  in  that  of  the  workman  are 
unskilled  labor  and  illiteracy,  though  the  contrary  does  not 
hold  good;  that  is,  an  occupation  requiring  some  special 
skill  or  reading  and  writing  does  not  place  a  man  above  the 
working  class. 

Of  course  all  kinds  of  pauperism  and  vice  declass  a  man 
definitely,  put  him  outside  of  both  the  old  and  the  new 
hierarchy.  Beggars,  tramps,  criminals,  prostitutes,  have 
no  place  in  the  class-hierarchy.  The  same  holds  true  of 
Jews,  except  those  who  are  Polonized,  and  to  some  extent  of 
Polish  servants  in  Jewish  houses.  In  Russian  and  German 
Poland  the  officials  and  the  army  are  outside  of  Polish 
social  life. 

This  system  of  social  distinctions  is  even  more  com- 
plicated than  we  have  here  described  it;  the  distinctions 
become  sometimes  almost  imperceptible,  but  they  are  very 
real,  and  their  influence  in  the  new  hierarchy  is  even  greater 
than  in  the  old,  because  in  the  former  they  stimulate 
uncommonly  the  climbing  tendency.  Under  the  old  system 
progress  in  social  standing  requires  the  collaboration  of  the 
greater  part  of  the  family-group,  is  necessarily  slow,  and 
no  showing-off  can  make  the  individual  appear  as  belonging 
to  a  higher  class  than  his  family,  for  where  his  family  is 
known,  his  social  standing  is  determined,  and  where  it  is 
not  kno\\Ti,  he  has  no  real  social  standing.  Particularly 
since  the  old  class  is  a  plurality  of  class-groups,  unified  by 
territorial  and  professional  solidarity,  and  connected  from 
group  to  group  by  a  feeling  of  identical  traditions  and 
interests  (sometimes  by  intermarriage),  social  advance  is 
essentially  not  passing  into  a  higher  class,  but  rising  within 


INTRODUCTION  137 

the  given  class-group.  The  factors  which  permit  a  family 
to  rise  are  the  development  of  property  along  the  line  of  the 
occupations  of  the  class  (land  in  the  country,  buildings  and 
trade  in  the  town),  practical  intelligence,  moral  integrity, 
and,  in  general,  all  the  qualities  which  assure  an  influence 
upon  the  class-group,  such  as  good  marriages  within  the 
class-group,  familial  solidarity. 

On  the  contrary,  in  the  new  social  organization  an 
individual  (or  marriage-group)  can  rise  alone  and  rapidly. 
He  is  easily  tempted  to  show  off,  to  adopt  the  external 
distinctions  of  the  superior  class  in  order  to  appear  as 
belonging  to  it,  and,  if  he  is  clever  enough,  this  showing- 
off  helps  him  to  rise.  And  the  rise  itself  is  here  essentially 
a  passing  into  the  higher  class,  facilitated  by  the  fact  that 
the  criteria  are  so  complicated  that  the  territorial  or  pro- 
fessional groups  in  this  organization  have  not  the  importance 
of  real  class-groups,  and  that  no  groups  can  have  the 
stability  and  impenetrability  which  the  old  groups  possessed 
before  the  dropping  of  the  familial  principle.  The  factors 
of  climbing  are  here  instruction,  economic  development — 
rather  as  an  increase  of  income  than  as  an  acquisition  of 
property — wit,  tact,  a  certain  refinement  of  manners,  and, 
in  general,  qualities  which  assure,  not  the  influence  upon  a 
given  social  environment,  but  the  adaptation  to  a  new  social 
environment,  including  marriage  above  one's  own  class 
and  breaking  of  familial  solidarity. 

It  is  easy  to  understand  how  this  new,  fluid,  individual- 
istic class-hierarchy,  opening  so  many  possibilities  of  social 
progress,  must  be  attractive  to  the  members  of  a  society 
in  which  the  question  of  social  standing  and  class-distinction 
always  played  an  exceptionally  important  role.  It  has 
i  enough  of  democracy  to  permit  anyone  to  rise  and  enough 
i  of  aristocracy  to  make  the  rise  real.  Particularly  among 
peasants  its  influence  must  be  felt  more  and  more,  as  with 


138  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

the  dismembering  of  land  and  growing  proletarization  of  the 
country  inhabitants  the  possibiHty  of  rising  within  the 
peasant  community  is  closed  for  a  large  part  of  the  young 
generation. 

Since  passing  into  the  new  organization  and  rising  within 
it  involve  a  far-going  modification  of  the  traditional  atti- 
tudes, there  arises  an  estrangement,  and  sometimes  a 
struggle,  between  the  old  and  new  generations,  and  of  this 
we  have  numerous  examples  in  this  and  the  following 
volumes. 

In  general,  the  attitude  of  the  members  of  the  traditional 
class-groups  toward  the  old  and  the  new  class-hierarchy  is 
very  characteristic.  All  the  old  classes,_friMn_  the  highest 
aristocracy  down  to  the  peasant,  are  based,  as  we  have  seen, 
upon  the  same  general  principles,  and  to  this  extent  they 
understand  each  other's  attitudes.  This  understanding  is 
particularly  close  between  country  classes,  where  an  iden- 
tity of  occupation  creates  a  common  universe  of  discourse; 
but  it  is  not  lacking  either  between  the  town  and  country 
population,  wherever  they  meet.  And,  more  than  this, 
even  the  Jew,  although  outside  of  the  Polish  society,  is 
understood  by  the  noble  and  the  peasant  and  understands 
them.  This  understanding  between  the  old  classes  does  not 
exclude  antagonism,  hostility,  and  mistrust  whenever  whole 
groups  are  concerned,  whenever  the  peasant,  the  noble, 
the  Jew,  the  handworker,  meet  upon  the  ground  of  antag- 
onistic class-interests.  But  it  makes  possible  a  curious 
closeness  of  relations  between  individuals  wherever  class- 
antagonisms  are  for  a  shorter  or  longer  time  out  of  the 
question.  And  in  spite  of  all  antagonisms  and  hostihties,  a 
member  of  any  class-group  wants  the  members  of  any  other 
class  to  be  true  and  perfect  representatives  of  their  class- 
spirit,  to  incorporate  fully  all  the  traditional  attitudes  of  the 
class,  including  even  those  which  are  the  basis  of  class- 


INTRODUCTION  139 

antagonisms.  Thus,  the  peasant  wants  the  noble  to  be  a 
lord  in  the  full  sense  of  the  word,  proud  but  humane  and 
just,  living  luxuriously,  unconcerned  about  money,  but  a 
good  farmer;  not  easily  cheated  or  robbed  by  his  servants 
or  even  by  his  peasant  neighbors,  but  consciously  generous, 
conservative,  religious,  etc. — in  a  word,  to  have  those 
features  which,  while  putting  him  at  an  inaccessible  distance 
above  the  peasant,  still  make  him  familiar  and  possible  to 
understand. 

On  the  contrary,  the  members  of  the  old  class-groups 
do  not  understand  at  all  the  new  men.  There  is  no  class- 
antagonism;  on  the  contrary,  in  many  cases  there  is  a 
solidarity  of  interests  which  may  be  even  acknowledged.  In 
spite  of  this,  individual  relations  between  members  of  the 
old  and  the  new  hierarchy  can  hardly  ever  be  very  close, 
except,  of  course,  in  so  far  as  a  member  of  a  new  social  class 
still  keeps  some  attitudes  of  the  old  one,  or  a  member  of 
some  old  class-group  becomes  modernized.  Nor  is  it 
merely  a  matter  of  different  occupations.  A  professional 
who  buys  an  estate,  a  city  worker  who  buys  a  peasant  farm, 
can  hardly  ever  become  quite  intimate  with  any  of  the  old 
inhabitants.  All  this  manifests  itself  curiously,  for  example, 
with  regard  to  the  Jews.  The  Jewish  boycott  of  the  two 
years  preceding  the  war  extended  only  with  great  difficulty 
to  the  country  population,  because  in  many  localities  the 
peasant,  sometimes  even  the  old-type  noble,  understood 
better,  and  felt  himself  nearer  to,  the  Jewish  merchant  of  the 
old  type  than  to  the  more  honest  and  enlightened  Polish 
merchant  of  the  new  class.  But  let  a  rich,  instructed,  even 
christened,  Jew,  belonging  essentially  to  the  new  middle 
class,  buy  an  estate  and  he  will  feel  incomparably  more 
isolated  from  the  Polish  nobility  and  the  Polish  peasant 
than  some  little  old  crass  Jewish  merchant  from  the  neigh- 
boring town. 


I40  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

We  shall  see  in  our  later  volumes  many  and  important 
manifestations  of  the  class-evolution  in  communal  and 
national  life. 

SOCIAL  ENVIRONMENT 

The  family  is  practically  the  only  organized  social  group 
to  which  the  peasant  primarily  belongs  as  an  active  member. 
Outside  of  the  family  his  social  milieu  can  be  divided  into 
two  distinct  and  dissociated  parts:  (i)  a  political  and  social 
organization  in  which  he  does  not  play  an  active  role  and 
of  which  he  does  not  feel  a  member;  and  (2)  a  community 
of  which  he  is  an  active  member,  but  which  is  constituted 
by  a  certain  number  of  groups  whose  internal  unity  is  due 
merely  to  actual  social  intercourse  and  to  an  identity  of 
attitudes.  This  dissociation  is  an  essential  feature  of  the 
original  peasant  social  life;  its  progressive  removal,  the 
constitution  of  organized  groups  of  which  the  peasant 
becomes  an  active  member,  is  the  main  characteristic  of  the 
evolution  of  social  life  which  we  shall  study  in  a  later  volume. 

I.  The  complete  lack  of  political  rights  until  the  end 
of  the  eighteenth  century  made  the  peasant  only  an  object, 
not  a  subject,  of  political  activity.  In  the  process  of  gradual 
liberation  he  has  acquired  some  political  rights — communal 
self-government,  participation  in  elections.  But  at  the 
beginning  he  was  unprepared  to  use  them  and  was  always 
governed  as  before,  and  even  since  he  has  begun  to  partici- 
pate actively  in  political  life  this  participation,  except  in 
Galicia,  has  been  limited  up  to  the  present,  for  the  peasant 
as  for  the  other  Polish  classes,  by  the  political  oppression 
of  the  country.  The  society  developed  some  equivalent  of 
an  independent  state-organization,  as  we  shall  see  later,  but 
only  in  German  Poland  is  the  peasant  a  fully  active  element 
of  this  organization,  while  in  Russian  Poland  he  is  only  on 
the  way  to  it.     And  since  in  Russian  Poland  political  rights 


INTRODUCTION  141 

have  always  been  more  limited  than  anywhere  else,  the  old 
attitude  toward  the  state  is  there  preserved  in  the  most 
typical  form.  This  attitude  can  perhaps  be  best  compared 
with  the  attitude  toward  the  natural  order  on  one  hand,  and 
toward  the  divine  order  on  the  other;  it  is  intermediary 
between  the  two.  The  political  order  appears  to  a  certain 
extent  as  an  impersonal  and  a  moral  power,  absolutely 
mysterious,  whose  manifestations  can  possibly  be  foreseen, 
but  whose  nature  and  laws  cannot  be  changed  by  human 
interference.  But  this  order  has  also  another  side,  more 
comprehensible  but  more  unforeseen,  with  some  moral  char- 
acter, that  is,  capable  of  being  just  or  unjust  and  of  be- 
ing influenced;  in  this  respect  it  is  the  exact  parallel  of 
the  divine  world.  The  bearers  of  political  power  whom  the 
peasant  meets  are  men,  and  their  executive  activity  can  be 
directed  within  certain  limits  by  gifts  or  supplication,  or 
they  can  be  moved  to  intercede  before  those  higher  ones 
whom  the  peasant  seldom  meets,  who  are  more  powerful 
and  more  mysterious,  but  still  in  some  measure  human  and 
accessible.  Above  them  all  is  the  emperor,  less  human  than 
divine,  capable  of  being  moved  but  seldom,  if  ever,  directly 
accessible,  all-powerful  but  not  all-knowing.  This  whole 
system,  this  combination  of  impersonal  power  and  half- 
religious  hierarchy,  evidently  permits  a  certain  explanation 
of  everything,  but  excludes  absolutely  any  idea  of  political 
activity.  The  peasant  can  accept  only  passively  whatever 
happens  and  rejoice  or  grieve.  He  does  not  always  even 
feel  able  to  praise  or  to  blame,  for  a  given  fact  may  be  the 
expression  of  the  impersonal  power  as  well  as  of  the  person- 
alities, and  even  in  the  latter  case  he  does  not  know  whom 
to  praise  or  to  blame.  Usually  he  tries  to  interpret  every- 
thing more  favorably  for  the  higher,  less  favorably  for  the 
lower,  personalities,  because  this  always  leaves  some  way 
out  of  pessimism;    the  higher  personalities  may  not  have 


142  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

known  the  situation;  when  they  know  it,  they  will  change 
the  oppressive  measures  or  show  themselves  the  peasant's 
benefactors.  The  unhmited  power  ascribed  to  the  state 
and  the  m}'ster}^  with  which  its  leaders  are  surrounded  in 
the  peasant's  imagination  make  him  cherish  often  the  most 
absurd  hopes  or  give  way  sometimes  to  the  most  absurd 
fears.  For  even  if  the  leaders  are  accessible  to  such  motives 
as  the  peasant  understands,  they  have  besides  an  unlimited 
sphere  of  unknown  motives  and  plans,  exactly  as  it  is  with 
God.  Therefore  in  the  state  as  viewed  by  the  peasant  there 
is  a  self-contradictory  combination  of  an  impersonal  regu- 
larity, incorporated  in  the  habitual  functions,  and  of  almost 
whimsical  change.  Being  a  superhuman  order,  it  is  at  the 
same  time  a  source  of  unlimited  possibilities. 

All  this  explains  the  traditional  loyalty  of  the  peasant 
and  makes  us  understand  at  the  same  time  in  what  ways  this 
loyalty  disappears.  The  first  step  is  usually  connected  with 
a  change  of  the  habitual  valuations.  The  source  of  evil  is 
placed  higher  and  higher,  until  finally,  as  often  in  Russian 
Poland,  the  tsar  is  conceived  as  being  practically  parallel 
with,  and  similar  to,  Satan.  The  unlimited  possibilities 
included  in  the  state  become  fundamentally  possibilities  of 
evil;  the  good  comes  only  incidentally,  as  a  consequence 
of  an  imperfect  realization  of  the  evil,  due  to  the  fact  that 
the  lower  personalities  in  the  state-hierarchy  are  more 
human.  Their  human  character  acquires  a  positive  value; 
it  is  still  weakness,  but  weakness  in  evil,  resulting  from  an 
accessibility  to  the  motives  of  ordinary^  interest  (as  in 
accepting  bribes),  and  sometimes  even  to  good  feelings. 
Then  comes  the  second  step — the  development  of  a  half- 
mystical  faith  that  this  empire  of  evil  can  be  broken  and  a 
new  and  perfect  organization  established  in  its  place,  not 
indeed  with  the  ordinary  human  forces  alone,  but  with  the 
supernatural  help  of  God  or  by  the  half -supernatural  powers 


INTRODUCTION  143 

of  other  states,  of  "the  people,"  of  "the  proletariat,"  etc. 
This  is  the  typical  psychological  path  of  revolution  in  the 
lower  classes. 

The  other  way  is  that  of  a  progressive  growth  of  the 
peasant's  positive  or  negative  part  in  the  state — ^participa- 
tion in  state-activities  and  organized  struggle  with  the 
government  within  legal  limits.  A  real  understanding  of 
the  state-organization,  sufficient  for  practical  purposes,  dis- 
solves the  mystical  attitudes,  while  at  the  same  time  the 
development  of  a  national  consciousness  makes  loyalty  to 
an  oppressive  state  appear  as  national  treason.  This  evolu- 
tion has  begun  in  Russian  Poland  and  is  nearly  completed 
in  German  Poland. 

Besides  the  state,  the  two  other  organized  social  groups 
of  which  the  peasant  is  a  member  are  the  commune  and  the 
parish.  In  both  he  was  passive  for  a  long  time.  Although 
the  commune  is  based  upon  the  principle  of  self-government, 
its  freedom  is  often  limited  by  administrative  measures 
of  the  state,  and  in  the  beginning  the  peasant  was  hardly 
able  to  use  his  liberty  even  within  these  limits.  The 
commune  was  in  fact  governed  by  the  secretary,  who  knew 
the  formal  side  of  administration,  and  in  many  communes 
this  situation  lasts  up  to  the  present.  As  to  the  parish,  the 
priest  was  all-powerful,  not  only  in  fact,  but  to  a  great 
extent  also  in  form,  and  up  to  the  present  in  many  parishes 
the  peasants  can  hardly  get  an  account  of  the  money  which 
they  give.  It  is  not  so  much  dishonesty  on  the  part  of  the 
priests,  many  of  whom  are  really  disinterested,  as  the  expres- 
sion of  the  principle  of  patriarchal  government,  the  influence 
of  the  idea  that  any  control  would  be  harmful  to  the  priest's 
authority.  The  struggle  for  active  participation  in  the 
commune  and  the  parish  organization  is  one  of  the  important 
points  in  the  actual  evolution  of  the  peasant's  social  life, 
particularly  in  Russian  Poland. 


144  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

Finally,  the  same  i^assivity  characterized  the  peasant's 
part  in  ccont>niic  lite.  Well  adapted  to  the  old  conditions 
of  the  local  farming  economy,  he  stood  powerless,  ignorant 
and  isolated  in  face  of  the  great  economic  phenomena  of 
the  external  world,  and  even  in  face  of  the  small  and  informal 
Jewish  economic  organizations  of  the  neighboring  town. 
In  this  line  his  present  evolution  is  most  rapid  and  is  particu- 
larly important  in  its  psychological  consequences. 

2.  The  social  environment  to  which  the  peasant  is 
primarily  adapted,  within  which  he  is  active  and  lives  his 
every'day  life,  is  the  i)artly  coincident  primary  groups — the 
village,  the  parish,  and  the  commune.  These  are  here 
treated,  not  as  organized  administrative  units,  but  as 
collectivities,  loosely  unified  by  personal  interrelations 
among  their  members,  by  a  certain  identity  of  interests  which 
does  not  as  a  rule  give  birth  to  common  activities,  by 
periodical  meetings,  through  which  the  particular  kind  of 
solidarity  developed  for  a  short  time  in  a  mob  is  perpetuated 
as  a  psychological  deposit.  To  this  environment  we  must 
add  the  neighboring  town,  a  part  of  whose  inhabitants  the 
peasant  knows  mainly  through  business  relations,  and  the 
neighboring  parishes  and  communes,  whose  inhabitants  he 
occasionally  meets  at  fairs  and  parish  festivals.  The 
Polish  popular  term  corresponding  to  this  undetermined 
environment,  with  which  the  individual  or  the  family  has 
close  or  remote,  but  always  immediate,  relations,  is  okolica, 
"  the  countr}'  around,"  both  in  the  topographic  and  in  the 
social  sense.  In  the  latter  sense  we  shall  use  the  term 
"community." 

Of  course  the  circle  of  the  community  widens  with  the 
facilities  of  communication  and  the  frequency  of  social 
intercourse,  but  there  is  always  a  criterion  which  enables 
us  to  determine  its  farthest  limits:  It  reaches  as  far  as  the 
social  opinion  about  the  individual  or  the  family  reaches. 


INTRODUCTION  145 

Social  opinion  is  the  common  factor  which  holds  the  com- 
munity together,  besides  and  above  all  the  particularities 
which  unify  various  parts  of  the  community,  individuals,  or 
smaller  groups  with  each  other,  and  it  is  the  only  indispen- 
sable factor.  Occasionally  there  may  arise  a  local  interest 
which  provokes  some  common,  more  or  less  organized,  action, 
usually  of  an  economic  nature.  But  this  faculty  of  common 
action  shows  that  the  old  community  has  already  risen  to  a 
new  level,  and  is  again  one  of  the  marked  points  of  the 
present  social  evolution  of  the  peasant.  The  peasant 
community  subsisted  for  centuries  independent  of  common 
action  and  lacked  any  organization,  even  a  transitory  one. 

The  manner  in  which  social  opinion  holds  the  community 
together  is  easily  analyzed.  Any  extraordinary  occurrence 
becomes  for  a  certain  time  the  focus  of  attention  of  all 
the  members  of  the  community,  an  identical  attitude  toward 
this  is  developed,  and  each  member  of  the  community  is 
conscious  that  he  shares  the  general  attitude  or  that  his 
attitude  is  shared  by  the  rest  of  the  community.  These  are 
the  three  original  elements  of  the  mechanism  of  social 
opinion:  the  phenomenon,  the  identity  of  attitude,  and  the 
consciousness  of  this  identity. 

First  of  all,  the  social  unity  of  the  community  depends 
upon  the  frequency  with  which  social  opinion  has  the 
opportunity  to  manifest  itself.  This  is  inversely  pro- 
portional to  the  size  of  the  group  and  directly  proportional 
to  the  number  of  relatively  important  phenomena  occurring 
in  it.  In  the  community  the  number  of  phenomena  suffi- 
ciently important  to  occupy  the  social  opinion  is,  of  course, 
much  more  limited  than  in  the  parish  or  commune,  in  the 
parish  more  limited  than  in  the  village.  But  in  any  given 
group  the  number  increases  with  the  increase  of  the  sphere 
of  interests  of  the  members.  When,  for  example,  in  some 
village  an  agricultural  association  has  bought  a  new  machine, 


i4(>  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

or  a  milk  association  has  had  an  exceptionally  large  amount 
of  milk,  the  whole  community  learns  of  it  and  talks  about  it. 
The  awakening  of  national  and  political  interests  has  the 
same  elTect,  as  many  phenomena  occurring  within  the  com- 
numit\-  assume  a  new  importance  from  those  points  of  view. 
Finall\-,  a  very  important  factor  is  added  by  the  press. 
Through  it  phenomena  from  the  external  world — ^first  onh- 
those  which  have  or  seem  to  have  some  relation  with  the 
interests  prevailing  among  the  members  of  the  community, 
then  also  those  which  arouse  a  purely  intellectual  interest — 
are  brought  into  the  focus  of  social  opinion,  are  talked 
about,  more  or  less  identical  attitudes  are  developed  with 
regard  to  them,  etc. 

But  with  the  introduction  of  these  new  phenomena, 
particularly  the  external  ones,  social  opinion  loses  a  character 
that  it  possessed  eminently  in  more  primitive  conditions- 
its  reliability.  In  a  primary  group,  w^th  steady  components, 
with  a  form  of  life  relatively  simple  and  changing  \'ery 
slowly,  with  a  close  connection  between  its  members, 
mistakes  in  the  perception  or  interpretation  of  an  interesting 
fact  are  relatively  rare,  and  gossip  is  usually  as  well  moti- 
vated as  it  can  be.  The  peasant  is  a  keen  observer  within 
the  sphere  of  his  normal  environment,  for  good  observation 
is  there  a  condition  of  practical  success,  and  he  knows  his 
environment  well  enough  to  interpret  exactly  the  observed 
data.  So  those  who  start  a  piece  of  gossip  are  usually  sure 
of  their  fact,  and  those  who  hear  it  know  enough  to  be 
critical,  to  distinguish  between  the  probable  and  the  improb- 
able. And  deliberately  false  gossip  incurs  a  strong  censure 
of  social  opinion.  Of  course  interpretation  and  criticism  are 
exerted  from  the  standpoint  of  tradition,  and  nothing  can 
prevent  errors  resulting  from  false  traditional  behefs; 
accusations  of  magic  are  a  classical  example.  From  oiir_ 
point  of  view,  therefore,  many  expressions  of  the  peasant's 


INTRODUCTION  147 

social  opinion  are  partly  false.  But  they  prove  true  as  soon 
as  the  tradition  of  the  peasant  community  is  taken  into 
account;  for  example,  in  normal  conditions  only  those  are 
accused  of  magic  who  really  try  to  exert  it.  The  error  lies 
in  the  whole  system  of  beliefs,  not  in  the  interpretation  of 
a  particular  fact  from  the  standpoint  of  this  system. 

But  when  a  phenomenon  of  a  new  and  hitherto  unknown 
kind  appears  in  the  focus  of  social  attention,  the  old 
mechanism  fails  at  once.  Observation  becomes  incomplete, 
the  fact  distorted  by  old  mental  habits;  interpretation  is 
hazardous  and  real  criticism  impossible,  because  there  is 
no  ready  criterion  of  the  probable  and  improbable.  And 
particularly  if  such  a  new  fact  occurs,  and  the  gossip  ori- 
ginates outside  of  the  community,  the  disorientation  of 
social  opinion  is  complete.  Any  absurdity  may  circulate 
and  be  generally  accepted.^  Of  course  this  is  due,  not  only 
to  the  impossibility  of  tracing  the  gossip  to  its  source  and 

1  the  difficulty  of  verification,  but  also  to  the  general  mental 
attitude  of  the  peasant  who,  once  outside  of  his  normal 

■  conditions,  faces  the  world  as  an  unlimited  sphere  of  incal- 

!  culable  possibilities.^ 

I       We  have  spoken  of  an  identity  of  attitudes,  developed  by 

I  the  members  of  a  community  with  regard  to  the  socially 
interesting  phenomenon.  In  fact,  this  identity  is  a  neces- 
sary condition  of  social  opinion  and  it  becomes  more  perfect 

!  when  social  opinion  is  once  formed,  in  view  of  the  pressure 
which  this  exerts  on  the  individual.     Were  it  not  for  this 

■  Thus,  during  the  emigration  to  Parana  in  1910-12,  in  many  eastern  isolated 
communities  the  legend  was  circulated  that  Parana  up  to  that  time  was  covered 
with  mist,  and  nobody  knew  of  its  existence.  But  the  Virgin  Mary,  seeing  the 
misery  of  Polish  peasants,  dispelled  the  mist  and  told  them  to  come  and  settle.  Or 
a  variant:  When  the  mist  was  raised,  all  the  kings  and  emperors  of  the  earth  came 
together  and  drew  lots  to  decide  who  should  take  the  new  land.  Three  times  they 
drew,  and  always  the  Pope  won.  Then  the  Pope,  at  the  instigation  of  the  Virgin 
Mary,  gave  the  land  to  the  Polish  peasants. 

'  See  Religious  Attitudes  and  Theoretic  and  Esthetic  Interests. 


148  rRTMARV-GROUr  ORGANIZATION 

pressure,  unanimity  of  social  appreciation  could  hardly  be 
attained  as  often  as  it  is,  in  view  of  the  frequent  divergence 
of  individual  and  familial  interests  in  a  given  case.  The 
main  factor  in  establishing  this  uniformity  and  in  enforcing 
it  in  spite  of  individual  disagreement  is  tradition.  The 
attitude  to  be  taken  with  regard  to  any  phenomenon  of  a 
definite  class  is  predetermined  by  tradition,  and  an  individual 
who  took  a  different  attitude  would  be  a  rebel  against 
tradition  and  in  this  character  would  himself  become  a 
socially  interesting  phenomenon,  an  object  instead  of  a 
subject  of  social  opinion,  and  in  fact  an  object  of  the 
most  unfavorable  criticism.  But  there  comes  eventually  a 
progressive  dissolution  of  tradition,  and  at  the  same  time 
an  increase  in  the  number  of  phenomena  which  cannot  be 
included  in  any  of  traditional  categories,  either  because  they 
are  quite  new  or  because  the  new  interests  which  have  arisen 
in  the  community  throw  a  new  light  upon  old  classes  of 
phenomena.  And  the  result  is  a  dissociation  of  attitudes 
within  the  community,  a  formation  of  opposite  camps,  more 
or  less  durable,  sometimes  even  a  struggle,  usually  leading 
to  some  crude  beginnings  of  organization.  If  the  divergent 
attitudes  assume  steady  directions,  if  they  remain  divergent 
with  regard  to  many  new  phenomena  and  thus  point  back 
to  certain  profound  social  changes  going  on  within  the 
community,  the  latter  may  split  into  tw^o  or  more  parties, 
which  may  in  turn  join  some  larger  organizations.  But  all 
this  does  not  mean  that  the  community  is  dissolved.  As 
long  as  the  same  phenomena  arouse  social  interest,  it  is 
a  proof  that  behind  a  diversity  of,  or  even  opposition  in, 
details  there  is  an  identity  of  general  attitudes,  and  it  is 
with  regard  to  this  identity  that  the  community  still 
remains  one  group;  only  its  unity  is  weakened,  because  the 
stock  of  common  traditions  is  poorer  and  the  unanimity 
incomplete.     A  complete  division  of  the  community  would 


INTRODUCTION  149 

occur  only  if  every  identity  of  interests  disappeared,  if  its 
members  belonged  to  completely  different  social  organiza- 
tions, which  would  respectively  absorb  and  satisfy  all  their 
social  tendencies.  This  state  of  things  is  approximately 
realized  where  different  nationalities  live  together — Poles 
with  Russians  or  Germans,  much  less  so  with  Jews/ 

The  third  element  of  social  opinion — the  consciousness 
of  the  attitudes  of  others — is  mainly  kept  up  by  all  kinds  of 
social  meetings.  While  individual  conversation  and  the 
communication  of  news  favor  the  development  of  identical 
attitudes,  its  action  is  neither  strong  nor  rapid  enough  when 
taken  alone  to  make  the  social  opinion  self-conscious.  The 
meeting  not  only  shortens  the  process  of  communication, 
but,  thanks  to  the  immediate  influence  of  the  group  upon 
the  individual,  is  the  most  powerful  medium  through 
which  social  tradition  is  applied  to  each  case  and  an  iden- 
tical attitude  elaborated  and  enforced  upon  the  members. 
Through  frequent  meetings  a  village  can  develop  a  certain 
(of  course  limited)  originality  of  attitudes  which  gives  it  a 
particular  social  physiognomy.  Through  meetings  also 
a  village  may  be  much  more  closely  connected  with  some 
distant  village  belonging  to  the  same  parish  than  with  a  near 
one  which  belongs  to  another  parish,  even  if  individual 
intercourse  with  the  second  is  more  animated  than  with  the 
first.  The  commune,  before  it  became  a  real  social  organiza- 
tion, had  incomparably  less  unity  than  the  parish,  because 
general  meetings  were  rare  and  included  only  a  part  of  the 
population  (men  farmers).  The  connection  with  people 
of  other  parishes  and  communes  is  mainly  due  to  meetings — 
fairs,  parish  festivals,  etc. 

Among  the  more  intelligent  the  popular  press  plays  the 
same  part  as  the  meeting ;  the  correspondence  or  the  article 

'  The  latter  case  presents  this  particularity,  that  Jewish  social  opinion  is  much 
more  concerned  with  phenomena  going  on  among  tlie  Poles  than  reciprocally — 
evidently  because  of  the  economic  interests  of  the  Jews. 


I50  TRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

permits  the  communication  of  the  event  and  of  the  attitude 
toward  it,  and  the  printed  word  has  the  same  influence  as 
the  expressed  opinion  of  the  group,  because  it  is  impHcitly 
assumed  to  be  the  expression  of  social  opinion.  There  are 
certainly  essential  differences  between  the  meeting  and  the 
paper  with  regard  to  the  mechanism  by  which  social  opinion 
is  elaborated;  the  relation  between  the  individual  and  the 
group  is  immediate  in  the  first  case,  mediate  in  the  second, 
and  through  the  paper  the  individual  as  well  as  the  com- 
munity enters  into  relation  with  the  external  world.  But 
the  function  of  the  Polish  popular  paper,  which  we  shall 
study  in  the  fourth  volume,  can  be  clearly  understood  only 
if  we  take  it  in  connection  with  the  social  opinion  of  the 
community. 

The  nature  of  the  influence  of  social  opinion  upon  the 
individual  who  is  its  object  is  rather  complicated.  First 
of  all,  it  seems  that  for  the  Polish  peasant  in  general  it  is 
rather  pleasant  to  be  the  focus  of  public  attention,  apart 
from  the  cause  of  it;  even  if  this  cause  is  indifferent  from 
the  standpoint  of  personal  value  and  public  attention 
involves  no  admiration,  it  still  brings  a  pleasant  excitement. 
This  would  explain  to  a  great  extent,  for  example,  the  usual 
vehement  display  of  grief,  even  if  we  recognize  the  tradi- 
tional element  in  it.  The  excitement  of  departure  to 
militar}'  service  or  to  America  contains  certainly  some  of 
this  pleasure;  still  more  the  excitement  of  return  with 
anticipation  of  public  admiration.  But  certainly  this 
pleasure  never  goes  so  far  as  to  neutralize  the  feeling  of 
shame  at  being  the  object  of  intense  public  blame,  as  it 
sometimes  does  in  city  criminals.  On  the  contrary^  the 
negative  influence  of  public  blame  in  criminal  matters  goes 
so  far  that  suspicion  of  crime,  just  or  unjust,  is  one  of  the^ 
most  important  causes  of  suicide.  Another  intensely  felt 
pubUc  disgrace  is  that  which  follows  ruin  and  the  declassing 


INTRODUCTION  151 

which  accompanies  it.  Not  less  intense  is  the  shame  brought 
to  a  girl  by  the  discovery  of  her  misconduct.  But  if 
this  misconduct  consists,  not  in  actual  sexual  intercourse 
(particularly  if  followed  by  the  birth  of  a  child),  but  in  a 
far-going  flirtation  with  many  boys,  the  distress  of  incurring 
public  blame  is  neutralized  by  the  pleasure  of  having  much 
success  with  the  boys.  Finally,  there  is  one  matter  in  which 
the  peasant  universally  dislikes  publicity  in  whatever  form; 
it  is  the  matter  of  conjugal  relations.  But,  generally 
speaking,  the  desire  of  showing  off  is  a  much  more  powerful 
factor  in  the  peasant's  behavior  than  the  fear  of  shame. 
People  who,  by  rising  above,  or  falling  below,  the  normal 
level  of  the  community,  have  learned  to  disregard  public 
blame  still  show  themselves  very  susceptible  to  public 
appreciation.  The  peasant's  vanity  does  not  require  for 
its  satisfaction  explicit  public  praise;  the  general  pleasure 
of  attracting  attention  is  adequate.  It  may  even  adjust 
itself  to  a  moderate  amount  of  blame,  for  which  the  peasant 
has  a  ready  explanation:  they  calumniate  because  they 
envy.  And  certainly  this  explanation  is  often  true.  In  a 
community  where  everybody  wants  more  or  less  to  be  the 
object  of  general  attention  anybody  who  succeeds  in  this 
aim  becomes  in  so  far  an  object  of  envy.  We  may  add  that 
envy  of  notoriety  is  probably  much  stronger  than  envy  of 
economic  well-being,  and  success  in  any  line  is  appreciated 
at  least  as  much  for  the  public  admiration  which  it  attracts 
as  for  itself. 

Behind  this  actual  machinery  of  the  action  of  public 
opinion  there  may  perhaps  still  remain  some  profound, 
unconscious  vestiges  of  forgotten  motives,  consisting  in  the 
belief  in  an  immediate,  useful  or  harmful  influence  of  the 
appreciation  expressed  in  words.  But  we  have  no  data 
which  would  clearly  require  the  use  of  this  magical  explana- 
tion. 


152  rRIMARY-GROUr  ORGANIZATION 

The  influence  of  social  opinion  upon  the  single  individual 
is  only  one  side  of  the  question;  we  must  also  take  into 
consideration  its  effects  upon  a  smaller  group  within  the 
community.     Here  the  problem  is  more  complicated. 

The  starting-point  is  the  internal  and  what  we  may  call 
the  external  solidarity  of  every  social  group,  in  the  face  of 
the  opinion  of  its  social  environment.  The  internal  solidar- 
ity consists  in  the  fact  that  every  member  feels  affected  by 
the  opinion  expressed  about  his  group,  and  the  group  is 
affected  by  the  opinion  expressed  about  any  one  of  its 
members.  The  external  solidarity — that  is,  the  solidarity 
enforced  from  without — is  manifested  in  the  tendency  of 
every  community  to  generalize  the  opinion  about  an  individ- 
ual by  applying  it  to  the  narrower  social  group  of  which  this 
individual  is  a  member,  and  to  particularize  the  opinion 
about  a  social  group  by  applying  it  to  every  member  of  this 
group. 

It  is  quite  natural  that  in  all  matters  involving  social 
blame  the  external  solidarity  imposed  by  the  environment 
is  usually  the  condition  of  the  internal  solidarity  of  the 
group  itself.  The  opinion  of  the  environment  often  makes 
the  group  responsible  for  its  members  even  if  there  is  feeble 
unity  in  this  group,  and  practically  obliges  it  to  become 
soUdary,  either  by  reacting  together  against  the  environ- 
ment or  by  enforcing  upon  every  member  compliance  with 
the  environment's  demand.  Thus,  when  in  a  village  some 
people  begin  to  develop  a  certain  vice,  the  rest  of  the 
inhabitants  cannot  throw  the  responsibility  upon  the  guilty 
members  alone,  for  the  opinion  of  the  community  will  always 
accuse  the  whole  group  without  discrimination.  So  they 
have  either  to  interfere  with  the  guilty  members  or  to 
accept  the  judgment  and  make  the  best  of  it.  The  latter 
course  is  sometimes  taken,  and  the  result  may  be  that  the 
vice  becomes  general  in  the  village.     There  are,  for  example, 


INTRODUCTION  153 

villages  notorious  for  theft,  drinking,  card-playing,  etc. 
Besides  imitation,  there  has  been  in  such  cases  also  a  passive 
resignation  and  acceptance  of  the  vox  populi,  after  a  vain 
struggle,  and  a  subsequent  adaptation  to  the  bad  opinion. 
The  priests  know  very  well  how  to  deal  with  such  cases. 
When  a  vice  is  only  beginning  to  develop  in  a  village,  they 
proclaim  it  publicly  from  the  chancel  and  brand  the  whole 
village,  without  discrimination.  In  this  way  they  get  the 
collaboration  of  the  greater  part  of  the  inhabitants  in  their 
struggle  against  the  vice.  But  if  a  village  has  long  been 
notorious  for  some  vice,  the  priest  proclaims  publicly  the 
slightest  improvement  in  order  to  show  the  possibility  of 
changing  the  bad  name. 

The  unorganized  social  group  usually  lacks,  of  course, 
the  most  efficient  arms  against  the  members  who  bring 
shame  upon  it,  namely,  exclusion.  In  some  cases  this  is 
attempted,  more  or  less  successfully,  but  then  the  group 
organizes  itself  temporarily  in  view  of  this  particular  end. 
It  is  possible  for  the  individual  to  disclaim  solidarity  with 
an  ill-famed  unorganized  group  by  leaving  it,  but  this 
again  does  not  happen  frequently,  because  the  individual, 
supported  by  his  narrower  group,  feels  less  strongly  the 
blame  of  the  wider  community.  This  process  of  enforcing 
solidarity  upon  the  group  by  the  social  environment  is 
frequently  repeated,  on  a  larger  scale,  when  a  community 
is  blamed  in  the  newspapers  for  the  acts  of  some  of  its 
members.  We  find  it,  also,  in  a  somewhat  different  form, 
when  in  some  intellectually  isolated  community  on  the 
ethnographical  limits  of  Poland  national  solidarity  is 
awakened  by  the  blame  of  foreigners,  for  example,  in  German 
Poland. 

The  contrary  process,  when  the  group  acquires  solidarity 
in  the  eyes  of  the  larger  community  by  enforcing  its  own 
claims  to  this  solidarity,  is,  of  course,  found  only  in  matters 


154  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

involving  social  praise;  the  group  wants  recognition  on 
account  of  the  social  prominence  of  its  members,  the 
individual  wants  recognition  as  member  of  a  social  prominent 
group.  This  is  the  well-known  mechanism  of  familial, 
local,  national,  pride.  We  have  to  distinguish  this  mechan- 
ism, which  is  possible  also  in  an  organized  group  but  does  not 
require  organization,  from  the  other,  by  which  the  organized 
group  demands  recognition  on  account  of  its  social  function, 
as  a  whole ;  we  shall  meet  this  problem  later  on. 

How  does  the  individual  free  himself  from  the  influence 
of  social  opinion  ?  As  we  have  already  noted,  the  Polish 
peasant  rids  himself  more  easily  of  the  dread  of  social  blame 
than  of  the  attraction  of  social  praise.  But,  making  allow- 
ance for  this  difference,  we  find  that  there  is  already  in  the 
primitive  peasant  psychology  a  germ  of  independence  of 
social  opinion  which,  under  favorable  circumstances,  can 
develop.  We  have  seen  that  originally  conjugal  life  is,  at 
least  in  part,  out  of  the  reach  of  public  intrusion.  There  is, 
in  general,  a  tendency,  particularly  among  men,  to  resent 
intrusions  of  the  community  into  family  matters;  this 
tendency  increases  usually  with  the  growing  importance  of 
the  man  within  the  family-group  and  reaches  its  highest 
stage  in  old  heads  of  the  family  before  their  resignation. 
Besides  this,  the  peasant  frequently  likes  to  keep  secret 
all  those  personal  matters  which  would  not  attract  a  particu- 
larly favorable  attention  of  the  community.  And  the  same 
is  often  done  under  the  influence  of  his  desire  for  pubhcity; 
he  likes  to  prepare  carefully  his  effects  in  order  to  make  them 
unexpected  and  as  striking  as  possible.  This  aiming  at 
great  effects  makes  him  often  disregard  or  even  encourage 
social  blame  for  some  time  and  to  some  extent  in  order  to 
make  the  contrast  stronger;  he  may  even  be  dissatisfied  with 
social  praise  if  it  comes  before  his  own  chosen  moment 
and  spoils  his  effect.     In  this  way  his  ambition  itself  teaches 


INTRODUCTION  155 

him  to  disregard  to  some  extent  public  opinion  and  helps 
to  find  a  particular  pleasure  in  the  contrast  between  his 
own  economic,  moral,  intellectual  value  and  the  erroneous 
appreciation  of  social  opinion.  Back  of  this  all  the  while 
is  the  idea  that  a  day  will  come  when  he  will  show  his  real 
value  and  astonish  the  community. 

These  psychological  features  make  easier  the  real  process 
of  liberation,  which  usually  comes  when  the  peasant  becomes 
a  member  of  some  group  whose  opinion  differs  more  or  less 
from  that  of  the  community.  Sharing  the  views  of  this  new 
group  and  feeling  more  or  less  backed  by  it,  he  learns  to  rise 
above  the  community  and  to  disregard  the  traditions.  This 
process  is  facilitated  by  his  leaving  the  community,  going 
to  a  city  or  to  America.  But  it  goes  on  also  among  those 
who  stay  within  the  traditional  group.  In  fact,  all  the 
recent  changes  of  the  peasants'  views  are  taking  this  direc- 
tion. When  once  a  small  circle  of  "enlightened"  peasants 
is  formed  in  a  community,  the  further  movement  becomes 
much  easier.  The  social  workers  in  the  country  under- 
stand this  necessity  of  opposing  a  group  to  the  group- 
influence  and  always  try  to  organize  a  "progressive  circle," 
even  the  smallest  one.  When  reading  is  developed,  it  often 
suffices  for  the  individual  to  communicate  by  letters  or  by 
print  with  some  group  outside  of  his  community  in  order  to 
feel  strong  enough  to  oppose  the  prevailing  opinion.  Some 
popular  papers  have  therefore  organized  loose  associations 
of  the  adherents  of  some  movement,  who  communicate  with 
one  another  through  the  paper.  But,  even  in  the  cases  of 
an  almost  perfect  liberation  from  the  pressure  of  the  imme- 
diate environment,  there  is  a  latent  hope  that  some  day 
the  community  will  acknowledge  the  value  of  the  new  ideas 
and  of  their  bearers. 

At  present  the  unorganized  social  environment  of 
the  peasant  is  itself  undergoing  a  profound  evolution,  in 


156  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

connection  with  a  modification  of  the  traditional  class- 
hierarchy.  The  constitution,  the  criteria,  the  interests  of 
public  opinion,  arc  changing  very  rapidly,  and  the  reac- 
tion of  the  individual  to  the  influence  of  this  changing 
environment,  without  being  necessarily  either  weakened  or 
strengthened,  is  changing  qualitatively,  in  connection  with 
the  formation  of  new  social  classes. 

ECONOMIC   LIFE' 

Among  the  Polish  peasants  we  find  three  coexisting 
stages  of  economic  development  with  their  accompanying 
mental  attitudes :  (i)  the  survival  of  the  old  family  economy, 
in  which  economic  values  are  still  to  a  large  extent  qualita- 
tive, not  yet  subordinated  to  the  idea  of  quantity,  and  the 
dominant  attitude  is  the  interest  in  getting  a  good  living, 
not  the  tendency  to  get  rich;  (2)  the  spontaneously  devel- 
oped stage  of  individual  economy,  marked  by  a  quantifi- 
cation of  economic  values  and  a  corresponding  tendency 
to  make  a  fortune  or  to  increase  it;  (3)  the  stage  of  co- 
operation, developing  mainly  under  external  influences,  in 
which  economic  values  and  attitudes  are  subordinated  to  the 
moral  point  of  view. 

To  be  sure,  these  types  are  seldom  realized  in  their  pure 
form  in  concrete  groups  or  individuals;  some  attitudes  of  a 
lower  stage  may  persist  on  a  higher  level.  It  happens  that 
social  individualism  develops  under  influences  other  than 
economic,  while  the  economic  attitudes  logically  correspond- 
ing to  it  are  not  yet  realized.     Or  the  familial  attitude  may 

'  In  addition  to  first-hand  materials,  including  a  report  on  season-emigration 
made  by  one  of  the  authors  at  the  request  of  the  Central  Agricultural  Association 
of  the  Kingdom  of  Poland  to  the  Russian  Minister  of  Agriculture,  some  data  from 
the  following  works  have  been  used  in  writing  this  chapter:  Wladyslaw  Grabski, 
Materyaly  w  sprawie  wioscianskiej ;  Franciszek  Bujak,  Zmiqca  (a  particularly 
important  monograph  of  a  village),  and  Limanowa;  Jan  Slomka,  Pami^iniki 
wloscianina. 


INTRODUCTION  157 

be  kept  by  men  or  groups  who  in  economic  life  adapt  them- 
selves to  individualistic  attitudes  and  valuations  while  their 
family-group  behaves  economically  like  an  individual  or  a 
marriage-group.  We  have  thus  many  mixed  forms,  some 
of  which  will  be  found  in  our  present  materials.  But  their 
distinctive  feature  is  their  instability;  the  discrepant  ele- 
ments which  they  contain  lead  soon  to  their  disappearance. 
They  are  interesting  only  as  showing  the  way  in  which 
evolution  goes  on. 

I.  In  the  first  stage  all  the  categories  of  economic  life 
have  a  distinctly  sociological  character.  The  economic 
generalization  based  upon  the  principle  of  quantitative 
equivalence  has  not  been  consistently  elaborated,  and  we 
therefore  find  distinctions  between  phenomena  of  this  class 
which  are  economically  meaningless  but  have  a  real  social 
meaning.  The  same  lack  of  quantitative  generalization 
leads  to  another  result — a  lack  of  calculation,  which  has 
sometimes  the  appearance  of  stupidity,  but  is  in  fact  only 
an  application  of  the  sociological  instead  of  the  economic 
type  of  reasoning  to  phenomena  which  are  social  in  the  eyes 
of  the  peasant  even  if  they  are  merely  economic  when  viewed 
from  the  standpoint  of  the  business  man  or  the  economist. 

There  are  three  classes  of  property,  none  of  which  exactly 
corresponds  to  any  classical  definition:  land,  durable 
products  of  human  activity  (including  farm-stock),  and 
money.  Natural  powers  and  raw  materials,  not  elaborated 
by  human  activity,  cannot  be  included  in  any  economic 
category;  things  which  can  be  used  only  once  (food,  fuel, 
work — animal  or  human)  belong,  as  we  shall  see,  rather  to 
the  class  of  income  than  to  that  of  property,  although  some- 
times a  distinction  is  made  between  their  simple  consump- 
tion and  their  productive  use. 

In  taking  land  property  into  consideration  we  must 
remember  that  for  centuries  the  peasant  was  not  the  legal 


1 58  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

owner  of  his  land,  and  that  therefore  the  legal  side  of 
property  plays  up  to  the  present  a  secondary  role,  although 
there  has  necessarily  been  a  far-going  adaptation  to  legal 
ideas  since  the  abolition  of  serfdom.  The  difficulty  of  this 
adaptation  is  shown  by  the  innumerable,  often  absurd, 
lawsuits  about  land,  of  which  mainly  Galicia,  but  also 
Russian  Poland,  has  been  the  scene.  The  modern  legal 
categories  are  incommensurable  with  the  traditional  social 
forms,  and  therefore  the  peasants  either  try  to  settle  land 
questions  without  using  the  legal  scheme  at  all,  or,  when  the 
matter  is  once  brought  before  the  court  or  even  only  before 
the  notary,  they  cannot  reconcile  their  old  concepts  with 
the  new  ones  imposed  by  the  law,  and  a  situation  which 
would  be  simple  if  viewed  exclusively  from  the  traditional 
or  the  legal  standpoint  becomes  complicated  and  undeter- 
mined when  the  two  standpoints  are  mixed. 

But  the  influence  of  serfdom  upon  land  property  ought 
not  to  be  overestimated.  It  seems  to  have  been  rather 
negative  than  positive;  it  hindered  the  development  of  the 
legal  side  of  property,  but  hardly  developed  any  particular 
features.  Indeed,  the  main  characteristics  of  the  peasant 
land  property  are  found  among  the  higher  classes,  although 
perhaps  they  are  more  distinct  in  the  peasant  class.  The 
system  of  serfdom  has  simply  adapted  itself  to  pre-existing 
forms  of  economic  life  whose  ultimate  origin  is  lost  in  the 
past. 

Land  property  is  essentially  familial ;  the  individual  is  its 
temporary  manager.  Who  manages  it  is  therefore  not 
essential  provided  he  does  it  well ;  it  may  be  the  father,  the 
oldest  son,  the  youngest  son,  the  son-in-law.  We  have  seen 
that  it  is  usual  for  all  the  members  of  the  family  to  marry 
and  to  establish  separate  households,  but  if  a  member  of 
the  family  is  unlikely  to  marry  (being  a  cripple,  sick,  or 
otherwise  abnormal),  or  if,  exceptionally,  a  member  does 


INTRODUCTION  159 

not  wish  to  marry,  he  can  Hve  with  his  brother  or  sister, 
working  as  much  as  he  is  able,  not  working  if  he  is  not  able, 
but  in  any  case  getting  his  living  and  nothing  but  his  living. 
No  amount  of  work  entitles  him  to  anything  like  wages,  no 
inability  to  work  can  diminish  his  right  to  be  supported  on 
the  familial  farm.  The  same  principle  is  manifested  in  the 
attitude  toward  grown-up  children  living  with  their  parents. 
They  have  the  right  to  live  away  from  the  farm,  but  they 
have  the  obligation  to  work  for  the  farm;  and  if,  later  on, 
they  go  to  work  outside,  the  money  they  earn  is  not  their 
own,  because  the  work  which  they  gave  for  this  money  was 
not  their  own — it  was  due  to  the  family-farm  and  diverted 
from  its  natural  destination.  Of  course  the  collateral 
branches  of  the  family  lose  to  some  extent  the  connection 
with  the  farm,  but  the  connection  is  only  weakened,  never 
absolutely  severed.  Its  existence  was  very  well  manifested 
in  some  localities  under  serfdom.  If  a  serf  managed  his 
farm  badly,  the  lord  could  give  it  to  someone  else,  but 
absolutely  to  the  nearest  possible  relative  who  gave  a  suffi- 
cient guaranty  of  a  better  management. 

This  familial  character  of  the  farm  should  not  be  inter- 
preted as  if  the  family  were  an  association  holding  a  common 
property.  The  members  of  the  family  have  essentially  no 
economic  share  in  the  farm;  they  share  only  the  social 
character  of  members  of  the  group,  and  from  this  result 
their  social  right  to  be  supported  by  the  group  and  their 
social  obligation  to  contribute  to  the  existence  of  the  group. 
The  farm  is  the  material  basis  of  this  social  relation,  the 
expression  of  the  unity  of  the  group  in  the  economic  world. 
The  rights  and  obligations  of  the  members  with  regard  to  it 
do  not  depend  upon  any  individual  claims  on  property,  but 
upon  the  nearness  of  their  social  relation  to  the  group. 
It  was  therefore  only  with  the  greatest  difficulty  that  the 
idea  could  be  accepted  that  the  land  left  after  the  death 


i6o  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

of  the  head  of  the  family  should  be  treated  together  with 
other  kinds  of  property  as  belonging  in  common  to  the  heirs 
and  eventually  to  be  divided  among  them. 

The  first  form  of  providing  separately  for  the  members 
of  tlie  family,  other  than  the  one  who  was  to  take  the  farm, 
was  certainly  a  payment  in  cash  or  farm-stock,  made  during 
the  life  of  the  head  of  the  family — the  member  managing 
the  farm.  This  is  not  the  acknowledgment  of  their  rights 
to  the  farm,  but  simply  an  expression  of  familial  solidarity, 
a  help,  whose  individualistic  form  is  necessitated  by  modern 
economic  conditions.  With  the  progress  of  individualism 
the  old  principle  begins  to  yield,  and  we  find  the  first  sign 
in  the  sometimes  almost  purely  nominal  shares  which  after 
the  death  of  the  head  of  the  family  the  principal  heir,  or 
rather  the  new  manager,  has  to  pay  to  his  brothers  and 
sisters.  Then,  these  shares,  by  which  already  the  principal 
heir  acknowledges  some  rights  of  the  other  heirs  to  the  land 
as  such,  begin  to  increase,  but  they  never  become  equal  to 
the  share  of  the  member  who  holds  the  land.  Finally 
when  in  rare  cases  the  farm  itself  is  divided  (usually  only 
after  a  premature  death  of  the  head  of  the  family)  it  is 
seldom  divided  among  all  the  heirs;  usually  most  of  them 
are  ''paid  off."  And  we  see  the  older  generation  endeavor- 
ing by  all  means  to  prevent  the  division.  A  curious  strata- 
gem is,  for  example,  the  bequeathing  of  the  farm  to  one  son, 
and  mortgaging  it  nominally  and  above  its  value  for  the 
benefit  of  other  heirs.  A  legal  division  then  becomes,  of 
course,  practically  impossible. 

The  indivisibihty  of  the  farm  has  nothing  to  do  with  the 
question  of  its  territorial  unity.  Most  of  the  farms  are 
composed  of  fragments,  sometimes  over  a  hundred  of  them, 
disseminated  over  the  whole  area  of  a  village  neighborhood. 
And  changes  of  territorial  arrangement — the  exchange  of 
separate    fragments    between    neighbors    or    the    modern 


INTRODUCTION  i6i 

integration  of  farms — do  not  seem  to  tiave  a  dissolving  effect 
upon  the  social  unity  of  the  farm.  Nevertheless,  not  every 
farm  is  equally  adapted  to  playing  the  part  of  familial 
property.  A  farm  upon  which  many  generations  of  the 
same  family  have  worked  is  quite  naturally  associated  with 
this  particular  family  and  often  even  bears  its  name,  while 
a  new  farm  is  devoid  of  such  associations.  But  the  old 
land  may  lose,  and  the  new  land  may  assume,  the  function 
of  familial  property;  the  principle  of  indivisibility  remains 
in  force  even  if  the  object  to  which  it  is  applied  is  not  the 
same  as  before.  This  explains  how  the  idea  of  familial 
property  has  been  kept  up  in  spite  of  colonization  and 
emigration  from  province  to  province,  and  is  still  exerting  its 
influence  even  among  Polish  colonists  in  Brazil. 

The  land  being  thus  a  social  rather  than  an  economic 
value — the  material  condition  of  the  existence  of  a  group  as 
a  whole — other  characters  of  land  property  can  be  deduced 
from  this  fundamental  fact. 

No.  land  communism  is  acceptable  to  the  Polish  peasant. 
When  the  Russian  government  colonized  Siberia,  constitut- 
ing villages  according  to  the  communistic  principle  prevail- 
ing among  the  Russian  peasants,  almost  the  only  Polish 
colonists  attracted  there  were  factory  workmen,  who  had 
forgotten  the  peasant  attitude.  And  it  is  evident  that 
communism  would  destroy  the  very  essence  of  the  social 
value  represented  by  the  land;  the  latter  would  cease  to 
express  the  unique  familial  group.  A  comparison  may 
illustrate  this  attitude :  communism  of  land  from  the  stand- 
point of  familial  property  would  mean  something  more  or 
less  like  a  communism  of  objects  of  personal  use  from  the 
standpoint  of  individual  property. 

Land  should  never  be  mortgaged,  except  to  a  member  of 
the  family.  Mortgaging  to  a  stranger,  and  particularly  to 
an  institution  or  government,  not  only  involves  the  danger 


i62  PRIM ARV-C.ROUP  ORGANIZATION 

of  losini^  the  land,  but  it  destroys  the  quality  of  property. 
Alortgagctl  land  is  no  longer  owned  by  the  nominal  proprie- 
tor. "The  land  is  not  ours,  it  belongs  to  the  bank,"  says 
the  peasant  who  has  bought  a  farm  with  the  help  of  a  bank. 
This  attitude  leads  to  a  particularly  irrational  behavior  in 
matters  of  loans.  The  conditions  on  which  the  state  bank 
lends  money  on  land  are  particularly  favorable.  The  debt 
is  paid  back  in  from  forty  to  sixty  years,  and  the  yearly 
pa}'ment  with  interest  is  from  2  per  cent  to  3  per  cent  less 
than  the  interest  on  any  average  investment.  The  peasant 
knows  this  very  well,  but,  in  spite  of  it,  as  soon  as  he  has  any 
money  he  tries  first  of  all  to  pay  the  mortgage.  A  private 
mortgage  is  preferred,  even  if  the  interest  is  higher  and  no 
partial  payments  possible.  The  peasant  prefers  above  all 
a  personal  debt,  even  at  high  interest  and  for  a  short  term. 
And  this  again  results  from  the  social  character  of  the  land; 
mortgaged  property  becomes  a  purely  economic  categor}^ 
and  loses  its  whole  symbolical  value.  The  situation  is  here 
analogous  to  that  which  we  find  in  every  profanation;  the 
profaned  object  passes  into  a  different  class  and  loses  its 
exceptional  character  of  sanctity. 

Finally,  land  property  is  evidently  the  main  condition 
of  the  social  standing  of  the  family.  Without  land,  the 
family  can  still  keep  its  internal  solidarity,  but  it  cannot  act 
as  a  unit  with  regard  to  the  rest  of  the  community ;  it  ceases 
to  count  as  a  social  power.  Its  members  become  socially 
and  economically  dependent  upon  strangers,  and  often 
scatter  about  the  country  or  abroad;  the  family  ceases  to 
play  any  part  in  the  affairs  of  the  commune,  its  young 
generation  can  hardly  be  taken  into  account  in  matters  of 
marriage,  it  cannot  give  large  ceremonial  receptions,  etc. 
The  greater  the  amount  of  land,  the  greater  the  possibility 
of  social  expression.  Of  course  all  this  gradually  changes  on 
the  higher  levels  of  economic  development. 


INTRODUCTION  163 

Land  has  also  an  exceptional  value  from  other  points  of 
view — -as  an  object  of  work,  as  an  object  of  magical  rites 
and  religious  beliefs,  and  later  as  a  basis  of  national  cohesion. 
But  all  these  questions  will  be  considered  in  other  contexts. 
The  second  class  of  property — products  of  human  activ- 
ity— shows  a  partial,  but  only  a  partial,  independence  of  the 
familial  idea.  These  products  are  not  destined  for  the  use 
of  the  family  as  a  whole,  and  in  this  sense  they  are  individual, 
but  not  personal,  property.  Members  of  the  family  own 
them,  but  for  every  member  in  particular  this  ownership 
is,  so  to  speak,  accidental.  The  head  of  the  family  owns  the 
farm-stock,  can  sell  it  or  give  it,  but  only  as  long  as  he  is  the 
manager  of  the  farm.  House  furniture  is  owned  by  those 
who  hold  the  house,  but  again  only  as  long  as  they  hold  it. 
Even  valuable  pieces  of  clothing,  particularly  home-made, 
often  passing  from  generation  to  generation,  are  owned 
really,  but  only  temporarily.  Things  bought  or  made  by 
the  individual  himself  are  no  exception  to  this  rule.  The 
function  of  this  class  of  property  is  precisely  to  complete 
the  function  of  land  property  in  assuring  the  material 
existence  of  the  group,  wherever  this  requires  individual 
ownership,  and  the  right  of  every  member  of  the  family  to 
own  something  individually  depends  upon  this  fundamental 
aim  and  is  determined  by  the  position  which  he  occupies  in 
the  group.  The  head  of  the  family  owns  the  farm-stock 
because  this  is  necessary  for  his  management  of  the  farm, 
and  he  and  his  wife  are  the  general  distributors  of  these 
goods;  they  have  to  give  everyone  what  he  needs  as  member 
of  the  group.  To  a  member  who  stays  at  home  they  give 
the  only  individual  property  which  he  needs  to  live — clothes ; 
he  has  no  other  function  in  the  group  except  being  a  member. 
To  those  who  marry  and  establish  a  new  household  the  goods 
are  distributed  which  are  necessary,  not  only  to  live  person- 
ally, but  also  to  fulfil  the  function  of  householders — besides 


164  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

clothes,  some  house  and  bed  furniture,  some  farm-stock 
and  farming  implements.  And  every  member  of  the 
famil\-  sht)uld  be  ready  to  give  to  any  other  member  things 
which  the  other  needs  and  which  he  can  spare  himself,  taking 
the  particular  position  of  both  into  account.  Thus,  an 
unmarried  member  who  has  the  opportunity  to  get  from 
without  any  household  or  farm  goods  should  give  them  to  a 
married  or  marrying  one.  Dividing  the  inheritance  means 
primitively  only  dividing  this  class  of  goods,  for  no  others 
are  inherited  in  the  proper  sense  of  the  word,  and  the  division 
is  regulated  by  the  same  principle:  to  everyone  according 
to  his  needs,  as  far  as  those  needs  result  from  his  function 
in  the  family-group,  not  from  his  personal  desires.  And 
under  no  pretext  should  any  goods  of  this  class,  as  long  as 
they  have  any  value,  be  given  away  to  strangers,  or  sold 
as  long  as  anybody  in  the  family  needs  them. 

Money  is  a  relatively  new  kind  of  property  which  has 
adapted  itself  to  the  pre-existing  organization  and  whose 
importance  grows  as  the  modern  economic  life  penetrates 
the  peasant  community  and  makes  that  pre-existing  organi- 
zation insufficient.  For  the  peasant,  money  property  has 
originally  not  the  character  of  capital,  but  of  an  immediate 
and  provisional  substitute  for  other  kinds  of  property. 
He  does  not  at  first  even  think  of  making  money  produce; 
he  simply  keeps  it  at  home.  And  if  he  lends  it  privately,  the 
mediaeval  principle  of  no  interest  prevails,  or  at  most,  as 
we  shall  see  later,  a  reward  in  money  or  products  is  taken 
for  the  service.  Even  now  interest  on  private  loans  from 
peasant  to  peasant  is  very  low.  Putting  money  into  the 
bank  comes  still  later,  and,  last  of  all,  using  it  on  enterprises. 
Being  a  provisional  substitute  for  other  kinds  of  property, 
money  is  individualized  according  to  its  source  and  destina- 
tion. A  sum  received  from  selling  a  cow  is  qualitatively 
different  from  a  sum  received  as  dowry,  and  both  are  dif- 


INTRODUCTION  165 

ferent  from  a  sum  earned  outside.  The  distinction  goes 
still  further.  The  money  which  the  husband  gets  for  the 
cow  is  qualitatively  different  from  that  which  his  wife  puts 
aside  by  selling  eggs  and  milk,  not  because  either  belongs 
personally  to  husband  or  wife,  but  because  each  represents 
the  equivalent  of  a  different  sort  of  value;  the  first  is 
property,  the  second  is  income.  We  shall  consider  the  lat- 
ter presently.  The  quahtative  difference  between  various 
sums  of  money  equivalent  to  property  was  originally  ex- 
pressed in  the  fact  that  they  were  kept  separately.  And 
to  the  difference  of  origin  corresponded  a  difference  of 
destination.  Money  received  as  dowry  could  be  used  only 
to  buy  land,  and  the  same  was,  of  course,  true  of  money 
received  from  the  sale  of  land.  Money  so  derived  had  the 
character  of  familial  property  and  it  could  never  be  diverted 
to  any  individual  end  or  any  enterprise,  not  even  for  a  time, 
but  had  to  wait  for  an  opportunity  to  buy  land.  Money 
from  the  sale  of  cattle,  horses,  hogs,  or  poultry  was  to  be 
I  put  aside  in  order  to  meet  all  the  individual  difficulties  of 
the  members  of  the  family  arising  from  the  complication 
of  modern  life  and  the  beginning  economic  individualiza- 
tion, particularly  to  help  newly  married  couples,  or,  later, 
to  help  the  principal  heir  in  "paying  off"  other  heirs.  It 
was  the  equivalent  of  the  second  class  of  property.  Money 
earned  outside,  if  it  was  not  mere  income  but  acquired  the 
character  of  property,  was  usually  assimilated  to  the  same 
second  class.  But  there  was  a  general  tendency  to  make 
money  pass  from  a  lower  into  a  higher  economic  class — 
from  the  class  of  income  into  that  of  property,  from  that 
of  individually  controlled  into  that  of  familial  property. 
Actual  economic  evolution  tends  to  abolish  all  these  distinc- 
tions and  to  make  money  more  and  more  fluid.  But  the 
tendency  to  individuahze  money  was  so  strong  that  up  to 
the  present  time  a  peasant  who  has  a  sum  put  aside  for  a 


1 66  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

determined  end,  and  needs  a  little  money  temporarily, 
prefers  to  borrow  it,  even  under  very  difficult  conditions, 
rather  than  touch  that  sum. 

At  this  stage  of  evolution  property,  not  income,  is 
exclusively  the  measure  of  the  economic  situation  of  the 
family  or  the  individual.  And  evidently  it  must  be  so, 
since  the  economic  situation  is  socially  important  only  in 
view  of  the  social  standing  which  it  gives  and  since  it  is 
property  which  expresses  the  social  side  of  economic  life. 
A  larger  but  badly  managed  farm  is  therefore  more  valued 
than  a  well-managed  but  smaller  one,  even  if  their  real 
economic  values  are  inversely  proportional.  And  there  is  a 
curiously  mixed  attitude  of  envy  and  commiseration  toward 
town  people  or  manor  employees  who  have  an  income  much 
larger  than  the  peasant,  but  no  property. 

The  concept  of  income  itself  which  we  use  here  is  origi- 
nally strange  to  the  peasant.  We  can  apply  this  category  to 
the  yearly  products  of  the  farm,  but  we  must  remember  that 
the  peasant  does  not  apply  it.  The  products  of  the  farm 
are  not  destined  to  be  sold  and  not  evaluated  quantitatively. 
Their  destination  is  simply  to  give  a  living  to  the  family  and 
to  keep  farming  going  on — nothing  more.  And  the  original 
system  of  farming  (one- third  winter  crops,  i.e.,  wheat  and 
rye;  one-third  summer  crops,  i.e.,  barley,  oats,  potatoes, 
etc.;  one- third  fallow),  with  an  average  low  level  of  agri- 
cultural practice,  really  does  not  leave  much  to  sell  from  a 
farm  of  the  average  size  of  ten  to  thirty  acres.  Below  ten 
acres  a  farm  gives  hardly  enough  to  feed  the  family  and  the 
stock;  and  if  the  peasant  cannot  earn  some  money  outside 
he  must  in  the  spring  either  borrow  grain  from  a  rich  neigh- 
bor or  sell  his  pig,  cow,  or  even  horse  in  order  to  get  a  living 
until  the  new  harvest.  And  if  his  situation  is  good,  he  will 
think  rather  of  increasing  his  stock  than  of  selling  any 
products.     There  are  also  in  this  case  greater  claims  to  be 


INTRODUCTION  167 

satisfied — servants  to  be  fed,  old  parents  or  collateral 
members  of  the  family  to  be  supported,  neighbors  to  be 
helped,  guests  to  be  received.  For,  unlike  the  property 
which  should  never  pass  outside  of  the  family,  the  farm 
income  (products)  has  to  be  shared  as  far  as  possible  with 
poor  members  of  the  community,  guests,  wanderers,  beggars, 
etc.  Its  essence  is  to  support  human  or  animal  life.  To 
waste  the  smallest  part  of  it  is  a  sin,  almost  a  crime.  To 
sell  it  is  not  a  sin,  but  perhaps  even  here  we  may  find  in  the 
background  of  the  peasant's  psychology  the  half-conscious 
conviction  that  it  is  not  quite  fair.  There  is  another  way  of 
using  what  remains  after  the  satisfaction  of  the  needs  of  the 
family  and  of  the  duties  toward  the  community :  the  income 
in  products  can  be  turned  into  property  by  increasing  the 
farm-stock,  improving  the  buildings,  buying  new  farm 
implements,  all  of  which  is  property.  The  attitude  of  the 
village  or  commune  toward  pastures  and  forests  belonging 
to  it  is  almost  the  same.  They  are  not  common  property 
in  the  real  sense  of  the  word,  for  the  peasant  does  not 
consider,  as  we  have  seen,  raw  materials  as  the  property  of 
anyone.  They  are  simply  a  source  from  which  every 
member  of  the  village  or  commune  can  draw  materials  which 
he  needs  in  addition  to  the  farm  products  in  order  to  support 
his  family,  to  feed  his  stock,  and  to  keep  up  his  farm  build- 
ings, without  getting  into  trouble  with  the  law.  Only  with 
regard  to  the  relation  to  other  villages  or  communes  these 
goods  assume  the  secondary  character  of  property.  In  this 
line  there  has  been  also  an  evolution  during  the  last  period. 
This  attitude  toward  the  natural  products  of  the  farm 
explains  why  the  agricultural  progress  of  the  Polish  peasant 
was  so  slow  up  to  twenty  or  thirty  years  ago.  There  were 
no  sufficient  motives  to  increase  the  productivity  of  the 
Imd.  The  standard  of  living  simply  adapted  itself  to  the 
natural  income,  and  the  question  of  increasing  the  farm 


i68  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

equipmcnL  was  liardly  important  enough  to  justify  agri- 
cultural studies,  harder  work,  more  trouble  in  running  a 
comj>licatcd  system  of  farming,  etc.  If  we  take  the  passive 
clinghig  to  tradition  into  account,  we  shall  hardly  wonder 
at  the  slowness  of  the  progress.  And  precisely  in  the  only 
case  where  the  motive  could  be  strong  enough^when  the 
farm  income  was  not  sufficient  to  give  a  living  to  the  family 
—there  were  no  resources  for  making  improvements. 

When  the  general  conditions  began  to  change,  the 
peasant  found  at  first  additional  sources  of  income  which 
allowed  him  to  solve  the  new  situations.  The  growth  of  the 
large  cities,  the  development  of  the  means  of  communica- 
tion, of  national  and  international  commerce,  gave  him  the 
possibility  of  selling  secondary  products  of  his  farming^ — 
butter,  eggs,  vegetables,  fruit,  etc.  Home  industry,  which 
had  existed  from  time  immemorial,  although  it  was  never 
very  much  developed,  found  new  markets,  thanks  to  the 
sudden  interest  which  it  awakened  in  the  higher  classes  of 
Polish  society.  But  the  main  source  of  additional  income 
was  hired  season-work,  at  first  only  in  the  neighborhood, 
then  also  in  more  distant  parts  of  the  country  and  in  Ger- 
many, and  finally  work  in  America. 

The  first  use  of  this  income  was  to  cover  such  new 
expenses  as  were  not  accounted  for  in  the  old  economy;  it 
had  to  supply  the  deficiencies  of  the  old  system  of  living 
in  the  same  way  that  money  property  supplied  the  deficiency 
of  the  old  system  of  property.  Taxes  increased  and  had 
to  be  paid  in  cash,  whereas  they  were  formerly  paid  mainly 
in  natural  products.  The  multiplication  of  the  family 
obliged  the  purchase,  whenever  possible,  of  new^  land,  and 
this  could  be  done  usually  only  by  contracting  debts,  on 
which  interest  had  to  be  paid  in  cash.  New  needs  arose 
among  the  members  of  the  younger  generation,  needs  of 
city  products,   city  pleasures,  learning;    individualization 


INTRODUCTION  169 

progressed,  and  the  older  generation  had  to  yield,  sometimes 
after  a  hard  struggle.  Finally,  when  the  products  of  the 
farm  were  not  sufficient  to  feed  the  family,  food  began  to 
be  bought  instead  of  being  borrowed.  This  is  the  latest 
stage  of  evolution. 

But  even  in  this  evolution  the  principle  of  qualification 
of  economic  values  held  good.  Every  sum  of  money,  ad- 
ditionally earned,  had  a  particular  end  and  could  be  used 
on  nothing  else,  not  even  partially  and  temporarily.  And 
there  was  always  a  tendency  to  let  as  much  of  it  as  possible 
pass  from  the  class  of  income  into  that  of  property,  whenever 
the  sum  was  large  enough  to  make  a  marked  addition  to  the 
latter.  If  a  sum  was  once  set  aside  to  increase  in  some 
particular  way  the  property,  the  necessity  of  spending  it 
on  some  actual  need  was  felt  as  a  misfortune.  We  have 
here  the  explanation  of  the  stinginess  of  the  peasant,  which 
remains  his  characteristic  feature  even  as  an  immigrant. 
Traditionally  all  the  elementary  needs  of  food,  shelter, 
clothing,  fuel,  were  satisfied  by  the  natural  products  of  the 
land,  and  there  was  and  is  still  an  aversion  to  spending 
money  on  them.  Even  when  natural  products  were  sold, 
the  money  was  not  used  for  living,  but  for  other  needs.  We 
therefore  find  the  seemingly  paradoxical  situation  that  an 
increase  of  income  in  cash  usually  means  for  a  time  a  lower- 
ing of  the  standard  of  living.  In  localities  where  they  find 
an  easy  market  for  their  products  the  peasants  often  live 
worse  than  in  more  remote  villages.  But  they  usually 
spend  more  money  on  city  pleasures  and  objects  of  luxury, 
because  with  regard  to  expenses  of  this  kind  the  inhibition 
is  not  traditional  and  has  to  be  acquired.  In  the  same  way 
the  peasant  in  America  tries  to  limit  his  living  expenses  even 
more  than  his  extraordinary  expenses,  particularly  if  he 
comes  directly  from  the  country.  And  when  he  has  a  plan 
for  the  use  of  a  sum  of  money  which  he  has  earned,  nothing 


1 70  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

except  final  misery  and  the  impossibility  of  earning  or  bor- 
rowing can  compel  him  to  spend  this  sum  on  his  living. 

The  third  kind  of  income  known  at  this  stage  of  economic 
life  is  wages.  But  here  again  the  principle  is  not  the  modern 
one.  Primarily  there  seems  to  be  no  idea  of  an  economic 
equivalent  of  the  work  done,  of  an  exchange  of  values. 
There  is  rather  a  collaboration,  entitling  the  collaborator  to 
a  living.  The  servant  or  employee,  by  co-operating  with 
his  employer,  is  assimilated  to  his  family.  His  position  is 
evidently  inferior  to  that  of  his  employer,  because  the  latter 
is  the  manager  of  the  property  and  the  distributor  of  the 
income;  but  it  is  inferior  only  to  that  of  other  members 
of  the  employer's  family  in  the  fact  that  these  members 
may  become  managers  themselves.  There  can  also  be  other 
reasons  of  inferiority.  The  family  of  the  employer  has 
usually  a  higher  social  standing  than  that  of  the  employee. 
But  when  the  employer  is  a  peasant,  the  position  of  an 
employee  or  farm  servant,  a  parobek,  involves  as  such  no 
social  inferiority.  In  the  case  of  manor  servants  the  element 
of  class-distinction  enters  and  can  never  be  obviated,  and 
the  employee's  work  includes  also  always  some  element  of 
personal  service  essentially  different  from  collaboration,  and 
involving  a  real  personal  inferiority.  But  in  this  Case  also 
the  employee  is  assimilated  to  the  employer's  family  to  the 
degree  that  the  relation  involves  collaboration.  To  be  sure, 
this  assimilation  resulting  from  collaboration  led  only  to  an 
internal  solidarity  of  the  family-group  with  reference  to 
work  and  living,  not  to  a  solidarity  of  external  reactions 
toward  other  family-groups.  The  latter  solidarity  is 
acquired  only  through  a  long  life  in  common. 

The  manifestation  of  this  attitude  toward  dependent 
work  is  that  the  salary  of  the  servant  was  always  originalh' 
given  in  natural  products.  The  single  servant  received  his 
board  and  a  determined  or  undetermined  amount  of  clothing; 


INTRODUCTION  171 

the  married  servant  in  manors  had  lodging,  fuel,  grain  (called 
ordynarya) ,  a  field  for  potatoes,  the  permission  to  keep  one 
or  two  cows,  etc. — in  short,  everything  included  in  the 
peasant  idea  of  living.  Later  on  the  same  economic  evolu- 
tion which  obliged  the  peasant  farmer  to  seek  for  an  addi- 
tional income  obliged  the  employer  to  pay  a  little  money  to 
his  employee.  But  that  this  money  is  considered  as  only 
an  addition,  an  equivalent  for  products  which  cannot  be 
furnished,  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  the  wages  in  cash  paid 
to  manor  servants  amount  even  now  on  the  average  to  only 
10  per  cent  of  the  wages  in  natural  products.  Another 
modification,  parallel  with  the  hired  season-  or  day-work 
of  the  farmer's  family,  is  the  custom  by  which  the  manor 
servant  keeps  a  boy  or  girl  to  do  day-work  on  the  manorial 
farm.  Originally  based  on  the  fact  that  the  larger  children 
of  a  servant  worked  with  him,  the  custom  was  made  obliga- 
tory by  manor-owners,  who  need  cheap  hands  for  light  work. 
A  manor  servant  who  has  no  large  children  must  therefore 
hire  a  boy  or  girl  (called  posylka).  But  here  also  the  old 
principle  is  retained  as  far  as  possible;  the  servant  receives 
for  his  posylka  an  additional  remuneration  in  natural 
products  besides  the  daily  pay,  which  is  therefore  lower  than 
that  of  occasional  workers,  and  the  hired  posylka  is  treated 
by  the  manor  servant  in  the  same  way  as  the  parobek,  the 
farm  servant,  by  the  farmer,  that  is,  he  receives  his  living 
and  a  small  addition  in  cash. 

Naturally  this  situation  excludes  any  idea  and  any 
possibility  of  changing  income  into  property,  of  economizing 
for  the  future.  As  a  consequence  of  the  principle  of  a 
living  instead  of  a  regular  wage,  the  servant  can  never 
become  an  owner,  except  by  inheritance  from  some  member 
of  his  family,  or  incidentally  by  marriage.  The  problem  of 
living  in  old  age  was  solved  on  the  familial  principle.  A 
disabled  worker  was  to  be  supported  by  his  own  family,  or, 


172  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

if  he  had  served  in  one  place  long  enough  to  become  closely 
connected  with  the  family  of  his  employer,  the  latter  was 
socially  obliged  to  support  him  until  his  death — an  obliga- 
tion which  was  always  respected. 

Another  interesting  consequence  of  this  state  of  things 
was  the  type  of  moral  regulation  of  the  relation  between 
employer  and  employee.  The  attitude  required  was  essen- 
tially identical  on  both  sides,  in  spite  of  the  difference  of  posi- 
tions and  spheres  of  activity.  Its  basis  was  "goodness," 
consisting  on  either  side  in  the  care  for  the  interests  and 
welfare  of  the  other  side — including  the  families.  The 
employer  had  to  be  "just,"  that  is,  to  reciprocate  the  good- 
ness of  his  employee;  the  employee  w^as  to  be  "true,"  that 
is,  to  reciprocate  the  goodness  of  the  employer.  The  moral 
regulation  did  not  touch  at  all  the  matter  of  proportion 
between  work  and  remuneration.  And  even  now,  when  the 
peasant  speaks  of  a  "just"  master  or  a  "just"  pay,  he 
means  a  master  who  cares  well  for  good  servants,  a  pay 
which  shows  the  intention  of  the  employer  to  provide  well 
for  his  employees. 

One  of  the  reasons  why  the  relation  between  work  and 
wages  is  not  taken  into  account  is  certainly  the  attitude  of 
the  Polish  peasant  toward  work.  While  among  handworkers 
a  long  tradition  of  guild  life  developed  an  appreciation  of 
craftmanship  and  efficiency,  or,  more  generally  speaking, 
attracted  the  attention  to  the  results  of  the  work,  the  peasant 
is  fundamentally  interested,  positively  or  negatively, 
principally  in  the  process  of  work.  Many  factors  collab- 
orated to  develop  this  attitude.  First  of  all,  the  com- 
pulsory^ work  under  the  system  of  serfdom  could  hardly 
awaken  any  interest  in  the  results.  What  did  the  serf  care 
whether  his  work  for  the  lord  was  efficient  or  not  ?  On  the 
contrary,  the  process  of  compulsory  work  evoked  a  strong 
interest — a  negative  one,  of  course,  because  of  the  hardship 


INTRODUCTION  173 

and  loss  of  time  which  it  involved,  and  because  of  its 
compulsory  character.  But,  under  continual  oversight,  the 
peasant  had  to  work,  willingly  or  not,  and  a  certain  obliga- 
tory character  has  been  acquired  in  the  course  of  time  by 
the  process  of  work  as  such.  It  was  strengthened  by 
religion:  "Man  has  to  work,  it  is  his  curse,  but  also  his 
duty;  the  process  of  working  is  meritorious,  laziness  is  bad, 
independent  of  any  results."  And  up  to  the  present  this 
attitude  is  retained,  even  if  other  interests  and  other  motives 
have  been  added. 

We  should  expect  a  different  attitude  from  the  peasant 
toward  the  work  done  on  his  own  farm.  But  even  this 
work  was  often  half-compulsory.  The  peasant  had  to  keep 
his  farm  in  good  condition  in  order  to  be  able  to  meet  his 
obligations  to  the  lord.  And  even  when  this  work  was  free, 
as  it  was  sometimes  even  under  the  serfage  system,  another 
factor  hindered  the  development  of  an  appreciation  of 
efficiency.  The  ultimate  result  of  farm- work  does  not 
depend  exclusively  upon  the  worker  himself;  his  best 
efforts  can  be  frustrated  by  unforeseen  circumstances,  and 
in  a  particularly  good  year  even  negligent  work  may  be  well 
repaid.  On  a  rich  background  of  religious  and  magical 
beliefs  this  incalculable  element  gives  birth  to  a  particular 
kind  of  fatalism.  It  is  not  the  proverbial  oriental  fatalism, 
based  upon  divine  predestination  and,  if  consistent,  making 
work  essentially  an  unimportant  element  of  life,  but  a 
limited  kind  of  fatalism,  based  upon  the  uncertainty  of  the 
future.  The  essential  point  is  to  get  the  help  of  God,  the 
distributor  of  good,  against  the  indifferent  forces  of  nature 
and  the  intentionally  harmful  magical  forces  of  hostile  men 
and  of  the  devil.  Now,  in  addition  to  religious  magic,  the 
process  of  work  itself  is  a  means  of  influencing  God  favor- 
ably ;  it  is  even  the  most  indispensable  condition  of  assuring 
God's  help,  for  without  it  no  religious  magic  will  do  any 


174  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

good.  VVe  cannot  solve  here  the  problem,  whether  the 
process  of  work  has  assumed  this  importance  only  under 
the  influence  of  the  Christian  ideology  or  whether  there 
is  a  more  primitive  and  fundamental  religious  character 
belonging  to  it.  The  fact  is  that  when  the  peasant  has  been 
working  steadily,  and  has  fulfilled  the  religious  and  magical 
ceremonies  which  tradition  requires,  he  "leaves  the  rest 
to  God"  and  waits  for  the  ultimate  results  to  come;  the 
question  of  more  or  less  skill  and  efficiency  of  w^ork  has  very 
little  importance.  The  attitude^is  somewhat  different  with 
regard  to  work  whose  results  are  immediate — carpenter's, 
blacksmith's,  spinner's,  weaver's  work.  But  even  here  it 
is  not  so  much  the  skill  as  the  conscientiousness  of  work  that 
counts  J  and  the  thing  made  "will  hold  if  God  allows  it" — 
an  attitude  very  different  from  that  of  a  city  handworker. 

When  hired  work  begins  to  develop,  there  gradually 
enters  a  new  motive — that  of  wages.  But  the  essential 
attitude  is  not  changed.  It  is  for  the  process,  not  for  the 
results  of  his  work,  that  the  servant  gets  his  living;  it  is 
for  the  process  of  work  that  later  the  employee,  the  hired 
laborer,  even  the  factory  workman,  considers  himself  to  be 
paid.  Even  when  later  the  idea  of  wages  as  remuneration 
for  the  results  of  the  work  is  accepted,  often  eagerly  accepted, 
it  is  applied  less  willingly  to  work  at  home  than  abroad. 
The  most  absurd  explanations  are  given  by  the  peasants  who 
reject  piece-work  in  Poland  and  ask  for  it  in  Germany; 
the  irrationaHty  of  this  attitude  shows  that  its  source  lies 
in  the  old  habits. 

The  stress  put  on  the  process  of  work  rather  than  on  its 
results  explains  also  the  importance  which  the  kind  of  w^ork 
and  its  external  conditions  have  for  the  peasant.  The 
motives  of  pleasure  and  displeasure  connected  wdth  this 
process  are  at  the  first  stage  more  important  than  the  profits. 
The  main  factors  of  pleasure  are  freedom,  variety,  facility, 


INTRODUCTION  175 

companionship.  Independent  work  is  more  pleasant  than 
dependent,  farm-work  incomparably  more  pleasant — or 
rather  less  unpleasant — than  factory-work,  and  the  only 
case  in  which  the  pleasure  of  the  process  of  work  outweighs 
always  and  everywhere  its  hardship  is  when  all  the  neighbors 
come  together  to  help  one  of  their  number  to  gather  his 
crops.  This  kind  of  help,  always  disinterested,  is  almost 
equivalent  to  a  pleasure  party.  It  is  becoming  rare  since 
the  new  appreciation  of  work  for  its  results  has  developed 
and  the  old  communal  life  has  lost  its  primary  character. 

Up  to  the  present  we  have  spoken  of  the  economic 
attitudes  which  concern  a  single  family  or  individual — for 
even  the  employment  relation  belongs  to  these.  We  now 
pass  to  those  which  determine  economic  relations  between 
various  members  of  a  peasant  community.  These  relations 
may  be  classed  under  the  following  seven  concepts :  giving, 
lending  for  temporary  use,  crediting,  renting,  exchanging, 
seUingj_stealiiig.  There  is  no  possibility  of  reducing  these 
to  a  more  limited  number  of  purely  economic  categories,  but 
all  of  them  are  modifications  of  one  fundamental  relation — • 
of  an  occasional  solidarity  between  the  members  of  a  com- 
munity, in  the  same  way  as  all  the  relations  between 
members  of  a  family  in  matters  of  property  are  modifications 
of  a  permanent  solidarity  within  the  family. 

The_gift  i^ihe  most  elementary  form  in  which  solidarity 
Js__expr-essed,  because  it  is  the  simplest  form  of  help.  We 
must  distinguish  a  real  gift,  when  the  object  given  has  a 
material  value,  from  a  symbolical  gift,  when  the  value  of  the 
object  is  essentially  moral.  The  real  gift  between  strangers 
can  be  only  an  object  of  consumption,  belonging  to  the 
category  of  income,  not  to  that  of  property,  because,  as  we 
have  said,  property  cannot  go  out  of  the  family.  A  symbol- 
ical gift  is  usually  a  religious  object  (medal,  cross,  image, 
wafer,  scapular,  etc.),  sometimes  an  object  of  adornment,  a 


176  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

trifle  made  by  the  person  himself,  etc.  It  is  in  itself  prop- 
erty, but  its  material  value  is  so  insignificant  that  it  does 
not  diminish  the  stock  of  property  of  the  giver  and  does  not 
increase  the  wealth  of  the  receiver.  Its  moral  value  con- 
sists in  the  social  attitudes  which  it  symbolizes  and  which 
constitute  its  meaning.  Now,  the  common  meaning  of  all 
the  symbolical  gifts  is  that  they  establish  between  the  giver 
and  the  receiver  a  spiritual  bond,  analogous  to  the  familial 
bond,  precisely  because  they  formally  bear  the  character  of 
gifts  reserved  for  the  familial  relation;  the  receiver  is 
conventionally  incorporated  into  the  giver's  family.  In 
the  case  of  a  religious  or  magical  object  the  latter  has  still 
another  meaning  in  itself  which  heightens  the  moral  impor- 
tance of  the  gift;  the  bond  between  the  giver  and  the 
receiver  is  sanctified,  so  to  speak.  By  gradations  of  the 
material  value  of  the  gift  and  of  the  sanctity  which  it 
imparts  to  the  relation  between  the  giver  and  the  receiver 
we  pass  from  a  conventional  to  a  real  famihal  relation. 
Thus,  the  boy  offers  to  the  girl  whom  he  intends  to  marry 
gifts  of  real  value,  which  increase  as  the  marriage  becomes 
more  probable,  and  the  betrothal  and  wedding  rings  have  a 
particularly  sanctif}ing  function,  because  they  have  been 
specially  blessed  for  the  occasion. 

If  the  symbolical  gift  establishes  a  new  relation,  the 
real  gift  is  the  result  and  the  acknowledgment  of  the  pre- 
existing relation  of  communal  solidarity.  It  has  thus  a 
double  function,  the  primitive  one  of  help  in  emergency  and 
the  derived  one  of  manifesting  solidarity.  It  assumes  the 
latter  on  particular  occasions  and  is  then  ritualized.  Food, 
offered  at  all  ceremonial  meetings,  has  certainly  this  char- 
acter. The  ceremonial  meetings  occur  on  all  the  important 
familial  occasions — christening,  betrothal,  wedding,  funeral 
— and  even  on  secondary  ones,  such  as  the  arrival  of  a 
member  of  the  family,  the  name-day  of  the  head  of  the 


INTRODUCTION  177 

family.  By  inviting  members  of  other  families  and  offering 
them  food  the  family  manifests  that  it  wants  the  event  to  be 
considered  a  social,  not  a  private  affair,  and  that  in  spite  of 
any  change  in  its  life  or  composition  it  remains  solidary  with 
the  community.  Moreover,  this  is  not  a  mere  question  of 
the  good  will  of  the  family;  the  community  requires  such 
a  manifestation.  This  explains  the  enormous  proportions 
which  all  these  ceremonial  meetings  assume  with  regard  to 
the  number  of  people  invited,  the  treatment  offered,  and 
the  time  the  meeting  lasts.  Theoretically,  the  whole  com- 
munity ought  to  be  invited,  and  the  treatment  must  be  a 
real,  not  a  symbolical  gift;  that  is,  every  guest  ought  to  be 
really  fed  for  a  certain  time,  a  day,  two,  three,  originally 
often  more.  The  motive  of  showing  off,  using  the  ceremonial 
entertainment  as  a  sign  of  the  standing  of  the  family,  has  cer- 
tainly developed  later  on,  as  a  consequence  of  the  attitude 
of  the  community  toward  that  manifestation  of  solidarity. 
But  on  some  of  those  occasions  the  community  had  also 
to  manifest  its  solidarity  with  the  family  by  a  real,  effective 
help.  The  idea  was  to  assist  the  family  in  procuring  a 
living  for  a  new  member  (at  christening)  or  for  a  new 
marriage-group  (at  the  wedding).  Every  person  invited 
had  to  offer  something  for  the  child  or  the  new  couple.  At 
present  the  gifts  are  made  in  money,  but  we  have  vestiges 
showing  that,  at  least  in  the  case  of  marriage,  they  were  made 
in  farm  products — food,  fuel,  linen,  cloth,  etc.  The  family 
helped  the  new  couple  mainly,  though  not  exclusively,  in 
matters  of  property;  the  community  helped  it  to  get  a 
living  during  the  first  months.  That  those  gifts  were  not 
intended  as  a  reciprocity  for  the  entertainment  (as  some- 
times seems  the  case  now,  when  the  custom  has  degenerated) 
is  proved  by  the  fact  that  no  gifts  were  offered  on  other 
occasions,  when  there  was  no  actual  increase  of  the  family — 
at  death  or  betrothal,  for  instance. 


17S  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

The  gift  does  not  involve  necessarily  any  relation  of 
superiority  or  inferiority  of  the  giver  to  the  receiver.  In 
the  precarious  conditions  of  peasant  life  everybody  may 
need  help  occasionally.  Of  course  non-ceremonial  gifts 
are  usually  made  by  a  richer  to  a  poorer  person,  and  the 
giver  is  usually  superior  to  the  receiver,  but  this  superiority 
does  not  result  from  the  fact  of  giving.  Even  habitual  living 
at  the  expense  of  others,  as,  for  example,  beggar}^,  is  not 
humiliating  in  itself;  the  humiliation  lies  in  the  circum- 
stances which  cause  this  necessity — in  the  loss  of  fortune, 
or  in  the  lack  of  solidarity  in  the  family  of  the  beggar  which 
permits  him  to  lead  such  a  life.  The  situation  is  different 
if  the  gift  is  one  of  property,  because  such  gifts  are  not  in 
use  among  peasants  and  anybody  who  accepts  them  from  a 
stranger  acknowledges  thereby  the  class-superiority  of  the 
latter. 

Closely  connected  with  the  gift,  although  never  ritual- 
ized, is  lending  of  mobile  property  (property  of  the  second 
class)  for  a  temporar}^  use.  This  is  a  form  of  help  quite 
obligatory  in  many  circumstances;  and  if  the  object  is  used 
immediately  for  purposes  of  living,  the  situation  contains 
nothing  essentially  new  in  comparison  with  giving.  But  if 
the  object  is  used  for  productive  purposes,  if,  thanks  to  it, 
the  person  who  borrowed  it  gets  some  income,  or,  in  other 
terms,  if  the  relation  of  the  object  to  the  purposes  of  Hving 
is  indirect,  then  a  new  moment  is  added:  the  person  who 
borrowed  the  object  is  morally  obliged  to  offer  a  part  of  the 
product  to  the  owner.  Thus,  for  example,  a  horse  and  a 
cart  borrowed  in  order  to  go  on  a  visit,  instruments  borrowed 
to  repair  the  house,  lead  to  no  obligation.  But  the  same 
horse  and  cart  borrowed  in  order  to  bring  the  crops  into  the 
bam,  or  instruments  used  in  hired  work,  are  considered 
productive,  and  the  owner  should  get  something  for  his  good 
service.     The  remuneration  grows  with  the  importance  of 


INTRODUCTION  179 

the  results  obtained  (even  by  chance),  and  not  with  the 
importance  of  the  sacrifice  of  the  owner,  although  a  marked 
deterioration  of  the  object  should  be  made  good.  The 
distinction  is  not  very  precise  in  detail,  but  the  principle 
is  clear.  The  act  of  lending  is  a  social  service,  not  an 
economic  enterprise,  and  the  remuneration  is  not  an  equiva- 
lent of  any  profits  lost  by  the  owner,  for  this  loss  is  accounted 
for  and  accepted  in  lending  as  well  as  in  giving,  but  an 
expression  of  gratitude  and  reciprocal  help  on  the  side  of 
the  person  who  borrowed  the  object  proportionate  to  the 
increase  of  the  resources  of  this  person. 

The  primitive  attitude  toward  money-lending  is  exactly 
the  same,  since  money  is  at  first  only  the  equivalent  of 
mobile  property.  The  debtor  in  paying  the  money  back 
adds  a  certain  sum,  not  as  interest,  but  as  reciprocation  of 
social  solidarity  proportionate  to  the  subjective  importance 
of  the  service  rendered.  Up  to  the  present,  even  after  the 
introduction  of  interest,  the  custom  is  sometimes  observed 
that,  if  the  debtor  has  been  particularly  successful,  thanks 
to  the  money  borrowed,  he  will  add  a  free  gift  to  the 
determined  interest,  as  a  sign  of  benevolence  toward  the 
creditor. 

But  a  quite  different  principle  prevails  in  the  matter  of 
rent.  Land — -the  first  object  of  rent — is  the  basis  of  the 
existence  of  the  family;  therefore,  when  it  is  rented,  it 
ought  to  bring  income,  that  is,  it  ought  to  enable  the  family 
to  live,  as  when  it  is  cultivated.  And,  indeed,  the  form 
of  rent  which  we  can  consider  primitive  is  in  perfect  accord- 
ance with  this  principle.  Usually  a  farmer  who  has  enough 
farm  equipment  rents  the  land  of  another  who  cannot 
cultivate  it  himself,  either  because  he  has  not  the  necessary 
strength  or  because  he  cannot  buy  or  keep  the  equipment. 
The  products  are  then  divided.  In  this  way  the  relation  of 
tenant  and  owner  is  already  an  exchange  of  services,  but 


l8o  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

it  is  regulated  by  the  idea  of  living.  But,  in  general, 
renting  is  not  primitively  a  frequent  fact  among  peasants,  for 
as  long  as  familial  solidarity  exists  and  the  whole  family  is 
not  ruined  or  dispersed,  some  collateral  member,  assuming 
the  role  of  head  of  the  family,  usually  undertakes  the 
cultivation  of  the  land  which  the  owner  cannot  cultivate. 
This  was  regularly  the  case  with  the  land  of  widows  and 
orphans.  Renting  of  land  for  money  appears  as  a  rule  only 
in  the  temporary  absence  of  the  o"\vner. 

As  to  the  rent  for  buildings,  an  evolution  seems  to  have 
occurred.  Temporary  lodging  in  a  house  was  originally 
equivalent  to  any  gift  of  things  which  serve  for  living.  It 
was  involved  in  hospitality  and  was  always  only  occasional 
among  strangers,  since  almost  everyone  except  beggars  had 
a  steady  lodging,  if  not  in  his  own  house,  then  at  least  with 
his  family,  with  his  actual  or  former  employer,  in  some  cabin 
lent  by  the  estate-owner,  etc.  But  at  the  same  time  a  barn 
or  a  stable  could  be  lent  on  the  same  principle  as  any  mobile 
property  for  productive  purposes;  that  is,  the  person  who 
used  someone's  bam  to  house  his  crops  remunerated  the 
o\Mier  by  giving  him  a  part  of  these  crops.  In  short,  there 
was  no  renting,  but  lending  of  buildings,  and  this  was 
perfectly  logical,  for  the  buildings  belonged  to  the  class  of 
mobile,  manufactured  property,  as  against  land.  Later 
on  there  developed  the  class  of  komoniiks,  that  is,  people 
who  had  no  houses  and  lived  from  day  labor,  lodging  in 
other  people's  houses,  and  the  principle  of  remuneration, 
applying  originally  to  farm  buildings,  was  extended  to 
houses  and  rooms  permanently  used.  There  was  simul- 
taneously a  process  of  regulation  of  the  ren^'uneration,  about 
which  we  shall  speak  later.  Finally,  in  seme  cases,  when 
buildings  were  rented  together  with  land,  the  principle  of 
land  rent  seems  to  have  been  partly  extended  to  them, 
although  this  last  phase  is  uncertain. 


INTRODUCTION  i8i 

Naturally  all  the  arrangements  described  above,  being 
based  upon  social  solidarity,  are  changed  as  soon  as  soli- 
darity begins  to  weaken,  and  many  modifications  in  the 
peasant's  economic  life  are  due,  not  to  the  development  of  a 
new  economic  attitude,  but  only  to  this  weakening  of 
solidarity.  The  result  of  this  process  is  the  substitution  of 
the  principle  of  exchange  for  the  principle  of  help  along  the 
whole  line  of  economic  relations,  except  in  those  which  have 
been  ritualized.  The  reciprocity  of  help,  at  first  undeter- 
mined as  to  its  value  and  time,  becomes  determined  in  both 
respects;  an  equivalence  of  services  is  required.  This 
means  that  a  relation  of  things  is  substituted  for  a  relation 
of  persons,  or  that,  more  exactly,  the  relation  of  persons  is 
determined  by  the  relation  of  things.  The  solidarity  within 
the  primary  group  is  a  connection  between  concrete  personal- 
ities, and  every  economic  act,  as  well  as  every  other  social 
act,  is  merely  one  moment  of  this  solidarity,  one  of  its 
results,  expressions,  and  factors;  its  full  meaning  does  not 
lie  in  itself,  but  in  the  whole  personal  relation  which  it 
involves.  An  act  of  social  help  therefore  does  not  create 
an  expectation  of  a  particular  and  determined  reciprocal 
service,  but  simply  strengthens  and  actualizes  the  habitual 
expectation  of  a  general  attitude  of  benevolent  solidarity 
from  the  other  person,  which  may  find  its  expression  at  any 
time  in  any  act  of  reciprocal  help.  But  when  this  concrete 
personal  solidarity  is  weakened,  the  act  of  help  assumes  an 
independent  importance  in  and  of  itself;  the  economic  value 
of  the  service  rendered  becomes  essential,  instead  of  its 
social  value. 

When  the  change  begins,  the  expectation  of  reciprocity 
is  justified  by  the  amount  of  the  sacrifice  made  by  the  giver, 
and  no  longer  by  the  efficiency  of  the  help  which  the  receiver 
got.  There  must  be  a  reciprocal  service  to  remunerate  the 
giver  for  this  sacrifice,  and  it  must  be  proportionate  to  the 


i82  TRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

sacrifice  itself,  given  at  the  right  moment  and  in  the  right 
wa>-.  This  is  only  an  intermediary  stage  between  social 
help  and  objectively  determined  exchange,  but  we  find  the 
corresponding  attitude  very  frequently.  Grain  lent  in  the 
spring  has  to  be  given  back  with  a  very  large  interest, 
because  that  is  the  time  when  it  is  most  needed  by  the 
creditor  himself.  Money  is  often  lent  on  the  condition  that 
it  will  be  given  back  whenever  the  creditor  needs  it,  and  the 
latter  refuses  to  accept  it  at  any  other  moment.  Night  and 
Sunday  work  is  valued  by  the  worker  exceptionally  highly 
because  of  the  sacrifice  which  it  involves;  but  the  same  man 
may  do  it  disinterestedly  when  he  applies  to  it  the  principle 
of  solidarity  and  is  asked  for  it  as  for  a  help.  In  selling  or 
exchanging  some  object  the  peasant  adds  to  its  economic 
value  the  subjective  value  which  the  object  has  for  him  on 
account  of  personal  or  familial  associations.  And  many 
other  illustrations  can  be  found. 

But  of  course  when  once  the  egotistic  attitude  is  intro- 
duced into  economic  relations,  these  relations  have  to  be 
objectively  regulated.  And  thus  ultimately  the  principle 
of  economic  equivalence  of  services  is  introduced  and 
becomes  fundamental,  while  there  still  remains  always  some 
place  beside  it  for  the  old  valuation  based  upon  the  efficiency 
of  the  help  and  for  the  transitory  valuation  based  upon  the 
subjective  sacrifice.  This  may  be  said  to  be  the  actual  state 
of  things  in  the  average  peasant  community.  The  objective 
equivalence  of  values  is  the  usual  norm,  but  its  action  is 
modified  by  social  considerations.  The  principle  of  equiva- 
lence requires  that  natural  products  lent  for  living  shall  be 
given  back  at  a  determined  time  without  interest,  but  it 
may  be  modified  in  two  wa3^s.  If  the  debtor  is  in  a  bac 
condition  and  the  creditor  rich,  the  latter  ought  to  postpone 
the  payment  of  the  debt;  but  if  their  conditions  are  more  o] 
less  equal  and  the  debt  was  contracted  in  a  period  of  scarcit) 


INTRODUCTION  183 

and  paid  back  in  a  moment  of  abundance,  an  interest  should 
jbe  added  which  is  measured  by  the  difference  of  subjective 
'value  of  the  product  at  these  moments  of  time,  and  can 
therefore  be  objectively  very  high. 

On  the  principle  of  equivalence  any  mobile  property  or 
; money  lent  should  be  given  back  with  a  determined  remu- 
neration, representing  the  resultant  of  the  three  factors: 
deterioration  of  the  object,  sacrifice  of  the  creditor  as  tempo- 
irarily  deprived  of  its  use,  benefit  derived  by  the  debtor. 
The  remuneration  is  determined  beforehand;  but  if  any  of 
those  three  factors  proves  different  from  what  was  expected, 
the  idea  of  social  solidarity  requires  a  corresponding  modi- 
ification  of  the  agreement.  And  the  idea  of  solidarity 
requires  that  if  the  debtor  is  unable  to  pay  any  debt  what- 
ever in  the  same  form  in  which  he  contracted  it  he  shall  be 
allowed  to  pay  it,  as  far  as  possible,  by  working  for  the 
creditor.  Nevertheless,  this  principle  became  a  source  of 
exploitation  of  debtors  by  creditors.  Finally,  the  idea  of 
exchange  has  modified  the  essence  of  rent;  the  owner  now 
allows  the  tenant  to  profit  from  a  determined  quantity  of 
land  in  return  for  a  determined  remuneration.  But  if  a 
year  proves  exceptionally  bad  the  owner  should  as  far  as 
possible  remit  the  rent,  or  at  least  allow  it  to  be  paid  the 
next  year,  and  if  the  year  is  exceptionally  good  the  tenant 
ought  to  offer  the  owner  more  than  was  agreed. 

Applied  to  work,  the  idea  of  exchange  becomes  the  source 
of  the  modern  principle  of  wages  as  remuneration  for  the 
result,  although  here  it  is  particularly  difficult  to  get  away 
from  the  personal  relation.  It  is  therefore  almost  exclusively 
in  hired  work  (day-  or  piece-work)  and  not  in  employment 
or  service  that  this  principle  is  active. 

The  only  case  in  which  equivalence  tends  to  be  perfect 
is  in  the  simple  exchange  of  objects.  The  idea  is  that  the 
objects  must  be  really  equivalent  from  the  economic  point 


iS4  rRlMARV-CROUr  ORGANIZATION 

of  view,  independent  of  subjective  factors.  To  be  sure,  a 
person  may  ascribe  to  an  object  a  special  subjective  value, 
or,  on  the  contrary,  give  it  voluntarily  for  a  less  valuable 
one.  But  neither  of  these  attitudes  has  any  social  sanction 
attached  to  it.  Only  cheating  is  forbidden;  the  cheater 
becomes  an  object  of  social  condemnation;  the  cheated,  of 
ridicule. 

The  idea  of  exchange  of  equivalent  services  prepares  the 
second,  individualistic  stage  of  economic  life,  because  it 
introduces  economic  quantification,  at  least  into  the  rela- 
tions between  members  of  a  community.  Nevertheless,  it 
still  belongs  rather  to  the  first  stage,  because  it  can  co- 
exist with  a  strong  familial  organization  (it  is  not  applied 
at  first  to  the  members  of  the  same  family)  and  because  it 
does  not  harmonize  with  the  tendency  of  economic  advance 
which,  as  we  shall  see,  characterizes  the  second,  individual- 
istic stage  of  evolution.  It  expresses  an  egotistic  economic 
organization  of  a  community  which  rises  very  slowly  and 
gradually,  remaining  still  solidary  in  so  far  as  it  permits 
nobody  to  profit  too  much  at  the  expense  of  others.  No 
individual  fortune  can  be  made  in  such  a  community,  and 
in  fact  no  individual  fortune  is  made  within  the  peasant 
community  (except  by  socially  condemned  usury);  for 
this  the  individual  must  enter  into  relations  with  the  external 
world. 

And  this  is  illustrated  by  a  curious  fact.  There  was 
originally  no  commerce  between  members  of  a  community, 
no  buying  and  selling  at  all.  It  was  hardly  necessary  in  the 
primitive  conditions,  and  it  would  not  have  been  in  accord- 
ance with  the  idea  of  solidarity  as  we  have  outlined  it. 
Therefore  the  attitudes  in  bu}'ing  and  selling  developed 
exclusively  under  the  influence  of  and  in  contact  with 
people  from  outside — Jews,  foreign  peddlers,  town  mer- 
chants.    Thence  the  necessity  and  importance  of  the  fairs, 


INTRODUCTION  185 

where  almost  all  the  buying  or  selling  was  done.  And 
later,  by  a  sort  of  half -conscious  convention,  the  fair  became 
a  place  where  everybody  could  be  treated  as  an  outsider,  and 
a  money  transaction  could  be  concluded,  not  only  with 
somebody  of  a  different  community,  but  even  with  a  neigh- 
bor. It  happened  and  may  happen  still  that  when  a  farmer 
has  a  horse  which  his  neighbor  wants  to  buy  they  both  go 
to  the  fair,  and  there,  after  the  first  has  pretended  to  wait 
for  a  buyer  and  the  second  to  search  for  a  horse,  they  meet 
and  conclude  the  transaction.  Of  course  neither  of  them 
acknowledges  that  he  intended  to  make  the  transaction 
beforehand.  Actually  the  custom  is  almost  broken  down, 
but  the  peasant  still  does  not  like  to  buy  from  or  sell  to  his 
neighbor,  because  he  feels  morally  bound  by  the  principle 
of  economic  equivalence  and  cannot  hope  to  do  a  particularly 
good  piece  of  business. 

This  development  of  buying  or  selling  in  exclusive 
contact  with  outsiders  accounts  for  the  fact  that  none  of 
the  principles  dominating  the  economic  relations  within  the 
community  is  applied  to  money  transactions.  Here  we 
find  the  typical  business  tendency  in  its  pure  form:  buy 
as  cheap,  sell  as  dear,  as  possible;  no  limitations  of  honesty, 
no  personal  or  social  considerations.  But  the  peasant  had 
to  be  taught  this  purely  economic  attitude.  He  had  to 
learn,  first,  that  goods  brought  to  the  market  acquire  a  new 
character — that  of  being  subjected  to  a  common  quantita- 
tive standard  of  value,  in  spite  of  any  qualitative  distinctions 
which  they  may  possess  as  social  values  within  the  com- 
munity. Everything  can  be  bought  from,  or  sold  to, 
outsiders.  And  it  was  not  easy  to  learn  this.  Up  to  the 
present  many  peasants  do  not  apply  the  economic  standard 
to  some  of  their  goods  and  are  disgusted  and  offended  if 
someone  else  does  it.  This  happens  most  often  with  regard 
to  land,  but  sometimes  also  horses  or  cattle  which  have 


iS6  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

been  used  on  the  farm  are  sold  unwillingly,  the  peasant 
preferring  to  sell  the  }'oung  ones.  As  we  have  seen,  there 
was  probably  an  unwillingness  to  apply  the  economic  point 
of  view  to  farm  products  which  served  for  living,  and  up  to 
the  present,  except  in  localities  near  large  cities,  the  peasant 
will  not  sell  bread.  There  is,  of  course,  no  such  limitation 
in  buying,  although  the  fact  that  every  individual  sum  of 
money  has  a  particular  destination,  can  be  used  only  to  buy 
objects  of  a  particular  class,  shows  that  there  is  still,  inde- 
pendently of  the  question  of  needs,  a  remnant  of  some 
qualitative,  social  classilication. 

After  learning  to  apply  the  economic  standard  the 
peasant  had  to  learn  also  that  it  is  possible  and  desirable 
to  sell  very  dear  and  to  buy  very  cheap.  This  did  not  come 
at  once  either;  the  idea  of  equivalence,  applied  to  exchange 
within  the  community,  hindered  the  development  of  the 
spirit  of  business,  and  in  a  few  remote  localities  hinders  it 
even  now.  The  peasant  will  not  take  more  nor  give  less 
than  he  thinks  is  right;  and  if  accidentally  he  makes  a  better 
bargain  than  he  expected,  either  he  reproaches  himself  for 
having  cheated  the  other  man  or  he  feels  gratitude  toward 
him.  The  Jews,  whose  method  of  business  is  adapted  to 
the  average  psychology'  of  the  people  with  whom  they  deal 
and  is  consequently  traditional  and  often  correspondent  with 
disappearing  attitudes,  use  in  bargaining  the  appeal: 
''Do  you  want  to  wrong  a  poor  Jew  ?"  This  introduces  at 
once  the  idea  of  equivalence  and  the  personal  element,  and 
the  transaction  becomes  assimilated  to  an  exchange  between 
members  of  the  community.  But  of  course  the  necessity 
of  making  such  an  appeal  indicates  the  partial  formation  of 
the  business  attitude.  This  attitude  now  prevails,  with  few 
exceptions,  in  all  relations  with  outsiders.  It  assumes  often 
the  most  extreme  forms.  In  buying,  the  peasant  bargains 
up  to  the  last,  and  he  does  not  like  to  buy  if  he  cannot 


INTRODUCTION  187 

bargain,  because  he  wants  to  be  persuaded  that  he  has 
bought  the  cheapest  possible.  In  selHng,  he  often  demands 
the  most  exorbitant  prices,  particularly  if  he  has  some  reason 
to  think  that  the  buyer  needs  his  goods  very  much.  As  his 
business  attitude  is  displayed  only  within  a  limited  part 
of  his  economic  life,  however,  it  is  not  systematically  organ- 
ized. The  quantitative  side  of  economic  value  is,  in  his 
eyes,  only  one  among  its  other  qualities,  brought  forward 
at  particular  moments,  among  particular  circumstances, 
with  regard  to  particular  people.  Each  act  of  buying  or 
selling  is  a  single,  isolated  action,  not  connected  with  other 
actions  of  the  same  class.  The  principle  of  cheap  buying 
and  dear  selling  is  therefore  not  limited  by  any  idea  of  the 
future,  by  any  endeavor  to  get  a  class  of  steady  customers. 
The  peasant  at  this  stage  avoids  any  contracts  of  delivery 
which  are  proposed  to  him;  he  makes  no  calculations  for  a 
longer  time,  but  tries  simply  to  get  as  much  as  possible  at 
the  given  moment.  He  will  break  any  contract  of  work  and 
go  to  another  place  with  higher  pay,  even  if  he  loses  more 
in  the  long  run  than  he  wins.  This  was  for  many  years  the 
practice  of  season-emigrants  in  Germany.  The  number  of 
contracts  broken  was  enormous.  This  was  due  in  large  part 
to  bad  treatment,  but  partly  also  to  a  lack  of  organization 
of  the  business  attitudes,  which  frequently  had  their  first 
application  to  work  in  contact  with  foreigners.  This  whole 
situation  left,  of  course,  no  place  for  any  spirit  of  enterprise 
along  commercial  or  industrial  lines. 

Finally,  we  must  take  into  consideration  the  question  of 
theft,  as  it  corroborates  our  previous  conclusions.  There  is 
absolutely  no  theft  in  "taking"  any  raw  material  which  is 
not  in  any  way  the  product  of  human  activity;  trees,  grass, 
minerals,  game,  fish,  wild  berries,  and  mushrooms  are,  as 
we  have  said,  everybody's  property.  This  attitude  remains 
unchanged   up   to   the  present,   because   of   the   servituts, 


1 88  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

that  is,  the  right  which  the  former  serfs  and  their  de- 
scendcnts  have  to  use  to  a  Hmited  extent  the  forests  and 
pastures  of  the  manorial  estate.  "Taking"  the  products 
which  serve  to  maintain  the  Hfe  of  man  or  animal  may  be 
unfair,  but  unless  the  products  are  taken  for  sale  it  is  not 
theft.  "Taking"  prepared  food  to  satisfy  immediate 
hunger  is  hardly  even  unfair,  except  that  it  would  be  better 
to  ask  for  permission.  When  clothes  are  stolen  and  worn, 
the  act  is  on  the  dividing  line  between  "taking"  and  theft. 
But  as  soon  as  any  product  is  stolen  for  sale,  there  is  no 
justification ;  it  is  theft  in  the  full  sense  of  the  word.  Even 
here  we  find  a  gradation.  The  stealing  of  goods  which 
belong  to  the  class  of  income  is  incomparably  less  heinous 
than  ihe  stealing  of  farm-stock,  particularly  horses  and  cows. 
Since  money  draws  its  character  from  the  objects  for  which 
it  is  the  substitute,  a  condemnation  of  money  theft  varies 
with  the  amount  stolen,  simply  because  a  small  sum  can 
represent  only  a  part  of  the  natural  income,  a  medium  one 
an  object  of  individual  property,  a  large  one  land.  And 
the  condemnation,  on  any  level,  increases  if  the  proprietor 
is  poor  and  if  the  thief  belongs  to  the  same  community; 
it  decreases  if  the  thief  is  in  real  need  and  if  the  proprietor 
is  a  member  of  another  community  or,  particularly,  of 
another  class.'  There  can  be  no  theft  between  members 
of  the  same  family. 

2.  After  the  definite  liberation  of  the  peasants  and  their 
endowment  with  land  their  condition  was  at  first  no  better, 
sometimes  it  was  even  worse,  than  before.  They  were 
indeed  free  of  duties  and  charges  to  the  lord,  but  had  heavy 
taxes  to  pay;  they  could  not  rely  on  the  lord's  help  in  case 
of  emergency  and  were  often  insufficiently  prepared  materi- 

'  We  find  often  also  the  contrary  reasoning:  stealing  in  another  village  is 
worse  than  stealing  in  one's  own  village,  because  it  gives  rise  to  a  bad  opinion  of 
the  thief's  village. 


INTRODUCTION  189 

ally  and  morally  to  manage  their  farms  independently.  But 
gradually  they  adapted  themselves  to  the  new  conditions, 
and  sometimes  in  the  first  generation,  usually  in  the  second 
and  the  third,  there  awoke  a  powerful  tendency  to  economic 
advance,  a  "force  which  pushes  you  forward "  as  one  peasant 
expresses  it.  This  tendency,  which,  as  we  shall  see,  was  the 
main  factor  breaking  down  the  old  forms  and  creating  new 
ones,  found  its  expression  in  connection  with  the  general 
crisis  which  the  country  underwent  at  this  epoch.  The 
progress  of  industry  opened  new  fields  for  labor,  while  at 
the  same  time  the  rapid  growth  of  country  population,  by 
increasing  the  number  of  landless  peasants,  made  this 
progress  of  industry  particularly  welcome.  The  improve- 
ment of  communication  drew  the  peasant  communities  out 
of  their  isolation  and  put  each  particular  member  in  a  direct 
and  continuous  relation  with  the  external  world.  The 
growth  of  cities  and  the  increase  of  international  commerce 
introduced  more  money  even  into  the  most  distant  com- 
munities and  helped  to  disseminate  the  quantification  of 
economic  values  and  the  business  attitude.  Emigration 
opened  new  horizons,  made  the  peasant  acquainted  with 
higher  standards  of  work,  of  wages,  of  living.  The  evolution 
of  the  class-hierarchy,  while  to  a  certain  extent  conditioned 
by  the  economic  evolution,  influenced  it  in  turn,  because  the 
new  system  gave  a  new  motive  for  economic  advance  by 
opening  the  way  to  social  ambition.  Finally,  instruction 
was  popularized  and  helped  to  a  better  understanding  of 
the  natural  and  social  environment. 

About  half  a  century  was  required  for  the  full  develop- 
ment of  the  attitudes  involved  in  the  tendency  to  economic 
advance,  and  even  now  they  are  neither  universal  nor 
perfectly  consistent.  This  is  quite  as  we  should  expect,  for 
the  tendency  to  advance  took  at  first  the  line  of  least 
resistance;    the  climbing  individual  either  adapted  himself 


u)o  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

to  the  traditional  conditions  and  morals  of  his  immediate 
environment  or  simply  moved  to  another  environment  where 
he  found  conditions  awaiting  him  which  required  no  particu- 
lar adjustment.  Only  gradually  the  more  independent 
forms  of  advance  could  appear — the  effort  to  modify  the 
old  environment  or  to  chmb  within  the  new  environment. 

Lajidjiunger  and  .enaigratipn  are  the  phenomena  corre- 
sponding to  the  lower  forms  of  economic  advance,  while  the 
higher  foiTns  are  expressed  in  agricultural,  industrial,  and 
commercial  enterprise  at  home  and  in  the  active  adaptation 
to  a  higher  milieu  in  towns  and  abroad.  For  those  who 
remain  in  the  community,  increasing  or  acquiring  property 
in  land  is  the  form  of  advance,  satisfying  at  once  the  tradi- 
tional idea  of  fortune,  the  desire  of  social  standing,  and,  to  a 
smaller  extent,  the  desire  for  a  better  standard  of  living. 
The  first  two  factors  are  fundamental.  The  proportions 
which  land-hunger  assumed  in  the  second  half  of  the  last 
centur\'  are  the  best  proof  of  the  power  of  the  new  tendency 
to  advance.  But  at  the  same  time  the  lack  of  economic 
calculation  in  buying  land  proves  that  the  old  attitudes 
remain  in  force  at  least  with  regard  to  the  qualitative 
character  of  land  property.  In  the  consciousness  of  the 
peasant  who  pa}'S  absurd  prices  for  a  piece  of  land  there  is  no 
equivalence  possible  between  land  and  any  other  economic 
value;  they  are  incommensurable  with  each  other.  Land 
is  a  unique  value,  and  no  sum  of  money  can  be  too  large  to 
pay  for  it;  if  there  is  bargaining  and  hesitation,  it  is  only 
because  the  buyer  hopes  to  get  elsewhere  or  at  another 
moment  more  land  for  the  same  money,  not  because  he 
would  rather  turn  the  money  to  something  else.  And  if 
later  the  interest  on  his  capital  is  hardly  i  per  cent  to  2  per 
cent,  he  does  not  complain  if  only  his  general  income,  that 
is,  the  interest  and  his  work,  is  sufficient  to  give  him  a  living. 
He  does  not  count  his  work,  or  rather  he  does  not  dissociate 


INTRODUCTION  191 

the  interest  on  his  capital  and  the  product  of  his  work, 
because  his  work  is  due  to  the  land,  and  he  is  glad  that  he 
can  work  on  his  own  land,  not  elsewhere.  How  strong  and 
one-sided  the  land-hunger  can  be  is  proved  by  some  examples 
of  emigration  to  Brazil.  Peasants  who  had  twenty  morgs 
of  cultivated  land  sold  it  and  emigrated,  because  they  were 
to  get  there,  at  a  cheap  price,  forty  morgs  of  land,  although 
not  cultivated.  So  the  mere  difference  of  size  between  their 
actual  and  their  future  farm  was  a  sufficient  motive  to 
overcome  the  attachment  to  their  country  and  the  fear  of 
the  unknown,  to  lead  them  to  undertake  a  journey  of  two 
months  and  incalculable  hardship  afterward.  This  was  the 
attitude  of  many  a  rich  farmer,  while  the  poor  and  landless 
naturally  looked  upon  this  opportunity  to  get  land  as  an 
undreamed-of  piece  of  luck.  There  was  a  real  fever  of 
emigration.  Whole  villages  moved  at  once,  and  this 
emigration,  in  1911-12,  was  centered  in  the  most  isolated 
and  backward  part  of  the  country,  in  the  eastern  parts  of 
the  provinces  of  Siedlce  and  Lublin,  and  precisely  where 
the  tendency  to  advance  had  still  the  elementary  form  of 
land-hunger. 

A  phenomenon  essentially  different  from  this  emigration 
of  colonists  with  their  families  in  search  of  land  is  the 
emigration  of  single  individuals  in  search  of  work.  We 
shall  speak  of  it  in  detail  later  on.  Here  we  mention  it  only 
in  connection  with  the  tendency  to  economic  advance.  Of 
course  there  are  many  in  the  community — and  their  number 
increases  every  year — who  cannot  hope  to  advance  if  they 
stay  in  the  country.  Most  of  them,  indeed,  can  live  as 
hired  laborers,  servants,  or  proprietors  of  small  pieces  of 
land,  and  earning  some  money  in  addition  by  outside  work. 
Their  living  is  on  the  average  even  better  than  that  of  their 
fathers  and  grandfathers  under  similar  conditions,  but  they 
are  no  longer  satisfied  with  such  an  existence;  they  want  a 


192  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

better  future,  "  if  not  for  ourselves,  at  least  for  our  children," 
as  they  express  it.  This  is  the  essential  change  of  attitude 
which  accounts  for  the  simultaneous  appearance  and  enor- 
mous development  both  of  emigration  and  of  land-hunger. 
^Moreover,  emigration  to  cities,  from  this  standpoint, 
belongs  to  the  same  category  as  emigration  abroad.  When 
a  peasant  emigrates,  it  is  usually  with  the  desire  to  earn 
ready  money  and  return  home  and  buy  land.  He  goes  where 
he  can  lind  a  ready  market  for  work  involving  no  technical 
or  intellectual  preparation,  and  he  is  at  first  satisfied  with 
the  wages  he  can  secure  for  his  unskilled  labor.  Astonish- 
ment and  regret  are  often  expressed  that  the  peasant  shows 
no  decided  inclination  to  become  a  farmer  in  America,  but 
undertakes  in  mines,  on  railroads,  and  in  steel  works  forms 
of  labor  to  which  he  is  totally  unaccustomed.  But  it  will  be 
found  that  the  peasant  has  selected  precisely  the  work  which 
suits  his  purpose,  namely,  a  quick  and  sure  accumulation 
of  cash. 

Usually  it  is  the  second  generation  which  begins  to  rise 
above  the  economic  level  of  the  parents  by  other  means  than 
the  accumulation  of  land,  for  at  a  certain  point  this  means 
ceases  to  be  effective.  The  increase  of  landed  property 
is  always  limited  by  the  contrary  process  of  division  among 
the  children,  and  there  are  already  many  localities  where  no 
land  can  be  bought  at  all  owing  to  the  fact  that  the  larger 
estates  have  already  been  parceled.  Under  these  circum- 
stances the  only  remaining  possibility  of  advance  lies  along 
the  other  line — increase  of  income  through  skilful  farming 
and  through  industrial  and  commercial  undertakings. 
A  notable  progress  has  already  been  accomplished  along  the 
first  line.  As  a  typical  example,  four  sons  divided  among 
themselves  their  father's  land,  and  now  each  of  them  has 
more  income  from  his  portion  than  the  father  had  from  the 
whole.     Industrial  undertakings  develop  more  slowly.     The 


INTRODUCTION  193 

most  important  are  mills,  brick  factories,  the  production 
of  butter  and  cheese.  The  development  of  commerce  is 
still  slower.  It  is  largely  limited  to  trade  in  hogs,  poultry, 
and  fruit,  and  to  petty  shopkeeping  in  villages. 

Among  those  who  have  left  the  country  the  second 
generation  tends  to  higher  wages,  better  instruction,  and 
usually  tries  to  rise  above  the  ordinary  working-class.  The 
new  milieu  usually  gives  more  opportunity,  but  requires 
more  personal  effort  in  order  to  rise,  and  it  is  therefore  here 
that  we  find  the  greatest  changes  of  attitudes. 

Finally,  education  and  imitation  tend  to  create  in  the 
country  another  form  of  economic  progress.  The  parents 
who  cannot  give  their  children  land  try  to  prepare  them  for 
higher  positions  by  giving  them  a  general  and  technical 
instruction  instead  of  sending  them  to  industrial  centers,  to 
Germany  or  America,  as  unskilled  laborers. 

During  this  evolution  the  economic  attitudes  become 
gradually  adapted  to  the  fundamental  problem  of  economic 
advance.     The  result  of  this  adaptation  is  that  they  cease  to 
be  social  and  become  almost  purely  economic ;  they  quantify 
all  the  material  values  and  tend  to  increase  the  quantity. 
The  economically  progressive  individual  becomes  approx- 
imately the  classical  "  economic  man  " ;  that  is,  the  economic 
side  of  his  life  is  almost  completely  detached  from  the  social 
side  and  systematized  in  itself,  even  if  it  continues  to  react 
to  social  influences.     Or,  in  more  exact  terms,  the  general 
tendency  to  advance  in  the  material  conditions  of  existence 
1  effects  in  the  peasant  an  analysis  of  his  social  hfe,  and  the 
i  result  of  this  analysis  is  the  constitution  of  a  systematic  body 
Ij  of  new  attitudes,  social  in  their  ultimate  nature,  but  concern- 
jj  ing  merely  material  values  and  viewed  with  regard  to  the 
greatest  possible  increase  of  their  enjoyment  by  the  subject. 
The  evolution  of  property  in  this  direction  shows  two 
phases:    individualization  and  capitalization.     As  soon  as 


104  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

the  problem  of  advance  takes  the  place  of  the  problem  of 
living,  the  role  of  the  individual  in  matters  of  property 
increases  more  and  more  at  the  cost  of  the  family.  \Vhen 
a  certain  amount  of  property  was  assumed  and  the  question 
was  merely  how  to  live  from  it,  the  individual  had  no  claim 
to  the  property  at  all;  it  was  there  beforehand,  he  was  not 
concerned  in  any  way  with  its  origin  and  essence,  but  only 
with  its  exploitation.  The  basis  of  his  existence  was  in  the 
group,  and  he  could  only  help  to  maintain  this  basis.  But 
the  situation  was  totally  changed  when  he  became  an  active 
factor  in  the  modification  of  this  basis.  To  be  sure,  to  a 
certain  extent  even  here  the  family  could  act  as  a  unit 
without  distinguishing  the  part  played  by  individuals  in 
this  modification.  The  property  often  increased  under  the 
familial  regime,  and  up  to  the  present  we  find  many  examples 
of  families  behaving  with  solidarity  in  matters  of  advance 
as  they  behaved  formerly  in  matters  of  living.  But  the 
tendency  to  advance  has  necessarily  a  dissociating  element 
which  the  old  t}qDe  of  solidarity  cannot  resist  very  long; 
only  in  modern  co-operation  has  the  problem  of  harmonizing 
economic  advance  and  social  solidarity  been  solved,  as  we 
shall  see  in  a  later  volume.  On  the  one  hand,  the  part 
played  by  individual  members  of  the  family  in  the  increase 
of  property  was  not  equal,  and,  when  the  social  and  moral 
side  of  familial  solidarity  began  to  weaken,  those  who  were 
the  most  efiicient  began  to  feel  the  familial  communism  as 
an  injustice.  Still  more  important  is  the  fact  that  the 
family  as  a  whole  could  ad\'ance  only  slowly,  and  the  prog- 
ress made  by  one  generation  was  followed  by  a  regression 
in  the  next  generation  when  the  number  of  marriage-groups 
increased.  Consequently  the  members  in  whom  the  tend- 
ency to  advance  was  particularly  strong  and  impatient 
began  to  consider  the  family  group  as  no  longer  a  help  but 
a  burden.     And  even  those  who,  as  heads  of  the  famil\', 


INTRODUCTION  195 

represented  the  familial  principle  assumed  when  they  were 
particularly  efficient  an  attitude  of  despotism  which  was  in 
itself  a  step  toward  individualization  and  provoked  also 
individualistic  reactions  from  other  members  of  the  group. 
The  more  intense  the  desire  to  advance  and  the  more  rapid 
the  progress  itself,  the  more  difficult  it  was  to  retain  the 
familial  form  of  property.  The  individuals  began  by  claim- 
ing the  products  of  their  own  activity;  then  the  principle  of 
individual  ownership  became  extended  to  the  hereditary 
familial  land,  and  the  last  stage  of  this  evolution  is  the 
quantitative  division  of  the  whole  property — land,  farm- 
stock,  house  furniture,  and  money — among  individual 
members  of  the  family.  The  only  vestige  of  the  old  solidar- 
ity in  such  cases  is  the  desire  to  keep  the  land,  even  if  di- 
vided, as  far  as  possible  in  the  family.  The  same  members, 
therefore,  never  receive  cash  and  land,  but  these  are  appor- 
tioned separately,  and  there  remains  a  tendency  to  favor 
those  who  take  the  land,  in  order  to  preserve  this  as  far  as 
possible  intact.  But  this  is  only  one  side  of  the  process. 
The  familial  property  was  the  highest  form  of  economic 
value,  the  ultimate  aimx  of  any  economic  change.  Other 
forms  of  property  could  pass  into  it,  but  it  could  not  pass 
into  them.  And  property  in  general  was  an  incomparably 
higher  economic  category  than  income;  it  was  an  end  in 
itself,  and  its  use  as  a  means  of  existence  was  a  secondary 
matter.  It  resulted  from  the  nature  of  property  that  it 
could  be  used  as  a  basis  of  living,  but  its  value  did  not 
consist  merely  in  the  living  which  could  be  got  out  of  it; 
the  living  was  always  an  individual  matter,  while  property 
corresponded  to  the  group.  The  fact  that  the  idea  of 
property  could  never  be  subordinated  to  the  idea  of  income 
made  impossiKleT^g  treatment. of  property  as  productive 
capital.  All  this  was  changed  as  soon  as  property  became 
individual,   but   even    then,   indeed,   its   nature   was   not 


196  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

completel)-  exhausted  by  its  being  the  source  of  an  income, 
since  it  continued  to  stretch  by  heredity  over  more  than  one 
generation.  Still  this  became  its  essential  character  and 
led  to  a  revaluation  of  the  various  forms  of  property  upon 
a  new  basis.  The  new  valuation  of  every  particular  form  of 
property  on  the  basis  of  its  producti\'ity,  of  the  amount  and 
durability  of  the  income  which  it  brings,  has  two  results: 
it  gives  a  common  measure  of  all  the  various  forms  of  prop- 
erty, in  spite  of  their  qualitative  differences,  and  it  gives  a 
greater  fluidity  to  all  forms  of  property — makes  the  change 
of  one  form  into  another  relatively  frequent  and  easy.  The 
peasant  in  the  country  seldom  reaches  this  complete  capital- 
ization of  property,  but  he  approaches  it  more  and  more. 
He  already  begins  to  think  of  individual  fortune  in  terms  of 
money,  without  enumerating  separately  land,  farm-stock, 
money,  and  objects  of  private  use;  he  compares  goods  with 
regard  to  their  productivity,  tries  to  increase  this  productiv- 
ity by  selling  and  buying,  tries  to  change  less  productive 
for  more  productive  goods  of  the  same  class  (land  for  land, 
farm-stock  for  farm-stock),  puts,  not  only  his  work,  but 
also  his  money,  in  improvements,  even  such  as  require  long 
waiting  for  the  results.  But  even  the  most  advanced 
peasant  will  not  yet  sell  his  land  in  order  to  start  with  this 
money  a  more  productive  business  of  a  different  nature  unless 
he  is  already  settled  in  a  city  or  abroad,  particularly  in 
America.  He  will  resign  all  property,  sell  his  land,  and 
emigrate  in  order  to  live  elsewhere  as  a  hired  workman  if  his 
farm  is  too  small  to  keep  him  and  his  family,  but  he  seldom 
tries  to  exchange  land  for  something  else.  The  economic 
equivalence  of  land  and  other  forms  of  property  is  not  yet 
fully  established. 

The  attitude  with  regard  to  income  is  undergoing  a 
somewhat  similar  evolution.  The  individual  effort  to 
raise  the  income  makes  of  this  also  an  individual  matter; 


INTRODUCTION  197 

nobody  has  any  longer  the  right  to  claim  a  part  in  its  enjoy- 
ment, neither  the  community  nor  even  the  family.  At  the 
same  time  the  qualitative  distinctions  between  various  sorts 
of  income  become  meaningless  under  the  influence  of  a  new 
idea  which  we  may  term  the  standard  of  living.  In  a 
certain  narrow  sense  the  idea  was  not  totally  absent  from 
the  old  economy.  There  was  a  social  standard  of  living, 
adapted  to  the  average  economic  level  of  the  community 
and  modified  in  each  particular  case  with  regard  to  the 
fortune  of  the  family.  There  was  in  matters  of  food, 
clothing,  lodging,  and  receptions  a  certain  norm,  and  each 
family  limited  its  scale  of  living  both  below  and  above, 
permitted  it  to  be  neither  too  modest  nor  too  fastidious. 
The  standard  of  living  in  the  modern  peasant  economy, 
however,  is  very  different.  First,  it  is  personal;  the  individ- 
ual sets  it  himself,  and  he  does  not  like  any  prescription  of 
norms  in  this  respect  from  either  community  or  family. 
Again,  it  is  virtual  rather  than  actual;  its  essence  lies  in 
the  power  which  the  individual  has  over  his  economic 
environment  by  virtue  of  his  income.  Moreover,  this  power 
must  express  itself;  but  its  expression  is  free,  there  is  no 
particular  line  along  which  the  income  has  to  be  spent.  It 
may  be  spent  mainly  in  acquiring  property,  or  in  acts  of 
generosity,  or  in  good  eating,  fine  dressing,  and  lodging, 
or  in  amusements,  or  in  all  these  together.  The  ways  of 
spending  may  be  varied  as  much  as  the  individual  pleases; 
stinginess  along  some  lines  may  be  equilibrated  by  lavishness 
along  others.  And,  finally,  the  standard  of  living  so  con- 
ceived always  concerns  the  future,  not  the  present,  because 
its  meaning  lies  more  in  the  possibility » of  spending  than  in 
spending  itself;  the  individual  sets  a  standard  of  what  he 
can  and  will  do.  Such  a  standard  therefore  involves 
advance.  The  individual  usually  takes  into  account  any 
foreseen  increase  of  his  economic  power.     The  economic 


1 98  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

Standard  of  life  becomes  thus  an  economic  ideal  of  life. 
And  of  necessity  the  relative  fluidity  of  this  standard,  the 
postulated  possibility  of  passing  from  one  expression  of 
power  to  another,  requires  the  translation  of  every  form  of 
income  into  terms  of  money. 

This  attitude  has  been  particularly  developed  among 
Polish  immigrants  in  America,  but  it  exists  also  in  Poland 
among  those  who  have  succeeded  in  rising  above  the 
economic  level  of  the  preceding  generation.  It  often 
becomes  one  of  the  sources  of  the  general  feeling  of  self- 
importance  typical  of  successful  climbers,  and  is  one  of 
which  we  find  many  examples  in  the  present  materials.  It 
has  an  important  influence  upon  various  social  attitudes, 
particularly  in  matters  of  marriage  and  in  relations  with  the 
famfly  and  the  community.  We  shall  point  out  these 
consequences  presently. 

As  increase  of  fortune  and  income  is  mainly  effected 
through  individual  work,  the  attitude  toward  work  becomes 
also  essentiaUy  changed.  Work  was  always  a  necessary 
condition  of  living,  but  living  was  not  unequivocally  deter- 
mined by  work;  there  were  other  factors  complicating  the 
relation — good  or  bad  will  of  men,  God's  help,  and  the 
devil's  harmful  activity.  And  even  when  occasionally,  as 
in  hired  daily  labor,  the  relation  between  work  and  living 
was  simple,  the  process,  not  the  result  of  work,  was  regu- 
lated by  it,  and  the  duration  and  intensity  of  this  process 
were  limited  by  the  actual  needs  of  which  the  peasant  was 
conscious;  he  worked  only  in  order  to  satisfy  a  determined 
want.  The  search  for  better  work  which  we  find  at  a  later 
period  was  at  first  merely  an  endeavor  to  get  more  pay  for 
the  same  limited  amount  of  activity.  But  all  this  was 
changed  when  advance,  instead  of  living,  became  the  end 
of  work.  There  are  no  predetermined  and  steady  limits 
of  advance.     In  the  tendency  to  rise  the  needs  grow  con- 


INTRODUCTION  199 

tinually.  The  peasant  begins  to  search,  not  only  for  the 
best  possible  remuneration  for  a  given  amount  of  work,  but 
for  the  opportunity  to  do  as  much  work  as  possible.  No 
efforts  are  spared,  no  sacrifice  is  too  great,  when  the  abso- 
lute amount  of  income  can  be  increased.  The  peasant  at 
this  stage  is  therefore  so  eager  to  get  piece-work.  It  is 
well  known  in  Germany  that  good  Polish  workers  can  be 
secured  only  if  a  large  proportion  of  piece-work  is  offered 
them.  And  during  the  period  when  piece-work  lasts 
(harvesting)  the  peasants  often  sleep  and  eat  in  the  field, 
and  work  from  sixteen  to  twenty  hours  a  day.  And  as 
wages  in  Germany  are  about  50  per  cent  higher  than  at  home, 
all  the  best  workers  prefer  to  go  there  rather  than  work  on 
a  Polish  estate,  though  the  work  is  much  harder  and  treat- 
ment worse.  They  take  the  hardship  and  bad  treatment 
into  account,  but  accept  them  as  an  inevitable  condition 
of  higher  income.  When  they  come  back,  they  take  an 
absolute  rest  for  two  or  three  months  and  are  not  to  be 
moved  to  do  the  slightest  work,  proving  that  work  is  still 
highly  undesirable  in  itself  and  desirable  only  for  the  income 
which  it  brings.  Another  consequence  of  this  new  attitude 
is  that  instead  of  changing  work  if  there  is  a  slightest  hope 
of  immediate  improvement,  and  without  regard  to  the 
future  (as  expressed  in  contract-breaking  and  wandering 
from  place  to  place),  the  peasant  now  begins  to  appreciate 
more  and  more  the  importance  of  a  steady  job,  particularly 
in  America. 

But  the  evolution  does  not  end  here.  When  the  relation 
of  the  results  of  work  to  wages  has  been  once  established 
through  the  medium  of  piece-work,  a  further  step  brings  to 
the  attention  the  difference  of  results  and  of  wages  between 
skilled  and  unskilled  labor.  The  mere  increase  of  the 
quantity  of  work  proves  more  limited  and  less  effective  than 
the  improvement  of  quality.     While  this  difference  was 


200  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

abstractly  known  before,  it  acquires  now  a  concrete,  practi^:  -J. 
importance,  since  social  evolution  has  opened  new  possibil- 
ities for  the  unskilled  worker  to  pass  into  the  skilled  class, 
and  the  tendency  to  advance  becomes  sufficiently  strong 
to  overcome  the  old  passivity  and  lack  of  initiative  of  the 
peasant.  The  problem  of  skilful  and  efficient  work  therefore 
begins  to  dominate  the  situation.  At  first  the  skill  is  valued 
only  with  regard  to  the  income  which  it  brings ;  but  slowly 
and  unconsciously  the  standpoint  is  shifted,  and  finally  the 
skilled  or  half-skilled  workman  attains  the  level  of  the  old 
guild  hand-worker,  is  able  to  evaluate  the  results  of  his  work 
and  to  be  proud  of  his  skill  even  without  immediate  refer- 
ence to  the  remuneration.  This  reference  changes  its 
character.  The  question  of  earning  a  certain  amount  for 
some  particular  piece  of  work  becomes  secondary  as  com- 
pared with  the  general  earning  power  of  the  individual.  The 
ultimate  level  reached  here  is  parallel  with  that  which  we 
found  at  the  culmination  of  progress  in  matters  of  income. 
There  the  tendency  to  rise  expressed  itself  finally  in  an  ideal 
incorporating  the  highest  possible  buying  power  at  a  given 
stage.  Here  an  increase  in  the  general  earning  power  is 
the  object,  and  it  finds  its  expression  in  a  corresponding  ideal 
which  gives  direction  to  the  efforts  to  acquire  a  higher 
technical  ability.  Necessarily,  these  two  ideals  are  closely 
connected,  and  we  should  expect  that  finally  the  question  of 
buying-power  would  become  secondary  to  that  of  earning- 
power;  but  the  peasant  does  not  seem  to  have  reached  this 
stage  of  systematization  of  the  economic  attitudes  except 
in  a  few  cases  in  America.  The  attitude  of  perfect  security 
and  independence  with  regard  to  the  actual  income  can  be 
acquired  only  by  a  man  who  has  the  consciousness  of  his 
OA\Ti  earning-power  along  the  line  of  independent  business 
and  who  is,  moreover,  not  limited  to  a  single  specialty.  But 
the  Polish  peasant,  in  the  great  majority  of  cases,  had  not 


INTRODUCTION  20I 

had  time  enough  to  develop  the  spirit  of  initiative  and  the 
rapid  adaptability  which  characterize,  for  example,  the 
native  American.  This  explains,  among  other  facts,  why 
no  Polish  peasant  has  succeeded  up  to  the  present  in  making 
a  really  big  fortune,  either  in  America  or  at  home.  The  fear 
of  failure,  resulting  from  a  feeling  of  insufficient  adaptation 
to  the  complexity  of  modern  economic  life,  necessarily 
hinders  the  undertaking  of  great  enterprises. 

The  economic  attitudes  expressed  in  the  relations  to 
other  men  undergo  a  parallel  evolution.  The  economic 
importance  of  the  family  and  the  community  diminishes 
very  rapidly  as  the  relations  of  the  individual  with  the 
external  world  become  more  various  and  durable.  It  may 
happen  indeed  that  an  individual  who  in  his  habitual 
economic  life  is  almost  a  modern  business  man  still  behaves 
occasionally  in  the  traditional  way  in  his  relations  with  some 
member  of  the  traditional  groups.  But  this  occurs  only 
if  those  relations  are  few  and  rare  and  if  the  old  attitudes  do 
not  hinder  the  individual's  advance.  Thus,  for  example, 
an  emigrant  who  has  been  for  many  years  in  America  and 
has  become  relatively  rich  will  occasionally  show  an  unex- 
pected generosity  toward  some  poor  relative,  often  even 
without  regard  to  the  degree  of  familial  connection — which 
is  of  course  quite  contrary  to  tradition.  And  it  is  quite 
typical  that  a  peasant  settled  in  a  city  or  abroad  will  receive 
his  fellow-countryman  with  particular  hospitahty,  and  when 
he  visits  for  a  short  time  his  native  village  will  treat  all  of 
his  old  friends  and  acquaintances  in  an  ostentatious  way. 
This  occasional  display  of  the  old  attitudes  has  in  it,  of 
course,  much  of  showing  off.  The  attitudes  of  solidarity 
may  be  in  reality  very  weak,  but  they  get  strength  from  the 
desire  to  manifest  the  importance  of  the  individual's  own 
personality  in  a  way  which  is  sure  to  bring  recognition  in  his 
old  milieu. 


202  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

But  if  the  individual  still  lives  among  his  family  or  in 
his  community,  the  old  economic  attitudes  are  dropped  as 
hindering  advance.  Usually  the  attitudes  which  were 
formerly  applied  to  the  community  are  now.  transferred  to 
the  family.  The  obligation  of  help  is  acknowledged  onl}'  in 
matters  of  living,  not  of  property,  and  to  a  limited  extent. 
For  example,  a  member  of  the  family  can  enjoy  the  hospital- 
ity of  another  member,  but  only  for  a  time  not  exceeding  a 
few  months,  or  varying  in  indi\'idual  cases.  After  that 
time  he  has  to  pay  for  his  living.  In  matters  of  property  the 
attitude  of  help  may  still  exist  in  the  form  of  lending,  but 
not  of  gift.  The  dominant  principle  is  that  of  exchange  of 
equivalent  goods.  The  attitude  formerly  employed  toward 
strangers  may  be  extended  in  some  measure  to  the  com- 
munity, though  a  real  exploitation  of  the  members  of  the 
community,  as  in  the  not  infrequent  case  of  usury,  is  con- 
demned. Even  the  ritualized  attitudes — for  example, 
ceremonial  receptions  and  gifts, — do  not  escape  the  influence 
of  the  general  egotism;  reciprocity  begins  to  be  expected 
and  lack  of  reciprocity  provokes  contempt.  Only  in 
matters  of  marriage  does  the  new  evolution  lead  to  a  greater 
disinterestedness,  because  the  possibilities  of  individual 
advance  make  marriages  without  dowry  possible,  and 
because  the  marriage-group,  isolated  from  both  families, 
behaves  in  economic  matters  as  a  single  individual. 

The  new  attitudes  are  thus  to  be  sought  in  the  in- 
dividual's relation  to  the  world  outside  of  his  community, 
which  is  now  his  real  economic  milieu.  Here  the  dominant 
feature  of  economic  advance  is,  as  we  have  seen,  a  progres- 
sive adaptation  to  a  higher  and  more  complex  economic 
organization,  and  every  economic  act  takes  the  form  of 
business;  it  is  an  investment  with  the  expectation  of  a 
profit.  The  individual  always  wants  to  get  from  others 
more  than  he  gives.     In  this  way  his  behavior  corresponds 


INTRODUCTION  203 

to  the  classical  economic  type.  His  business  acts  are 
organized  with  regard  to  the  future  and  constitute  a  prac- 
tical system,  a  life-business.  And  as  far  as  the  individual 
meets  others  who  have  aims  which  interfere  with  his  own, 
competition  arises.  The  business  attitudes  are  too  well 
known  to  require  analysis  here.  The  point  is  that  they  did 
not  exist  at  the  beginning  in  the  peasant's  economic  life, 
but  appeared  as  the  result  of  a  long  and  complicated  evolu- 
tion. 

3.  In  the  second  half  of  the  past  century,  particularly 
after  the  unsuccessful  revolution  of  1863,  there  originated 
among  the  intelligent  classes  of  the  three  parts  of  Poland 
a  movement  to  enlighten  and  to  organize  the  peasants  in 
order  to  prepare  them  for  a  future  participation  in  some  new 
effort  to  recover  national  independence.  The  movement 
began  in  a  different  way  in  each  part  of  Poland.  In  Galicia 
the  starting-point  was  pohtical  organization,  in  Posen 
economic  organization,  in  Russian  Poland  instruction. 
But  gradually  the  problem  of  organization  along  all  lines 
of  social  activity  assumed  an  importance  by  itself,  not  alone 
with  regard  to  a  future  revolution;  and  as  the  advance  of 
modern  militarism  proved  more  and  more  the  hopelessness 
of  any  endeavor  to  recover  independence  by  arms,  the  idea 
of  a  national  revolution  almost  lost  its  hold  except  in  con- 
nection with  the  idea  of  social  revolution  or  a  European  war. 
At  present  the  social  organization  of  the  peasants  is  imme- 
diately connected  with  the  problem  of  constituting  a  strong 
national  unity  of  the  social  type  as  a  substitute  for  national 
unity  of  the  pohtical  type  (the  state),  and  economic  organi- 
zation is  the  most  important  part  of  this  problem.  All  the 
traditional  and  modern  economic  attitudes,  solidarity  as 
well  as  individuahsm,  are  used  to  construct  a  new  form  of 
economic  life  based  on  co-operation.  There  is  an  imitation, 
of  course,  of  the  western  peasant  associations  and  labor 


204  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

organizations,  and  the  most  self-conscious  tendency  in  this 
line  has  been  the  importation  of  the  English  form  of  co- 
operation, but  the  whole  movement  has  an  original  character 
through  its  connection  with  certain  traditional  attitudes  on 
one  hand  and  with  the  national  ideal  on  the  other.  We  shall 
study  this  movement  in  detail  in  our  fourth  volume. 

The  economic  evolution  of  the  Polish  peasant  gives  us 
thus  an  exceptional  opportunity  to  study  the  process  of 
development  of  economic  rationalism,  since,  in  consequence 
of  particular  circumstances,  the  process  has  been  very  rapid, 
and  all  of  its  stages  coexist  at  the  present  moment,  as 
vestiges,  as  actual  reality,  or  as  the  beginning  of  the  future. 
We  see  that  in  the  first  stage  economic  life  was  completely 
subordinated  to,  and  indissolubly  connected  with,  social 
organization,  that  any  methodological  abstraction  which 
constructs  a  system  of  economic  attitudes  as  isolated  from 
other  social  attitudes,  and  any  theory  which  tries  to  deduce 
social  organization  from  economic  life,  must  fail.  Then  out 
of  this  first  stage  we  see  a  new  state  of  things  developing— 
a  historical  status  which  corresponds  practically  with  the 
classical  economic  theor}^  The  economic  life  becomes 
abstracted  in  fact  from  the  rest  of  social  life;  economic 
attitudes  are  elaborated  which  can  be  of  themselves  motives 
of  human  behavior.  These  are  connected  among  them- 
selves so  as  to  constitute  a  rational  practical  system  which 
is  isolated  in  the  consciousness  of  the  individual  from  other 
spheres  of  interest,  although  occasionally  interfering  with 
them.  But  this  is  not  a  general  law  of  economic  life,  only  a 
particular  historical  status,  due  to  the  appearance  of  the 
tendency  to  economic  advance.  Finally,  the  third  status, 
as  we  shall  see  in  detail  later  on,  realizes  historically,  in 
part,  the  socialistic  doctrine  of  dependence  of  social  organi- 
zation  upon   economic   life.     The   economic   organization 


INTRODUCTION  205 

becomes  in  fact  one  of  the  fundamental  conditions  of  a 
social  organization,  of  the  social  national  unity.  But  this 
is  effected  only  through  particular  historical  conditions  and 
under  the  influence  of  particular  social  and  moral  ideals. 

We  do  not  assert  that  the  evolution  of  the  Polish  peasant 
gives  us  a  general  law  of  economic  evolution.  It  did  not  go 
on  independently  of  external  influences,  and  the  action  of 
those  influences  cannot  as  yet  be  methodologically  excluded. 
A  study  of  other  societies  in  different  condit|ioris  is  indispen- 
sable, because  only  by  comparison  will  it  be  possible  to 
determine  what  in  the  process  of  economic  evolution  of  the 
Polish  peasant  is  fundamental  and  what  accidental. 

RELIGIOUS   AND   MAGICAL  ATTITUDES' 

The  religious  and  magical  life  of  the  Polish  peasant 
contains  elements  of  various  origin.  There  is  still  the  old 
pagan  background,  about  which  we  know  very  little  and 
which  was  probably  itself  not  completely  homogeneous; 
there  is  Christianity,  introduced  in  the  tenth  century,  and 
gradually  disseminated,  partly  absorbing,  partly  absorbed 
by,  the  old  stock  of  beliefs;  there  are  some  other  oriental 
elements,  brought  later  by  the  Jews,  the  gipsies,  infiltrated 
from  Russia,  Turkey,  etc.;  there  are  German  elements, 
brought  by  the  colonists;  finally,  much  is  due  to  the  gradual 
popularization  of  the  contents  of  classical  literature  and  of 
mediaeval  learning.     It  would  be  an  impossible  and  useless 

'  In  the  following  volumes  we  do  not  give  a  particular  place  to  magic  and  religion 
as  concrete  data,  partly  because  they  do  not  possess  for  us  relatively  so  great  an 
importance,  and  partly  because  this  is  a  field  in  which  the  data  of  peasant 
experience  have  been  collected  on  a  relatively  complete  and  extensive  scale — 
though  these  data  have  never  been  given  a  systematic  sociological  treatment. 
But  on  this  account  we  offer  here  a  relatively  full  treatment  of  the  magical  and 
religious  elements  in  order  to  establish  their  proper  importance  in  the  peasant's 
scheme  of  attitudes  and  values.  We  have  drawn  freely  as  to  details  (but  not  as 
to  theory)  from  Oskar  Kolberg's  great  work,  Lud  ["The  People"],  and  from 
the  ethnographical  materials  published  by  the  Cracow  Academy  of  Sciences 
{Maleryaly  anlropologiczno-archeologiczne  i  etnograficzne). 


2o6  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

undertaking  to  attempt  a  historical  analysis  of  this  complex. 
W^iat  we  seek  at  this  point  is  a  determination  of  the  funda- 
mental attitudes  shown  by  the  peasant  in  his  religious  and 
magical  life,  aside  from  the  question  of  the  origin  of  these 
attitudes  and  of  the  beliefs  and  rites  in  which  they  express 
themselves.  And  of  these  we  find  four  partially  independent 
t}pes:  (i)  general  animation  of  natural  objects,  but  no 
spirits  distinct  from  the  objects  themselves;  solidarity  of 
life  in  nature;'  no  distinction  possible  between  religion  and 
magic;  (2)  belief  in  a  world  of  spirits,  partly  useful,  partly 
harmful,  and  distinct  from  natural  objects;  the  beliefs  are 
religious,  the  practice  is  magical;  (3)  absolute  distinction 
of  good  and  evil  spirits;  the  relation  with  the  good  spirits 
is  religious  and  expressed  in  social  ceremonies,  the  relation 
with  bad  spirits  is  magical  and  established  individually. 
(4)  Introduction  of  mysticism,  tendency  to  self-perfection 
and  salvation;  personal  relation  with  the  divinity. 

Although  it  is  possible  that  these  types  of  attitude 
represent  as  many  necessary  stages  in  the  development  of 
religious  life,  this  cannot  be  affirmed  with  certainty  without 
comparative  studies.  And  in  a  concrete  religion  like  Cathol- 
icism we  naturally  find  mixed  elements  representing  various 
stages  of  religious  evolution,  and  a  concrete  group  or 
individual  shows  a  combination,  often  a  very  illogical  one, 
of  attitudes  belonging  to  various  types. 

I.  All  the  natural  beings — animals,  plants,  minerals,  the 
heavenly  bodies,  and  the  earth — are  objects  of  the  peasant's 
interest  and  sympathy.  His  motives  are  not  consciously 
utilitarian,  although,  as  we  shall  see,  natural  objects  are 
always  in  some  way  related  to  the  man's  life  and  welfare. 
We  may  perhaps  assume  that  it  is  this  general  interest  which 
causes  the  man  to  invent  a  direct  utilitarian  connection 
between  himself  and  some  natural  object  (a  connection 
which  in  fact  does  not  exist)  when  he  wishes  to  justify  his 


INTRODUCTION  207 

interest  rationally.'  This  point  will  become  clearer  when 
we  determine  the  essence  of  the  relation  between  man  and 
nature. 

But  the  fact  that  natural  objects  are  related  to  man's 
welfare  at  all  distinguishes  this  interest  from  the  purely 
aesthetic  one  whose  origin  we  shall  analyze  elsewhere.  The 
common  feature  in  both  is  the  tendency  to  individualize. 
Tliejiidiyidhaaliza^  far.     Not  only  all  the  domestic 

animals,  but  even  the  wild  ones,  are  always,  as  far  as  possible, 
identified,  which  act  sometimes  (with  domestic  animals 
always)  expresses  itself  in  name-giving.  Every  tree,  every 
large  stone,  every  pit,  meadow,  field,  has  an  individuahty 
of  its  own  and  often  a  name.  The  same  tendency  shows 
itself  in  the  individualization,  often  even  anthropomorphiza- 
tion,  of  periods  of  time.  At  least  one-third  of  the  days  of 
the  year  are  individually  distinguished,  and  the  peasant 
never  uses  numbers  for  these  dates,  but  always  individual 
names.  The  Christian  consecration  of  every  day  to  a 
saint  is  very  helpful  in  this  respect,  and  the  peasant  usually 
substitutes  (for  example,  in  his  innumerable  proverbs)  the 
saint  for  the  day.^  Tales  in  which  months  or  days  are 
anthropomorphized  are  frequent.  The  anthropomorphiza- 
tion  itself  is  not  serious,  but  it  is  a  sign  of  the  tendency  to 
individualization.  Thanks  to  this  tendency,  time  becomes  a 
part  of  nature,  and  individualized  periods  of  time  become 
natural  objects.  There  is  little  trace  of  an  analogous 
individualization  of  space,  except  the  usual  distinction  of 
the  six  cardinal  directions — objective:    east,  west,  south, 

'  It  is  forbidden,  for  example,  to  touch  a  swallow's  nest  or  even  to  observe  the 
swallow  too  persistently  when  it  is  flying  in  and  out  of  it.  The  rationalistic  justi- 
fication of  this  attitude  is  that  the  swallow  may  become  angry  and  drop  her  excre- 
ment into  the  man's  eye,  causing  blindness. 

^  For  example:  "When  St.  Martin  comes  upon  a  white  horse,  the  winter  will 
be  sharp."  Or:  "St.  Matthew  either  destroys  the  winter  or  makes  it  wealthy." 
Or:  "If  Johnny  begins  to  cry  and  God's  Mother  does  not  calm  him,  he  will  cry  till 
St.  Ursula." 


2o8  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

north,  up,  down;    subjective:    right,  left,  before,  behind, 
up,  down. 

Wlien  individualization  is  impossible,  as,  for  example, 
with  regard  to  many  wild  animal  species,  there  is  at  least 
a  tendency  to  invent  an  imaginary  individual  which  becomes 
then  the  representative  and  the  head  of  the  whole  species. 
Thus  we  find  everywhere  the  legend  of  a  king  of  the  serpents, 
whose  crown  in  some  tales  a  peasant  succeeds  in  stealing; 
the  wolves,  deer,  boars,  hawks,  owls,  etc.,  have  particularly 
old  and  powerful  individuals  whom  they  obey ;  in  many  tales 
there  appear  various  individual  animals  and  birds  endowed 
with  exceptional  qualities  and  knowledge  to  whom  their 
species  has  to  listen,  and  even  if  in  some  cases  these  animals 
prove  to  be  metamorphosed  men,  this  is  not  essential  at  all, 
and  even  such  changes,  as  we  shall  see,  can  be  explained 
without  any  appeal  to  extra-  or  supra-natural  powers. 

For  the  interesting  point  in  all  this  individualization  of 
natural  objects  is  that,  while  there  are  no  spirits  in  or  behind 
the  objects,  the  latter  are  always  animated,  often  conscious 
and  even  reasonable.  To  be  sure,  we  find  also  spirits 
attached  to  objects  in  the  peasant's  belief,  but  these  cases 
belong  to  a  quite  different  religious  system.  In  the  system 
we  are  now  considering  we  find  only  living  beings  whose  life 
is  not  at  all  distinguished  from  its  material  manifestation — 
no  opposition  of  spirit  and  body.  The  animals,  the  plants, 
the  heavenly  bodies,  the  earth,  the  water,  the  fire,  all  of 
them  live  and  all  of  them  think  and  know  in  varying 
degrees.  Even  individualized  fields  and  meadows,  even 
days  and  times  of  the  year,  have  some  kind  of  independent 
existence,  life,  and  knowledge.  The  same  characters  belong 
in  various  degrees  to  manufactured  objects  and  to  words. 
In  short,  anything  which  is  thought  as  individually  existent 
is  at  the  same  time  animated  and  endowed  with  some 
consciousness;   the  "animated  and  conscious  thing"  seems 


INTRODUCTION  209 

to  be  a  category  of  the  peasant's  thinking  in  the  same  sense 
that  the  mere  "thing"  or  "substance"  is  a  category  of 
scientific  reasoning.  Or,  more  exactly,  v/hen  a  scientist 
isolates  an  object  in  thought  in  order  to  study  it,  his  act  is 
purely  formal;  the  object  does  not  (or  rather,  it  should  not) 
acquire  in  the  eyes  of  the  scientist  any  new  property  by  being 
thought,  except  that  of  becoming  the  subject  of  a  judgment. 
But  the  peasant,  at  least  at  the  stage  of  intellectual  culture 
which  we  study  here  in  its  vestiges,  cannot  isolate  an  object 
in  thought  without  ascribing  to  it  (unintentionally,  of  course) 
an  independent  existence  as  an  animated  and  more  or  less 
conscious  being. 

We  find  innumerable  examples  of  this  attitude.  If  we 
take  only  one  manifestation  of  nature's  consciousness — her 
conscious  reaction  to  man's  activity — we  see  that  up  to  the 
highest  forms  of  animal  life  and  down  to  the  manufactured 
thing  or  to  the  animated  abstraction  of  a  time-period  man's 
action  is  understood  and  intentionally  reacted  upon.  An 
animal  not  only  feels  gratitude  for  good  treatment  and 
indignation  at  bad  treatment,  not  only  tries  to  reward  or 
to  avenge,  but  even  understands  human  motives  and  takes 
them  into  account.  This  is  not  only  shown  in  all  the  animal 
tales,  but  is  manifested  in  everyday  life.  A  peasant  in  whom 
this  belief  is  still  strong  will  never  intentionally  mistreat 
an  animal,  and  tries  to  explain  or  to  cause  the  animal  to 
forget  a  mistreatment  due  to  accident  or  anger.  After  the 
death  of  the  farmer  his  heir  has  to  inform  the  domestic 
animals  of  the  death  and  to  tell  them  that  he  is  now  the 
master.  Some  animals  understand  and  condemn  immoral 
actions  of  man  even  if  these  do  not  affect  themselves.  The 
bees  will  never  stay  with  a  thief,  the  stork  and  the  swallow 
leave  a  farm  where  some  evil  deed  has  been  committed; 
the  same  was  formerly  true  of  the  house  snake.  As  to  the 
plants,  if  fruit  trees  grow  well  and  bear  fruit,  if  crops  succeed, 


2IO  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

it  is  not  merely  a  result  of  a  mechanical  or  magical  influence 
of  the  man's  activity;  the  plants  are  conscious  of  being  well 
treated  and  show  their  gratitude.  This  must  be  taken 
literally,  not  metaphorically.  We  find  the  same  belief 
dignified  in  the  tales,  where,  for  example,  an  apple  tree 
bends  its  branches  and  gives  its  best  fruit  to  a  girl  who 
cleaned  its  trunk  from  moss,  and  refuses  anything  to  another 
who  did  not  do  this.  The  same  literal  sense  is  contained  in 
a  saying  about  the  gratitude  of  the  earth,  which  consciously 
rewards  the  laborer's  well-intentioned  and  sincere  work. 
Every  field  knows  its  real  owner  and  refuses  to  yield  to  a 
usurper.  The  earth  is  indignant  at  any  crime  committed 
upon  its  face;  it  was  crystalline  before  Cain  killed  Abel  and 
became  black  after  this.  It  sometimes  refuses  to  cover  a 
self-murderer,  particularly  one  who  has  hanged  himself. 
The  sun  sees  and  knows  everything  that  happens  during 
the  day.  If  something  is  said  against  it,  it  punishes  the 
offender,  while  it  is  no  less  susceptible  to  thanks  and  bless- 
ings. Prayers  are  still  addressed  on  some  occasions  to 
the  moon,  and  evil  doings  are  to  be  performed  rather  when 
the  moon  does  not  see  them.  The  stars  understand  the 
man  who  knows  how  to  ask  them,  and  give  an  answer 
literally  and  immediately  in  the  form  of  inspiration,  not 
mediately,  through  the  calculation  of  their  positions,  as  in 
astrology.  The  water  should  not  be  dirtied  or  dried  up. 
Nothing  bad  should  be  done  or  said  near  it,  because  it  knows 
and  can  betray.  In  the  tales  a  pit  shows  the  same  gratitude 
for  being  cleaned  as  the  apple  tree.  Fire  is  perhaps  still 
more  animated  and  conscious,  and  there  is  a  peculiar  respect 
sho^\^l  toward  it.  The  children  who  play  with  the  fire  are 
told:  "Don't  play  with  the  fire.  It  is  not  your  brother." 
The  fire  should  be  kept  with  the  greatest  care  and  clean- 
liness, blessed  when  lighted  in  the  morning,  blessed  when 
covered  with  ashes  at  night.     Once  a  year  (on  St.  Lauren- 


INTRODUCTION  2ii 

tius'  Day)  the  old  fire  is  extinguished  and  a  new  one  Hghted, 
both  ceremonies  being  accompanied  with  thanks  and 
blessings.  Fire  should  never  be  lent,  either  from  respect  or 
because  it  is  particularly  connected  with  the  family.  There 
is  a  tale  of  two  fires  meeting;  one  of  them  praised  its  hostess 
for  treating  it  well,  the  other  complained  that  its  hostess 
mistreated  it,  kept  it  carelessly,  and  never  blessed  it.  Then 
the  first  fire  advised  the  second  to  avenge  itself,  and  on  the 
following  night  the  second  burned  the  house  of  its  hostess. 
Nothing  offensive  should  be  said  against  any  natural 
phenomenon — wind,  thunderstorm,  hail,  rain,  cold — or 
against  a  season  of  the  year;  vengeance  may  follow.  Again, 
we  have  tales  in  which  anthropomorphized  natural  phenom- 
ena (e.g.,  frost,  wind)  prove  grateful  for  good  and  revengeful 
for  bad  treatment.  A  peculiar  attitude  can  be  noticed  with 
regard  to  the  days  of  the  year.  Each  day,  in  view  of  its 
individuality,  is  particularly  fit  for  determined  action,^  or, 
more  exactly,  reacts  favorably  upon  some  actions,  unfavor- 
ably upon  others.  But,  more  than  this,  each  day  returns 
the  next  year  and  can  then  avenge  a  bad  action  or  reward  a 
good  action  committed  last  year.  Thence  comes  mainly  the 
importance  of  anniversaries.  The  same  is  true  of  week-days 
and  months,  and  we  find  here  also  the  exaggeration  of  the 
normal  attitude  in  tales,  where  days  and  months  are  anthro- 
pomorphized. Traces  of  the  same  (but  here  only  half- 
conscious)  belief  that  things  understand  are  found  in  the 
peasant's  unwillingness  to  change  the  pronunciation  of 
words  or  to  play  with  them;  the  pun  is  seldom  if  ever  used 
by  the  peasant  as  a  mere  joke.  Nor  should  words  ever  be 
misused,  great  words  applied  to  petty  things,  etc.     Finally, 

'  There  is  scarcely  any  relation  between  this  belief  and  astrology.  Of  all  the 
mediaeval  magical  doctrines  astrology  was  the  last  to  reach  the  peasant,  when  he 
already  knew  how  to  read  almanacs;  like  all  other  book-doctrines,  it  reached  him 
in  disconnected  fragments,  while  the  belief  stated  in  the  text  is  systematically 
applied  to  the  whole  year. 


212  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

the  power  of  blessings  and  curses  depends  in  a  certain 
measure  upon  the  immanent  hfe  of  the  words.  It  seems 
natural  to  explain  this  respect  for  words  by  a  magical  con- 
nection between  the  word  as  a  symbol  and  the  thing  symbol- 
ized, because  for  us  the  word  is  nothing  but  a  symbol,  and 
we  have  difficulty  in  imagining  how^  a  word  can  have  life  and 
power  in  itself  independently  of  any  relation  to  something 
else.  But  for  the  peasant  the  word  is  not  only  a  symbol,  it 
is  a  self-existent  thing.  We  find  also,  as  will  be  shown, 
magical  power  ascribed  to  the  word,  but  then  we  are  in 
a  different  system  of  beliefs.  The  attitude  toward  the  word 
as  an  independent  being  exists.  This  fact  we  must  fully 
recognize,  and  only  then  can  we  raise  the  further  question 
whether  there  is  any  direct  genetic  relation  between  this 
attitude  and  the  magical  one. 

In  connection  with  the  objects  made  by  man  the  animat- 
ing tendency  is  expressed  perhaps  less  clearly  than  in  con- 
nection with  natural  objects,  but  it  is  essentially  the  same. 
No  object  should  be  hurt,  destroyed,  soiled,  neglected, 
or  even  moved  without  necessity  and  this  not  because  of 
utilitarian  considerations  alone  nor  because  of  the  fear  of 
magical  consequences,  although  those  reasons  are  also  active. 
The  object  has  an  individuality  of  its  own,  and,  even  if  it 
is  not  alive  and  conscious  in  the  proper  sense,  it  has  a  certain 
tendency  to  maintain  its  existence.  There  are  cases  of  an 
almost  intelligent  vengeance  taken  by  man-made  objects, 
and  in  tales  they  are  also  often  endowed  with  consciousness 
and  speech.  The  animation  decreases  in  the  case  of  objects 
whose  process  of  manufacture  has  been  observed,  and 
disappears  sometimes  (but  not  always)  almost  completely 
in  the  case  of  those  which  the  individual  has  made  himself. ; 
And  the  latter  are  also  the  only  ones  which  the  individual 
has  sometimes  implicitly  the  moral  right  to  destroy,  if  he. 
does  so  immediately  after  having  made  them.  By  existing 
for  a  certain  time  they  acquire  immunity. 


INTRODUCTION  213 

The  intelligence  of  natural  objects,  particularly  of 
animals,  manifests  itself,  not  only  in  the  conscious  reaction 
upon  human  activity,  but  also  in  other  lines.  While  the 
animal  does  not  know  everything  man  knows,  every  animal 
has  knowledge  about  some  matters  which  remain  hidden 
from  man.  The  properties  of  wild  plants  and  of  minerals 
have  been  mainly  learned  by  man  from  the  animals,  and  he 
has  yet  much  to  learn.'  For  example,  swallows  and  lizards 
know  herbs  which  can  resuscitate  the  dead;  the  turtle  know 
an  herb  which  destroys  every  fence  and  wall,  breaks  every 
lock,  etc.  The  snakes  and  the  wild  birds  are  the  most 
knowing,  but  the  quadrupeds,  even  the  domestic  ones, 
understand  some  things  better  than  man.  Another  knowl- 
edge which  all  the  animals  possess  to  some  degree  is  the 
prevision  of  future  events,  particularly  changes  of  weather 
and  deaths.  If  man  carefully  watches  their  behavior,  he 
can  avoid  many  mistakes,  and  he  would  be  still  wiser  if  he 
understood  their  language.  The  plants,  heavenly  bodies, 
earth,  water,  and  fire  have  the  same  knowledge  of  one 
another's  properties  and  the  same  prevision  of  the  future, 
but  in  varying  degrees. 

Nevertheless,  except  in  tales,  where  all  the  anthropo- 
morphic properties  of  natural  objects  are  exaggerated,  we 
can  hardly  say  that  in  point  of  knowledge  man  is  generally 
inferior  to  his  environment.  In  some  matters  he  knows  less, 
but  in  others  more.  There  is  no  contrast  of  any  kind 
between  man  and  nature.  Man  is  a  being  of  the  same  class 
as  any  natural  object,  although  men  understand  one 
another  better  and  are  more  closely  connected  with  one 
another  than  with  the  animals  or  plants.  In  saying  that 
man  is  a  being  of  the  same  class  we  mean  also  that  he  has  no 
spirit  distinct  from  the  body,  leaving  it  temporarily  in 
dreams  and  forever  in  death.  As  to  dreams,  there  is  no 
trace  of  the  belief  that  a  part  of  the  personality,  a  soul  in 
any  sense  whatever,  leaves  the  body  and  visits  other  places. 


214  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

This  explanation  exists,  but  in  connection  with  another 
system  of  behefs.  The  fact  of  seeing  everything  in  dreams 
seems  to  call  for  no  explanation  at  all,  because  it  is  sim|)l\- 
assimilated  to  the  fact  of  imagining  things  in  the  waking 
state;  it  is  too  naturally  accepted  to  be  a  problem.  The 
problem  appears  only  in  connection  with  prophetic  dreams, 
explicit  or  symbolical,  but  here  again  it  is  not  distinct  from 
other  facts  of  prophecy  or  second  sight  found  in  the  waking 
state,  and  the  explanation  is  made,  not  on  a  theory  of  the 
soul,  but,  as  we  shall  see  presently,  on  the  basis  of  the  whole 
conception  of  the  natural  world.  As  to  death,  there  is 
certainly  a  "spirit"  which  leaves  the  body,  but  it  is  only 
"vapor"  or  "air"  which  dissolves  itself  in  the  environment. 
The  body  simply  loses  the  part  of  its  vital  power  of  which 
the  "air"  or  "vapor"  is  a  condition,  in  the  same  way  as  it 
loses  in  sleep  the  power  of  voluntary  movement,  seeing,  and 
hearing.  And  even  then  the  body  is  not  really  dead;  it 
is  never  quite  dead  as  long  as  it  exists,  for  under  certain 
influences  it  may  come  to  full  life  again.  It  may  awake 
periodically  at  certain  moments,  or,  if  it  has  a  particularly 
strong  vitality,  it  may  live  indefinitely  in  the  tomb,  coming 
out  every  night  to  eat.  This  is  the  case  with  the  vampire, 
A  man  who  will  be  a  vampire  can  be  distinguished  even 
during  his  life  by  the  redness  of  his  cheeks,  his  strength,  his 
big  teeth.  And  all  of  this  has  nothing  to  do  with  the 
question  of  a  returning  soul. 

This,  however,  is  only  a  partial  life.  To  have  a  real 
second  life  the  body  must  be  destroyed,  and  then  the  man  is 
regenerated  and  lives  again,  in  this  world  or  in  some  other. 
The  regeneration  is  nothing  particular.  Every  year  the 
whole  of  nature  is  regenerated  from  death.  There  are  cases 
of  men  who,  without  waiting  for  natural  death,  let  their 
bodies  be  destroyed  and  arose  again,  young  and  powerful. 
In  other  cases  the  regeneration  in  this  world  took  place  in 
the  form  of  a  tree,  a  lily,  an  animal,  etc.     Thus  regeneration 


INTRODUCTION  215 

in  another  world  is  a  fact  classed  with  many  other  perfectly 
natural  facts.  The  only  difference  is  that  the  man  usually 
lives  his  second  life  somewhere  else,  out  of  reach  of  his 
friends,  though  sometimes  mystical  communication  is 
possible.  The  instrument  of  destruction  and  regeneration 
can  be  either  fire  or  earth.  The  purificatory  properties  of 
fire  make  it  particularly  fit  for  destruction,  the  fecundity 
of  the  earth  for  regeneration.  Both  cremation  and  burial 
were  used^in_fimerals  at  different  epochs,  and  agriculture 
gave  analogies  of  regeneration  by  both  means.  In  primitive 
agriculture  the  forest  was  burned  and  the  soil  acc^uired  a 
particular  fertility.  The  branch  of  the  willow  placed  in  the 
earth  grows  into  a  tree. 

Now  this  whole  world  of  animated  and  more  or  less 
conscious  beings  is  connected  by  a  general  solidarity  which 
has  certainly  a  mystical  character,  because  the  ways  of  its 
action  are  usually  not  completely  accessible  to  observation 
and  cannot  be  rationally  determined,  but  whose  manifesta- 
tions express  the  same  moral  principle  as  the  solidarity  of 
the  family  and  of  the  community.  Even  in  the  reaction  of 
nature  upon  man's  activity  which  we  have  indicated  in  the 
examples  enumerated  above,  this  solidarity  is  manifested. 
But  we  find  still  more  explicit  proofs.  There  is  a  solidarity 
between  certain  plants  and  certain  animals.  When  the  an- 
imal (for  example,  a  cow)  is  sick,  the  peasant  fmds  the 
proper  plant,  bends  it  down,  and  fastens  its  top  to  the 
ground  with  a  stone,  saying:  "I  will  release  you  when  you 
make  my  cow  well."  The  same  evening  the  cow  will 
recover.  Then  the  man  must  go  and  release  the  plant,  or 
else  on  the  next  day  the  cow  will  fall  sick  again  and  die. 
Similarly  animals  are  interested  in  plants  and  can  influence 
them.  Hence  the  numerous  ways  of  assuring  good  crops 
or  the  successful  growth  of  fruit  trees  through  the  help  of 
animals.  A  stork  nesting  upon  the  barn  makes  a  full  barn. 
A  furrow  drawn  around  a  field  by  a  pair  of  twin  oxen  insures 


2i6  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

it  against  hail,  and  the  same  means  is  used  against  the  ptst, 
with  the  addition  that  twin  brothers  must  lead  the  oxen. 
Sparrows  should  be  allowed  to  eat  cherries  in  summer  and 
grain  in  winter,  and  pigeons  should  be  allowed  to  eat  peas, 
because  these  birds  are  allies  and  companions  of  man,  and 
for  their  share  in  the  crops  help  them  to  grow.  If  there  are 
many  maybugs  in  spring,  it  means  that  millet  will  be  good. 
The  cuckoo  can  call  only  till  the  crops  have  ceased  to 
blossom,  because  then  they  fall  asleep  and  the  bird  ought 
not  to  wake  them. 

There  is  also  a  relation  of  solidarity  between  the  earth 
(also  the  sun)  and  all  living  beings,  which  is  strikingh- 
expressed  in  such  beliefs  as  the  following:  The  earth  can 
communicate  its  fecundity  to  an  animal  (for  example,  to  a 
sterile  cow),  and,  on  the  other  hand,  the  fecundity  of 
animals  or  women  can  be  communicated  to  a  sterile  field. 
The  sun  should  not  look  upon  dead  animals,  because  it  is 
disturbed,  sets  in  blood,  and  may  send  hail  and  rain.  Fires 
lighted  on  the  eve  of  St.  John  (June  24),  in  some  localities 
before  Easter,  make  the  crops  succeed — an  old  pagan  custom. 
There  is  also  solidarity  betw^een  the  fire  and  all  living  beings. 
It  is  used  in  many  mystical  actions  whose  aim  is  to  increase 
life,  and  it  should  never  be  fed  with  anything  dead  (rem- 
nants of  dead  animals;  straw  from  the  mattress  of  a  dead 
man,  or  even  remnants  of  wood  left  after  the  making  of  a 
cofhn),  unless  of  course  the  aim  is  the  regeneration  of  the 
dead  object.^  The  same  is  true,  although  perhaps  in  a 
lesser  degree,  of  water.^ 

'  A  particular  solidarity  exists  between  the  fern  and  the  fire;  therefore  nobody 
should  plant  the  fern  near  his  house,  or  else  the  house  will  burn.  In  general,  the 
fern  is  a  privileged  plant.  Whoever  finds  its  flower  (it  is  supposed  to  blossom  at 
midnight,  June  24)  sees  all  the  treasure  under  the  earth  and  all  the  things  which 
were  lost  or  stolen. 

'  We  shall  speak  later  of  the  magical  use  of  fire  and  water  as  symbols  of  mystical 
powers;  here  their  influence  results  from  their  own  nature  and  their  solidarity  with 
other  beings. 


INTRODUCTION  217 

But  between  beings  of  the  same  class  the  principle  of 
solidarity  is  still  more  evident.  Plants  are  solidary  and 
sympathetic  with  one  another.  Therefore  the  success  of 
some  of  them  results  in  the  success  of  others,  and,  on  the 
contrary,  the  destruction  of  any  kind  of  plants  never  goes 
alone,  but  influences  the  lot  of  others.  Predictions  can  be 
made  about  crops  from  the  observation  of  wild  plants,  and 
this  can  hardly  be  interpreted  as  a  rational  inference  based 
upon  the  knowledge  that  these  plants  need  the  same  at- 
mospheric conditions.  No  such  explanation  is  in  fact  at- 
tempted, even  when  the  peasant  is  asked  for  the  reason  of 
his  belief.  Among  animals  the  solidarity  is  still  greater. 
The  house  snake  is  solidary  with  the  cattle  and  poultry; 
if  it  is  well  treated  all  the  domestic  animals  thrive,  but  if  it 
is  killed  they  will  certainly  die.  The  same  kind  of  sympathy 
exists  between  the  goat  (also  the  magpie)  and  the  horses. 
If  a  swallow's  nest  is  destroyed  or  a  swallow  killed,  the  cows 
give  bloody  milk.  The  cow  is  also  related  by  some  mysteri- 
ous link  with  the  weasel;  whenever  a  cow  dies  some  weasel 
must  die,  and  reciprocally.  When  there  is  danger  the 
animals  warn  one  another.  In  autumn  the  redbreast  rises 
high  in  the  clouds  and  watches;  when  the  first  snowflake 
falls  upon  his  breast  he  comes  down  and  informs  everybody, 
calling:  "Snow,  snow!"  (snieg).  Again,  night  animals  are 
more  closely  connected  with  one  another  than  with  others. 
But  animals  of  the  same  species  are  naturally  more  solidary 
than  those  of  different  species,  and  their  solidarity  is  less 
mysterious,  because  more  often  observable  empirically  and 
more  easily  interpreted  by  analogy  with  the  human  soHdar- 
ity.  An  animal,  particularly  a  wild  one,  can  always  call 
all  its  mates  to  its  rescue  if  attacked  or  wounded,  and  there 
is  always  some  danger  in  hunting  even  the  apparently  most 
inoffensive  animals. 

The  knowledge  ascribed  to  natural  objects  is  also  as 
much  a  sign  of  solidarity  as  of  intelligence,  because  it  is 


2i8  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

always  a  knowledge  about  other  natural  objects,  either  a 
result  or  a  cause  of  the  mystical  affinity  between  them.  We 
cannot  omit  here  the  analogy  between  social  life  and  nature. 
In  social  life  solidarity  reaches  as  far  as  the  sphere  of  the 
peasant  community,  that  is,  as  far  as  people  know  one 
another  or  about  one  another,  and  only  secondarily  and 
accidentally,  under  the  influence  of  the  belief  that  a  guest 
may  be  the  bearer  of  some  unknown  power,  is  it  applied 
to  the  stranger.  Nature  is  also  a  primary  group,  and  man 
belongs  to  this  group  as  a  member,  perhaps  somewhat 
privileged,  but  not  a  "king  of  creation."  The  attitude  of 
natural  beings  toward  him,  as  well  as  his  attitude  toward 
them,  is  that  of  sympathetic  help  and  respect.  Nature  is 
actively  interested  in  man's  welfare.  The  sun  gives  him 
warmth  and  light  (in  tales  it  considers  this  to  be  its  moral 
duty),  the  earth  gives  him  crops,  fruit  trees  give  fruit, 
springs  and  rivers  give  water.  Domestic  animals  give  him 
milk,  eggs,  wool,  the  dog  watches  his  house,  the  cat  keeps 
the  mice  away  from  his  food,  the  bees  give  honey  and  wax, 
the  stork,  snake,  swallow,  and  mole  give  him  general  hap- 
piness, the  magpie  brings  him  guests,  the  fire  prepares  food 
for  them.  The  cuckoo  makes  him  rich  or  poor  for  the  year, 
according  to  the  amount  of  money  (or  some  other  possession) 
he  has  in  his  hand  when  hearing  its  voice  for  the  first  time. 
And  all  this  is  not  a  metaphor;  the  "giving"  is  to  be  under- 
stood really,  as  a  voluntary  act.  Other  animals,  particularly 
birds,  advise  him  what  to  do.  The  lark,  the  quail,  the  land- 
rail, the  pigeon,  the  sparrow,  the  frog,  etc.,  tell  him  when  to 
begin  some  particular  farm- work,  their  calls  being  inter- 
preted as  indistinctly  pronounced  phrases.  And  at  every 
moment  he  is  warned  by  some  intentional  sign  against 
misfortune.  If  a  hare  or  a  squirrel  runs  across  his  way,  it  is 
an  advice  to  return.  The  horse  foretells  a  good  or  bad  end 
of  the  journey;   the  dog  foresees  fire,  pest,  war,  and  warns 


INTRODUCTION  219 

his  master  by  howling;  the  owl  foretells  death  or  birth,  etc. 
The  mice  help  the  children  to  get  good  teeth  if  the  child's 
tooth  is  thrown  to  them  and  they  are  asked  to  give  a  better 
one.  Any  sickness  which  befalls  the  man  or  his  farm-stock 
is  healed  by  the  help  of  animals  and  plants,  for  this  is  the 
essence  of  medicine  in  the  system  of  beliefs  which  we  are 
now  analyzing.  We  find  an  enormous  number  of  remedies 
against  sickness,  and  among  the  oldest  of  them  some  which 
contain  not  the  slightest  trace  of  magical  symbolism  and 
also  are  not  based  upon  the  concept  of  purely  physical  action, 
but  can  be  explained  only  by  the  idea  of  sympathetic  help. 
We  have  seen  that  plants  by  being  bent  are  compelled  to 
help  the  domestic  animals;  there  are  plants  which  act 
remedially  by  the  mere  act  of  growing  in  the  garden;  others 
which  destroy  sickness  when  brought  home  on  Easter  or 
Pentecost  (ancient  pagan  spring  holidays,  symbolizing  the 
awakening  of  nature),  St.  John's  Eve  (midsummer  holiday), 
or  on  Mary's  Day  (August  15,  and  harvest-home  holiday). 
And  probably  many  of  the  plants  used  internally  or  applied 
to  the  body  owe  their  power  to  the  mystical  solidarity,  not 
to  the  magical  or  mechanical  influence.  There  is  no  doubt 
that  the  same  attitude  prevails  with  regard  to  animals,  at 
least  when  the  help  of  the  animal  is  asked,  though  in  the  use 
of  various  parts  of  the  dead  animal  we  find  mainly  the 
magical  attitude,  and  this  is  quite  the  contrary  of  the 
attitude  of  mystical  solidarity.  Thus,  while  from  the  latter 
standpoint  the  killing  of  a  snake  is  a  crime,  we  find  in  the 
magical  system  of  beliefs  that  the  ointment  made  from  a 
snake  killed  and  boiled  (or  boiled  ahve)  in  oil  is  among  the 
most  efficient  remedies.^ 

'  The  use  of  stones  seems  to  be  mainly  magical.  There  is,  for  example,  a  small 
stone  which,  as  the  peasant  believes,  comes  from  sand  melted  by  lightning,  and 
this  is  particularly  efficient,  because  it  has  a  symbolical  relation  to  the  power  of 
the  lightning.  But  in  some  cases  a  stone  helps  by  its  own  immanent  power,  and 
these  stones  are  usually  found  by  birds  and  reptiles,  and  their  use  is  learned  from 
them. 


2  20  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

Plants  and  animals  have  also  the  power  of  provoking 
toward  a  given  j)erson  favorable  feelings  in  others,  and  of 
promoting  in  general  the  social  solidarity  among  men.  In 
addition  to  magical  love-charms  we  find  also  some  plants 
which  when  sown  and  cared  for  by  a  girl  help  her  to  succeed 
with  boys,  without  any  magical  ceremony.  The  stork,  the 
snake,  and  the  swallow,  among  other  functions,  keep  har- 
mony in  the  human  famih-  with  which  they  live. 

Finally,  even  with  regard  to  the  beings  whose  relation 
toward  man  is  not  determined  (spiders,  moths,  flies)  or  which 
may  even  seem  harmful  (bugs,  mosquitoes,  fleas,  etc.)  the 
normal  attitude  is  expressed  in  the  words:  "We  don't  know 
what  they  are  for,  but  they  must  have  some  use."  And,  as 
most  of  the  old  beliefs  are  interpreted  now  from  the  Chris- 
tian standpoint,  a  peasant  says  to  a  boy  who  wants  to  kill  a 
frog:  "Don't  do  it.  This  creature  also  praises  our  Lord 
Jesus."  Christian  legends  are  indeed  connected  with  most 
of  the  natural  beings  who  have  a  mystical  value.  Healing 
properties  of  certain  plants  brought  in  on  the  midsummer 
day  are  explained  by  the  legend  that  the  head  of  St.  John 
when  it  was  cut  off  fell  among  these  plants.  The  lark,  w^hich 
soars  so  high,  is  the  favorite  bird  of  the  angels;  during  a 
storm  they  hold  it  in  their  hands,  and  when,  with  every 
lightning-flash,  the  heaven  opens,  it  is  allowed  to  look  in. 
The  nightingale  leads  the  choir  of  birds  which  sing  to  the 
Virgin  Mary  on  her  assumption  day,  etc. 

Although  the  belief  in  the  solidarity  of  nature  is 
most  evidently  manifested  in  connection  with  isolated 
and  somewhat  extraordinary  occurrences,  we  see  that  it 
pervades,  in  fact,  the  whole  sphere  of  the  peasant's 
interests. 

The  solidarity  of  nature,  in  the  peasant's  life,  is  neither 
a  matter  of  theoretical  curiosity  nor  an  object  of  purely 
aesthetic  or  mystical  feelings  aroused  on  special  occasions. 


INTRODUCTION  221 

It  has  a  fundamental  practical  importance  for  his  everyday 
life;  it  is  a  vital  condition  of  his  existence.  If  he  has  food 
and  clothing  and  shelter,  if  he  can  defend  himself  against 
evil  and  organize  his  social  life  successfully,  it  is  because  he 
is  a  member  of  the  larger,  natural  community,  which  cares 
for  him,  as  for  every  other  member,  and  makes  for  him  some 
voluntary  sacrifices  whose  meaning  we  shall  investigate 
presently.  Even  the  simplest  act  of  using  nature's  gifts 
assumes,  therefore,  a  religious  character.  The  beginning 
and  the  end  of  the  harvest,  storing  and  threshing  the  crops, 
grinding  the  grain,  milking  the  cow,  taking  eggs  from  the 
hen,  shearing  the  sheep,  collecting  honey  and  wax,  spinning, 
weaving,  and  sewing,  the  cutting  of  lumber  and  collecting  of 
firewood,  the  building  of  the  house,  the  preparation  and 
eating  of  the  food — all  the  acts  involving  a  consumption  of 
natural  products  were  or  are  still  accompanied  by  religious 
ceremonies,  thanksgivings,  blessings  and  expiatory  actions. 
And  here  we  meet  a  curious  fact.  Usually  when  a  tradition 
degenerates  the  rite  persists  longer  than  the  attitude  which 
was  expre3sed  in  it.  But  here  the  old  rites  have  often  been 
forgotten,  more  often  still  changed  into  Christian  ceremonies 
(religious  or  magical),  while  the  attitude  persists  unchanged. 
This  is  an  evident  sign  that  the  essence  of  the  old  belief  is 
still  preserved.  Christianity  has  been  able  to  destroy  the 
rite  but  not  the  attitude.  There  is  a  particular  seriousness 
and  elation  about  every  one  of  those  acts,  a  gratitude  which 
only  by  second  thought  is  applied  to  the  divinity  and  first  of 
all  turns  to  nature,  a  peculiar  respect,  expressing  itself,  for 
example,  in  the  fear  of  letting  the  smallest  particle  of  food 
be  wasted,  and  a  curious  pride,  when  nature  favors  the  man 
(with  a  corresponding  humiliation  in  the  contrary  case), 
quite  independent  of  any  question  of  successful  efforts,  and 
reminding  us  of  the  pride  which  a  man  feels  when  he  is 
*  favored  by  his  human  community. 


2  22  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

And  man  must  in  turn  show  himself  a  good  member  of 
tlic  natural  community,  be  as  far  as  possible  helpful  to 
other  members.  Many  old  tales  express  explicitly  this 
idea.  The  hero  and  heroine  are  asked  for  help  by  animals, 
[)lants,  mountains,  water,  fire,  etc.,  in  distress,  and  they  give 
it  out  of  the  feeling  of  sympathy,  often  without  any  idea  of 
reciprocity,  although  some  reciprocal  service  usually  follows. 
These  extraordinary  cases  give,  as  usually,  only  a  more  evi- 
dent and  striking  expression  of  a  habitual  attitude.  But 
every  work  done  in  order  to  increase  and  to  protect  life 
assumes  the  character  of  an  act  of  solidarity  and  has  a 
religious  value.  Work  is  sacred,  whenever  its  immediate 
aim  is  help.  Plowing  the  field,  sowing,  sheltering  and  feed- 
ing the  domestic  animals,  digging  ditches  and  wells,  are 
actions  of  this  kind.  They  have,  of  necessity,  human 
interest  in  view,  but  this  would  not  be  enough  to  make  them 
sacred.  They  consist  mainly  in  a  mere  preparation  of  con- 
ditions in  which  the  immanent  solidarity  of  nature  can 
work  better. 

On  the  other  hand,  any  break  of  solidarity  is  immediately 
punished.  Some  examples  have  been  given,  but  there  is 
an  innumerable  quantity  of  them.  Cutting  a  fruit  tree 
means  sure  death  to  the  criminal.  Killing  a  stork  is  a 
crime  which  can  never  be  pardoned.  In  old  times  a  man 
who  killed  a  house  snake  ceased  to  be  a  member  of  the 
human  community,  probably  because  he  was  no  longer  a 
member  of  the  natural  community.  A  man  who  kills  a  dog  or 
a  cat  is  up  to  the  present  avoided  by  everybody  unless  indeed 
he  shoots  these  animals,  for  curiously  enough  this  is  toler- 
ated. Even  lack  of  solidarity  among  men  is  avenged  by 
nature.  We  have  already  seen  that  the  stork  leaves  a 
house  where  some  evil  deed  has  been  committed.  If  some- 
one refuses  a  pregnant  woman  anything  which  she  asks  for, 
mice  will  destroy  his  clothes.     The  destructive  forces  of 


INTRODUCTION  223 

nature  (about  which  we  shall  speak  presently)  usually 
abide,  when  personified,  upoTi  the  ridges  oetween  fields, 
because  those  places  are  desecrated  by  human  quarrels  and 
hate.  The  bees  give  testimony  to  the  purity  of  the  girl  and 
the  honesty  of  the  boy  by  not  stinging' them.     And  so  on. 

In  this  system  of  attitudes  the  relation  between  bad 
work  and  bad  results  in  agriculture  is  not  that  of  a  purely 
physical  causality,  but  that  of  a  moral  sanction.  If  nature 
does  not  yield  anything  to  a  lazy  and  negligent  man,  it  is 
to  avenge  his  neglect  of  the  duties  of  solidarity.  And  the 
sanction  may  be  expressed  in  a  quite  unexpected  way,  on  a 
different  line  from  that  of  the  offense.  A  neglect  of  the 
duties  of  solidarity  toward  some  animals  or  insects  may  be 
punished  by  bad  crops;  careless  behavior  with  regard  to 
fire  or  water  may  result  in  some  unsuccess  with  domestic 
animals,  etc. 

But  there  is  always  a  certain  amount  of  destruction  neces- 
sary for  man  to  live;  all  actions  cannot  be  htlpful  and 
productive.  And  in  nature  itself  there  are  hostihties  and 
struggles,  not  solidarity  alone.  How  is  this  to  be  recon- 
ciled with  the  beliefs  stated  above  ? 

In  order  to  understand  these  partly  apparent,  partly  real 
breaks  of  solidarity  we  must  know  what  is  the  general  mean- 
ing, the  aim  of  this  solidarity  itself.  It  cannot  be  a  struggle 
with  the  external  world,  for  the  solidarity  embraces  the 
whole  world;  nor  a  struggle  with  any  evil  principle,  because 
there  seems  to  be  no  evil  principle  in  nature;  nor  yet  the 
struggle  against  bad  and  harmful  beings,  for  there  are  no 
beings  essentially  bad  and  harmful.  The  only  reason  for 
nature's  sohdarity  is  a  common  struggle  against  death,  or 
rather  against  every  process  of  decay,  of  which  death  is  the 
most  absolute  and  typical  form.  Sickness,  destruction, 
misery,  winter,  night,  are  the  main  phenomena  correlated 
with  death. 


2  24  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

It  is  really  difficult  to  say  how  far  this  essentially  negative 
idea  of  death  is  interpreted  as  meaning  a  positive  entity, 
because  the  peasant's  attitude  toward  it  seems  not  to  be 
quite  consistent.  On  the  one  hand,  indeed,  death  with  all 
the  connected  evils  has  no  place  within  the  community  of 
nature.  It  is  neither  a  natural  being  nor  a  natural  force, 
for  there  are  no  forces  distinct  from  individual  things,  there 
is  no  trace  of  a  philosophical  abstraction  to  which  any  kind 
of  reality  could  be  ascribed.  There  is  therefore  only  a 
plurality  of  phenomena  of  decay,  each  of  which  separately 
seems  to  be  nothing  but  a  result  of  the  immanent  weakness 
of  the  decaying  thing  itself — -everything  "has  to  die,"  is 
"mortal " — or  of  a  harmful  influence  of  some  exterior  natural 
things  which  make  a  break  in  solidarity  or  punish  such  a 
break.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  death  as  an  objectified 
concept  is  an  animated  thing  and  can  be  anthropomorphi- 
cally  represented,  like  other  phenomena  of  decay.  We 
know  by  tradition  of  two  usual  shapes  which  death  assumes 
— that  of  a  nebulous  woman  in  white  and  that  of  a  skeleton. 
The  latter  seems  to  be  derived  from  Christian  paintings. 
But  it  can  change  its  shapes  and  appear  in  the  form  of  an 
animal,  plant,  or  any  other  natural  object;  it  may  also  be,  as 
in  some  tales,  shut  up  by  man  in  a  cask,  buried  in  the  earth, 
etc.  It  likes  also  to  stay  on  ridges  between  fields  and  about 
hedges.  In  short,  it  has  no  exclusive  form  or  abode  and 
differs  therefore  from  natural  beings,  while  there  is  an  evi- 
dent analogy  between  it  and  the  spirits.  The  same  is  true 
of  diseases  (pest,  fever)  and  sometimes  of  "misery."  Winter 
has  a  little  more  of  the  character  of  a  natural  being.  We 
find  here  a  hesitation  between  attitudes  and  a  type  of  belief 
intermediary  between  naturalism  and  spiritualism,  resulting 
from  the  fact  that  for  death,  diseases,  misery  (poverty), 
etc.,  as  independent  beings  there  is  no  place  in  the  com- 
munity of  nature  and  therefore  they  must,  if  anthropo- 


INTRODUCTION  225 

morphized  at  all,  stay  outside.  But  precisely  for  this 
reason  this  is  the  only  case  where  objectification  and  ani- 
mation have  no  essential  importance.  The  activity  of  every 
natural  object  and  its  relation  with  others  result,  as  we  have 
seen,  from  its  character  as  an  animated  and  conscious 
being.  But  it  is  not  so  with  death.  It  is  impossible  to 
interpret  all  the  actual  facts  of  death  in  nature  by  the 
activity  of  the  death-spirit,  and  such  interpretation  is 
never  attempted.  We  find  at  most  the  fact  of  human  death 
explained  in  this  way.  This  limitation  of  the  activity  of 
the  death-spirit  to  the  human  world  is  still  more  evident 
with  regard  to  the  "bad  air"  or  "black  death,"  that  is,  the 
pest,  which  is  more  distinctly  represented  as  a  woman,  some- 
times flying  on  bat-wings,  sometimes  waving  a  red  kerchief 
above  viUages  and  towns;  but  this  "black  death,"  whose 
essence  is  quite  inexplicable  for  the  peasant,  is  afraid  of  many 
natural  beings — of  water,  fire,  reptiles.  In  short,  as  soon  as 
death  is  conceived  as  a  being,  its  powxr  is  limited;  and  it  is 
not  at  all  identical  with  a  general  principle  of  natural  decay. 
Such  a  conception  seems,  therefore,  to  be  a  late  result  of  evo- 
lution, going  on  with  a  separation  between  the  human  and 
the  natural  world.  The  more  determined  the  image  of 
death  (as  well  as  of  disease,  misery,  etc.),  the  farther  we  are 
from  the  primitive  naturalistic  system.  It  is  probable, 
therefore,  that  originally  death,  more  or  less  vaguely  identi- 
fied with  disease,  misery,  winter,  meant  an  undetermined 
"something,"  "it,"  or  "the  evil" — rather  a  species  than  a 
unique  entity,  having  just  enough  reality  to  provoke  a  mixed 
and  characteristic  attitude  of  dread,  hate,  and  disgust  which 
the  peasant  manifests  in  the  presence  of  anything  connected 
with  death. 

This  attitude  is  found  in  the  aversion  which  the  peasant 
always  shows  to  talking  about  death,  passing  near  a  ceme- 
tery or  near  a  place  where  someone  died,  staying  with  a 


226  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

dead  hfody,  etc.  It  is  bad  luck  to  meet  a  coffin  containing  a 
dead  body,  and  particularly  to  look  after  it.  The  straw  from 
the  last  bed  and  the  splinters  left  from  the  cofhn  should  not 
be  left  in  the  house,  because  somebody  else  may  die  in  the 
house.  {We  have  seen  that  they  should  not  be  burned  out 
of  respect  for  the  fire.)  For  the  same  reason  no  one  should 
look  into  a  mirror  which  hung  in  the  dead  person's  room 
during  death,  and  no  member  of  the  family  should  throw 
earth  upon  the  coffin  when  it  is  sunk  into  the  grave.  All 
these  beliefs  are  magical,  but  they  show  how  fundamental 
is  the  dread  of  death.  And  anyone  who  by  his  occupation 
has  some  connection  with  death  is  more  or  less  feared,  hated, 
and  despised— the  executioner,  the  gravedigger,  even  the 
women  who  wash  and  dress  the  body.  A  person  who  cuts 
down  the  body  of  a  hanged  man,  even  with  the  best  inten- 
tions, is  particularly  shunned.  This  attitude  prevails  with 
regard  also  to  animal  death.  Those  who  have  something 
to  do  with  killing  animals  and  preparing  their  bodies  are 
avoided  almost  as  much  as  the  executioner.  Among  these 
are  the  dog-catchers,  tanners  and  skin-dealers,  butchers 
(if  they  kill),  etc.  All  these  functions  were  therefore  usually 
performed  by  Jews,  or  by  men  who  had  little  to  lose.  Up  to 
the  present,  in  Russian  Poland  the  dog-catchers  are  often 
men  who  at  the  bidding  of  the  authorities  act  as  the  execu- 
tioners of  political  offenders,  and  most  of  the  butchers  and 
skin-dealers  are  still  Jews.  But  hunting  does  not  provoke 
this  attitude,  perhaps  because  in  old  times  it  was  indispen- 
sable to  defend  the  crops  and  the  domestic  animals. 

The  same  attitude,  as  we  have  already  seen  in  some 
examples,  is  ascribed  to  other  natural  beings.  The  sun 
hates  the  sight  of  death;  animals  and  plants  foresee  it  for 
themselves  and  for  the  man;  they  avoid  and  despise  any- 
body who  brings  death,  they  will  not  abide  in  a  place  soiled 
with  death,  etc.     Only  earth,  water,  and  fire,  while  they 


INTRODUCTION  2:^'' 

should  never  be  profaned  uselessly  by  anything  connected 
with  death,  are  still,  in  a  sense,  above  the  dread,  because 
they  have  a  power  over  death. 

Sickness  (except  pest),  misery,  and  winter  do  not  pro- 
voke the  attitude  of  dread  and  hate  to  the  same  extent 
becaus-r,  although  they  are  varieties  of  the  same  evil,  their 
influence  is  weaker,  they  are  more  easily  avoided,  and  their 
effect  is  more  easily  repaired. 

But  this  dread  of  death  never  rises  to  a  tragical  pitch, 
never  leads  to  a  pessimistic  view  of  existence  or  to  fatalism. 
The  tragic  attitude  comes  only  with  Christianity,  with  sin. 
the  devil,  and  hell.  In  the  naturalistic  religious  system 
life  is  always  ultimately  victorious  over  death,  thanks  to 
the  solidarity  of  living  beings.  Within  certain  limits,  death, 
total  or  partial  (for  example,  sickness,  misery),  can  be 
avoided  through  reciprocal  help,  and  when  it  comes  it  is 
always  followed  by  regeneration.  And  this  explains  at  the 
same  time  the  necessity  of  sacrifice,  required  from  all  the 
natural  beings  by  the  natural  solidarity,  and  the  possibility 
of  sacrifice,  since  no  sacrifice  is  ultimate  in  view  of  the  future 
regeneration. 

The  life  of  every  natural  being  can  be  maintained  only 
by  willing  gifts  <)f  other  beings,  which  may  go  as  far  as  a 
voluntary  gift  of  life.  In  many  tales  we  find  animals  con- 
sciously sacrificing  their  life  for  the  sake  of  man  or  of  one 
another,  even  if  this  sacrifice  proves  usually  only  temporary , 
because  the  animal  is  regenerated  in  the  human  form,  which 
was  its  primitive  form.  In  some  legends  animals  and  plants, 
sacrifice  themselves  for  the  Virgin  Mary,  or  for  Jesus  during 
his  human  life.  A  reward  usually  follows.  In  everyday 
life  there  is  no  explicit  acknowledgment  of  the  readiness  or 
natural  beings  to  sacrifice  themselves,  but  implicitly  "-In:: 
readiness  is  assuni^d;  while,  as  we  know,  any  useless 
destruction  of  life  is  a  crime  because  a  break  of  solidarity,  a 


228  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

destruction  which  is  necessary  to  maintain  the  Hfe  of  other 
beings,  is  permitted.  This  appHes  indifferently  to  man  and 
nature.  We  find  the  story  of  a  girl,  the  ward  of  a  village 
elder,  whom  the  latter  buried  alive  during  the  pest,  making 
thus  an  expiatory  sacrifice  in  order  to  save  the  life  of  the 
rest  of  the  inhabitants.  Man  is  justified  in  killing  animals 
for  food,  but  never  more  than  he  actually  needs  and  not  for 
sale,  although,  sophistically  enough,  he  may  sell  the  living 
animal  knowing  that  it  will  be  killed.  He  can  cut  trees  to 
build  a  house  or  a  barn,  but  it  is  not  fair  to  cut  them  for 
sale.  Dry  wood  should  be  used  as  firewood,  and  only 
when  none  can  be  found  is  it  licit  to  fell  some  tree;  old  or 
poorly  growing  trees  should  be  selected  for  this  purpose, 
even  if  the  forest  belongs  to  the  state  or  to  a  manor,  and 
therefore  no  utilitarian  considerations  prevail.  The  only 
case  in  which  it  is  permitted  to  cut,  sell,  or  burn  any  trees 
is  when  the  land  is  to  be  turned  to  agricultural  purposes, 
because  here  destruction  will  be  expiated  by  production. 
The  man  may  destroy  the  insects  which  damage  his  crops 
or  the  rats  in  his  barn,  but  it  is  always  better  to  drive  them 
away  by  some  means — to  frighten  them,  for  instance,  by 
catching  and  maltreating  one  of  their  number.  The  wolf 
is  justified  in  eating  other  animals,  but  man  is  also  justified 
in  slaying  him.  In  short,  every  living  being  has  the  right 
to  get  its  living  and  to  defend  itself  against  death  or  decay 
in  any  form,  and  other  beings  have  to  acknowledge  this  right; 
but  every  destruction  beyond  the  necessary  is  a  crime,  and 
then  retaliation  is  just.  And  there  is,  in  this  respect,  no 
essential  difference  of  value  between  mian  and  animal  which 
would  justify  destroying  life  for  his  purposes.  We  have  an 
interesting  story  w^hich  shows  this  very  plainly.  A  lark 
complains  to  a  hungry  wolf  that  a  mole  threatens  to  destroy 
her  nest  with  her  young  ones — an  unnecessary  act  of  destruc- 
tion, since  the  mole  should  take  the  trouble  to  pass  around 


INTRODUCTION  229 

the  nest.  The  wolf  helps  her  and  kills  the  mole,  but  on  the 
condition  that  the  lark  will  procure  him  food,  drink,  and 
amusement.  The  lark  does  this,  but  at  the  cost  of  a  human 
life,  and  this  situation  is  morally  all  right. 

The  idea  that  natural  things  may  be  destroyed  only  if 
there  is  an  immediate  relation  between  them  and  actual 
needs  of  living  beings  explains  the  peasant's  aversion  toward 
the  industrial  exploitation  of  nature  on  a  large  scale.  In- 
deed in  this  exploitation  the  relation  between  the  act  of 
destruction  and  the  need  to  be  satisfied  becomes  so  remote 
and  mediate,  and  the  needs  themselves  are  so  abstract  when 
viewed  from  the  standpoint  of  the  traditional  industrial 
activity,  that  the  peasant  fails  to  see  any  adequate  reason 
for  destruction,  and  the  latter  seems  a  crime  against  natural 
solidarity.  Such  is  always  the  first  reaction  of  the  peasant 
when  a  sawmill,  a  brevvery,  or  a  sugar  factory  is  set  up,  a 
railway  built,  or  a  mine  dug;  perhaps  even  the  use  of  agri- 
cultural machines  is  disliked  partly  because  through  them 
the  relation  of  man  toward  nature  becomes  impersonal  and 
devoid  of  warmth  and  respect. 

But  the  sacrifice  of  life  necessary  to  support  the  life  of 
others  is,  as  we  have  said,  never  ultimate.  Regeneration 
always  comes  unless  death  was  a  punishment  for  a  break 
of  solidarity.  The  ideal  is  a  regeneration  of  the  same  indi- 
vidual in  the  same  form,  that  is,  resurrection.  This  ideal 
is  depicted  in  tales.  We  find  it  in  the  pagan  funeral  cere- 
monies, where  the  dead  man  was  burned  with  his  horse, 
his  dog,  his  agricultural  instruments,  arms,  etc.  In  Chris- 
tian legends  actual  present  resurrection,  not  a  future  life 
in  heaven,  is  the  favorite  theme,  and  traces  of  this  belief 
are  found  also  in  the  tales  of  today.  The  annual  return  of 
leaves  and  fruits  to  the  trees,  the  recovery  from  a  sickness, 
the  melting  of  ice  on  the  rivers,  the  phases  of  the  moon, 
ecHpses,  the  growing  heat  of  the  sun  in  spring,  the  lighting 


230  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

of  a  fire  which  was  kept  under  the  ashes,  and  other  analogous 
phenomena  are  conceived  as  partial  resurrections  after  a 
partial  death.  And  whenever  resurrection  cannot  be  ad- 
mitted attention  is  turned  at  least  to  the  continuity  of 
successive  generations,  and  the  connection  between  genera- 
tion and  regeneration  in  the  peasant's  mind  is  thus  very 
close.  The  familial  attitude,  the  continuity  of  the  family 
in  spite  of  the  death  of  its  members,  the  lack  of  purely  indi- 
vidual interests,  certainly  gave  a  particular  strength  to 
this  partial  identification  of  the  resurrection  of  the  individual 
with  the  regeneration  of  life  in  new  individuals.  The  appre- 
ciation of  home-bred  domestic  animals  above  those  pur- 
chased, the  unwillingness  to  change  seeds,  manifested  even 
now  in  many  localities,  may  have  their  background  also  in 
the  same  attitude. 

Even  when  the  continuity  of  generations  is  lacking, 
however,  the  idea  of  regeneration  is  not  absent.  The  dead 
may  appear  in  a  different  form,  or  a  different  individual 
may  appear  in  his  place.  Between  these  two  ideas  the  dis- 
tinction is  not  sharply  drawn,  and  sometimes  we  do  not 
know  what  the  real  idea  is.  The  changing  of  men,  animals, 
and  plants  into  one  another — a  particularly  frequent  sub- 
ject of  tales  and  legends — gives  us  definitely  the  first  idea; 
the  individual  is  the  same  throughout  the  process  of  regen- 
eration, in  spite  of  a  different  form,  and  may  assume  some- 
times his  preceding  form.  The  change,  we  must  remember, 
is  quite  real  and  should  never  be  interpreted  as  a  mere 
assuming  by  a  spirit  of  different  bodily  appearances.  The 
second  idea,  that  of  new  individuals  appearing  in  the  place 
of  the  old  ones,  is  found  when,  after  the  burning  of  a  forest, 
crops  grow  upon  the  same  soil,  when  a  new  fruit  tree  is 
planted  upon  the  spot  where  another  grew,  when  worms 
are  "born  from"  a  dead  body.  But  in  such  examples  as 
the  following:    a  willow  growing  upon  the  grave  of  a  girl 


INTRODUCTION  231 

and  betraying  her  sister  as  her  murderer;  lilies  growing 
upon  the  grave  of  a  murdered  husband  and  betraying  the 
wife,  we  cannot  tell  whether  it  is  the  same  living  being  or 
another.  And  it  is  easy  to  understand  that  in  view  of  the 
general  solidarity  of  nature  this  question  has  not  a  very 
great  importance.  As  the  familial  attitude  helps  to  oblit- 
erate the  distinction  between  individual  regeneration  and 
generation,  so  the  close  solidarity  of  communal  life  and  the 
corresponding  social  attitude  make  the  difference  between 
change  of  form  and  change  of  individual  a  secondary  one. 
Death  is  regarded  both  from  the  individual  standpoint  and 
from  that  of  the  group;  and  while  from  the  first  it  is  of 
great  importance  whether  the  same  individual  or  another  is 
regenerated,  for  the  group  it  signifies  relatively  little,  so 
long  as  the  number  and  value  of  the  individuals  are  not 
diminished.  Death  is  dreaded  in  general  for  the  human  or 
natural  group,  but  the  dread  is  much  weaker  when  only 
the  death  of  a  particular  individual,  even  of  the  subject 
himself,  is  in  question.  The  peasant  is  able  to  prepare  him- 
self calmly  for  his  own  death  or  for  that  of  his  dearest  ones, 
but  he  grows  almost  insane  with  fear  when  a  calamity 
menaces  the  whole  community.  The  memory  of  pest  and 
war  has  lived  for  two  centuries  in  some  localities. 

Of  course,  the  easier  the  regeneration,  the  less  importance 
ascribed  to  death  and  to  acts  of  destruction.  In  general 
therefore,  man  is  freer  to  use  plants  than  animals,  though 
the  question  of  a  higher  degree  of  consciousness  and  indi- 
vidualization and  of  a  greater  similitude  with  man  plays 
a  part  here.  Among  plants,  again,  those  are  more  freely 
used  which  are  regenerated  every  year.  When  the  forests 
in  Poland  were  large,  the  inhibitions  with  regard  to  trees 
(except  fruit  trees)  were  much  weaker  than  they  arc  now; 
the  forest  seemed  to  restore  itself  easily  and  spontane- 
ously.    Among  the  animals,   aside  from  the  question  of 


232  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

economic  value,  the  more  productive  ones  are  less  appre- 
ciated individually— more  readily  sold  or  killed,  etc. 

The  religious  system  which  we  have  sketched  does  not 
require  any  magician,  priest,  or  mediator  of  any  kind  be- 
tween the  layman  whose  everyday  occupations  keep  him 
within  the  sphere  of  profanity  and  the  sacred  powers  which 
are  too  dangerous  to  be  approached  without  a  special 
preparation.  Here  every  man  in  his  practical  life  is  con- 
tinually in  touch  with  the  religious  reality,  is  supported  and 
surrounded  by  it,  is  an  integrate  part  of  the  religious  world. 
The  opposition  of  sacred  and  profane  has  no  meaning  in  this 
system;  if  sometimes  it  appears  later,  it  is  only  when  the  re- 
ligious attitude  toward  nature  encounters  an  irrehgious  one. 

But  there  is  another  practical  problem  connected  with 
the  present  system  which  makes  a  religious  specialist  neces- 
sary. In  order  to  prosper  within  the  community  of  nature, 
the  peasant  must  know  the  relations  which  exist  among  the 
members  of  this  community.  He  must  know  his  own.  rights 
and  duties;  he  must  know  how  to  make  good  an  offense 
against  the  group  of  which  he  is  a  part,  how  to  avoid  ven- 
geance, how  to  conciliate  the  good-will  of,  and  to  get  help 
from,  his  fellow-members.  The  relations  in  the  natural 
society  are  still  more  various  and  complicated  than  in  the 
human  society,  and  it  is  indispensable  to  know  the  degree 
and  the  kind  of  solidarity  between  any  and  all  natural 
beings  in  order  to  act  upon  one  through  another.  Last  but 
not  least,  only  a  man  who  knows  nature  and  understands 
the  warnings  and  signs  which  other  beings  give  to  him 
can  foresee  future  events  and  direct  his  activity  according 
to  this  foresight.  But  it  is  evident  that  the  ordinary  man 
has  among  his  occupations  no  time  to  acquire  all  this  knowl- 
edge, even  if  he  is  sufficiently  intelligent.  Thence  comes 
the  necessity  of  a  specialist,  of  a  "person  who  knows."  A 
man  who   "knows"   is   usually   called   urd2  or  wiedzqcy, 


INTRODUCTION  233 

"prophet"  (augur)  or  "knower";  a  woman  mqdra,  "the 
wise  one."  Both  should  be  strictly  distinguished  from  the 
magician  and  witch  on  the  one  hand,  the  priest  on  the  other, 
although  actually  they  often  degenerate  individually  into 
magicians  and  witches.  The  wroz  is  often  recruited  from 
among  those  who  have  to  deal  much  with  nature  and  have 
leisure  enough  to  learn  what  they  need  to  know — bee- 
keepers, shepherds,  sometimes  foresters,  but  seldom  hunters 
or  fishermen,  whose  occupation  requires  killing.  Woman's 
activity  in  peasant  life  is  less  specialized,  and  therefore  any 
woman,  but  usually  one  who  has  not  many  children,  can 
become  a  mqdra.  There  are  somewhat  more  wise  women 
than  men,  probably  because  the  woman's  usual  occupations 
involve  a  closer  relation  with  plants  and  domestic  animals, 
and  because  the  woman  finds  more  easily  the  necessary 
leisure;  but  this  numerical  difference  is  not  even  approxi- 
mately so  great  as  that  between  magicians  and  witches,  and 
this  shows  that  the  sex  as  such  has  no  importance  in  matters 
of  "knowing,"  while  it  has  much  in  magic. 

The  fundamental  functions  of  the  wise  man  or  woman  are 
to  preserve  from  generation  to  generation  the  store  of 
naturalistic-religious  "knowledge,"  including  the  legends 
and  tales,  and  to  give  practical  advice  and  help.  They  are 
paid  for  their  advice,  but  they  never  try  to  harm  anyone 
as  the  witches  do,  and  can  be  moved  by  no  reward  to  do 
this,  because  they  are  afraid  of  incurring  the  vengeance  of 
the  natural  community.  Their  usual  answer  in  such  cases 
is,  "  I  am  not  allowed  to  do  this."  With  regard  to  the  Chris- 
tian religion  they  behave  rather  indifferently.  They  go 
to  church,  perform  the  rites,  use  Christian  formulae  in  their 
conjurations,  but  they  do  it  rather  in  order  to  get  credit 
among  the  people  and  not  to  be  identified  with  witches  and 
magicians  than  from  true  Christian  feeling.  On  the  other 
hand,  they  never  use  Christian  sacred  objects  in  a  perverted 


234  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

sense,  and  sacrilege  has  no  value  for  them  as  it  has  for  the 
witches  and  magicians.  In  fact,  not  only  are  there  no  ma- 
gical elements  in  their  practice,  but  they  are  able  to  destroy 
magic.  They  recognize  magical  influences  easily ;  they  know 
at  once  a  magician  or  a  witch  and  show  a  curious  atti- 
tude of  hate  and  contempt  for  them.  Their  main  means  of 
destroying  magic  is  conjuration,  in  which  they  address  them- 
selves to  the  spirit  in  the  bewitched  object  with  entreaties 
and  threats,  and  call  for  help  to  good  spirits  and  to  natural 
objects.^  Nature  in  general  is  regarded  as  hostile  to  harm- 
ful magic,  and  natural  beings  help  one  another  against  ma- 
gical influences  and  harmful  spirits  and  collaborate  also 
with  useful  spirits.  The  same  plants  and  animals  which 
bring  good  luck  to  man  can  defend  him  against  evil  forces. 
Flowers  and  plants  which  while  growing  are  helpful  imme- 
diately to  men  and  animals  keep  the  witches  away  when  cut 
and  buried  under  the  threshold,  and  when  burned  disclose 
the  presence  of  a  witch.  In  one  of  the  tales  the  bluebell 
defends  a  woman  against  water  spirits;  the  magpie  when 
killed  and  hung  above  the  stable  hinders  the  bewitching 
of  the  horses,  etc.  It  is  easy  to  understand  that  magic 
appears  as  a  disturber  of  the  natural  harmony,  but  the 
faith  in  nature,  as  long  as  it  remains  alive,  permits  man  to 
hope  that  the  community  of  natural  beings  has  power  enough 
to  defend  its  members  against  this  unnatural  evil  as  well  as 
against  the  natural  evfl — ^death.  It  is  only  when  the  faith 
in  nature  is  partly  lost  that  this  hope  is  shaken  and  man 
appeals  to  supernatural  powers — that  is,  to  good  magic — 
in  order  to  defend  himself  against  the  harm  brought  by  evil 
magical  influences. 

2.  We  have  now  to  examine  the  second  system  of  reli- 
gious beliefs  and  attitudes,  based  upon  the  admission  of  a 

'  The  concept  of  "spirits"  is  of  course  here  borrowed  from  the  second  religious 
jystem,  treated  below,  in  which  we  find  the  properly  magical  action  developed. 


INTRODUCTION  235 

v/orld  of  spirits  within,  beside  or  above  natural  objects. 
We  point  out  that  no  historical  connection  can  be  established 
in  the  present  state  of  historical  knowledge  between  this 
system  and  the  one  just  examined,  and  perhaps  it  will  never 
be  possible  to  establish  it  with  certainty,  since  Christianity 
has  destroyed  as  much  as  it  could  of  the  vestiges  of  the 
pagan  past.  Most  of  the  spirits  and  magical  practices  of 
the  present  were  introduced  with  the  Christian  religion,  but 
in  the  pagan  period  a  system  of  spirits  coexisted  with  the 
naturalistic  system.  It  is  even  possible  that  the  two  were 
more  closely  connected  at  that  time  than  later  and  that 
Christianity  had  the  effect  of  dissociating  them.  It  brought 
a  world  of  spirits  in  which  the  pagan  spirits  but  not  the 
pagan  naturalism  found  a  place.  Two  examples  will  illus- 
trate this  supposition.  The  lightning  or  thunderstroke 
(piorun)  was  at  the  same  time  a  natural  being  (fire)  and  a 
divinity  or  the  expression  of  a  divinity;  probably  the  two 
meanings  were  not  quite  distinguished.  Its  second  char- 
acter was  assimilated  to  the  Christian  mythology,  but  not 
the  first.  We  find,  therefore,  two  contradictory  beliefs. 
The  lightning  is  the  instrument  of  punishment  in  the  hands 
of  God  or  a  weapon  of  the  angels  in  their  fight  against  the 
devils;  a  man  struck  by  lightning  must  be  a  great  sinner. 
But  there  is  also  a  belief  that  a  man  struck  by  lightning  is 
without  sin  and  goes  immediately  to  heaven,  because  fire 
in  the  naturalistic  system  is  the  purifactory  instrument  of 
regeneration.'  Another  example  is  the  snake.  The  snake 
was  a  powerful  natural  being,  and  at  the  same  time  it  was 
consecrated  to  a  divinity.  In  the  Christian  system  it 
became  a  symbol  of  the  devil,  but  its  first  character  was 

'  A  mixture  of  both  elements  is  found  in  another  belief — that  lightning  is 
turned  mainly  against  the  souls  of  children  who  die  without  christening.  There  is 
present  the  idea  of  punishment  and  also  of  regeneration.  The  souls  are  persecuted 
for  not  being  Christian,  but  at  the  same  time  the  fire  seems  to  be  an  equivalent  of 
baptismal  water. 


236  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

left  unheeded,  and  thus  we  find  the  curious  contradiclic  -. 
that  the  snake  is  sometimes  considered  a  benefactor  and  i;^ 
kilHng  is  a  crime,  and  sometimes  again  it  is  the  incarnaticr; 
of  the  evil  spirit  and  should  always  be  destroyed. 

The  existence  of  mythological  beings  is  not  in  itself 
always  sufficient  to  constitute  a  religious  system  different 
from  naturalism,  for  these  beings  may  be  conceived  as 
natural  beings  and  included  in  the  system  of  natural  solidar- 
ity. Thus,  when  we  find  legends  of  giants  and  dwarfs  who 
live  more  or  less  like  men  within  nature,  helped  by,  and 
helpful  to,  animals,  plants,  or  men,  and  who,  like  all  nature, 
fight  against  death  and  destruction;  or  when  there  are 
mythical  home-,  field-,  and  forest-beings  who  need  human 
offerings  of  food  and  drink  in  order  to  live,  and  prove  their 
gratitude  by  protecting  the  house  and  the  crops,  who  avenge 
a  breach  of  solidarity,  and  who  run  away  if  not  cared  for, 
we  have  nothing  but  an  imaginary  extension  of  the  natural 
world,  not  a  supernatural  structure  outside  of  this  world. 
The  attitudes  which  man  shows  toward  these  beings  and 
which  he  ascribes  to  them  are  not  different  from  those  which 
characterize  the  whole  natural  community.  And  we  can 
easily  understand  why  such  an  extension  of  nature  is  neces- 
sary and  what  its  role  is.  In  any  given  stage  of  knowledge 
about  nature  extraordinary  and  unexpected  phenomena 
cannot  always  be  derived  from  the  assumed  properties  of 
the  known  natural  beings,  and  then  two  ways  are  opened. 
Man  may  either  suppose  that  his  knowledge  is  false,  that 
the  natural  beings  have  other  properties  than  those  which  he 
ascribed  to  them,  or  he  can  imagine  that  the  inexplicable, 
phenomena  are  caused  by  some  beings  which  up  to  vkeji 
present  he  had  no  opportunity  of  knowing.  The  second 
explanation  requires,  certainly,  less  intellectual  effort  and 
has  been  used. in  the  history  of  human  thought  more  fre- 
quently than  the  first.     We  do  not  know  how  far  the  my  tho- 


INTRODUCTION  237 

logical  beings  of  the  naturalistic  religious  system  were 
spontaneously  invented  and  how  far  brought  from  elsewhere ; 
but  their  function  in  either  case  is  clear:  they  have  to 
account  for  the  extraordinary  and  unexpected,  to  fill  even- 
tual gaps  in  the  system.  Their  role  is  therefore  limited; 
they  are  only  one  class  of  natural  beings  among  others  and 
share  with  others  the  peasant's  religious  attention  at  certain 
moments  and  in  certain  circumstances. 

The  new  religious  system  is  found  only  when  behind  all 
the  natural  events,  ordinary  as  well  as  extraordinary,  su- 
pernatural powers  are  supposed  to  reside  and  to  act,  where 
there  is  a  dissociation  between  the  visible,  material  thing 
and  process  on  the  one  hand  and  the  invisible,  immaterial 
being  and  action  on  the  other.  No  such  dissociation  is 
found  in  the  naturalistic  system.  The  things  themselves 
have  a  conscious,  spiritual  principle  indissolubly  united 
with  their  outward  material  appearance,  and  the  mystical, 
invisible  influence  of  one  natural  being  upon  another  imper- 
ceptibly mediates  a  visible  material  action.  When  these 
elements  are  dissociated,  the  invisible,  immaterial  principle 
is  a  spirit  in  the  proper  sense  of  the  word,  as  opposed  to  the 
material  objects  and  distinct  from  them,  even  if  it  should 
manifest  itself,  not  only  by  acting  upon  these  objects 
from  outside,  but  by  entering  into  an  object  or  dwelling 
permanently  in  it.  And  the  invisible,  immaterial  process 
of  action  of  one  thing  upon  another  becomes  magical  as 
against  the  visible  process  of  material  action,  even  if  it 
should  be  exerted,  not  only  by  a  spirit  upon  a  material 
object  or  reciprocally,  but  by  one  material  object  upon 
another. 

There  are  many  categories  of  spirits,  differing  by  the 
nature  of  their  relation  to  material  objects.  Some  of  them 
are  scarcely  more  than  naturalistic  mythological  beings; 
their  spiritual  nature  manifests  itself  only  indirectly  by  the 


23S       .  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

fact  that  man's  attitude  toward  them  is  the  same  as  toward 
other  spirits  and  differs  from  that  toward  natural  beings. 
Here  belong,  for  example,  water  spirits,  boginki,  who  have 
human  bodies  but  can  become  invisible  at  will,  who  can  be 
heard  washing  their  linen  at  night  or  at  midday,  and  who 
bear  children.  They  often  try  to  exchange  their  children 
for  human  ones,  usually  only  so  long  as  the  latter  are  not 
yet  baptized.  Like  real  spirits  they  can  assume  the  form 
of  any  woman,  and  it  even  happens  that  under  the  aspect 
of  friends  and  relatives  they  entice  a  woman  after  childbirth 
from  her  home  into  the  forests  and  marshes  and  mistreat 
her  there,  while  one  of  them  steals  the  child,  puts  her  own 
in  its  place,  and  remains  in  the  house  in  the  form  of  the 
abducted  woman.  A  changed  child  can  be  recognized  from 
its  bad  temper,  its  growing  ugliness,  and  its  enormous 
appetite.  The  bo  gink  a  who  took  the  place  of  the  real  woman 
is  also  bad-tempered,  capricious,  and  evil.  In  order  to 
force  the  boginka  to  give  the  child  back,  a  naturalistic  means 
is  often  used.  The  boginka's  child  must  be  mistreated  and 
beaten.  Then  the  boginka  brings  the  real  child  back  and 
takes  her  own  away,  but  she  tries  to  avenge  herself  by 
biting  off,  for  example,  a  finger  of  the  real  child,  or  by  mak- 
ing it  as  bad-tempered  as  her  own.  With  the  exception  of 
this  means  of  getting  the  real  child  back  (which  shows 
that  the  boginka  is  still  very  much  a  mythological  pagan 
being),  the  other  means  are  mainly  magical  and  the  same  as 
against  the  devil — the  sign  of  the  cross.  Christian  amulets, 
exorcisms.  The  priest  can  free  the  woman  from  the  hands 
of  the  boginka,  but  he  must  wear  all  his  ceremonial  clothes 
turned  wrong  side  out. 

Another  kind  of  beings,  intermediary  between  mytho- 
logical natural  beings  and  spirits,  are  the  topczyki — children 
bom  of  illegal  relations  and  drowned  secretly  without 
baptism.     Except  for  the  last  point,  in  which  the  analogy 


INTRODUCTION  239 

with,  real  spirits  of  the  dead  is  evident,  the  topczyk  is  a 
natural  being.  He  has  a  body,  which  he  may,  indeed,  some- 
times change.  He  grows  in  water.  His  action  is  physical, 
not  magical.  He  spoils  the  hay,  draws  by  mere  strength 
animals  and  men  into  the  water,  etc.  Magical  rites  have 
no  particular  power  against  him.  The  best  way  is  simply 
to  avoid  him.  The  naturalistic  tendency  in  the  representa- 
tion of  the  topczyki  is  shown  in  a  legend  in  which  two  of 
them  are  drawn  by  fishermen  out  of  a  pond.  One  was 
hunchbacked  from  having  been  shut  up  in  a  pot  for  seven 
years;  the  other  was  covered  with  hair  like  an  animal. 
They  were  taken  to  a  human  house  and  christened,  but  they 
died  soon  after. 

Skrzat,  the  house-being,  and  le§ny,  the  wood-being,  have 
lost  the  importance  they  had  in  pagan  times.  The  first 
was  beneficent,  the  second  brought  little  harm  except  by 
making  men  lose  their  way.  The  last  vestige  of  a  field- 
being  is  probably  preserved  in  the  /^o^z^^wfca, midday-woman, 
who  strangles  anybody  who  sleeps  at  noon  in  the  field, 
particularly  upon  the  ridge  between  fields.  Will-o'-the- 
wisps  (compare  below)  are  beings  who  live  in  marshes  and 
meadows;  they  have  little  of  a  spiritual  character,  have  very 
small  bodies,  warm  themselves  around  a  fire,  etc.  They 
viciously  mislead  drunken  people,  but  do  no  other  harm 
unless  aroused  by  some  tactless  action.  Religious  magic 
is  only  partly  efficient  against  them. 

The  belief  in  cloud-beings,  planetniki  or  latawce,  is  very 
indeterminate  and  hesitant.  Sometimes  they  are  mytho- 
logical natural  beings  dwelling  in  the  clouds;  sometimes 
spirits  directing  the  clouds,  bringing  rain,  hail,  thunder- 
storm; sometimes  spirits  of  children  who  died  without 
baptism  (often  represented  as  persecuted  by  the  clouds  and 
lightnings) ;  sometimes  even  living  men  and  women,  magi- 
cians or  witches.     The  means  of  attracting  or  dispelling 


240  TRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

clouds  are  sometimes  based,  therefore,  upon  natural  solidar- 
ity— against  lightning,  the  stork  and  swallow ;  against  hail, 
plowing  around  the  field  with  oxen,  particularly  twins, 
planting  certain  trees,  etc. — and  sometimes  again  magical, 
as  we  shall  see  presently. 

Another  being  is  the  kania,  which  appears  in  the  form  of 
a  beautiful  woman  and  steals  children,  who  are  never  seen 
any  more.  The  jedza  is  a  horrid  old  woman  who  eats 
children;  the  mil,  a  being  who  comes  in  the  night,  terrifies 
children,  and  hinders  people  from  sleeping  ("It  stands 
always  where  you  look").  The  nightmare,  zmora,  has  two 
meanings:  it  is  sometimes  a  soul,  as  we  shall  see  later,  but 
sometimes  also  a  distinct,  half-spiritual  being  which  strangles 
sleeping  men  and  rides  at  night  upon  horses.  All  these 
beings  have  the  same  intermediary  character  between 
natural  objects  and  spirits;  they  are  more  or  less  material- 
istically conceived,  but  they  are  acted  upon  mainly  by 
magical  means,  not  by  appeals  to  natural  solidarity. 

The  probable  origin  of  their  intermediary  character  can 
be  traced.  They  were  primitively  nothing  but  natural 
beings,  requiring  some  help  from  man  and  harmful  only 
if  this  help  was  refused.  But  Christianity  tried  to  assimi- 
late them  to  the  devil  and  to  fight  against  them  by  magical 
means.  Thus  they  assumed  gradually  the  features  of  beings 
against  which  man  had  to  fight,  and  which  consequently 
were  essentially  harmful,  and  some  of  the  spiritual  character 
of  the  devil  was  transferred  to  them.  We  find  facts,  in  the 
past  and  even  in  the  present,  proving  that  the  peasant  for 
a  long  time  hesitated  between  the  two  attitudes.  Officially 
he  used  the  magic  of  the  church  against  them,  treated  them 
as  harmful,  and  tried  to  drive  them  away;  but  privately  ^1 
and  secretly  he  kept  the  old  duties  of  solidarity  toward 
them,  sought  to  excuse  himself  for  using  the  church  magic 
against  them,  and  tried  to  win  their  help.     Even  if  accept- 


INTRODUCTION  241 

ing  their  help  was  as  sinful  in  the  eyes  of  the  church  as 
accepting  the  help  of  the  devil  and  led  to  damnation,  the 
peasant  could  hardly  be  moved  to  believe  this.  And  he 
did  not  even  believe  in  the  complete  efficiency  of  church 
magic  against  them.  Up  to  the  present  magic  remains 
only  partly  efficient,  and  it  is  easier  to  get  rid  of  the  devil 
than  of  these  intermediary  beings. 

A  particularly  interesting  gradation  of  beliefs  is  found 
with  regard  to  the  human  soul.  There  are  at  least  six 
varieties  of  beings  corresponding  to  the  concept  of  soul —  ^ 
the  ordinary  vampire,  the  man-nightmare,  the  Christian  ^ 
vampire-spirit,  the  specter,  the  soul  doing  penance  on  earth, 
the  soul  coming  from  purgatory,  hell,  or,  occasionally, 
paradise.  The  relative  degree  to  which  these  spirits  are 
detached  from  the  body  and  lead  an  independent  existence 
is  the  reason  for  this  diversity. 

The  ordinary  vampire,  mentioned  in  the  preceding  sec-  ^ 
tion,  is  scarcely  a  spirit  at  all.  It  is  a  living  body,  even  if 
less  alive  than  before  death  and  devoid  of  some  of  the  human 
ideas  and  feelings.  It  can  be  touched,  even  grappled  with, 
and  killed  for  the  second  time,  after  which  it  does  not  appear 
again.  Sometimes  it  continues  to  occupy  itself  at  night 
with  farm-  or  housework,  and  the  male  vampire  can  even 
have  sexual  intercourse  with  his  wife  and  bring  forth  chil- 
dren, but  they  are  always  weak  and  die  soon — of  course  be- 
cause the  father  has  less  life.  The  only  spiritual  characters 
of  the  vampire  are  relative  independence  of  physical  condi- 
tions (ability  to  pass  through  the  smallest  opening,  to  dis- 
appear and  to  appear  suddenly,  etc.),  which  was  acquired 
only  after  death,  and  the  possibility  of  being  influenced  to 
a  certain  extent  by  religious  magic— sign  of  the  cross, 
prayer,  amulets— again  a  character  not  possessed  by  the 
man  during  his  Hfe.  But  the  most  effective  means  of  getting 
rid  of  the  vampire  are  the  well-known  natural  actions— 


I 


242  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

cutting  of!  the  head,  passing  of  an  aspen  pole  through  the 
heart,  binding  of  the  feet  with  particular  plants,  etc. 

The  human  nightmare  is  already  a  soul,  detaching  itself 
from  the  living  bod}-  during  sleep  and  embracing,  strangling, 
sucking  the  blood  of  men  and  animals  or  the  sap  of  plants. 
During  its  absence  the  body  lies  as  dead,  and  real  death 
may  follow  if  someone  turns  it,  because  then  the  soul  cannot 
find  the  way  back.  The  soul  is  of  course  half-material, 
since  it  exerts  immediate  material  action,  can  be  wounded 
(the  scar  is  then  seen  upon  the  body),  can  be  physically 
grasped.  But  it  is  also  spiritual,  because  it  can  be  detached 
from  the  body,  assume  various  forms — animal,  plant,  even 
inanimate  object — can  pass  where  a  material  being  could 
not  pass,  and  finally  because  the  really  efficient  means 
against  it  are  magical  (Christian  amulets),  not  natural. 

The  Christian  vampire  is  also  a  soul,  of  the  same  nature 
as  the  nightmare,  but  walking  after  the  man's  death,  and 
thus  still  more  dissociated  from  the  body.  It  is  not  even 
referred  to  any  particular  body.  We  call  it  ''Christian" 
because  it  originated  from  the  primitive,  bodily  vampire 
under  the  evident  influence  of  the  Christian  theory  of  the 
soul  and  of  Christian  rites.  On  the  one  hand,  a  christened 
soul  must  be  detached  from  the  body  after  death;  the  old 
bodily  vampire  theory  is  therefore  not  in  accordance  with 
the  Christian  system  of  beliefs.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  the 
christened  soul  cannot  be  a  spirit-vampire,  unless  damned, 
and  then  it  belongs  to  a  different  class  of  spirits.  The  con- 
tradiction was  solved  by  a  theory,  to  which  the  Catholic 
rites  themselves  gave  birth,  that  there  are  two  souls,  one 
of  which  becomes  Christian  through  baptism,  the  other 
through  confirmation.  The  second  soul  of  the  unconfirmed 
lives  on  earth  and  becomes  a  vampire.  According  to  a 
different  legend,  there  was  a  time  when  vampires  were 
frightfully  numerous,  and  the  people  appealed  to  the  pope 


INTRODUCTION 


243 


for  help.  The  pope  advised  them  to  give  two  names  at 
baptism,  in  order  to  christen  also  the  second  soul.  Since 
that  time  the  vampires  have  almost  disappeared. 

The  specter  is  a  very  undetermined  kind  of  spirit.  It 
is  always  some  soul,  but  seldom  identified,  and  its  aim  is 
unknown.  It  is  neither  harmful  nor  useful.  It  appears  in 
a  visible  form  at  night,  walking  near  a  cemetery  or  a  church, 
sometimes  in  the  church.  It  is  thus  not  an ti- Christian,  not 
afraid  of  church  magic.  There  is  a  story  of  a  specter 
frightening  men  who  planned  a  sacrilegious  use  of  church 
objects.  It  is  an  intermediary  being  between  the  souls 
which  are  still  partly  connected  with  the  system  of  nature 
and  those  which  are  already  quite  supernatural. 

The  souls  doing  penance  upon  earth  belong  to  the  latter 
group.  Their  origin  seems  purely  Christian,  as  the  idea  of 
penance  itself.  Spirits  of  this  class  are  very  numerous. 
They  manifest  their  existence  mainly  by  noises,  but  some- 
times they  talk,  sometimes  they  appear  in  any  form.  The 
bodies  which  they  assume  can  often  not  be  touched,  even 
when,  as  sometimes  happens,  they  enter  into  real  bodies, 
human,  animal,  or  plant.  To  this  group  belong  unchris- 
tened  people  (some  of  them,  as  we  have  seen,  still  natural- 
is  tically  conceived),  those  who  died  suddenly,  without 
penitence,  and  those  who  have  sinned  only  in  some  particu- 
lar line.  The  penance  which  they  do  has  a  magical  char- 
acter; it  is  always  analogous  to  the  sin  and  has  thus  the 
aim  of  destroying  the  sinfulness.  Children  who  died  with- 
out baptism  try  to  attract  attention  by  various  noises — 
cracking  in  the  fire,  rapping  on  the  furniture  and  walls, 
moaning  in  the  wind,  etc. — in  order  to  be  baptized;  the 
man  who  hears  them  should  throw  some  water  and  baptize 
them,  giving  them  always  two  names,  Adam  and  Eve,  for 
the  sex  of  the  dead  is  unknown.  Not  only  unbaptizcd 
children,  but  also  men  who  were  wrongly  baptized,  wander 


244  PRIIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

after  their  death.  For  instance,  there  are  in  one  locality 
many  graves  of  Russians  killed  in  a  battle  against  the  Poles 
in  the  eighteenth  century,  and  their  souls  find  no  rest  any- 
where, for  they  were  christened  according  to  the  rites  of  the 
Greek  church.  They  cannot  be  helped,  and  must  await 
the  last  judgment.  Those  who  died  a  sudden  death  always 
haunt  the  place  where  they  died.  They  want  to  confess 
their  sins,  and  it  happens  sometimes  that  they  succeed  and 
are  saved,  if  only  they  find  a  courageous  priest  to  absolve 
them.  Any  sudden  death  has  something  uncanny  for  the 
peasant  and  is  supposed  to  be  sent,  not  by  God,  but  by  the 
devil — whether  with  God's  permission  or  not  is  not  always 
clear.  Finally,  people  whose  sin  was  not,  as  in  the  previous 
cases,  a  lack  of  religious  purification,  but  some  particular 
evil  deeds,  often  try  in  vain  to  undo  the  harm  which  they 
wrought.  Thus  a  man  who  was  a  miser  during  his  life, 
wronged  the  poor,  or  refused  gifts  to  the  church,  and  par- 
ticularly one  who  buried  or  in  any  way  hid  his  money,  hovers 
about  his  collected  wealth,  wants  to  show  the  living  where 
it  is  or  to  compel  his  heir  to  divide  it  with  the  poor  and  the 
church;  but  the  devil  usually  hinders  the  living  from  under- 
standing or  fulfilling  his  bidding.  The  soul  of  a  surveyor 
who  measured  falsely  during  his  life  wanders  in  the  form  of 
a  will-o'-the-wisp,  looks  over  his  wrong  measurements,  and 
wishes  in  vain  to  correct  them.  The  soul  of  a  woman  who 
did  not  respect  the  food  and  threw  the  remnants  into  the 
pail  with  the  dishwater  is  heard  at  night  dabbling  in  the 
pail  in  search  of  remnants  in  order  to  still  her  hunger.  A 
man  who  once  slapped  his  father  wanders  at  night,  in  human 
but  indistinct  form,  and  compels  his  own  living  son  to  give 
him  a  blow.  Two  kums  who  quarreled  during  their  life 
cannot  find  rest  until  somebody  brings  them  together  and 
reconciles  them.  A  man  who  hunted  on  Sunday  during 
the  mass  wanders  after  his  death  and  hinders  people  from 


INTRODUCTION 


245 


hunting.  Another  who  swore  by  the  devil  and  never  said 
his  prayer  on  Angelus  shows  himself  at  noon  in  the  form  of 
a  dog  which  devils,  in  the  form  of  crows,  chase  about.  And 
so  on. 

These  souls  still  dwell  in  their  old  world,  though  they  are 
spirits,  completely  detached  from  material  bodies,  which 
they  assume  only  in  order  to  carry  out  their  particular  end, 
and  absolutely  dependent  on  magic,  not  at  all  on  natural 
actions. 

The  last  class  of  souls,  while  always  more  or  less  inter- 
ested in  their  old  environment,  dwell  elsewhere — in  purga- 
tory, hell,  or  paradise,  as  distinguished  from  heaven.  Those 
places  are  sometimes  thought  to  be  beyond,  sometimes  upon, 
the  earth,  in  remote  localities.  In  one  myth  they  are  beyond 
Rome,  and  from  one  of  the  Roman  churches  the  funnels 
of  hell  can  be  seen.  The  souls  come  occasionally  to  their 
old  residence,  to  warn  or  to  help  the  living,  to  ask  them  for 
prayers  or  good  deeds;  those  from  purgatory  come  every 
year  on  All  Souls'  Day,  and  listen  to  a  mass  which  the  soul 
of  some  dead  priest  celebrates.  From  paradise  they  come 
relatively  seldom  and  only  on  some  altruistic  mission. 
Whenever  a  soul  manifests  in  some  way  its  appearance  (this 
concerns  also,  to  some  extent,  the  previous  category  of 
souls),  it  should  be  addressed  with  the  words:  "Every 
spirit  praises  God."  If  it  answers:  "I  praise  him  also," 
the  living  person  should  ask:  "What  do  you  want,  soul?" 
Whatever  it  begs  for,  prayer  or  good  deed  in  its  favor,  ought 
to  be  granted.  But  if  the  soul  answers  nothing  to  the  first 
greeting,  the  living  person  should  make  the  sign  of  the  cross 
and  say,  "Here  is  the  cross  of  God;  fly  away,  contrary 
sides."     For  it  is  a  damned  soul  and  can  no  longer  be  saved. 

The  devil  is  not  regarded  as  a  unique  character.  First, 
of  course,  there  are  many  devils,  though  only  a  few  of  them 
have  distinct  names.     The  devil  is  not  an  essentially  evil 


246  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

being,  although  often  malicious,  harmful,  or  disgusting. 
The  proverb:  "The  devil  is  not  so  terrible  as  he  is  painted," 
is  very  popular,  as  well  as  the  other:  "Who  lives  near  hell, 
asks  the  devil  to  be  his  kum.''  In  dealing  with  men  the 
de\'il  is  often  cheated,  not  only  because  he  is  not  particularly 
clever,  but  also  because  he  usually  shows  more  honesty  in 
keeping  agreement  than  men  show.  Often  the  term 
"devil"  is  simply  substituted  for  some  other  mythological 
being  whose  old  character  and  name  are  forgotten.  With 
regard  to  the  devils  we  therefore  find  also  a  gradation  of 
spirituality.  But  all  the  devils  are  more  spiritual,  more 
detached  from  the  natural  world,  than  the  mythological 
beings  of  the  first  category  and  than  most  of  the  souls,  so 
that  the  substitution  of  the  devil  for  the  boginka,  the  night- 
mare, the  vampire,  etc.,  means  an  evolution  from  the 
naturalistic  toward  the  spiritualistic  religious  system. 

The  least  spiritual  are  the  local  devils,  who  are  more 
or  less  attached  to  particular  places — ruins,  marshes,  old 
trees,  crossroads,  etc.  They  are  usually  invisible,  but  can 
show  themselves  at  will  either  in  the  form  of  animals  (usually 
owls,  cats,  bats,  reptiles,  but  also  black  dogs,  rams,  horses, 
etc.)  or  in  a  human  or  half -human  body.  Although  popular 
imagination  has  naturally  been  influenced  by  the  traditional 
mediaeval  pictures  of  the  devil  and  orthodoxly  conceives 
them  as  representing  the  devil  in  his  real  form,  still  it  has 
constructed  for  itself  representations  more  adequate  to  the 
popular  sense.  The  devil  is  represented  as  a  little  man 
in  "German  clothes "  (fashion  of  the  second  half  of  the 
eighteenth  century)  with  a  small  "goat's  beard,"  small 
horns  hidden  under  his  hat;  sometimes  he  has  a  tail  and  one 
horse-  or  goat-leg,  as  in  the  paintings.  The  local  devil  has 
nothing  to  do  with  the  questions  of  temptation  and  salva- 
tion; he  does  not  try  to  get  any  souls,  but  is  a  mischievous 
being  who  frightens  the  living  and  gets  them  into  trouble, 


INTRODUCTION  247 

often  merel;yjn  the  way  of  a  joke.  Sometimes  he  has  indeed 
a  serious  function  to  perform,  for  example,  watching  buried 
treasures,  lest  the  living  should  get  them;  there  is  a  real 
danger  of  life  in  searching  for  treasures,  or  for  the  fern 
flower  which  opens  the  eyes  of  the  possessor  and  enables 
him  to  see  the  treasures  under  the  earth.  It  is  beheved 
that  these  devils  purify  the  treasures  once  a  year  with  fire, 
and  do  it  as  long  as  the  soul  of  the  man  who  buried  them 
does  penance;  after  this,  the  devil  ceases  to  watch  the 
treasure  and  it  can  be  found  by  the  living.  In  this  tale 
the  local  devil  is  already  associated  with  the  purgatory  devil. 

The  second  class  of  devils  are  those  who  possess  the 
living  beings,  men  or  animals.  Possession  is  quite  different 
from  the  assumption  of  a  visible  form.  In  the  latter  case 
we  have  to  do  with  an  apparition,  but  in  the  first  with  a 
natural  thing  in  which  the  devil,  himself  invisible,  dwells. 
The  natural  thing  can  be  explicitly  thought  to  have  a  soul 
besides  the  devil,  or  the  matter  of  the  soul  may  be  left  out 
of  consideration.  The  devils  who  take  possession  of  a  per- 
son may  be  many — three,  five,  seven.  Not  all  of  them  arc 
harmful;  some  are  good  and  useful  to  the  possessed  person 
as  well  as  to  others.  And  if  we  note  that  sometimes  a  wise 
woman  is  identified  with  a  possessed  one,  we  must  conclude 
that  the  idea  of  possession,  originating  in  the  Christian 
mythology,  was  simply  applied  at  a  later  time  to  phenom- 
ena which  had  a  different  meaning  under  the  system  of 
naturalism. 

The  third  kind  of  devils  are  those  who,  while  leading 
an  independent  existence  outside  of  the  natural  world,  are 
still  mainly  interested  in  matters  of  this  world.  According 
^the  orthodpxlradition  their  only  aim  oughtJto.he  tempting 
men  in  orderia^et  them  damned,  but  the  peasant  sometimes 
"makes  them  play  also  the  part  of  spirits  with  whom  simple 
co-operation  on  the  basis  of  reciprocity  is  possible,  without 


248  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

involving  damnation.  They  have  supernatural  powers,  but 
they  lack  natural  achievements,  and  this  makes  a  co- 
operation fruitful  for  both  sides.  Thus,  a  devil  may  become 
the  apprentice  of  a  blacksmith  or  a  miller  and  learn  the  trade 
while  teaching  his  master  supernatural  tricks.  In  connec- 
tion with  the  witches,  the  devil  wants  to  learn  what  is  going 
on  in  the  human  community  (for  he  is  not  all-knowing) 
while  he  bestows  some  of  his  own  magical  powers  upon  the 
witch.  Or  he  gives  the  witch  the  means  of  getting  an  excep- 
tional quantity  of  milk,  while  she  must  bring  him,  for  his 
unknown  purposes,  butter  and  cheese.  Or  he  sows  the 
field  in  company  with  a  man,  for  he  does  not  know  agri- 
culture, but  he  can  make  the  crops  grow  better,  or  he  gives 
the  man  some  money  out  of  a  hidden  treasury.  This  is  the 
type  of  devil  with  whom  witches  have  sexual  relations  or 
who  receives  his  friends  at  a  weekly  (sometimes  monthly 
or  yearly)  banquet  on  the  top  of  the  Lysa  Gdra.'  Of  course 
the  motive  of  damnation  is  very  popular  and  important, 
but  its  moral  value  is  sometimes  doubtful.  The  devil, 
according  to  an  explicit  or  tacit  agreement,  takes  the  soul 
of  a  man  as  his  own  reward  for  some  service,  in  the  same  way 
as  in  relations  among  men  a  poor  peasant  may  become  a 
servant  of  his  rich  neighbor  for  a  certain  time  to  pay  a 
debt  which  he  cannot  pay  in  another  way;  there  is  often 
scarcely  any  idea  of  moral  punishment.  A  man  may  even 
promise  his  child  to  the  devil  before  the  child  is  born.  And 
it  is  here  that  the  devil  is  most  often  cheated,  for  at  the  last 
moment  the  man  frequently  gets  rid  of  him  by  magical 
means.  The  idea  of  temptation,  in  this  system  of  beliefs, 
does  not  mean  "temptation  to  commit  a  sin,"  but  tempta- 
tion to  do  business.  And  if  the  sin  as  such  leads  to  hell,  it 
is  because  of  its  magical  influence,  of  the  break  of  the  magical 

'  "Bald  Mountain,'"  proper  name  applied  now  mainly  to  a  mountain  in  the 
province  of  Kielce,  but  used  also  in  other  provinces  in  relation  to  local  hills. 


INTRODUCTION  249 

solidarity  with  the  heavenly  powers  and  the  establishment 
of  a  magical  solidarity  with  the  devil.  The  only  sins  to 
which  the  devil  really  instigates  his  followers  are  those  which 
have  immediately  this  magical  consequence — sacrilege, 
denial  of  the  heavenly  powers,  recognition  of  the  devil, 
and  rites  whose  effect  is  to  establish  a  magical  affinity  with 
him.  On  the  other  hand,  we  find  also  attitudes  which  pre- 
vail in  the  naturalistic  system  transferred  to  the  spiritualistic 
one;  the  devil  often  appears  on  earth  as  well  as  in  hell  as 
an  avenger  of  breaks  of  solidarity  between  men,  or  even 
between  men  and  nature.  He  performs  vicariously  the 
functions  which  human  society  or  nature  are  for  some  reasons 
unable  to  perform. 

The  last  class  of  devils  are  those  who  dwell  permanently 
in  hell  and  have  almost  no  relation  with  nature  or  living 
men,  except  sometimes  taking  souls  from  the  earth  to  hell. 
They  torture  the  souls  and  endure  punishment  themselves 
for  their  revolt  against  God. 

The  category  of  heavenly  beings— God,  Jesus,  the  Holy 
.  Spirit,  the  Virgin  Mary,  the  saints,  and  the  angels— are 
completely  spirituahzed.  Any  connection  between  them 
and  actually  existing  natural  beings,  if  it  ever  existed,  has 
been  forgotten.  For  example,  heaven  is  identical  with  the 
skies  and  is  God's  dwelhng-place,  the  thunder  and  lightning 
are  manifestations  of  God's  activity,  etc.,  but  there  is  not 
the  sHghtest  trace  of  any  identity  of  God  with  those  natural 
phenomena. 

Naturally  the  theological  problem  of  the  Trinity  seldom 
attracts  the  peasant's  attention.  The  Holy  Spirit  has 
little  importance,  and  is  individualized  only  through  the 
Hturgical  and  popular  prayers  addressed  to  him  and  through 
his  symboHzation  by  the  dove.  God  and  Jesus  are  cer- 
tainly, in  this  system,  dissociated  beings,  owing  to  the  earthly 
life  of  Jesus.     The  names  are  often  mixed,  but  the  functions 


-50 


PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 


are  sufficiently  distinguished  to  allow  us  to  consider  God 
and  Jesus  as  separate  divinities  in  the  eyes  of  the  peasant. 

God's  main  attribute  is  magical  power  over  things. 
This  power  is  not  limited  by  the  nature  of  the  things  them- 
selves, and  in  this  sense  God  may  be  called  all-powerful; 
but  it  is  limited  by  the  magical  power  of  the  devil  and  even 
of  man,  although  it  is  certainly  greater.  It  may  be  used  at 
an}'  moment  and  with  regard  to  any  object,  but  it  is  not  so 
used  in  fact;  many  phenomena  go  on  without  any  divine 
influence.  God  directs  the  world  when  he  wishes,  but  does 
not  support  it.  The  idea  of  creation  is  rather  undetermined 
and  does  not  play  an  important  part  in  the  peasant's 
mythology;  it  is  usually  assimilated  to  workmanship. 

The  divine  power  can  be  used  for  beneficent  or  harmful 
purposes  without  regard  to  properly  moral  reasons.  It  is 
quahtatively  but  not  morally  antagonistic  to  the  devil's 
power.  There  is,  of  course,  a  certain  principle  in  the  harmful 
or  beneficent  activity  of  God;  an  explanation  can  be  given 
of  every  manifestation  of  God's  benevolence  or  malevolence. 
But  this  explanation  has  a  magical,  not  a  moral,  character, 
even  if  it  is  expressed  in  religious  and  moral  terms.  God's 
attitude  toward  man  (and  toward  nature  as  well)  depends 
upon  the  magical  relation  which  man  by  his  acts  establishes 
between  God  and  himself.  If  the  magical  side  of  human 
activity  or  of  natural  things  harmonizes  mth  the  tendencies 
of  divine  activity,  the  latter  is  necessarily  beneficent,  and 
it  is  necessarily  harmful  in  the  contrary  case,  that  is,  when- 
ever the  acts  of  things  are  in  harmony  with  the  intentions 
of  the  devil.  The  main  sins,  therefore,  are  those  against 
rehgious  rites — that  is,  all  kinds  of  sacrilege — and  every 
other  sin  is  termed  as  "offense  of  God,"  that  is,  assimilated 
to  sacrilege.  Therefore  also  magical  church  rites  can  destroy 
ever>^  sin,  and  it  is  enough  to  estabhsh  a  relation  of  magical 
harmony  with  God  in  order  to  keep  one's  self  and  one's 


INTRODUCTION 


251 


property  safe  from  any  incidental  harm.  But  from  this  it 
results  also  that  the  consequences  of  the  sin  reach  much 
farther  than  they  should  if  the  idea  of  just  retribution  were 
dominant;  the  magical  estrangement  from  God  extends 
itself  over  the  whole  future  situation  of  the  man  and  thus 
leads  to  eternal  damnation  if  not  made  good  by  some  con- 
trary act,  and  it  may  also  extend  itself  over  the  man's 
milieu  and  bring  calamities  to  his  family,  community,  farm- 
stock,  and  even  to  his  purely  natural  environment. 

Jesus,  in  this  rehgious  system,  has  the  somewhat  sub- 
ordinated position  of  a  magical  mediator  between  the  divine 
power  and  man.  He  is  the  founder  and  keeper  of  the  magi- 
cal rites  by  which  man  is  put  into  a  relation  of  harmony 
with  God  or  defended  against  the  devil.  Accordingly  it  is 
Jesus  who  judges  men's  actions  and  personalities  as  har- 
monizing or  not  with  God,  and  upon  whom  the  lot  of  the 
soul  after  death  mainly  depends.  He  is  somewhat  more 
personalized  than  God,  but  he  is  also  not  a  moral  divinity; 
in  his  eyes  the  magical,  not  the  moral,  value  of  the  act  is 
always  important. 

The  Virgin  Mary  is  more  particularly  a  beneficent  divin- 
ity, helping  always  and  everybody  by  the  way  of  miracles. 
In  fact,  she  is  the  only  divinity  working  miracles  even  now. 
For,  although  the  whole  activity  of  God  and  Jesus  is  super- 
natural, it  does  not  break  the  normal  order  of  things,  because 
this  normal  order  includes  material  as  well  as  magical 
phenomena,  or,  more  exactly,  there  are  two  coexisting  orders, 
the  material  and  the  magical.  The  real  miracle  is  therefore 
one  that  breaks  both  orders.  Healing  a  sick  person  is  only 
a  magical  action  when  sickness  is  a  result  of  natural  causes  or 
of  some  spontaneous  action  of  the  devil  or  the  witch,  but 
it  is  a  miracle  when  the  sickness  is  a  necessary  consequence 
of  sin,  of  a  dissolution  of  the  magical  harmony  between  man 
and  God.     This  is  precisely  the  kind  of  miracles,  besides 


V 


252  rRIMARV-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

simple  magical  actions,  ascribed  commonly  to  the  Virgin 
Mary.  \She  disturbs  in  favor  of  men  the  divine  magical 
order  itself;  she  saves  men  from  the  consequences  of  their 
sins  in  this  world  and  even  in  the  other.  _) 

The  saints  have  a  more  limited  sphere  of  activity.  Ever}' 
saint  has  a  special  line  along  which  he  acts,  usually  benefi- 
cently, by  modifying,  through  a  supernatural  influence, 
natural  phenomena.  Some  saints,  as,  for  instance,  St.  Fran- 
ciscus,  give  also  magical  help  against  the  devil,  but  this 
is  less  frequent  than  help  in  natural  difiiculties.  Thus, 
St.  Anthony  helps  to  find  a  lost  article,  St.  Agatha  to  extin- 
guish a  fire,  etc.  Every  man's  patron  saint  saves  him  in 
danger.  Every  parish  has  a  patron  saint  who  averts 
calamities  from  it;  the  day  of  this  saint  is  a  parish  festival. 
There  are  patron  saints  of  corporations,  fraternities,  cities, 
provinces.  St.  Stanislaus  is  the  patron  of  Poland;  St.  Casi- 
mir,  of  Lithuania. 

The  functions  of  the  _angels  are  rather  undetermined. 
They  have  to  fight  against  the  devils,  to  praise  God,  to  take 
human  souls  to  paradise  from  the  earth  or  from  purgatorv', 
to  fulfil,  according  to  their  original  meaning,  errands  of  God. 
The  guardian  angel  of  every  man  watches  over  him,  to  keep 
him  from  natural  and  magical  dangers,  and  defends  his  soul 
against  the  devil  immediately  after  death. 

If  we  omit  now  all  the  intermediars-  stages  between 
natural  beings  and  spirits,  and  take  the  spiritual  world  in 
its  pure  form  as  distinguished  from  the  material  world,  we 
notice  that  there  are  two  antagonistic  spiritual  communities 
— divine  and  devilish.  To  the  first  belong  also  once  and 
forever  the  souls  of  the  saved,  to  the  second  the  souls  of  the 
damned.  Souls  in  purgatory  are  on  the  way  between  the 
two.  These  communities  are  connected,  each  separately, 
by  a  particular  kind  of  solidarity  which  we  can  call  magical, 
and  they  are  opposed  to  each  other  also  by  a  magical  con- 


INTRODUCTION 


253 


trariety.  The  living  men  belong  partly  to  one,  partly  to 
the  other  community,  and  they  pass  from  one  to  another 
according  to  the  magical  bearing  of  their  acts.  All  other 
natural  beings,  animated  or  not,  can  also  acquire  a  divine 
or  a  devilish  magical  character,  but  they  are  without  excep- 
tion passive,  objects,  not  subjects,  of  magical  activity, 
although  a  spirit  can  enter  into  them  and  act  through  them. 
In  this  respect  their  role  differs  completely  from  the  active 
one  which  they  play  in  the  naturalistic  system. 

In  order  to  understand  this  spiritual  sohdarity,  we  must 
analyze  more  closely  the  magical  attitude,  for  this  does  not 
originate  in  the  belief  in  spirits,  but  both  have  a  common 
root  from  which  they  grow  simultaneously. 

The  common  feature  of  the  physical  and  the  magical  fact 
is  that  in  both  there  is  an  action  of  one  object  upon  another. 
Without  this  external  influence  the  object  is  supposed  not 
to  change;  and  if  change  is  already  included  in  its  nature, 
its  formula  remains  the  same.'  Thus,  when  a  body  at  rest 
is  suddenly  set  in  motion,  physics  and  magic  alike  will 
explain  it  by  the  action  of  external  forces.  Even  if  it  is  an 
animated  being,  the  movement  will  be  .explained  either 
psychologically,  by  a  motive  which  is  ultimately  referred 
to  the  external  world,  or  physiologically,  by  an  irritation  of 
physiological  elements  whose  ultimate  source  is  also  in  the 
external  world  or  by  a  magical  influence.  The  system  of 
magical  interpretation  is  less  complete  and  more  immediately 
practical.  It  is  applied  to  phenomena  whose  practical 
importance  is  perceived  at  once,  consequently  to  those  which, 
being  to  a  certain  extent  more  than  ordinary,  require  some 
change  in  the  habitual  course  of  life.  For  example,  puberty, 
sickness,  and  death  require  a  magical  explanation  more 
insistently    than    the    ordinary    physiological    functions, 

'  Magic  applies  this  principle  even  more  rigidly  than  physical  science,  for  it 
seldom  includes  change  in  the  definition  of  the  object. 


•254 


PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 


sexual  life  more  insistently  than  eating,  eating  more  insist- 
ently than  breathing.  The  phenomenon  of  snow  is  hardly 
explained  magically  by  the  Polish  peasant,  while  hail  and 
thunderstorm  are  very  frequently  referred  to  magical 
activities. 

But  this  is  only  a  difference  of  degree  between  the  magi- 
cal and  the  physical  systems.  The  difference  of  nature  lies 
elsewhere.  JNIagical  action  differs  essentially  from  physical 
(  action  in  that  the  process  by  which  one  object  influences 
I  another  is  given  and  can  be  analyzed  in  physical  action, 
\  while  in  magical  action  it  is  not  given  and  avoids  analysis. 
There  is  a  continuity  between  physical  cause  and  physical 
effect;  there  is  an  immediate  passage,  -^dthout  intermediar}^ 
stages,  between  magical  cause  and  magical  eft'ect.  Thus, 
when  a  woman  comes  by  night  to  her  neighbor's  stable  and 
milks  the  cow;  when  a  man  in  a  fight  strikes  another  a  blow; 
when  \^'ind  drives  hail-clouds  away;  when  crops  rot  in  the 
field  because  of  too  much  rain — in  all  these  cases  the  process 
of  action  of  one  thing  upon  another  is  known,  or  supposedly 
knowTi,  the  cause  and  effect  are  connected  mth  each  other 
wdthout  any  break  of  continuity,  and  we  can  analyze  the 
process  into  as  many  stages  as  we  "\^dsh.  But  when  a  \^4tch, 
by  milking  a  stick  in  her  own  house,  draws  the  milk  of  her 
neighbor's  cow  into  her  ovm  milk-pot;  when  by  saying  some 
formulae  and  burning  some  plants  she  causes  headache  to 
her  distant  enemy;  when  the  first  chapters  of  the  Four 
Gospels,  written  down  and  buried  at  the  four  comers  of  a 
field,  avert  hail-clouds;  when  peas,  sown  during  the  new 
moon,  never  ripen,  but  blossom  again  every  month  until 
winter — ^here  between  the  cause  and  effect  continuity  is 
broken,  the  influence  is  immediate,  we  do  not  know  any- 
thing about  the  process  of  action  and  we  cannot  analyze 
the  passage  between  the  state  of  one  object  and  the  state  of 
another.     Therefore  we  can,  of  course,  modify  in  many  ways 


INTRODUCTION 


255 


a  physical  process,  direct  it  by  introducing  various  additional 
causes;  but  we  can  only  abolish  the  magical  influence, 
destroy  it,  by  introducing  some  determined  contrary  factors. 
This  character  of  the  magical  relation  explains  the  fact 
that  most  of  those  relations  are,  or  rather  appear  to  us  to 
be,  symbolical.  This  symbolism  can  assume  different  forms. 
Sometimes  it  is  analogy  between  the  supposed  cause  and 
the  desired  effect,  as  in  the  example  of  the  witch  milking  a 
stick,  or  in  the  very  general  case  when  two  bones  of  the  bat, 
resembling  respectively  a  rake  and  a  fork,  are  used,  the  first 
to  attract  something  desirable,  the  second  to  push  away 
something  undesirable.  Sometimes,  again,  it  is  a  part  repre- 
senting the  whole,  as  when  some  hairs  or  finger-nail  parings 
of  a  man  are  used  to  harm  or  to  heal  through  them  the 
whole  body,  or  when  a  rite  performed  upon  a  few  grains 
taken  from  a  field  is  supposed  to  affect  the  whole  crop.  Oi 
an  action  performed  upon  some  object  is  presumed  to  exert 
an  influence  upon  another  object  which  is  or  was  in  spatial 
proximity  with  the  first,  as  when  an  object  taken  from  the 
house  or  some  sand  from  under  the  threshold  is  used  to 
influence  magically  the  house  or  its  inmates.  Succession 
in  time,  particularly  if  repeated,  becomes  often  a  basis  of  a 
magical  connection;  this  is  the  source  of  many  behefs  in 
lucky  or  unlucky  phenomena.  The  connection  between  the 
word  and  the  thing  symbolized  by  it  is,  as  we  know,  par- 
ticularly often  exploited  for  magical  purposes.  The  words 
exert  an  immediate  influence  upon  reality,  have  a  magical 
creative  power.  The  relation  of  property  is  also  assumed 
to  be  a  vehicle  of  magical  action;  the  owner  is  hit  by  magic 
exerted  upon  some  object  which  belongs  to  him,  and,  re- 
ciprocally, by  bewitching  the  owner  it  is  possible  to  affect 
his  property.  Things  often  connected  by  some  natural 
causaHty  can  be  easily  connected  by  a  magical  causaHty; 
food  can  be  spoiled  by  bewitching  the  fire  upon  which  it  is 


256  rROIARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

cooked,  the  miller  can  arouse  the  wind  by  imitating  its 
effect,  that  is,  by  turning  the  wings  of  the  mill.  The  last 
example  gives  us  a  combination  of  two  kinds  of  symbol- 
ism: by  analogy  and  by  the  relation  of  (natural)  cause 
to  effect.  Such  combinations  are  very  frequent  in  the 
more  complicated  kinds  of  magic,  as  when  a  witch,  by 
sitting  upon  goose  eggs,  brings  hail  as  big  as  those  eggs,  or 
when  a  consecrated  host  is  put  into  a  beehive  in  order  to 
make  the  bees  prosper.  This  last  is  a  triple  magical  rela- 
tion :  the  words  of  the  priest  change  the  host  into  the  flesh 
of  Jesus;  the  particle  represents  the  whole  divinity;  the 
supposed  effect  of  religious  perfection  which  the  host 
exerts  upon  the  soul  of  the  man  is  transferred  by  analogy 
to  the  insects. 

Now  in  all  these  cases  magical  relation  is  supposed  to 
exist  among  objects  which  are  in  some  way  already  connected 
in  human  consciousness,  so  that  one  of  them  points  in  some 
way  to  the  other,  reminds  one  of  it,  symbolizes  it.  And  we 
can  easily  understand  that  this  is  a  necessary  condition, 
wdthout  which  it  would  be  hardly  possible  to  imagine  the 
existence  of  a  magical  relation  between  two  given  objects. 
Indeed  in  physical  causality  we  can  follow  the  process  of 
causation,  and  therefore  (except  in  cases  of  error  of  observa- 
tion or  reasoning)  we  know  w^hat  effect  a  cause  has  or  what 
is  the  cause  of  a  given  effect.  But  in  magical  causality  the 
process  is  hidden,  and  there  would  therefore  be  no  reason  to 
think  of  a  given  fact  A  as  being  the  cause  or  effect  of  a 
determined  fact  B  rather  than  of  any  of  the  innumerable 
other  facts  which  happen  about  this  time  if  A  and  B  had  not 
been  connected  previously  in  the  mind.  Sometimes  the 
facts  are  connected  traditionally  and  the  reason  for  this 
connection  can  no  longer  be  determined,  but  whenever  we 
see  the  reason  it  is  always  a  symbolical  relation  of  some  of 
the  types  enumerated  above. 


INTRODUCTION  257 

If,  now,  the  magical  causality  existed  alone,  it  would 
probably  be  considered  natural,  not  supernatural.  But  it 
coexists,  in  the  peasant's  experience,  with  a  multitude  of 
cases  of  purely  physical  causality,  including  most  of  the 
common  material  phenomena,  and  it  becomes  supernatural 
by  antithesis  to  these,  exactly  as  spirits  become  super- 
natural by  antithesis  to  material  beings.'  And  certainly 
the  fact  that  most  of  the  magic  came  to  the  peasant  with 
Christianity  and  was  already  connected  with  spirits  must 
have  helped  to  develop  this  opposition  between  natural  and 
supernatural  causality. 

But  the  connection  of  magic  with  the  spiritual  beings  is 
not  merely  the  result  of  their  common  opposition  to  the 
material  world.  Magic  contains  in  itself  elements  which, 
at  a  certain  stage,  make  this  connection  necessary.  Indeed, 
magical  causality  is  by  no  means  an  instrument  of  theoreti- 
cal explanation  but  of  practice;  only  such  relations  as  are 
supposed  to  help  to  attain  a  desirable  end  or  to  avoid  a 
danger  are  taken  into  consideration.  Every  magical  rela- 
tion is  therefore  connected  in  some  way  more  or  less  closely 
with  the  idea  of  the  conscious  intention  of  somebody  who 
acts,  who  wants  to  apply  it  to  a  certain  end.  In  many 
cases,  even  in  a  relatively  primitive  magic,  intention  is  a 
necessary  condition  of  causality.  The  witch  who  milks 
a  stick  must  think  at  the  same  time  of  the  woman  whose 
cow  she  wants  to  deprive  of  milk,  and  it  is  her  intention 
which  directs  the  magical  effect.  It  is  also  indispensable 
in  all  endeavors  to  convey  sickness  to  direct  the  attention 
to  the  person  whom  one  desires  to  harm.  In  searching  for 
a  hidden  treasure  harmful  magical  powers  are  neutralized 
if  the  digger  has  at  this  moment  the  intention  (provisionally 

'  The  antithesis  is  particularly  evident  when  the  same  object  exerts  a  natural 
and  a  magical  effect.  Thus,  water  naturally  washes  physical  stains,  but  con- 
secrated water  magically  purifies  an  object  from  the  devilish  magical  power. 


258  rRniARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

assumed)  of  giving  the  treasure  to  a  church.  And  we  know 
that  in  rehgious  magic  the  use  of  consecrated  objects  can 
have  its  whole  influence  only  if  exerted  with  a  determined 
intention  and  belief  in  its  efficiency.  There  are  certainly 
many  cases  in  which  the  effect  of  a  magical  cause  is  pre- 
sumed to  come  mechanically,  when  the  intention  is  not 
necessary  to  produce  it.  This  happens  when  an  object, 
amulet  or  tahsman,  has  a  permanent  property  of  magical 
action,  or  when  a  magical  effect  is  brought  about  inadvert- 
ently. But  usually  we  find  some  intentional  action  in  the 
beginning.  Most  of  the  amulets  and  talismans  (when  their 
action  does  not  result  from  their  own  natural  power,  that  is, 
when  they  are  not  members  of  the  first,  naturahstic,  reli- 
gious system)  have  been  at  some  moment  intentionally 
endowed  wdth  magical  powers;  such  are  all  the  consecrated 
objects  and  many  of  those  which  the  magicians  and  witches 
prepare.  Most  of  the  inadvertent  actions  have  a  magical 
influence  because  they  are  actions  of  conscious  beings  who, 
even  if  they  have  no  expHcit  intention  at  the  given  moment, 
have  a  latent  power  of  ^^ill,  are  capable  of  intentional  influ- 
ence. By  the  usual  association  the  inadvertent  action  is 
supposed  to  exert  the  same  influence  as  the  intentional 
action  which  it  resembles,  because  the  spiritual  power,  non- 
directed,  takes  the  habitual  channel.  And  even  when  there 
is  no  conscious  action  in  the  beginning,  the  peasant  tends  to 
suppose,  more  or  less  definitely,  some  kind  of  intention  in 
ever>^  case  of  imprevisible  good  or  bad  luck  which  happens 
'  to  him.  "Hin  short,  in  every  magical  causation  there  is  more 
or  less  of  the  conscious  element  completing  the  mechanical 
magical  relation  between  cause  and  effect;  there  is  always 
behind  it  somebody,  man  or  spirit,  and  the  object  through 
which  the  action  is  exerted  is  here  merely  an  instrument, 
not  a  spontaneously  acting  being,  as  in  the  naturahstic 
system^ 


INTRODUCTION  259 

But  there  is  a  curious  gradation  of  the  part  which  con- 
sciousness plays  in  magical  causality,  which  is  also  the  basis 
of  distinction  between  human  and  spiritual  magic.  In  the 
ordinary  rituaHstic  magic  the  intention  is  only  one  compo- 
nent of  the  magical  action,  more  or  less  necessary,  but  sub- 
ordinated to  the  objective  causal  relation  between  visible 
phenomena — the  more  so,  the  more  comphcated  the  rite. 
Its  role  is  increased  in  the  action  by  words,  particularly 
when  the  words  are  not  traditional  formulae  (to  a  great 
extent  efficient  by  their  mere  sound  and  arrangement),  but 
spontaneous  expressions  of  an  actual  feehng  or  desire.  The 
blessing  or  curse  is  efficient  whatever  its  form,  which  proves 
that  it  is  the  intention,  not  the  expression,  which  is  essential. 
In  the  evil  eye  sometimes  the  visible  act  counts  more,  some- 
times the  intention.  In  any  case  there  is  a  marked  dispro- 
portion between  the  physical  act,  trifling  in  itself,  and  its 
consequences.  Evidently  the  "evil  eye"  has  a  magical 
influence  only  because  it  is  a  conscious  being  which  looks, 
because  in  the  eye  spiritual  powers  are  concentrated.  But 
man  can  never  exert  a  magical  influence  by  consciousness 
alone,  without  the  help  of  visible  means.  This  is  the  privi- 
lege of  the  spirits  who,  when  completely  detached  from 
nature,  can  act  immediately  by  the  magic  of  their  will. 
Those  who  are  intermediary  between  spirits  and  natural 
beings  may  sometimes  need  the  help  of  visible  rites.  The 
devil  who  keeps  hidden  treasures  cleans  them  with  Are;  local 
spirits  and  some  of  the  lower  devils  can  get  a  man  into  their 
power  by  holding  any  part  of  his  body  or  his  clothing,  etc. 
But  the  more  spirituaHzed  and  powerful  devils  and  the 
heavenly  spirits  do  not  need  anything  for  their  magical 
action.  And  of  course  the  whole  practical  importance  of 
supernatural  beings  depends  upon  their  ability  to  exert  a 
direct  magical  influence  by  their  mere  will.  If  they  were 
unable  to  do  this,  they  would  not  count  at  all,  for,  being 


26o  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

detached  from  nature,  they  cannot  act  through  material 
objects.     In  other  words,  the  dissociation  of  mythological 
beings  from  the  material  world  is  possible  only  on  the  con- 
dition that  those  beings  can  influence  this  world  by  the 
magic  of  their  will,  and  thus  the  magic  of  consciousness  is 
the  condition  of  the  existence  of  spirits.     For  spirits  mthout 
practical  influence  cannot  exist  in  the  popular  mythology; 
their  power  is  the  measure  of  their  reality. 
^  \.  This  magical  power,  which,  among  the  spirits,  God  pos- 
sesses in  the  highest  degree  and  of  which  the  spirits  in  general 
have  more  than  men,  is  nothing  but  the  f acuity  of  producing 
magical  effects^   It  is  quite  parallel  with  the  "energy"  of 
physics.     The  spirits  and  certain  living  men  possess  it  from 
the  beginning.     Its  manifestations  can  be  directed  and  often 
checked  at  will.     This  is  the  case  among  higher  beings,  but 
among  men  it  happens  that  the  magical  power  tends  to 
manifest  itself  even  in  opposition  to  the  present  conscious 
act  of  will.     The  case  is  exactly  analogous  to  that  of  an 
"inborn"  tendency  to  evil;  the  permanent  direction  of  the 
will  is  stronger  than  an  actual  motive;    the  individual's 
nature  is  so  bent  upon  exercising  magical  influence  upon  all 
objects  which  come  within  his  sphere  of  action  that  he  can 
only  with  difficulty  refrain  from  exercising  it  upon  some 
particular  object.     Thus,  many  persons  who  have  the  evil 
eye  do  harm  even  when  they  do  not  wish  it  and  must  use 
particular  means  in  order  to  neutralize  their  power,  for 
example,  look  upon  their  own  nails  before  looking  upon  any 
object  which  may  be  harmed.     Of  the  witches,  in  many 
localities  the  opinion  prevails  that  they  are  more  unhappy 
than  guilty,  that  their  magical  power  is  either  inherited  or 
communicated  to  them  by  a  curse  of  God  (a  curse,  since 
their  power  is  contrary  to  the  divine  power),  and  cases  are 
even  quoted  in  which  a  wdtch,  unable  or  un-willing  to  harm 
her  neighbors,  exerted  her  influence  aimlessly  upon  inani- 


INTRODUCTION  261 

mate  objects,  or  even  bewitched  herself.  But  a  person 
whose  magic  is  of  a  higher  quaHty,  as,  for  example,  a  priest 
or  a  wise  person  who  uses  magical  power  only  for  good  pur- 
poses, can  use  it  or  not,  at  will. 

This  magical  power  can  be  communicated  to  men  or 
things,  and  we  can  suppose  that,  as  magical  causation  in- 
volves some  degree  of  intention,  all  the  magical  powers  of 
things  are  communicated  to  them  by  men  or  spirits,  as  they 
are  in  the  Christian  system.  There  is  always  some  kind  of 
consecration,  actually  performed  or  presupposed,  explicitly 
or  implicitly.  Obviously  we  do  not  mean  to  say  that  the 
idea  of  consecration  was  in  fact  the  historical  origin  of 
the  magical  powers  ascribed  to  things,  but  only  that  in  the 
magical  system  of  the  Polish  peasant  the  magical  power  of 
things  is  actually  believed  to  have  originated  always  in  some 
kind  of  a  consecration.  For  example,  there  are  innumerable 
legends  in  which  the  beneficent  or  maleficent  magical  powers 
of  animals,  plants,  or  stones  are  ascribed  to  a  blessing  or 
curse  of  God,  Jesus,  the  Virgin  Mary,  the  saints.  If  some 
animals  are  connected  with  the  devil,  it  is  not  only  because 
the  devil  used  to  appear  in  their  form,  but  also  because  he  is 
supposed  to  have  endowed  them  with  magical  power;  such 
are  the  snake,  the  cat,  the  owl,  the  peacock,  the  rat,  black 
dogs,  black  goats,  etc.  In  the  same  way  it  is  the  devil  who 
communicates  magical  properties  to  the  localities  in  which 
he  resides,  to  many  instruments  which  the  witches  use,  to 
money,  etc.,  and  all  the  witches  who  are  not  born  such  are 
consecrated  by  the  devil,  or  sometimes  by  other  more  power- 
ful witches.  The  consecration  is,  moreover,  the  more 
efficient  the  more  powerful  the  consecrating  man  or  spirit. 
The  power  of  Christian  amulets  depends  upon  the  position 
in  the  church  hierarchy  of  the  priest  who  consecrated  them 
(ordinary  priest,  bishop,  pope);  the  consecration  of  the 
witch  bv  the  devil  is  worth  more  than  by  another  witch. 


262  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

The  curse  of  a  saint  is  more  influential  than  that  of  an  ordi- 
nary person.  Thus,  nobody  in  or  from  the  town  Gniezno 
can  ever  make  a  fortune  since  St.  Adalbert  cursed  the  town 
more  than  nine  centuries  ago.  Numerous  are  the  legends 
of  towns,  churches,  castles  which  sank  into  the  earth,  of 
men  turned  into  stone  when  cursed  by  priests,  hermits,  etc. 
But  the  magical  power  of  spiritual  beings  when  acting 
upon  material  objects  must  adapt  itself  to  the  immanent 
laws  of  magical  causality  in  the  same  way  as  human 
technique  must  adapt  itself  to  the  laws  of  physical  causality. 
The  idea  of  consecration  is  used  to  explain  magical  powers 
of  objects  only  within  the  limits  of  the  symbolism  of  which 
we  have  spoken  above.  Thus,  not  every  object  can  be  con- 
secrated to  every  use,  but  each  one  by  consecration  acquires 
only  a  particular  and  determined  power  of  action.  For 
example,  in  Loreto  consecrated  bells  are  particularly  adapted 
to  avert  thunderstorm,  salt  consecrated  on  the  day  cf 
St.  Agatha  extinguishes  fire,  determined  plants,  when  con- 
secrated, acquire  a  magical  power  against  determined 
diseases,  etc.  Nowhere  perhaps  is  this  adaptation  of  spirits 
to  the  immanent  laws  of  magical  causality  so  evident  as 
in  the  use  of  water,  j  As  we  have  said  above,  because 
water  washes  away  material  dirt,  consecrated  water,  by  an 
evident  symbolism,  purifies  magically,  that  is,  destroys  the 
stamp  which  the  devil  put  upon  the  objects,  consecrating 
them  to  his  own  use.  Hence  water  becomes  the  universal 
and  dominant  purificatory  medium,  as  against  fire  in  the 
naturaHstic  system.'  Another  good  example  of  adaptation 
of  the  spirits  to  the  laws  of  magic  is  found  in  the  curse.  The 
father's  or  mother's  curse  is  particularly  powerful  because 
of  the  relation  between  parents  and  children;  God  must 
fulfil  it.     A  priest  has  communicated  to  us  that  an  old 

'The  use  of  fire  in  hell  and,  secondarily,  in  purgatory  has  a  completely  dif- 
ferent meaning;   in  hell,  fire  tortures  without  purif>-ing. 


INTRODUCTION  263 

peasant  confessed  the  cursing  of  his  son  as  the  most  heinous 
sin  of  his  whole  life.  The  son  went  to  the  army  and  was 
killed,  and  in  his  confession  the  peasant  said:  "Why  did  I 
interfere  with  the  business  of  God  ?  "  He  felt  that  God  was 
obliged  to  see  to  it  that  the  son  was  killed. 

We  have  already  met  more  than  once  the  problem  of 
magical  dualism.  The  behef  in  magical  causation  leads 
necessarily  to  the  standpoint  of  a  duality  of  contrary  influ- 
ences. Indeed,  whenever  a  magical  action  does  not  bring 
the  intended  result,  the  agent  can  only  either  deny  the 
efficacy  of  the  means  used  or  suppose  that  the  influence  of 
the  magical  cause  was  neutralized  by  a  contrary  influence, 
the  causation  destroyed  by  an  opposite  causation.  In  physi- 
cal explanation  a  process  of  causation  cannot  be  destroyed, 
but  only  combined  with  another  process,  because  we  can 
follow  both  in  their  development  and  their  combination; 
but  in  magical  explanation,  as  we  have  seen,  the  process  of 
causation  is  not  given,  and  when  the  effect  does  not  come  the 
causal  relation  must  be  assumed  to  be  annihilated. 

Of  course  this  opposition  of  contrary  magical  influences 
does  not  involve  any  absolute  appreciation.  From  the 
standpoint  of  the  subject  who  desires  to  attain  a  certain 
effect  a  magical  influence  favorable  to  this  aim  wifl  be  valued 
positively,  an  influence  which  destroys  the  first,  negatively. 
But  the  appreciation  changes  with  the  change  of  the  stand- 
point, and  no  magic  can  be  termed  good  or  evil  in  itself. 
There  are,  indeed,  actions  which  bring  harm  and  actions 
which  bring  benefit  to  other  individuals  or  to  the  community 
as  a  whole,  but  in  order  to  make  this  a  basis  of  classification 
of  magical  actions  the  moral  viewpoint  must  be  introduced 
into  magic  and  religion,  and  this  is  done  only  in  the  third 
religious  system,  which  we  shall  analyze  presently.  Before 
this  moralization  of  religion,  actions  performed  with  the 
help  of  magic  can  be  useful  or  harmful,  the  person  who 


264  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

performs  them  can  be  virtuous  or  ^\^cked,  but  the  magical 
power  is  neither  good  nor  bad  in  itself.  This  is  particularly 
e\'ident  if  we  remember  that  the  same  magical  influence  can 
be,  according  to  circumstances,  useful  or  harmful  to  the 
community  or  to  the  indi\adual.  The  bringing  or  stopping 
of  rain  is  a  good  example.  Even  directly  harmful  influences, 
such  as  those  which  bring  sickness  or  death  upon  a  man,  can 
sometimes  be  useful  to  the  community,  w^hen  the  harm  is  a 
punishment  for  a  breach  of  sohdarity.  And  if  this  is  true 
of  actions  which  have  a  determined  result,  it  is  the  more  true 
of  magical  powers  which  spirits,  men,  or  things  may  possess, 
for  these  powers  can  be  used  for  very  different  actions. 

We  understand,  therefore,  that  not  even  Christianity, 
in  spite  of  its  absolute  opposition  of  God  and  devil,  heaven 
and  hell,  was  able  to  introduce  at  once  the  idea  that  there 
is  a  good  magic  and  an  e\dl  magic,  and  that  the  magic  of 
heavenly  beings  and  of  priests  w^as  good,  all  other  magic  e\dl. 
We  do  not  raise  here  the  question  how  consistently  this  idea 
was  developed  in  Christianity  itself.  The  peasant,  standing 
on  practical,  empirical  ground,  could  frequently  not  avoid 
the  conclusion  that  the  effects  of  di\dne  magic  can  be  disas- 
trous as  well  as  beneficial,  and  that  the  de\dlish  magic  does 
not  bring  harm  always,  but  may  often  be  very  useful.  The 
ideas  of  reward  and  punishment  in  future  Hfe  were  hardly 
ever  strong  enough  wdth  the  peasant  to  influence  his  choice 
in  a  decisive  way,  the  less  so  as  it  was  always  possible  to 
cheat  God  during  Hfe  and  the  devil  at  the  moment  of  death 
by  accepting  any  good  which  might  come  from  both  sources 
as  long  as  it  was  possible  and  by  turning  to  God  when 
nothing  good  could  any  longer  be  expected  from  the  de\dL 
This  is  the  attitude  which  persists  in  most  of  the  tales  and 
in  real  life,  in  spite  of  some  incidental,  e\ddently  imitated  and 
formal,  moralization.  flf  God  were  alone  against  the  de\dl, 
the  influence  of  religion  upon  peasant  life  would  be  ver>' 


INTRODUCTION  265 

equivocal.  But  the  factor  which,  in  spite  of  all  this,  makes 
the  religious  magical  system  so  powerful  as  to  direct  the 
peasant's  attitudes  in  all  the  important  events  of  his  life 
is  the  above-mentioned  magical  sohdarity  of  all  the  divine 
beings,  on  the  one  hand,  and  all  the  devilish  beings,  on  the 
other.  This  solidarity  consists,  not  in  an  essential  opposi- 
tion between  the  two  magics  as  such,  but  in  the  fact  that 
the  magical  action  of  any  divine  being  always  supports  and 
corroborates  the  magical  action  of  all  the  other  divine  beings 
and  is  always  opposed  to  the  magical  action  of  any  devilish 
being;  the  same  is  true  of  the  devilish  community.  On  this 
basis,  when  a  man  acts  in  harmony  with  the  divine  com- 
munity he  is  assured  of  the  protection  of  this  whole  com- 
munity, because  he  becomes  its  member,  while  by  a  single 
action  supporting  the  tendencies  of  the  devilish  community, 
he  becomes  indeed  a  member  of  the  latter,  but  makes  all 
the  divine  beings  his  enemies. 

The  choice  between  these  communities  will  depend  upon 
three  factors:  First,  the  number  and  the  concretcness  of  the 
divinities  belonging  to  them  respectively.  In  this  regard 
.the  devilish  community  had  a  decided  superiority  in  the 
beginning,  when  the  church  itself  put  all  the  pagan  mytho- 
logical beings,  numerous  and  concrete,  into  the  same  class 
with  the  devils;  the  influence  of  this  rich  and  plastic  world 
must  have  been,  and  was  indeed  for  a  long  time,  stronger 
than  that  of  the  poorer  and  relatively  pale  community  of 
heavenly  beings.  This,  more  than  anything  else,  accounts 
for  the  long  persistence  of  the  devilish  mythology  and  rites. 
But  gradually  the  heavenly  pantheon  increased  in  number 
and  concreteness;  many  local  saints  were  added  to  it, 
legends  grew  up  about  them,  their  graves  preserved  a  magi- 
cal power,  churches  consecrated  to  them  perpetuated  their 
memory  and  made  them  familiar  and  plastic  divinities. 
With  the  development  of  reading,  lives  of  the  saints  became 


266  PRIIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

a  favorite  topic;  and  before  this  their  lives  were  related  by 
priests,  amulet-peddlers,  pilgrims,  etc.  In  this  way  many 
foreign  saints  became  know^i  and  worshiped.  The  Virgin 
Mary,  whose  cult  came  down  from  the  higher  classes  to  the 
peasant,  became  through  the  many  churches,  miracles,  and 
legends  one  of  the  most  powerful  divinities.  Particular 
legends  connected  God,  Jesus,  Mary,  the  saints,  and  the 
angels  with  the  familiar  environment  of  the  peasant,  and 
most  of  them  were  adapted  to  Polish  life  and  nature  and 
bear  thus  a  distinctly  local  character.  Finally,  art  in  all 
its  forms — painting,  sculpture,  music,  architecture,  poetry — 
contributed  in  an  incalculable  measure  to  make  all  the 
beings  of  the  heavenly  pantheon  concrete  and  alive.  Of 
course  the  hell-pantheon  grew  also,  but  its  growth  was  less 
extensive  and  was  decreased  by  a  loss  in  number  and  con- 
creteness  of  the  pagan  mythological  beings. 

The  second  reason  for  choosing  the  divine  rather  than 
the  devilish  community  is  that  of  their  relative  powxr.  In 
this  respect  the  church  has  also  done  very  much  to  increase 
the  power  of  the  heavenly  world  as  against  hell,  even  if  the 
latter  is  not  too  much  minimized,  in  view  of  other  considera- 
tions of  which  we  shall  speak  presently.  We  notice,  for 
example,  that  the  pagan  mythological  beings  assimilated  to 
the  devil  have  a  rather  limited  sphere  of  activity.  The 
most  important  natural  phenomena — sunshine  and  thunder, 
summer  and  winter,  birth  and  death,  extraordinary  cata- 
clysms and  extraordinarily  good  crops,  war  and  peace,  etc. — 
are  as  far  as  possible  ascribed  to  God.  We  have  already 
spoken  of  the  power  of  Mary  as  manifested  in  her  miracles, 
and  of  the  patron  saints  to  whom  most  of  the  more  usual 
phenomena  of  social  and  individual  life  are  subordinated. 
Jesus,  whose  main  function  is  to  attract  men  to  the  divine 
community,  to  defend  them  against  the  devil — and  to  give 
them  up  to  him  if  they  are  stubborn — is  always  shown  as  a 


INTRODUCTION  267 

more  powerful  magician  than  the  devil.  The  angels  are 
always  depicted  as  victorious  against  the  devils  in  direct 
struggle.  Finally,  the  decision  of  the  lot  of  the  human  soul 
after  death  belongs  mainly  to  the  heavenly  community, 
because  Jesus,  if  he  wishes,  can  always  take  the  soul  away 
from  the  devil  on  the  basis  of  a  single  good  deed,  and  after 
paying  its  due  to  the  devil  in  purgatory  the  soul  can  reach 
paradise,  while  the  devil  cannot  take  a  saved  soul  into  hell. 
But  another  tendency  of  the  church  in  the  same  line  did 
not  succeed  quite  so  well.  The  objects  to  which  divine 
magical  powers  were  communicated  by  consecration  and 
which  were  to  help  man  to  attain  influence  over  the  spirits 
and  over  nature  ought  to  belong  also  exclusively  to  the 
divine  order,  ought  to  bear  such  a  magical  character  as 
would  make  them  by  themselves  useful  only  to  the  members 
of  the  divine  community  and  harmful  to  the  devil.  Here 
belong,  for  example,  the  localities  and  instruments  of  divine 
service,  amulets,  holy  water,  consecrated  wafers,  etc.  But 
this  idea  implies  the  distinction  between  good  and  evil 
magical  powers,  and  therefore  the  endeavor  of  the  church 
failed.  The  use  of  objects  consecrated  by  the  church  could 
be  made  in  the  favor  of  the  devihsh  as  well  as  of  the  divine 
community,  according  to  the  intention  of  the  person  who 
used  them.  Sometimes  it  was  necessary,  indeed,  to  use 
them  in  a  perverse  way  in  order  to  attain  results  favorable 
to  the  devilish  community,  especially  in  cases  where  the 
long  use  for  divine  ends  had  evidently  imparted  to  these 
objects  a  certain  incompatibility  with  the  world  of  the  devil. 
We  find  this  attitude  in  such  facts  as  the  saying  of  i)rayers 
backward,  crossing  with  the  left  hand  and  in  the  contrary 
direction,  etc.  But  very  often  consecrated  objects  can  be 
used  at  once  for  devilish  purposes.  Every  witch  or  magi- 
cian tries  to  get  hosts,  church  candles,  consecrated  earth, 
water,  oil,  or  salt,  fringes  from  church  banners,  etc.,  for 


268  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

magical  purposes;  sometimes  even  the  devil  asks  them  to 
get  such  objects.  A  candle  put  before  the  altar  with  certain 
rites  and  a  determined  intention  had  the  same  magical 
effect  as  a  waxen  image  of  the  person  whom  the  witch 
wanted  to  kill;  the  person  was  consumed  with  sickness  and 
died  while  the  candle  was  gradually  burned  away  during 
divine  service.  A  piece  of  clothing  put  upon  the  organ 
caused  insufferable  pains  to  the  person  to  whom  it  belonged, 
whenever  the  organ  was  played.  The  churches,  cemeteries, 
crosses,  and  chapels  erected  upon  the  roads  or  in  the  fields 
are  places  near  which  devilish  forces  are  supposed  to  reside ; 
one  of  the  means  of  calling  the  devil  is  to  walk,  with  cere- 
monies, nine  times  around  a  cross  or  chapel. 

But  of  course  the  fact  itself  that  the  church  was  in  actual 
possession  of  so  many  objects  endowed  with  magical  power 
increased  enormously,  not  only  its  influence,  but  the  influ- 
ence of  the  divine  community  of  which  it  was  a  part  and 
which  it  represented.  The  political  supremacy  of  the  church 
made  it  impossible  for  the  devilish  community  to  have  as 
many  magical  things  at  its  service.  One  of  the  meanings 
of  sacrilege,  which  all  the  witches  and  magicians  feel  morally 
obliged  to  perform  whenever  they  can,  is  to  destroy  the 
magical  power  of  consecrated  objects  and  to  weaken  in  this 
way  the  church  and  the  divine  community. 

In  trying  thus  to  increase  the  di\ane  powers  at  the 
expense  of  the  devil  the  church  went  still  farther  and  tried 
to  introduce  the  idea  that  whatever  the  devil  does  he  does 
only  by  God's  permission,  that  God  leaves  to  him  volun- 
tarily a  certain  sphere  of  acti\dty.  But  this  idea  seems  to 
have  been  assimilated  by  the  peasant  rather  late  and  only 
in  connection  with  the  religious  system  which  we  next  treat, 
for  the  church  itself  apparently  contradicted  it  by  making 
all  possible  efforts  to  ascribe  useful  phenomena  to  the  effects 
of  divine  magic,  all  harmful  phenomena  to  the  de\dl.     This 


INTRODUCTION  269 

last  distinction,  the  beneficent  character  of  the  divine  as 
against  the  maleficent  character  of  the  devihsh  community, 
became  the  third  great  factor  helping  to  the  victory  of  the 
divine  community  in  the  consciousness  of  the  peasant.  But 
to  the  unsophisticated  peasant  mind  it  seems  evident  that 
the  devil  must  have  some  power  of  his  own  in  order  to  do 
as  much  harm  as  the  church  tries  to  lay  upon  him  if  God  is 
to  be  conceived  as  an  essentially  beneficent  being.  The 
omnipotence  of  God  had  to  be  sacrificed  to  save  his  good- 
ness, though  the  latter  was  as  yet  only  practical,  not  moral, 
goodness.  And,  even  so,  it  was  impossible  to  establish  at 
once  on  the  magical  ground  an  absolute  opposition  between 
God  as  source  of  all  good  and  the  devil  as  source  of  all  evil; 
the  contrast  could  be  only  relative.  As  we  have  seen, 
harm  and  benefit  brought  by  magical  actions  are  relative 
to  the  subject  and  to  the  circumstances.  The  first  and 
indispensable  limitation  of  the  principle  was  necessitated 
by  the  duality  of  the  religious  world  itself;  only  those  who 
belonged  to  the  divine  community  could  be  favored  by  the 
good  effects  of  divine  magic,  or  else  there  would  be  no  par- 
ticular reason  for  belonging  to  this  community.  But  in 
that  case  the  good  which  "the  servants  of  the  devil" 
experienced  must  have  come  from  the  devil,  not  from  God. 
And  some  of  the  evil  which  befell  the  members  of  the  divine 
community  must  have  come  from  God,  or  else,  if  it  came 
only  from  the  devil,  many  men  would  be  moved  rather  by 
the  fear  of  the  devil's  vengeance  than  by  the  attraction  of 
the  divine  gifts.  All  this  was  admitted,  but  the  Christian 
teaching  succeeded  in  partly  overcoming  the  difficulty  with 
the  help  of  the  contention  that  the  good  which  the  devil 
offered  to  his  behevers  was  not  a  real  good  and  the  evil 
which  God  sent  down  upon  his  servants  was  not  a  real 
evil.  The  good  given  by  the  devil  turned  ultimately  to  evil, 
sometimes  only  in  the  next  world  but  often  even  in  the 


2  70  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

present  one.  And  the  evil  sent  by  God,  if  man  did  not  lose 
his  faith  and  did  not  turn  to  the  devil,  was  sooner  or  later 
rewarded  by  a  greater  good.  In  short,  the  heavenly  com- 
munity proved  true  with  regard  to  its  human  members, 
while  in  the  hell  community  they  were  cheated.  An  inter- 
esting expression  of  this  belief  is  found  in  many  tales.  In 
these  it  is  the  theatrical  contrast  between  appearance  and 
reaHty  which  suddenly  discloses  itself  to  men  in  their  rela- 
tions mth  the  divine  as  weU  as  \^dth  the  de\dlish  world.  Any 
trash  given  to  a  man  by  some  member  of  the  first  turns 
into  gold;  apparent  calamities  sent  by  heaven  prove  to  be  a 
source  of  happiness;  di\'inities  in  human  form  behave 
apparently  in  the  most  absurd  or  cruel  way  and  disclose 
afterward  the  wisdom  and  benevolence  of  their  acts.  On 
the  contrary,  de\T.Hsh  gold  becomes  trash,  de\dlish  food, 
seemingty  the  finest  possible,  is  in  reaUty  composed  of  the 
most  disgusting  substances,  the  splendor  and  beauty  mth 
which  the  devil  or  his  servants  appear  to  men  change  into 
the  utmost  povert}^  and  ugliness.  Even  if  this  tendency  to 
lower  the  value  of  the  hell  community  is  not  completely 
successful,  it  is  not  \^dthout  its  influence.  The  great  resource 
of  the  church  in  inculcating  the  belief  that  the  devil  is  ulti- 
mately harmful  was,  of  course,  the  conception  of  future  life. 
All  the  pictures  of  future  life  in  heU,  mthout  exception, 
represent  the  devil  as  torturing  the  souls.  The  Christian 
teaching  had  probably  no  contrar>^  ideas  to  combat  or  to 
assimilate  in  the  sphere  of  the  representations  of  the  human 
soul's  existence  after  death,  since  in  the  naturaHstic  system 
there  were  no  souls. 

The  whole  evolution  of  the  di\dne  community,  the  growth 
of  the  number,  concreteness,  power,  and  benevolence  of  the 
heavenly  beings,  resulted  finally  in  an  actual  state  of  things 
in  which  the  importance  of  divine  magic  is  incomparably 
greater  in  practice  than  that  of  devihsh  magic.     Wliile  the 


INTRODUCTION  271 

first  still  pervades  the  whole  life  of  the  peasant,  is  an  in- 
dispensable component  of  all  his  practical  activity,  the 
second  is  mostly  degraded  to  an  "old  women's  stuff,"  not 
disbelieved,  but  unworthy  of  a  real  man's  occupation;  it  is 
used  only  incidentally,  except  for  a  few  individuals,  and  is 
more  a  matter  of  credulous  curiosity  than  a  part  of  the 
business  of  life.  It  still  exerts  an  attraction,  but  this  attrac- 
tion itself  is  due  to  its  abnormal  character,  and  evidently 
when  an  attitude  comes  to  be  considered  as  abnormal  it  is 
no  longer  socially  vital. 

This  concerns  of  course  only  the  intentional  magical 
activity  of  men;  it  is  the  voluntary  alliance  with  the  devil 
which  is  rare.  But  the  magical  importance  of  the  devil 
himself  within  the  whole  magical  system  still  remains  great 
enough  to  make  the  cjuestion  of  belonging  to  the  community 
of  God  or  of  the  devil  the  main  religious  problem.  Indeed 
it  is  not  only  by  voluntary  and  conscious  choice  that  men 
can  become  members  of  the  devil's  community;  every  act 
which  is  as  such  contrary  to  the  divine  solidarity,  every 
"sin,"  if  not  expiated,  causes  a  temporary  or  durable  exclu- 
sion of  the  man  from  the  community  of  heaven  and  auto- 
matically makes  him  a  member  of  the  community  of  hell. 
The  man  passes  many  times  during  his  life  from  one  com- 
munity to  the  other,  not  because  he  does  not  want  to  be  a 
member  of  the  divine  world,  but  because  the  limitations  and 
the  duties  which  this  membership  imposes  upon  him  are 
numerous  and  difficult  to  keep. 

The  deviHsh  community,  in  this  magical  religious  system, 
is  an  indispensable  condition  of  the  existence  of  the  divine 
solidarity  itself.  In  the  naturalistic  system  the  aim  of  the 
solidarity  of  natural  beings  was  the  struggle  against  death. 
Here  the  magical  solidarity  of  the  heavenly  world  has  its 
only  reason  in  the  fight  against  the  world  of  hell.  The  aim 
of  the  whole  heavenly  community,  from  God  down  to  the 


272  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

humblest  saved  soul,  is  to  attract  as  many  new  members 
as  possible  from  among  the  living  and  to  own  as  much  as 
possible  of  the  material  world.  But  as  the  hell  community 
wants  the  same  for  itself,  the  struggle  goes  on.  At  the 
same  time  both  communities,  exactly  like  any  human  com- 
munity, want  only  true  members,  such  as  do  not  destroy 
the  harmony  of  the  whole;  they  therefore  exclude  those 
who  are  not  solidary.  The  heavenly  community  is  more 
difficult  in  this  respect,  probably  because  it  does  not  need 
new  members  as  much  as  hell ;  but  neither  does  the  devilish 
community  accept  new  members  without  selection.  In 
tales  and  legends  there  are  cases  in  which  the  devils  drive 
away  untrue  members.  In  magical  pacts  with  the  devil 
the  man  must  be  consistent,  and,  for  example,  any  mention 
of  Jesus  or  the  saints  may  lead  to  a  terrible  punishment. 
There  are  men  whom  neither  heaven  nor  hell  wants.  Pur- 
gatory is  not  a  mere  place  of  punishment,  but  also  a  prepara- 
tory stage  for  heaven,  making  the  souls  eager  and  likely  to 
be  true  members  of  the  heavenly  group. 

The  material  world  is  also  an  object  of  contest.  The 
heavenly  beings  as  well  as  the  devils  want  to  appropriate, 
in  the  name  of  their  respective  groups,  as  many  material 
objects  as  they  can.  We  may  say  that  the  material  world, 
with  regard  to  the  magical  communities,  .plays  the  same 
part  as  property  with  regard  to  the  family.  It  is  perhaps 
not  the  basis,  but  at  any  rate  one  condition  of  the  existence, 
of  the  group.  It  gives  a  dwelling-place,  and  we  must  re- 
member that  in  this  respect  the  devil  was  wronged  at  the 
beginning.  It  gives,  as  we  have  seen,  the  means  of  extend- 
ing the  power  of  the  community  among  men  who  can  act 
magically  only  with  the  help  of  material  objects,  and  it  is 
therefore  important  to  give  into  the  hands  of  the  living 
adherents  as  many  magical  instruments  as  they  can  handle. 
Finally — and  this  point  is  not  very  clear — the  spirits,  at 


INTRODUCTION  273 

least  the  souls,  seem  to  need  natural  food  and  clothing;  it 
is  difficult  to  say  whether  this  conception  is  only  a  vestige 
of  the  belief  of  regeneration  after  death  or  belongs  to  the 
magical  religious  system  itself. 

The  character  of  the  priest  and  the  witch  (or  magician) 
within  this  system  can  be  easily  determined  from  what  has 
been  said.  They  are  persons  who  by  divine  or  devilish 
consecration  have  acquired  a  magical  power  superior  to 
that  of  ordinary  men,  or  sometimes  they  became  priest  or 
witch  because  they  originally  possessed  this  power  in  a 
higher  degree.  At  the  same  time  they  have  a  knowledge 
of  the  world  of  spirits  and  of  the  means  of  magical  action 
which  was  communicated  to  them  partly  by  the  spirits 
themselves,  partly  by  other  priests  or  witches.  The  priest 
"knows  all  the  things,  present,  past  or  future";  the  witch 
has  perhaps  a  less  extensive  knowledge,  but  with  regard  to 
the  devil  and  devilish  magic  she  knows  even  more  than  the 
.  priest.  With  regard  to  their  knowledge  the  functions  of 
the  priest  and  of  the  witch  do  not  differ  much  from  those 
of  the  wroz  or  mqdra,  except  that  there  the  object  of  knowl- 
edge was  nature,  here  it  is  the  supernatural  world.  But 
from  the  superior  magical  power  of  the  priest  and  the  witch 
result  new  functions.  As  technically  trained  and  efficient 
specialists,  they  take  the  place  of  the  ordinary  men  wherever 
strong  magical  action  is  necessary;  their  own  power  is  added 
to  the  power  of  the  magical  instruments  and  they  can  attain 
with  the  latter  more  important  results  than  the  layman. 
At  the  same  time  they  are  intermediaries  between  the  pro- 
fane, natural  life  and  the  magical,  supernatural  powers. 
The  magical  power  as  such  is  undetermined;  it  may  have 
any  incalculable  effect,  and  for  anybody  who  has  not 
power  enough  himself  it  is  dangerous  to  manipulate  objects 
and  rites  endowed  with  power,  because  he  cannot  efficiently 
direct  their  action.     The  priest  and  the  witch  can  do  this 


274  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

because  their  will,  their  intention,  has  more  magical  influence 
by  itself  than  the  will  of  ordinary  men,  devoid  of  the  same 
power. 

Finally,  the  priest  and  the  witch  are  permanent  members 
of  the  respective  communities  (the  priest  can  scarcely  ever 
go  to  hell,  the  witch  to  heaven),  and  in  this  character  they 
are  intermediaries  between  the  layman  and  the  community 
which  they  represent.  But  this  function  is  not  necessarily 
limited  to  the  official  representatives  of  heaven  or  hell;  a 
holy  man,  \^dthout  being  a  priest,  a  possessed  person,  with- 
out being  a  wdtch,  can  play  the  same  part.  It  consists  in 
helping  the  respective  communities  to  get  new  members  or 
in  rejecting  those  who  are  harmful,  and  in  helping  laymen  to 
become  active  members  of  the  magical  groups. 

The  influence  of  this  whole  magical  religious  system 
upon  the  peasant's  hfe-attitudes  was  very  durable  and  of  a 
great,  mainly  negative,  importance.  The  belief  in  imme- 
diate, magical  causality,  inculcated  for  nine  centuries  by 
those  whom  the  peasant  always  regarded  as  his  intellectual 
superiors  and  applied  to  all  the  important  matters  of  human 
existence,  developed  a  particular  kind  of  credulity  with 
regard  to  the  effects  which  may  be  expected  from  any  inci- 
dents, things,  or  men  outside  of  the  ordinary  course  of  life. 
Anything  may  happen  or  not  happen ;  there  is  no  continuity, 
consequently  no  proportion,  between  cause  and  effect.  Out 
of  this  a  feeling  of  helplessness  develops.  [  The  peasant 
feels  that  he  lacks  any  control  of  the  world,  while  he  has 
been  accustomed  to  think  that  others  have  this  control  to 
an  almost  unlimited  degree^  He  has  no  consciousness  of 
the  limitations  of  power  of  those  who  are  his  intellectual 
superiors  and  whom  he  does  not  understand,  and  he  ascribes 
to  somebody  the  responsibility  for  anything  that  happens. 
His  only  weapon  in  these  conditions  is  cunning — apparent 
resignation  to  everything,  universal  mistrust,  deri\'ing  all 


INTRODUCTION 


275 


the  benefit  possible  from  any  fact  or  person  that  happens 
to  come  under  his  control. 

3.  The  third  type  of  rehgious  system  is  purely  Christian, 
contains  no  pagan  elements  except  ceremonies  which  the 
church  has  assimilated  and  christened.  It  has  attained  its 
full  development  recently,  and  certain  of  its  consequences 
began  to  manifest  themselves  only  a  few  years  ago.  Its 
basis  is  the  idea  of  a  moral  unity  of  the  human  society,  under 
the  leadership  of  the  priest,  with  a  view  to  the  glory  of  God 
and  to  the  benefit  of  men,  in  conformity  with  the  divine  law 
and  with  the  help  of  the  divine  world.  The  mythological 
beings  are  nominally  the  same  as  in  the  preceding  system, 
but  the  attitudes  are  completely  different,  often  contrary, 
and  this  obliges  us  to  treat  this  system  as  a  different  rehgion. 

In  practice  the  corresponding  attitudes  of  the  peasant 
have  originated  mainly  in  the  parish  life,  and  of  course 
the  church  is  their  initiator.  fThe  parish  is  a  kind  of  great 
family  whose  members  are  united  by  a  community  of  moral 
interests.  The  church  building  and  the  cemetery  (originally 
always  surrounding  the  church)  are  the  visible  symbol  and 
the  material  instrument  of  this  unity.  It  is  the  moral 
property  of  the  parish  as  a  whole,  managed  by  the  priest^ 
We  say  "moral  property,"  because  economically  it  does  not 
belong,  in  the  eyes  of  the  peasant,  to  any  human  individual 
or  group;  it  is  first  God's,  then  the  saint's  to  whom  it  is 
dedicated.  The  priest  manages  it  economically  also,  not 
as  a  representative  of  the  parish,  however,  but  only  as 
appointed  by  God.  This  explains  why  in  America  the 
Poles  so  easily  agreed  in  earher  times  to  have  their  churches 
registered  as  property  of  priests  or  bishops,  not  of  the  con- 
gregations who  had  built  them.  It  was  not  a  question  of 
ownership,  but  a  mere  formahty  concerning  management. 
Gradually,  however,  they  became  accustomed  to  the  idea 
that  churches  can  be  treated  as  economic  property,  but  up 


276  PRIIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

to  the  present  certain  consequences  of  the  American  stand- 
point, such  as  the  sale  of  a  church,  appear  in  some  measure 
as  sacrilege.  The  claim  of  the  parish  to  the  church  as 
moral  property  consists  in  the  right  of  the  group  to  guard 
the  religious  destination  of  the  church.  The  latter  cannot 
be  used  for  any  other  ends  than  those  which  are  involved 
in  the  religious  life  of  the  group — meetings,  parish  festivals, 
dispensation  of  sacraments,  burials,  etc.  Any  use  of  the 
church  building  and  its  surroundings  for  any  profane  ends 
whatever  is  not  only  contrary  to  the  magical  character  of 
these  objects,  but  is  a  profanation  of  their  social  sacredness, 
an  injury  done  to  the  parish-group.  On  the  other  hand,  it 
is  a  moral  duty  of  the  latter  to  make  the  church  as  fit  as 
possible  for  its  religious  and  social  purposes,  and  no  sacrifice 
is  spared  in  order  to  fulfil  this  duty.  IThere  is  a  striking 
contrast  between  the  poverty  of  the  peasants'  private 
houses  and  the  magnificence  of  many  a  country  church. 
Building  and  adorning  the  church  is  one  of  the  manifestations 
and  the  most  evident  symbol  of  the  solidary  activity  of  the 
parish  for  the  glory  of  God.  At  the  same  time  a  beautiful 
church  satisfies  the  aesthetic  tendencies  of  the  peasant, 
gives  an  impressive  frame  for  rehgious  meetings,  and 
strengthens  the  feeling  of  awe  and  the  exaltation  which  all 
the  religious  ceremonies  provoke. ) 

The  moral  rights  and  duties  of  the  parish  with  regard 
to  the  church  originate  thus  exclusively  in  the  functions 
which  are  performed  in  the  church.  The  most  important 
events  of  indi\ddual,  familial,  and  communal  life  occur 
there,  at  least  partly ;  all  the  essential  changes  which  happen 
within  the  parish-group  are  sanctioned  there;  the  relations 
of  the  group  with  the  highest  powers  are  identified  with  this 
place;  moral  teactang,  exhortation,  condemnation,  are  re- 
ceived in  the  church.  In  short,  the  most  intense  feehngs 
are  connected  with  the  place,  which  is  therefore  surrounded 


INTRODUCTION 


277 


with  a  nimbus  of  holiness,  is  an  object  of  awe  and  love. 
Its  sacred  and  famihar  character  is  still  stronger  because 
it  was  in  the  same  sense  a  center  and  symbol  of  moral  unity 
with  the  preceding  generations,  since,  as  far  as  the  peasant's 
tradition  reaches,  his  fathers  and  forefathers  had  met  in 
the  same  place,  their  bodies  had  been  buried  around  it, 
their  souls  might  return  there  on  All-Souls'  Day  and  cele- 
brate divine  service.  And  after  the  present  generation 
their  children  and  grandchildren  will  meet  there  also  "up 
to  the  end  of  the  world,"  with  the  same  feeHngs  toward 
those  now  living  as  the  latter  have  toward  the  preceding 
generations.  We  understand,  therefore,  what  the  peasant 
loses  when  he  emigrates,  why  he  moves  unwillingly  from 
one  parish  to  another  and  always  dreams  of  going  back  in  his 
old  age  and  being  buried  in  the  land  of  his  fathers.  We 
understand  also  why  the  matters  concerning  the  parish 
church  are  so  important  and  so  often  mentioned  in  letters. 
The  divine  service,  at  which  all  the  parishioners  meet, 
is  the  main  factor  in  the  moral  unity  of  the  group.  We 
have  already  mentioned,  when  speaking  of  the  peasant's 
social  environment,  the  importance  of  meetings  for  the 
primary  unorganized  group.  At  this  stage  it  is  almost  the 
only  way  for  a  group  to  have  consciousness  of  its  unity. 
Now  in  the  religious  meeting,  during  the  divine  service,  the 
group  is  unified,  not  only  by  the  mere  fact  of  its  presence  in 
one  place,  but  also  by  the  community  of  interests  and 
attitudes,  and  this  community  itself  has  particular  features 
which  distinguish  it  from  any  other  form  in  which  the 
soHdarity  and  self-consciousness  of  the  group  are  elaborated. 
When  a  primary  group  meets  incidentally,  it  is  not  deter- 
mined beforehand  what  interests  among  all  those  which  its 
members  have  in  common  will  become  the  center  of  atten- 
tion, and  what  attitudes  among  all  those  which  are  the  same 
in  all  or  in   most   of  its  members  will  be   unanimously 


278  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

expressed.  Even  if  the  meeting  is  arranged  with  regard 
to  a  determined  practical  problem,  and  if  thus  a  certain 
common  interest  is  presupposed,  the  attitude  which  the 
members  will  take  with  regard  to  the  problem  is  not  formally 
predetermined,  even  if  it  may  be  foreseen.  The  conscious 
unity  of  the  group  is  therefore  mostly  produced  anew  during 
every  meeting — does  not  antedate  the  meeting  itself.  But 
the  rehgious  unity  of  the  parish — ^not  its  administrative 
unity,  of  which  we  do  not  now  speak — depends  upon  the 
meetings;  the  conscious  community  of  interests  and 
attitudes  is  kept  ahve  only  by  the  common  assistance  at 
the  religious  service.  And  for  each  particular  meeting  this 
community  is  predetermined;  the  center  of  interest  is 
known  beforehand,  and  the  attitudes  can  be  only  of  a 
definite  kind  and  direction.  This  is  made  possible  by  the 
ceremonial.  Every  ceremony  performed  by  the  priest 
before  the  congregation  has  not  only  a  magical  meaning 
(through  which  it  belongs  to  the  preceding  magical  religious 
system)  but  also  a  social  and  moral  tendency;  it  s^mibolizes 
a  certain  religious  idea  of  a  type  which  we  shall  analyze 
presently,  and  it  makes  this  idea  the  center  of  interest  of  the 
present  group.  The  response  of  the  latter  is  also  embodied 
in  ceremonial  acts — in  gestures,  songs,  schematized  prayers 
— and  those  acts  symbolize  and  provoke  definite  attitudes 
common  to  all  the  members.  This  goes  so  far  that  even 
the  sermons,  wdth  their  varying  contents,  and  the  process 
of  Hstening  to  a  sermon  are  objects  of  a  certain  ceremonial, 
to  some  extent  spontaneously  evolved,  non-liturgical.  The 
gestures  and  intonations  of  the  priest  are  performed  accord- 
ing to  an  unwritten  code.  The  congregation  reacts  to  them 
in  a  determined  way  by  gestures,  sighs,  sometimes  even 
exclamations.  A  priest  who  does  not  know  how  to  use  this 
unofficial  ritual  can  never  be  an  influential  preacher.  Thus, 
through  a  series  of  successive  meetings,   the   ceremonial 


INTRODUCTION  279 

maintains  a  continuity  of  group  interests  and  attitudes, 
which  without  it  could  be  attained  only  by  a  perfect 
organization. 

Besides  the  general  meetings  of  the  whole  parish  on 
Sundays  and  holidays  there  are  partial  meetings  of  an 
undetermined  number  of  members  on  other  occasions — 
mass  on  week  days;  evening  prayers  and  singing  on  hoHday 
eves;  service  during  May  in  honor  of  Mary ;  service  during 
December,  preparatory  to  Christmas;  prayers  and  songs 
during  Lent  commemorating  the  sufferings  of  Jesus  and 
inciting  to  contrition;  common  preparation  for  the  Easter 
confession;  adoration  of  the  Holy  Sacrament  during  the 
week  after  Corpus  Christi  Day,  etc.  Whoever  lives  near 
enough  and  has  leisure  tries  to  assist  at  these  meetings.  In 
more  remote  villages  small  groups  of  people  gather  on 
winter  evenings  and  sing  in  common  half-popular,  half- 
liturgical  songs  on  religious  subjects.  The  after-Christmas 
songs  are  called  Kolenda  and  concern  the  coming  of  Christ; 
those  during  Lent  are  called  Gorzkie  zale,  "bitter  regrets," 
in  remembrance  of  the  Passion.  In  almost  every  parish 
there  are  religious  associations  and  fraternities  whose  aim 
is  a  particular  kind  of  worship,  such  as  the  adoration  of  the 
Holy  Sacrament,  the  worship  of  Mary  or  some  saint,  common 
recital  or  singing  of  the  rosary.  They  have  a  determined 
part  to  perform  during  each  solemn  divine  service;  they 
cultivate  religious  song  and  music.  Some  of  them  have  also 
humanitarian  and  practical  ends — the  care  of  the  sick  and 
poor,  help  to  widows  and  orphans,  funeral  and  dowry 
insurance.  These  last  functions  are  performed  mainly  by 
fraternities  in  towns;  in  the  country,  where  familial  and 
communal  sohdarity  is  stronger,  the  necessity  for  philan- 
thropy and  organized  mutual  help  is  less  felt.  All  of  these 
meetings  and  associations,  composed  mainly,  but  not 
exclusively,   of   women   and   elderly   men,   are   under    the 


28o  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

direction  and  control  of  the  priest,  even  if  he  does  not 
always  actually  preside. 

It  is  easy  to  understand  how  powerfully  this  intense 
rehgious  life  operates  in  developing  the  unity  of  the  parish. 
On  other,  more  extraordinary,  occasions  the  members  of  the 
parish  get  into  an  immediate  touch  with  other  religious  con- 
gregations. Such  occasions  are  festivals,  celebrated  once 
a  year  in  every  parish,  where  all  the  people  from  the  neigh- 
borhood gather;  religious  re\dvals,  organized  usually  by 
monks;  visitation  by  the  bishop;  festivals  during  the 
consecration  of  a  new  church,  an  image,  etc. ;  priest  jubilees ; 
pilgrimages  to  miraculous  places.  The  last  assume  a  great 
importance  in  the  peasant's  Hfe  when  they  are  made  col- 
lectively, often  by  hundreds  of  people,  under  the  leadership 
of  the  priest.  Hundreds  of  such  "companies"  come  every 
year  to  such  places  as  Cz^stochowa,  Vilno  (Ostra  Brama), 
and  many  locaHties  of  minor  importance.  Some  people 
take  part  in  pilgrimages  to  Rome,  Lourdes,  even  Jerusalem; 
many  a  man  or  woman  economizes  for  many  years  in  order 
to  be  able  to  make  such  a  pilgrimage. 

In  cases  of  extraordinary  calamities  which  befall  the 
parish  (drought,  long  rains,  epidemics)  the  priest  organizes 
a  special  di\dne  service  with  solemn  processions,  carrying 
the  Holy  Sacrament  through  or  around  the  parish,  etc. 

But  even  individual  or  famihal  occurrences  give  an 
opportunity  for  rehgious  meetings.  Every  christening, 
wedding,  or  funeral  is  attended  by  numerous  members  of  the 
community,  and  the  occasion  itself,  as  well  as  the  corre- 
sponding ceremonial,  arouses  in  all  the  assistants  the  con- 
sciousness of  an  identity  of  interests  and  attitudes. 

The  meetings  are  the  most  powerful  factor  of  the  moral 
unity  of  the  parish,  but  not  the  only  one.  All  the  members 
of  the  group  in  their  individual  religious  and  moral  Hfe,  as 
far  as  this  Hfe  is  regulated  by  the  church,  are  also  obUged 


INTRODUCTION  281 

to  manifest  the  same  interests  and  attitudes.  They  must, 
all  alike,  go  to  confession  and  communion,  perform  the  same 
duties  with  regard  to  the  church,  behave  more  or  less 
identically  in  their  relations  with  the  priest;  they  ask  for 
his  advice,  listen  to  his  remonstrances;  they  say  the  same 
prayers  on  the  same  occasions,  use  the  same  consecrated 
objects,  perform  the  same  traditional  ceremonies  in  the 
familial  circles,  greet  one  another  by  the  same  religious 
formulae,  read  the  same  religious  books,  etc.  In  short, 
they  have  in  common  a  vast  sphere  of  attitudes  imposed  by 
the  church,  and  they  are  conscious  of  this  community  even 
outside  of  religious  meetings — in  their  personal  relations  of 
every  day.  This  makes  the  unity  of  the  parish  still  closer 
and  more  persistent.  At  the  same  time  this  unity  is  dis- 
tinguished from  that  which  is  due  merely  to  social  opinion 
by  the  fact  that  its  form  and  content  are  equally  fixed  and 
imposed  by  the  superior  power  of  the  church.  To  be  sure, 
any  phenomenon  belonging  to  the  rehgious  sphere  can  also, 
at  any  moment,  become  the  object  of  social  opinion;  the 
reUgious  sphere  is  a  part  of  the  peasant's  social  environment, 
but  it  is  its  most  fixed  part.  The  parish  in  the  religious 
sense  of  the  term  is,  indeed,  not  an  organized  group  like  a 
commune  or  an  association;  it  does  not  function  as  a 
unique  group  within  the  social  world  in  a  steady  and 
determined  way;  we  cannot  speak  of  the  functions  of  a 
parish.  But  the  attitudes  of  its  members  which  constitute 
its  unity  are  relatively  independent  of  the  fluctuations  of 
social  opinion  and  are  embodied  in  stable  symbols,  and  in 
this  sense  this  part  of  the  peasant's  social  environment  rises 
above  the  level  of  the  primitive  community  and  popular 
tradition,  is  an  intermediary  stage  between  the  community 
and  the  higher,  organized  group  of  the  church. 

The  central  object  of  the  religious  attitudes  of  the  parish 
is  the  glorification  of  God  and  the  saints  by  acts  of  worship. 


282  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

I  God  becomes  for  the  religious  consciousness  of  the  peasant 
the  supreme  lord  and  master  of  the  human  community; 
the  saints,  its  guardians,  intercessors,  and  models  of  per- 
fection, jf  The  difference  between  this  conception  and  the 
one  which  we  find  in  the  preceding  system  is  quite  essential. 
There  the  function  of  the  spirits  is  magical ;  here  it  is  moral 
and  social.  There  man,  by  the  magical  bearing  of  his  acts, 
becomes  a  member  of  a  spiritual  community;  here  the 
spirit,  by  the  moral  character  which  is  ascribed  to  it,  becomes 
incorporated  into  the  human  community,  and  social  wor- 
ship is  the  form  which  this  incorporation  assumes.  "i^A  char- 
acteristic expression  of  this  difference  is  found  in  the  fact 
that,  while  in  the  magical  system  Jesus  is  subordinated  to 
God,  in  the  moral  system  he  takes  the  place  of  God.  >  The 
name  of  Jesus  is  incomparably  more  frequently  used  as  that 
of  the  spiritual  head  of  human  society  than  the  name  of  God. 
This  is  of  course  the  result  of  the  half-human  personality  of 
Jesus,  which  makes  his  incorporation  into  the  human  com- 
munity much  more  easy  and  natural. 

As  the  mythology  is  almost  identical  in  both  systems, 
the  difference  is  evidently  based  upon  practical  attitudes. 
It  is  not  a  pre-existent  theoretical  conception  of  the  magical 
nature  of  the  spiritual  world  which  makes  the  man  use  magic 
in  his  religious  life,  but  the  use  of  magic  which  causes  the 
spiritual  world  to  be  conceived  as  a  magical  community. 
In  the  same  way  the  source  of  worship  is  not  a  theoretical 
conception  of  the  divinity  as  spiritual  leader  of  the  com- 
munity, but  the  practice  of  worship,  gradually  elaborated 
and  fixed  in  the  complex  ceremonial,  is  the  origin  of  the 
social  and  moral  functions  of  the  divinity. 

We  have  seen  that  in  the  magical  system  the  magical 
bearing  of  human  acts  has  been  extended  from  those  which 
are  intentionally  performed  to  produce  a  determined  magical 
effect  to  the  whole, sphere  of  human  activity,  so  that  there 


INTRODUCTION  283 

is  hardly  any  action  which  is  magically  indifferent.  The 
same  happens  in  the  moral  system.  The  idea  of  worship 
does  not  remain  Hmited  to  the  ceremonial  practices,  but  is 
extended  to  all  human  actions  which  have  a  moral  value 
in  the  eyes  of  the  community.  God  (Jesus)  as  the  lord  of 
the  community  is  interested  in  its  harmony,  and  thus 
every  act  which  helps  to  preserve  the  harmony  becomes  at 
the  same  time  an  act  of  worship.  Altruistic  help,  peda- 
gogical and  medical  activity,  maintaining  of  concord  in  the 
community,  spreading  general  and  rehgious  instruction, 
become  religiously  meritorious.  By  a  further  extension 
every  contribution  to  the  material  welfare  of  men  by  licit 
means  is  willed  by  God  (Jesus),  even  the  good  management 
of  one's  own  property.  Further  still,  Jesus  is  glorified  also 
by  anything  which  helps  to  maintain  a  teleological  and 
aesthetic  order  in  the  natural  environment  of  men — agri- 
cultural work,  raising  and  feeding  domestic  animals,  adorn- 
ment of  houses,  establishment  of  orchards  and  flower 
gardens,  etc.  Partly  perhaps  under  the  influence  of  the 
church,  but  more  probably  in  a  spontaneous  way,  thanks 
to  the  old  idea  of  the  natural  soHdarity  and  animation  of 
natural  objects,  the  idea  arose  that  the  whole  of  nature, 
even  the  meanest  natural  beings,  glorify  God  by  their  life 
as  men  do.  Unnecessary  destruction  is  therefore  forbidden 
in  this  system  as  well  as  in  the  naturahstic  one,  although  the 
subordination  of  nature  to  human  ends  is  incomparably 
greater  since  only  man  glorifies  God  in  the  prescribed  way, 
only  man  has  an  immortal  soul,  and  it  is  for  man  that 
Christ  died. 

As  against  this  moral  organization  of  the  human  com- 
munity under  the  spiritual  leadership  of  Jesus  and  the  saints, 
the  devil  and  devil-worship  assume  for  the  first  time  a 
distinctly  evil  character;  they  are  not  only  harmful  but 
immoral.     The  reason  for  this  is  evident.     There  is  no 


2S4  PRIiMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

human  community  which  would  enter  into  the  same  relation 
with  the  devil  that  the  parish  enters  into  with  God;  the 
relation  with  the  devil  is  individual  and  lacks  social  sanction 
and  social  ceremonial.  The  opposition  between  the  divine 
and  the  devihsh  world  is  thus  associated  with  the  opposition 
between  social  and  individual  religious  life,  and  both  op- 
positions acquire  through  this  association  a  new  character 
and  a  new  strength.  The  divine  world  becomes  socially 
acknowledged,  a  positive  social  value;  the  devilish  world 
is  socially  despised,  a  negative  social  value.  The  worship  of 
God  is  meritorious,  official,  and  organized;  the  w^orship  of 
the  devil  illicit,  secret,  and  incidental.  A  man  who  serves 
God  is  a  good  member  of  the  community,  trying  to  be  in 
harmony  with  his  group;  a  man  who  serves  the  devil  is  a 
rebel,  trying  to  harm  his  fellow-citizens.  Since  every 
socially  moral  action  is  subordinated  to  the  glorification  of 
God,  and  since  there  is  an  essential  opposition  between  God 
and  the  devil,  every  socially  immoral  action  is  conceived  as 
serving  the  devil. ^ 

It  is  only  in  the  latter  sphere,  in  things  subordinated  to 
the  devil,  that  magical  action  keeps  most  of  its  old  character, 
precisely  because  this  sphere,  becoming  secret  and  individual, 
did  not  undergo  the  same  evolution  as  the  sphere  of  divine 
things.  In  the  latter,  actions  whose  meaning  in  the  magical 
system  consisted  in  bringing  immediately  and  mechanically 
a  determined  effect  become  now"  acts  of  worship,  and  their 
old  effect  is  now  conceived  as  a  divine  reward,  as  conscious 
action  of  the  divinity  moved  by  human  w^orship.     It  is  no 

'  Naturally  the  devil,  thrown  out  of  social  life,  has  lost  still  more  of  his  old 
importance.  Whatever  he  does,  he  does  it  by  God's  permission;  God  allows  him 
to  tempt  men  in  order  to  give  them  the  merit  of  victor}'.  But  even  temptation 
becomes  rare.  The  peasants  have  a  curious  explanation  of  this  fact.  God  does 
not  allow  the  de\dls  to  tempt  men  as  much  as  they  did  before,  because  men  have 
grown  so  evil  themselves  that  if  the  devil  could  use  all  his  power  no  man  could  be 
saved.  The  women  are  a  little  better,  and  therefore  they  are  more  subject  to 
temptation  and  see  the  de\al  more  frequently. 


INTRODUCTION  285 

longer  the  letter,  but  the  meaning  of  the  prayer  and  the 
religious  feeling  which  accompanies  it  that  influence  God 
or  the  saint;  it  is  the  confidence  in,  and  the  love  of,  God, 
manifested  by  the  use  of  consecrated  objects,  that  compel 
God  to  grant  the  men  what  they  need  when  they  are  using 
those  objects. 

Only  human  magic,  however,  has  changed  its  significance. 
The  magical  power  of  God  remains  the  same.  God's  action 
still  exerts  an  immediate  influence  upon  the  material  world. 
But  now  he  is  supposed  to  exert  his  power  with  a  view  to  the 
moral  order  which  he  wishes  to  maintain  in  the  world,  not 
in  the  interests  of  the  heavenly  community ;  his  activity  be- 
comes altruistic,  while  in  the  magical  system  it  was  egoistic. 
')The  role  of  the  priest  is  modified  in  the  same  way. 
From  a  magician  he  becomes  a  father  of  the  parish,  a 
representative  of  God  (Jesus)  by  maintaining  the  moral 
order,  a  representative  of  the  parish  by  leading  the  acts  of 
common  worship.  From  his  representation  of  Jesus  results 
his  superior  morahty,  impHcitly  assumed  wherever  he  acts, 
not  as  a  private  individual,  but  in  his  rehgious,  ofiicial 
character.  Therefore  also  his  teaching,  his  advice,  his 
praise  or  blame,  whenever  expressed  in  the  church,  from  the 
chancel,  or  in  the  confessional,  are  hstened  to  as  words  of 
Jesus,  seldom  if  ever  doubted,  and  obeyed  more  readily  than 
orders  from  any  secular  power.  This  influence  is  extended 
beyond  the  church  and  manifests  itself  in  the  whole  social 
activity  of  the  priest,  though  there  it  loses  some  of  its  power, 
since  it  is  not  quite  certainly  estabhshed  by  the  peasants 
whether  the  priest  outside  of  the  church  is  still  in  the  same 
sense  a  representative  of  JesusJ  On  the  other  hand,  from 
the  fact  that  the  priest  is  the  representative  of  the  parish  in 
acts  of  worship  it  results  that  all  his  rehgious  actions  are 
supposed  to  be  performed  in  the  name  of  the  community,  and 
he  is  socially  bound  to  perform  them  conscientiously  and 


286  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

regularly.  In  general,  the  greater  the  role  of  the  priest,  the 
greater  is  his  responsibility  and  the  more  required  from  him 
in  the  line  of  moral  and  religious  perfection.  In  later 
volumes  we  shall  have  the  opportunity  of  studying  more  in 
detail  the  role  which  the  priest  plays  in  peasant  society 
because  of  his  place  in  the  moral-religious  system.  For 
this  system  is  now  decidedly  the  dominating  one.  (  Natural- 
ism sur\aves  only  in  fragmentary  beliefs  and  practices  and 
in  a  general  attitude  toward  nature,  whose  real  meaning  is 
already  in  a  large  measure  forgotten.  The  magical  system 
is  still  strong,  and  the  influence  which  it  has  exerted  upon 
the  peasant  psychology  can  hardly  be  overestimated.  But 
it  is  no  longer  developing,  no  new  elements  are  added  to  it, 
and  in  fact  it  is  rapidly  declining. 

The  fourth  system,  that  of  individual  mysticism,  which 
we  shall  presently  define,  is  still  rare  among  the  peasants  and 
does  not  seem  to  be  on  the  way  to  an  immediate  and  strong 
development.  But  the  moral-rehgious  system  not  only 
retains  almost  all  of  its  traditional  power,  except  in  some 
limited  circles,  but  is  still  gro^\ing  as  new  conditions  of 
communal  Hfe  arise  and  the  old  principle  is  applied  to  new 
problems.  We  already  see  in  these  first  volumes  of  letters 
that  most  of  the  religious  interests  expHcitly  expressed 
belong  to  this  system,  and  we  shall  see  it  still  more  clearly 
in  other  volumes. 

4.  Religion  as  a  mystical  connection  of  the  individual 
with  God  expressed  by  the  attitudes  of  love,  personal  sub- 
ordination, desire  of  personal  perfection  and  of  eternal  hfe 
with  God,  etc.,  is,  as  we  have  said,  not  very  much  developed 
among  the  peasants.  The  peasant  is  a  practical  man; 
religion  remains  interwoven  mth  his  practical  interests, 
while  mysticism  requires  precisely  a  hberation  from  those 
interests,  a  concentration  of  thoughts  and  feelings  upon 
beings  and  problems  having  little  relation  mth  everyday  life. 


INTRODUCTION  287 

A  sign  of  the  lack  of  mysticism  is  the  absolute  orthodoxy  of 
the  peasant;  unless  by  ignorance,  he  never  dares  to  imagine 
any  religious  attitude  different  from  the  teaching  of  the 
church,  because  outside  of  the  church  he  never  imagines 
himself  in  any  direct  relation  with  the  divinity.  He  is  in 
this  respect  radically  different  from  the  Russian  peasant. 
Still  there  are  cases  in  which  a  mystical  attitude  develops 
during  extraordinary  rehgious  meetings — revivals,  pilgrim- 
ages— when  the  usual  environment  and  the  usual  interests 
are  for  a  while  forgotten,  and  the  individual  is  aroused  from 
his  normal  state  by  the  example  of  the  devotion  of  others 
and  by  the  influence  of  the  mob  of  which  he  is  a  part.  But 
these  occasional  outbreaks  of  mysticism  in  determined  social 
conditions  belong  as  much  to  the  preceding  rehgious  system 
as  to  the  properly  mystical  one.  The  way  upon  which  the 
peasant  can  really  pass  into  a  new  form  of  religious  life  leads 
through  the  problem  of  death.  When  death  ceases  to  be  a 
natural  phenomenon  preceding  regeneration  and  becomes 
a  passage  into  a  new  supernatural  world,  brooding  upon  the 
problem  of  death  must  lead  to  a  certain  detachment  from 
the  practical  problems  and  open  the  way  to  mysticism. 
But  this  brooding  upon  death  is  possible  only  when  the 
individual  ceases  to  look  upon  his  own  death  or  that  of 
his  dear  ones  from  the  traditional  social  standpoint,  from 
which  the  isolated  death  of  a  member  of  the  group  is  a  more 
or  less  normal  event,  particularly  at  a  certain  age;  he  must 
begin  to  view  death  only  as  a  fact  of  individual  hfe,  for  only 
then  it  has  extraordinary,  abnormal  importance  which  can 
give  birth  to  mystical  reflections  and  attitudes.  And  this 
requires  again  more  individuahzation  than  the  average  v/' 
peasant  shows,  more  realization  of  the  uniqueness  of  the 
individual.  We  find  indeed  mystical  attitudes  always 
during  calamities  which  threaten  the  existence  of  the  whole 
community— pest  or  war.     But  single  individuals  develop 


288  rRLMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

such  attitudes  only  when  more  or  less  isolated  from  their 
communities  (e.g.,  servants  in  large  cities)  or  when  exception- 
ally cultivated. 

THEORETIC   AND   AESTHETIC    INTERESTS 

In  Part  II  we  shall  have  the  opportunity  of  studying 
the  peasant's  theoretic  and  aesthetic  interests  in  their  full 
development  under  the  influence  of  the  culture  of  the  su- 
perior classes.  As  these  interests  were,  however,  appar- 
ently never  lacking,  and  are  manifested  in  Part  I,  it  will 
be  useful  to  determine  their  place  within  the  traditional 
peasant  life  and  their  relation  to  the  practical  attitudes. 
We  shall  then  be  able  to  understand  how  they  have  some- 
times succeeded  in  occupying  within  a  single  generation 
the  center  of  attention  of  individuals  and  of  whole  groups. 

I.  There  are  three  primary  forms  in  which  theoretic 
interests  are  manifested  in  the  peasant — the  schematism  of 
practical  life,  interest  in  new  facts,  and  interest  in  religious 
explanations  of  the  world. 

The  first  is  completely  original.  It  arises  out  of  the 
peasant's  spontaneous  reflection  on  his  activity  and  its 
conditions,  on  his  human  and  natural  environment.  It 
constitutes  the  peasant's  "wisdom,"  and  is  very  clearly 
distinguished  by  public  opinion  from  practical  ability  in 
itself.  A  man  may  be  very  wise,  have  valuable  generaliza- 
tions concerning  practice,  and  still  be  unpractical  through 
lack  of  energy,  of  presence  of  mind,  etc.  This  distinction 
assumes  a  satirical  meaning  in  the  tales  having  as  their 
subject  three  brothers,  two  wise  and  one  stupid.  The  last 
is  always  practically  successful,  while  the  first  two,  with  all 
their  wisdom,  behave  like  fools. 

For  a  man  accustomed  to  live  in  action  the  task  of 
reflection  is  not  an  easy  one.  We  see  how  the  peasant 
prepares  for  it,  tries  to  find  free  time  and  a  solitary  place, 


I 


INTRODUCTION  289 

and  then  spends  occasionally  many  hours  in  thinking. 
Even  when  he  wants  to  write  a  letter  which  requires  reflec- 
tion, he  treats  it  as  a  difficult  and  long  business.  A  proof 
of  the  importance  of  reflection  in  his  eyes  is  seen  in  the  fact 
that  he  remembers  for  many  years  every  act  of  reflection 
which  he  performed  (cf.  the  case  of  Wladek  in  Part  IV). 
But  precisely  on  that  account  the  process  of  reflection, 
artificially  isolated  from  the  process  of  activity,  assumes  a 
somewhat  independent  interest;  the  peasant  enjoys  the 
solution  of  a  problem  as  such.  The  numerous  riddles  which 
we  find  in  the  Polish  folklore  are  also  a  proof  of  this. 

The  results  of  such  individual  acts  of  reflection,  accu- 
mulated through  generations,  constitute  a  rich  stock  of 
popular  wisdom.  A  part  of  it  is  expressed  in  proverbs;  but 
with  the  growing  complexity  of  economic  and  social  life  and 
growing  rapidity  of  change  the  new  reflections  have  no  time 
to  crystallize  themselves  into  proverbs,  but  tend  to  formu- 
late themselves  in  changing  abstract  schemes  of  life  com- 
municated gradually  by  the  peasants  to  one  another. 

We  may  divide  this  practical  philosophy  into  two  classes 
— schemes  of  things  and  schemes  of  people.  The  first 
concerns  agriculture,  handicraft,  trade,  medicine,  etc.  It 
is  of  course  impossible  to  study  here  the  whole  content  of  the 
respective  beliefs;  we  can  only  note  certain  of  their  general 
characters.  First,  they  proceed  always  from  the  particular 
to  the  general,  by  induction,  and  their  systematization,  the 
subordination  of  details  to  a  general  view,  seems  very  slow. 
We  have  already  noticed  this  with  regard  to  economic 
concepts;  the  extension  of  the  quantitative  view^wint  to 
farm  goods  comes  very  late.  Another  very  general  example 
is  the  slowness  of  imitation.  It  may  come  from  many  other 
reasons,  but  a  frequent  reason  is  also  the  lack  of  generaliza- 
tion. The  peasant  who  sees  an  estate-owner  apply  some 
new  technical  invention  with  good  results  does  not  imitate 


290 


PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 


him,  simply  because  he  does  not  see  the  identity  of  their 
rcsjicctive  positions  as  farmers.  His  usual  argument  is: 
"It  is  all  right  for  you,  who  are  a  rich  and  instructed  man, 
but  not  for  a  poor,  stupid  peasant  like  me."  The  difference 
in  social  position  as  a  whole  hinders  him  from  noticing  that 
in  this  particular  respect  he  can  do  the  same  as  his  superior. 
For  the  same  reason  the  peasant  brings  relatively  little 
agricultural  learning  from  season-emigration.  In  Germany 
he  usually  finds  an  agricultural  level  even  higher  than  that 
on  the  estate  of  his  neighbor,  and  the  difference  between  his 
own  farming  and  that  of  the  large  German  estates  is  so 
great  that  he  does  not  dare  to  generalize  and  to  apply  at 
home  what  he  learned  abroad.  On  the  other  hand,  we  find 
him  making  most  hasty  and  superficial  generalizations; 
proverbs  and  sayings  concerning  farmwork  and  weather  in 
connection  with  the  days  of  the  year  are  based  mostly  upon 
a  few  disconnected  observations;  a  new  object  is  often 
classified  upon  the  basis  of  a  quite  superficial  analogy  with 
known  objects.  Both  the  slowness  and  the  incidental 
superficiality  and  hastiness  of  generalization  result  from  the 
way  in  which  the  process  of  reflection  occurs.  When  the 
peasant  begins  to  think,  the  result  depends  upon  the  material 
which  at  this  moment  is  present  in  the  sphere  of  his  con- 
sciousness. If  the  material  happens  to  be  well  selected  and 
sufficient,  the  generalization  is  valid;  if  not,  it  is  false.  But 
valid  or  false  it  will  be  accepted  by  the  author  himself  and 
often  by  others  until  a  time  of  reflection  again  comes  and 
some  new  generalization  is  made  in  accordance  with,  or 
contrary  to,  the  first.  Because  reflection  requires  so  much 
effort  its  results  are  seldom  verified  in  experience,  seldom 
criticized.  This  explains  the  many  evident  absurdities  and 
contradictory  statements  current  among  the  peasants ;  once 
created  they  live,  and  they  have  even  a  useful  function 
because  they  help  to  equilibrate  one-sided  views  of  others. 


INTRODUCTION  291 

The  peasant  seldom  uses  dialectic  in  criticizing  any  view 
and  can  hardly  be  persuaded  by  dialectic.  He  simply 
opposes  his  opinion  to  another;  and  the  more  effort  the 
elaboration  of  this  opinion  has  cost  him,  the  less  willing 
is  he  to  exchange  it  for  another.  He  may  even  acknowledge 
that  the  contrary  opinion  is  right,  but  he  holds  that  his  own 
is  also  right,  and  he  feels  no  necessity  of  solviiig  the  apparent 
contradiction  unless  the  problem  is  important  enough  to 
compel  him  to  do  some  more  thinking  and  to  elaborate  a 
third,  intermediary  opinion.  He  is  so  accustomed  to  hve 
among  partial  and  one-sided  generalizations  that  he  likes  to 
collect  all  the  opinions  on  some  important  issue,  listens  with 
seeming  approval  to  every  one,  and  finally  either  does  what 
he  intended  to  do  at  first  or  sets  about  reflecting  and  elab- 
orates his  own  view.  If  he  selects  the  opinion  of  anybody 
else,  he  is  led,  not  by  the  intrinsic  merit  of  the  opinion,  but 
by  his  appreciation  of  the  man.  If  only  he  has  confidence 
in  the  man's  sincerity  and  intelligence,  he  supposes  that  the 
man's  advice  was  the  result  of  a  sufficient  process  of  thinking 
and  considers  it  useless  to  repeat  this  thinking  himself  in 
order  to  appreciate  the  advice  on  its  merits. 

His  ideas  about  other  people  are  equally  schematic, 
either  appropriated  from  the  traditional  store  or  inde- 
pendently elaborated  at  some  moment  of  intense  thinking 
and  afterward  used  without  any  new  reflection.  The 
peasant's  general  prepossession  about  people  is  that  every- 
body is  moved  only  either  by  his  egotistic  interest  or  by 
soHdarity  with  his  group;  if  neither  can  be  detected,  then 
evidently  the  man  is  clever  enough  to  keep  his  motives 
hidden.  If,  nevertheless,  a  person's  activity,  particularly 
that  of  a  stranger,  is  manifestly  disinterested,  the  peasant 
supposes  first  stupidity,  and  recurs  to  altruism  only  as  the 
last  explanation.  The  only  exception  is  the  priest,  who  has 
to  be  altruistic  ex  officio;   here  egotistic  interest  is  usually 


292  TRl MARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

the  last,  more  or  less  forced,  explanation.  The  willingness 
of  the  peasant  to  do  business  with  a  given  person  and 
particularly  to  be  persuaded  by  him  depends  upon  the  degree 
to  which  he  understands  or  thinks  that  he  understands  the 
motives  of  this  person.  He  will  show  confidence  more 
readily  in  a  man  whose  motives  he  knows  to  be  not  only 
interested  but  even  dishonest  than  in  one  whom  he  does  not 
understand,  because  in  the  first  case  he  can  take  the  motives 
into  account,  while  in  the  second  he  does  not  know  how  to 
limit  the  possibilities  and  does  not  know  what  to  expect. 
Accordingly  he  has  a  summary  and  egocentric  classification 
ready  and  applies  it  in  any  given  case.  Those  of  the  first 
class  are  the  members  of  his  family,  whose  behavior  ought  to 
be  determined  by  the  familial  relations  themselves  and  from 
whom  solidarity  can  be  expected.  Then  come  the  members 
of  the  community,  classified  again  according  to  their  nearer 
or  more  remote  neighborhood,  their  fortune,  character,  etc. 
Then  come  all  the  other,  unkno^^Ti  peasants,  whose  interests 
are  supposed  to  be  the  same  as  those  of  the  known  ones. 
The  priest,  the  noble,  the  Jew,  are  people  of  different  classes, 
but  still  supposedly  known.  The  priest's  official  character 
has  already  been  determined,  and,  of  course,  the  peasant 
understands  the  usual  weaknesses  of  the  country  priest — 
money,  wine,  and  his  housekeeper.  Every  noble  is  sup- 
posed to  desire  in  his  heart  the  reintroduction  of  serfdom; 
but  besides  this  he  is  a  farmer,  a  man  who  has  innumerable 
common  traditions  with  the  peasant.  There  may  be  hostil- 
ity between  him  and  his  peasant  neighbors,  but  there  is 
always  more  or  less  of  reciprocal  understanding.  The  Jew 
is  classed  once  and  forever  as  a  merchant  and  cheater,  and 
no  other  motive  than  money  is  ascribed  to  him;  but  this 
makes  his  schematization  relatively  easy  in  spite  of  the  fact 
that  the  peasant  knows  little,  if  anything,  about  his  familial 
and  religious  Ufe.     In  this  connection,  however,  the  Jew 


INTRODUCTION  293 

often  cheats  the  peasant  by  putting  forward  a  smaller  or 
pretended  interest  to  fit  the  scheme  and  keeping  the  larger 
and  real  interest  in  the  background.  Political  agitators 
sometimes  do  the  same.  There  is  also  a  scheme  correspond- 
ing to  the  lower  officials  in  small  towns  and  to  the  hand- 
workers. But  the  peasant  does  not  understand  at  all  the 
instructed  city  fellows.  Those  who  came  to  the  country 
with  idealistic  purposes  had  no  success  at  all  for  many  years ; 
only  lately,  thanks  to  a  few  eminent  men,  a  favorable  sche- 
matization  has  been  formed  of  those  who  want  to  raise  the 
peasant  intellectually  and  economically,  and  the  peasant  has 
begun  to  understand  this  kind  of  interest. 

If  now  it  accidentally  happens  that  one  of  these  pre- 
established  schemes  fails  in  a  particular  or  general  case,  the 
peasant  loses  his  head.  Every  exception  from  the  admitted 
rule  assumes  in  his  eyes  unlimited  proportions.  A  mem- 
ber of  the  family  who  shows  no  sohdarity,  a  member  of 
the  community  who  does  not  reciprocate  a  service,  provokes 
an  astonishment  which  the  peasant  cannot  forget  for  a  long 
time.  A  bad,  "unworthy"  priest  or  a  noble  who  acts 
against  the  traditions  arouses  the  most  profound  indigna- 
tion; and  if,  on  the  other  hand,  a  noble  (particularly  a 
woman)  proves  really  well  disposed  and  democratic,  without 
being  too  familiar,  the  peasant's  attitude  in  the  course  of 
time  comes  near  to  adoration.  And  when  some  of  the 
city  men  succeeded  in  breaking  down  the  peasants'  mistrust 
and  becoming  pohtical  or  social  leaders,  the  confidence  of 
the  peasants  in  them  became  unlimited,  absurd.  Finally, 
when  the  peasant  finds  himself  among  strangers,  as  ui:)on 
emigration,  and  sees  that  none  of  his  schemes  can  be  appUed 
to  the  people  around  him,  he  is  for  a  very  long  time  abso- 
lutely unable  to  control  his  social  environment,  because  it 
takes  so  long  to  elaborate  a  new  scheme.  In  the  beginning, 
therefore,  he  simply  must  settle  among  people  from  his  own 


204  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

country  in  order  to  learn  from  them  at  least  a  few  elementary 
generalizations,  unless,  indeed,  as  seldom  happens,  he  has 
some  time  free  to  observe  and  to  reflect.  The  fault  is  here 
again  insufficient  generalization ;  the  peasant  has  schemes  of 
particular  classes  of  people,  but  not  of  man  in  general. 

The  interest  in  new  facts  is  always  strong,  even  if  not 
supported  by  practical  motives.  We  are  here  very  much 
reminded  of  the  curiosity  of  a  child,  without  the  child's 
restlessness.  The  intensity  of  social  life  in  an  unorganized 
community  naturally  depends  upon  this  interest.  Any- 
thing that  happens  within  the  community  attracts  atten- 
tion, even  if  only  the  most  striking  of  these  facts  become 
the  center  of  attention  of  the  whole  community.  Each 
fact  provokes  some  kind  of  a  reaction,  and,  as  we  have  seen 
in  a  previous  chapter,  common  attitudes  are  elaborated  and 
become  factors  of  social  unity.  In  this  way  the  interest 
in  facts  happening  within  the  community  has  a  social 
importance.  But  the  peasant  is  not  conscious  of  the  social 
consequences  of  his  curiosity;  he  just  naively  wants  to 
know.  And  he  knows  and  remembers  everything  about 
his  environment.  This  is  of  course  also  useful  to  him  per- 
sonally, for  it  enables  him  to  construct  practical  schemes; 
this  is  a  consequence,  however,  not  a  motive.  He  does  not 
try  to  know  in  order  to  build  schemes,  but  he  builds  schemes 
when,  among  all  the  facts  that  he  has  learned,  one  strikes 
him  as  practically  important.  Consequently  the  sphere  of 
his  concrete  knowledge  is  incomparably  larger  than  the 
sphere  of  his  practical  schemes,  and  one  of  the  most  impor- 
tant sides  of  his  latest  intellectual  development  is  the 
learning  of  the  practical  significance  of  things  with  which  he 
was  acquainted  long  ago. 

This  independence  of  curiosity  from  practical  problems 
enables  the  peasant  to  show  a  lively  interest  in  things  that 
can  have  no  practical  importance  for  him.     In  older  times 


INTRODUCTION 


29s 


the  main  bulk  of  such  information  was  suppHed  by  returning 
soldiers,  emigrants,  pilgrims,  travelers,  beggars.  Happen- 
ings in  the  political  and  religious  world,  extraordinary  social 
events  outside  of  the  community,  marvels  of  nature  and 
industry,  the  variety  of  human  mores,  were  and  are  still  the 
main  objects  of  interest.  Fiction  stories  also  are  gladly 
listened  to,  but  the  interest  in  them  seems  to  be  in  general 
much  less  Kvely.  They  are  treated  as  history,  as  true,  but 
concerning  facts  that  were  past  long  ago,  and  are  therefore 
less  interesting  than  those  which  are  still  real  in  themselves 
or  in  their  consequences.  When  the  imagination  is  dis- 
closed as  such,  even  this  interest  is  usually  lost.  The 
peasant  wants  to  know  only  about  reality. 

When  reading  developed,  the  interest  for  facts  got  a 
new  food.  As  we  shall  see  later,  the  popular  newspapers 
have  to  give  many  descriptions  of  concrete  facts  in  order  to 
be  read,  and  the  promotion  of  practical  and  intellectual 
progress  must  to  a  large  extent  take  this  concrete  curiosity 
into  account.  Even  on  a  higher  intellectual  level  this 
character  of  theoretic  interests  is  preserved.  Descriptive 
works  on  geography,  ethnography,  technology,  zoology, 
botany,  etc.,  have  the  greatest  popularity;  historical  books 
are  on  the  second  plane;  fiction  comes  last,  unless  its 
subjects  are  taken  from  the  life  of  other  classes  and  other 
nations  or,  in  general,  unless  it  informs  about  things  that 
the  peasant  did  not  know.  As  a  result  some  of  the  popular 
papers  have  dropped  completely  the  old  custom  of  publish- 
ing novels  and  short  stories. 

The  situation  is  quite  different  among  city  workers  and 
the  lower  middle  class,  where  fiction-reading  assumes  enor- 
mous proportions  and  a  powerfully  developed  interest  for 
plot  has  favored  the  recent  success  of  sensational  litera- 
ture. This  difference  of  interest  between  the  country  and 
city  population  is  certainly  due  to  a  difference  in  social 


296  TRLMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

conditions.  The  city  inhabitants  have  not  as  keen  an 
interest  in  new  facts  as  we  find  in  the  country  because  city 
Hfe  gi\'es  them  a  superabundance  of  new  facts  and  the 
receptivity  is  deadened,  and  because  the  additional  excite- 
ment which  the  peasant  gets  by  sharing  the  news  with  his 
community  is  here  almost  lacking.  The  relatively  unsettled 
character  of  the  life  of  a  city  inhabitant  as  compared  with 
that  of  the  peasant,  the  uncertainty  and  the  relatively 
numerous  possibilities  of  the  future,  give  more  food  for 
imagination,  make  it  easier  for  the  reader  to  put  himself  in 
the  place  of  the  hero  of  the  novel  and  thus  enjoy  the  plot. 
But,  on  the  other  hand,  the  numerous  social  and  political 
problems  raised  by  modern  industrial  life  find  a  more  ready 
reception  among  city  workers  than  among  peasants,  and 
open  the  way  to  the  development  of  an  intense  and  serious 
intellectual  life.  Hence  it  may  be  said  that  with  regard  to 
intellectual  activities  the  lower  city  class  can  be  divided 
into  fiction-readers  without  social  interests  and  non-fiction 
readers  with  social  interests. 

There  is  indeed  one  kind  of  fiction  that  always  finds 
a  strong  interest  among  the  peasants ;  it  is  religious  fiction — 
legends,  lives  of  saints,  etc.  This,  however,  is  quite  a 
different  kind  of  interest,  based  on  the  general  theoretic 
and  practical  value  which  the  peasant  ascribes  to  the 
religious  conceptions.  The  peculiarities  of  this  attitude 
compel  us  to  notice  it  here  as  a  distinct  class  of  theoretic 
interest.  Here  of  course,  the  theoretic  interest  is  not 
primarily  independent  of  other  kinds  of  interests,  but  is 
only  a  part  of  the  general  religious  interest  which  contains 
also  practical  and  aesthetic  elements.  But  while  in  the 
whole  complicated  machinery  of  the  cult  these  elements  are 
indissolubly  connected,  in  the  myth  the  theoretic  element 
predominates  and  becomes  frequently  quite  isolated  from 
the  others.     The  relation  to  practice  is  then  only  mediate. 


INTRODUCTION  297 

It  is  useful,  indeed,  to  know  everything  about  nature,  or 
spirits,  or  magic,  in  order  to  control  eventually  the  religious 
reality;  but  this  control  is  exerted  by  the  peasant  himself 
to  only  a  small  extent,  since  there  are  specialists  who  not 
only  know  more  than  the  peasant  does  about  the  nature  of 
this  world  but  have  particular  means  and  particular  powers. 
Except  by  prayer  and  a  few  simple  ceremonies,  the  peasant 
does  not  try  to  turn  his  knowledge  directly  into  control,  but 
appeals  to  the  specialist.  As  soon  as  the  latter  intrudes 
between  religious  theory  and  religious  practice  the  interest 
in  theory  loses  its  relation  to  practical  aims.  ]\Iyth  then 
becomes  for  the  layman  chiefly  a  theoretic  explanation, 
but,  on  the  other  hand,  the  interest  in  mythology  remains 
for  a  long  time  the  most  popular  form  in  which  the  peasant's 
desire  for  explanations  manifests  itself.  The  reahty  of  this 
desire  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  Christian  mythology, 
particularly  its  part  concerning  the  origin  of  things  and 
of  their  qualities,  has  grown  considerably,  and  many  old 
myths,  such  as  those  of  Genesis,  have  been  greatly  changed, 
systematized,  and  com_pleted.  Lately  the  explanatory  sci- 
ences— physics,  chemistry,  biology,  geology — have  begun 
to  take  the  place  of  rehgion. 

To  these  three  spheres  of  theoretic  interest — schemes 
built  in  view  of  practice,  concrete  facts,  genetic  explana- 
tions—correspond three  different  types  of  specialists.  We 
find,  first  of  all,  the  wise  and  experienced  old  peasant  who 
plays  in  the  village  or  in  the  community  the  role  of  an  adviser 
in  troubles  and  is  the  real  intellectual  leader  at  all  the 
meetings  having  some  practical  situation  in  view.  He  has 
usually  a  good  material  position;  his  success  is  a  guaranty 
of  his  wisdom.  He  must  be  well  known  for  his  honesty, 
otherwise  people  would  not  listen  to  him.  He  must  have 
traveled  more  or  less  and  met  many  different  people,  for 
this  gives  assurance  that  he  will  be  able  to  grasp  any  new 


298  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

situation.  He  is  prudent,  conservative,  mistrusting.  He 
talks  with  deliberation,  slowly,  weighing  carefully  every 
word.  His  arguments  seldom  fail  to  persuade,  because  they 
express  ideas  which  his  listeners  had  more  or  less  clearly 
realized  themselves.  He  usually  selects  only  some  of  the 
many  ready  schemes;  his  main  function  is  their  systematiza- 
tion  and  adaptation  to  the  given  practical  problem.  These 
"advisers,"  as  we  may  call  them,  are  frequently  the  greatest 
obstacle  to  all  the  efforts  to  enlighten  and  organize  the 
peasants;  but  if  once  such  an  intellectual  leader  is  won,  the 
community  follows  him  rapidly  and  easily.  Such  men  are 
often  elected  mayors  of  the  commune.  In  extraordinary 
epochs  of  rapid  social  change  (as  during  the  revolutionary 
period  of  1904-6)  the  old  adviser  may  be  provisionally 
supplanted  by  a  popular  agitator  whose  influence  is  based, 
not  upon  personal  authority  and  not  upon  a  selection  of 
arguments  which  the  community  implicitly  approves,  but 
upon  an  ability  to  provoke  favorable  feelings.  Then  the 
peasant  himself  finds  among  his  various  schemes  the 
necessary  arguments. 

The  second  type  may  be  called  the  "narrator."  He  may 
be  old  or  young;  formerly  he  should  have  traveled  much, 
now  he  may  simply  read  much.  He  is  the  source  of  informa- 
tion about  facts.  His  importance  is  not  even  approximately 
as  great  as  that  of  the  adviser.  He  is  seldom  if  ever  asked 
for  advice  in  important  matters.  He  may  have  no  social 
position  at  all;  he  may  be  a  daily  worker,  a  hired  servant,  or 
even  a  parasite.  He  has  inherited  the  function  of  the 
ancient  beggar  or  pilgrim.  A  solid  social  position  is  even 
hardly  compatible  with  this  function  if  the  latter  is  steadily 
performed,  for  naturally  much  time  is  needed  to  learn  new 
facts.  Insignificant  in  times  of  work  and  serious  business, 
the  narrator  becomes  a  personality  at  moments  free  from 
practical  care,  on  winter  evenings  when  the  family  and  the 


INTRODUCTION  299 

neighbors  gather  in  the  big  room  of  some  rich  peasant — men 
smoking,  women  doing  some  Hght  handiwork — and  listen 
to  the  narration.  Lately,  since  reading  has  developed,  the 
narrator  is  being  gradually  supplanted  by  the  reader. 

The  function  of  "explaining"  was  traditionally  per- 
formed by  the  "wise"  man  or  woman,  and  by  the  priest, 
often  by  the  organist.  Since  religious  explanations  have 
begun  to  give  place  to  scientific  explanations  there  is  an 
evident  need  for  a  new  kind  of  specialist.  Indeed,  this  is  the 
moment  for  the  appearance  of  the  "philosopher"  in  the 
ancient  Greek  sense,  for  the  modern  scientist  with  his 
specialization  cannot  satisfy  the  peasant's  many-sided 
desire  for  explanation.  Hence  this  type  also  is  beginning 
to  develop.  It  is  the  self-taught  man,  reading  every  book 
he  can  get,  always  prepared  to  discuss  any  subject  and  eager 
to  explain  everything.  He  writes  elaborate  letters  to  the 
papers,  wants  to  contribute  to  the  solution  of  every  scientific 
problem  about  which  he  hears,  is  eager  to  correspond  with 
scientists  whose  fame  reaches  him,  and  is  continuall}' 
thinking  about  abstract  matters.  As  this  type  is  recent 
in  the  country  his  position  in  the  peasant  community  is  not 
yet  sufficiently  determined.  But  since  he  is  the  natural 
antagonist  of  the  priest,  it  is  probable  that  he  will  become 
an  intellectual  leader  of  the  anti-religious  movement  when 
this  movement  develops  in  the  country.  Among  the  lower 
classes  of  the  town  population  he  already  plays  a  part  in 
this  movement. 

The  social  prestige  attached  to  the  functions  of  the 
adviser,  the  narrator,  and  the  philosopher,  even  if  often  mixed 
in  the  beginning  with  a  particular  kind  of  condescension  with 
regard  to  the  two  latter  types,  is  a  strong  factor  in  instruc- 
tion. Reciprocally,  when  instruction  develops,  the  prestige 
of  these  functions  grows.  We  shall  see  how  the  movement 
of  "enlightenment"  uses  this  circumstance  for  its  ends. 


300  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

In  general,  the  rapid  intellectual  progress  of  the  peasant 
during  the  last  thirty  years,  as  well  as  the  progress  of  social 
organization,  are  made  possible  only  through  certain  pre- 
existing features  of  the  peasant's  intellectual  and  social  life. 
The  men  who  lead  the  peasants  have  succeeded  in  exploiting 
those  features  for  the  sake  of  a  higher  cultural  development, 
and  this  is  their  merit. 

2.  The  aesthetic  interests  of  the  peasant  have  two  main 
sources — rehgion  and  amusement. 

We  have  already  noticed  the  frequent  analogy  between 
religious  and  aesthetic  fantasy;  both  tend  to  individualize 
their  object,  both  find  a  particular  meaning  in  the  empirical 
data  which  goes  beyond  the  sensual  content.  However, 
while  in  religion  this  super-sensual  side  of  the  world  is 
taken  quite  seriously  as  a  perfect  reality  and  referred  to 
practice,  from  the  standpoint  of  the  aesthetic  interest  its 
existence  is  not  believed  and  its  role  is  only  to  give  more 
significance  to  the  sensual  world  itself.  Hence  religious 
beliefs  whose  seriousness  is  lost  or  whose  real  sense  is 
forgotten  become  aesthetic  attitudes.  We  find  innumerable 
examples  in  the  peasant  life.  Old  tales  in  which  naturalistic 
religious  beliefs  are  still  plainly  noticeable  and  many  of  the 
spirit  stories  are  now  merely  matters  of  entertainment ;  the 
narrator  often  changes,  shortens,  develops,  combines  them, 
giving  free  play  to  his  imagination.  Most  of  the  patterns, 
forms,  and  combinations  of  colors  in  popular  architecture, 
furniture,  dress,  and  ornament  had  a  magical  value. ^  The 
magical  significance  is  mainly  forgotten,  but  the  traditional 
models  still  determine  the  taste.  Old  ceremonies  whose 
original  religious  meaning  can  be  easily  recognized  even  now 
often  remain  only  aesthetically  valuable  for  the  peasant, 

'  Cf.  M.  Wawrzeniecki,  Nowe  naukoiue  stanowisko  pojmoii'ania  i  wyjasniania 
liektorych  przejawow  w  dziedzinie  ludoznawstwa  (Warsaw,  19 lo). 


INTRODUCTION 


301 


who  has  a  very  keen  sense  for  the  picturesque,  theatrical 
side  of  ceremonial  groups  and  collective  or  individual 
performances.  Often  while  the  rehgious  attitude  is  still 
vital  it  is  so  mixed  with  the  aesthetic  feeling  that  it  is 
impossible  to  determine  which  is  more  important.  Many 
religious  songs  are  sung  at  home  for  the  sake  of  aesthetic 
enjoyment,  and  it  happens  that  a  religious  melody  is  used 
with  worldly  words,  or  vice  versa.  Images  of  saints  are 
frequently  treated  simply  as  pictures.  When  the  church 
is  adorned  with  flowers  or  when  girls  dressed  in  white  throw 
flowers  before  the  priest  during  the  Corpus  Christi  proces- 
sion, the  religious  attitude  is  evidently  dominant.  But  we 
cannot  say  this  with  certainty  when  houses  are  adorned  at 
Pentecost  with  green  and  flowers  or  when  the  Christmas- 
tree  is  dressed.  In  short,  we  not  only  see  the  results  of  the 
degeneration  of  old  rehgions  into  aesthetic  attitudes,  but 
at  every  moment  and  in  innumerable  details  we  see  the 
process  still  going  on. 

From  social  amusements  arise  many  of  the  aesthetic 
interests  of  the  peasant.  Popular  music  and  poetry  in 
particular  have  their  main  source  here.  Most  of  the  music 
is  developed  from  dance  music,  as  the  rhythm  shows.  All 
the  popular  poems  are  songs.  At  present  it  is  stiU  the 
custom  in, many  locaHties  when  boys  and  girls  meet,  with  or 
without  dancing,  to  sing  alternately  old  songs  and  invent 
new  ones,  either  seriously  or  jokingly.  Sometimes  long 
poems  are  composed  and  repeated  in  this  way,  one  stanza 
by  a  boy,  another  by  a  girl.  Love  is  usually  the  more  or 
less  serious  subject  of  the  poems  sung  in  a  mixed  society, 
while  others  sung  by  boys  or  girls  alone  have  a  great  variety 
of  subjects,  embracing  the  whole  sphere  of  peasant  hfe. 

A  type  of  poetry  whose  source  is  undetermined  is  cere- 
monial songs  and  speeches  in  verse  sung  or  recited  at 
weddings,  funerals,  christenings,  the  end  of  harvest,  and  at 


302  rRTMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

Other  familial  and  social  festivals.  Many  of  them  are  very 
old  and  in  all  probability  originally  had  a  religious  sig- 
nificance. Sometimes  they  are  modified  to  suit  the  occasion. 
Others  are  more  recent,  sometimes  composed  for  the  occa- 
sion, and  their  aim  is  evidently  social — ^to  entertain  the 
persons  present,  to  give  advice  and  warning,  to  express 
feelings  of  familial  or  communal  solidarity,  to  ask  for  gifts, 
to  extend  thanks  for  hospitality,  etc. 

More  recently  an  intense  aesthetic  movement  has  mani- 
fested itself  among  the  peasants,  particularly  along  literary 
lines,  and  while  this  is  developed  upon  the  traditional 
background  it  tends  increasingly  to  come  under  the  influence 
of  the  models  presented  by  the  upper  classes.  There  are 
probably  few,  if  any,  among  the  half-educated  peasants  who 
do  not  try  to  become  poets.  We  shall  examine  this  move- 
ment in  a  later  volume. 


FORM  AND  FUNCTION  OF  THE  PEASANT 
LETTER 

The  Polish  peasant,  as  the  present  collection  shows, 
writes  many  and  long  letters.  This  is  particularly  striking, 
since  the  business  of  writing  or  even  of  reading  letters  is 
at  best  very  difficult  for  him.  It  requires  a  rather  painful 
effort  of  reflection  and  sacrifice  of  time.  Letter-writing  is 
for  him  a  social  duty  of  a  ceremonial  character,  and  the 
traditional,  fixed  form  of  peasant  letters  is  a  sign  of  their 
social  function. 

All  the  peasant  letters  can  be  considered  as  variations  of 
one  fundamental  type,  whose  form  results  from  its  function 
and  remains  always  essentially  the  same,  even  if  it  eventually 
degenerates.     We  call  this  type  the  "bowing  letter." 

The  bowing  letter  is  normally  written  by  or  to  a  member^ 
of  the  family  who  is  absent  for  a  certain  time.  Its  function 
is  to  manifest  the  persistence  of  familial  solidarity  in  spite 
of  the  separation.  Such  an  expression  became  necessary 
only  when  members  of  the  family  began  to  leave  their 
native  locality;  as  long  as  the  family  stayed  in  the  same 
community,  the  solidarity  was  implicitly  and  permanently 
assumed.  The  whole  group  manifested  its  unity  at  period- 
ical and  extraordinary  meetings,  but  no  single  member  in 
particular  was  obliged  to  manifest  his  own  familial  feelings 
more  than  other  members,  unless  on  some  extraordinary 
occasions,  e.g.,  at  the  time  of  his  or  her  marriage.  But  the 
individual  who  leaves  his  family  finds  himself  in  a  distinctive 
situation  as  compared  with  that  of  other  members,  and  the 
bowing  letter  is  the  product  of  this  situation.  There  is 
nothing  corresponding  to  it  in  personal,  immediate  familial 
relations. 

303 


304  rRIAIARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

In  accordance  with  its  function,  the  bowing  letter  has 
an  exactly  determined  composition.  It  begins  with  the 
religious  greeting:  "Praised  be  Jesus  Christus,"  to  which 
the  reader  is  supposed  to  answer,  "In  centuries  of  centuries. 
Amen."  The  greeting  has  both  a  magical  and  a  moral 
significance.  Magically  it  averts  evil,  morally  it  shows  that 
the  writer  and  the  reader  are  members  of  the  same  religious 
community,  and  from  the  standpoint  of  the  moral-religious 
system  every  community  is  religious.  A  common  subordi- 
nation to  God  may  also  be  otherwise  expressed  throughout 
the  entire  letter,  but  the  greeting  is  the  most  indispen- 
sable expression.  There  follows  the  information  that  the 
writer,  with  God's  help,  is  in  good  health  and  is  succeeding, 
and  wishes  the  same  for  the  reader  and  the  rest  of  the  family. 
We  know  that  health  (struggle  against  death)  and  living 
constitute  the  reason  of  natural  and  human  solidarity 
(only  spiritual   solidarity  aims  at  power).     Finally  come 

,  greetings,  "bows,"  for  all  the  members  of  the  family,  or 
from  all  the  members  of  the  family  if  the  letter  is  written 
to  the  absent  member.  The  enumeration  should  be  com- 
plete, embracing  at  least  all  the  members  who  still  live  in 
the  same  locality,  if  the  family  is  already  scattered,  as 
often  happens  today. 

These  elements  remain  in  every  letter,  even  when  the 
function  of  the  letter  becomes  more  complicated;    every 

^  letter,  in  other  words,  whatever  else  it  may  be,  is  a  bowing 
letter,  a  manifestation  of  solidarity.     Various  elements  may 

•  be  schematized;  the  words  "bows  for  the  whole  family" 
may,  for  example,  be  substituted  for  the  long  enumeration, 
but  the  principle  remains  unchanged  in  all  the  familial 
letters. 

The  bowing  letter  is  the  only  one  which  has  an  original 
function.  The  functions  of  all  the  other  t\^es  of  familial 
letters  are  vicarious;   the  letter  merely  takes  the  place  of  a 


FUNCTION  OF  THE  PEASANT  LETTER  305 

personal,  immediate  communication.  It  has  to  perform 
these  vicarious  functions  when  the  absence  of  the  member 
of  the  family  becomes  so  long  that  it  is  impossible  to  wait 
for  his  arrival. 

According  to  the  nature  of  these  vicarious  functions,  we 
can  distinguish  five  types  of  family  letters,  each  of  which  is 
also  and  fundamentally  a  bowing  letter. 

1.  Ceremonial  letters. — These  are  sent  on  such  familial 
occurrences  as  normally  require  the  presence  of  all  the 
members  of  the  family — weddings,  christenings,  funerals, 
name-days  of  older  members  of  the  group;  Christmas, 
New  Year,  Easter.  These  letters  are  substitutes  for  cere- 
monial speeches.  The  absent  member  sends  the  speech 
written  instead  of  saying  it  himself.  The  function  of  such 
a  letter  is  the  same  as  the  function  of  meeting  and  speech, 
namely,  the  revival  of  the  familial  feeling  on  a  determined 
occasion  which  concerns  the  whole  group. 

2.  Informing  letters. — The  bowing  letter  leaves  the 
detailed  narration  of  the  life  of  the  absent  member  or  of 
the  family-group  for  a  future  personal  meeting.  But  if  the 
meeting  is  not  likely  to  occur  soon,  the  letter  has  to  perform 
this  function  vicariously  and  provisionally.  In  this  way 
a  community  of  interests  is  maintained  in  the  family, 
however  long  the  separation  may  be. 

3.  Sentimental  letters.— li  the  primitive,  half-instinctive 
familial  soHdarity  weakens  as  a  consequence  of  the  separa- 
tion, the  sentimental  letter  has  the  task  of  reviving  the 
feelings  in  the  individual,  independently  of  any  ceremonial 
occasion. 

4.  Literary  letters.— V^t  have  seen  that  during  informal 
meetings  as  well  as  during  ceremonies  the  aesthetic  interests 
of  the  peasant  find  their  most  usual  expression  in  the  form 
of  music,  songs,  and  recital  of  poems.  The  absent  member 
who  cannot  take  a  personal  part  in  the  entertainments 


3o6  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

of  his  group  often  sends  a  letter  in  verse  instead,  and  is 
sometimes  answered  in  the  same  way.  It  is  an  amusement 
which  has  an  element  of  vanity  in  it,  since  the  letter  is 
destined  to  be  read  in  public.  The  literary  letters  certainly 
play  an  important  part  in  the  evolution  through  which  the 
primitive  aesthetic  interests,  manifested  during  the  meetings 
of  the  primary  group,  change  into  literary  interests  whose 
satisfaction  depends  upon  print. 

5.  Business  letters. — The  vicarious  function  of  these  is 
quite  plain.  As  far  as  possible  the  peasant  does  all  his 
business  in  person,  and  resorts  to  a  business  letter  only  when 
the  separation  is  long  and  the  distance  too  great  for  a  special 
meeting. 

Up  to  the  present  we  have  spoken  of  family  letters,  for 
the  original  function  of  the  letter  was  to  keep  members  of  a 
family  in  touch  with  one  another.  Letters  to  strangers  can 
perform  all  the  functions  of  a  family  letter,  but  the  essential 
one  of  maintaining  solidarity  exists  only  in  so  far  as  the 
solidarity  itself  is  assumed.  Correspondence  with  a  stranger 
can  also  help  to  establish  a  connection  which  did  not  exist 
before— a  function  which  the  family  letter  has  only  when 
a  new  member  is  added  to  the  family  through  marriage,  i.e., 
when  a  stranger  becomes  assimilated. 

We  must  mention  also  the  question  of  the  relation  of 
expression  to  thought  in  the  peasant  letters.  The  peasant 
language,  as  can  be  noticed  even  in  translation,  has  many 
traditional  current  phrases  used  in  determined  circum- 
stances for  determined  attitudes.  They  are  not,  like  prov- 
erbs, results  of  a  general  reflection  about  life,  but  merely 
socially  fixed  ways  of  speaking  or  writing.  The  peasant 
uses  them,  not  only  for  traditional  attitudes,  but  also 
in  some  measure  to  express  attitudes  which  already 
diverge  from  the  tradition,  if  this  divergence  is  not  felt 
clearly   to   necessitate   a   new   expression.     And  when  he 


FUNCTION  OF  THE  PEASANT  LETTER  307 

gets  outside  of  the  usual  form  of  expression  and  tries  to 
find  new  words  and  new  phrases,  then,  of  course,  it  is 
difficult  for  him  to  keep  the  exact  proportion,  particularly 
when  he  uses  the  literary  language.  He  sometimes  uses 
great  words  to  express  trifles,  or,  more  frequently,  he 
expresses  profound  and  strong  feelings  in  phrases  which  to 
an  intelligent  reader  seem  weak  and  commonplace,  but 
which  seem  strong  and  adequate  to  the  writer,  who  is  less 
familiar  with  them.  But  when  the  peasant,  instead  of 
trying  to  imitate  the  literary  language,  finds  for  his  new 
attitudes  words  in  his  own  philological  stock,  his  style  has 
often  a  freshness  and  accuracy  impossible  to  render  in 
translation. 

Further,  society  always  tends  to  ritualize  social  inter- 
course to  some  extent,  and  every  modification  of  a  ritual 
produces  disturbances  more  profound  than  could  reasonably 
be  anticipated.  We  have,  for  example,  ritualized  remarks 
on  the  weather  in  connections  where  social  intercourse  is 
limited  to  casual  meetings  and  greetings,  and  if  on  these 
occasions  a  man  remarked  habitually,  "Fine  trees,"  in  the 
place  of  "Fine  weather,"  this  would  lead  to  speculations 
on  his  sanity.  With  the  peasant,  as  with  the  savage,  the 
whole  of  social  intercourse,  including  language,  is  more 
rigorously  rituahzed  than  with  ourselves,  and  so  long 
as  the  peasant  remains  within  the  sphere  of  traditional 
language  the  slightest  shading  of  the  expression  is  signifi- 
cant. We  notice  in  this  connection  that  in  our  material 
there  is  very  little  profanity  or  abuse  between  acquaint- 
ances or  family  members  in  personal  intercourse.  For  the 
outsider  and  the  absent  person  there  are  indeed  adequate 
forms  of  abuse,  but  between  those  nearly  related  the  maxi- 
mum effect  can  be  produced  by  the  minimum  divergence 
from  the  usual  language  norms.  See  Raczkowski  series, 
Nos.  404,  429. 


3o8  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

SPECIMEN  PEASANT   LETTERS 

The  following  letters,  or  portions  of  letters,  are  printed 
here  to  illustrate  the  elements,  as  enumerated  above,  that 
enter  into  a  letter.  It  will  be  understood  that  these 
specimens  are  intended  to  represent  the  more  primitive 
t  and  elemental  types,  into  which  little  of  the  informing 
and  business  elements  enters.  Specimens  of  informing  and 
business  letters  are  not  reproduced  at  this  point,  as  they  are 
the  dominant  type  in  the  later  series.  See,  for  examples, 
Wroblewski  series  and  Kowalski  series. 

No.  I  below  is  an  almost  pure  type  of  bowing  letter. 

No.  2  is  of  the  same  type,  written  to  a  priest  who  took 
special  interest  in  teaching  peasants  to  write  informing 
letters — not  very  successfully  in  this  case. 

No.  3  is  sentimental,  designed  to  "warm  the  frozen 
blood"  of  an  absent  brother. 

No.  4  is  the  ceremonial-congratulatory  portion  of  a 
letter. 

No.  5  is  interesting  as  containing  all  the  norms  of  a 
peasant  letter,  and  also  as  an  example  of  how  proper  and 
charming  a  letter  may  be  within  the  traditional  norms. 
The  letter  was  written  on  "Palmer  House"  paper,  but  the 
writer  was  either  a  scrub-girl  or  a  chambermaid.  She  is 
barely  literate,  as  showTi  by  the  orthography  and  the 
absence  of  punctuation  and  capitalization.  The  girl  to 
whom  the  letter  was  addressed  could  not  write  at  all. 

No.  6  is  from  a  girl  in  Poland  to  her  brother-in-law  in 
America,  and  shows  in  its  most  naive  form  the  character  of 
literary  effort.  It  contains  indications  that  the  brother- 
in-law  also  was  attempting  literary  achievement. 

No.  7  is  the  beginning  of  his  reply  to  Magdusia. 

No.  8  is  the  rhymed  and  versified  portion  of  a  ceremonial 
letter  to  the  writer  of  No.  7.  As  poetry  it  is  very  bad,  and 
toward  the  end  the  versification  and  rhyme  break  down. 


FUNCTION  OF  THE  PEASANT  LETTER  309 

Generally  speaking,  every  literate  peasant  tries  at  some 
time  in  his  life  to  write  poetry,  but  the  tendency  expresses 
itself  in  profusion  only  when  he  begins  to  write  for  the 
newspapers,  and  this  situation  we  treat  in  Volume  IV. 

I  Perth  Amboy,  N.Y.,  August  11,  191 1 

In  the  first  words  of  my  letter,  beloved  parents,  we  address  you 
with  these  words  of  God:  "Praised  be  Jesus  Christus,"  and  we  hope 
that  you  will  answer,  "For  centuries  of  centuries.     Amen." 

And  now  I  inform  you  about  my  health  and  success,  that  by  the 
favor  of  God  we  are  well,  and  we  wish  you  the  same.  We  wish  you 
this,  beloved  parents,  from  our  whole  hearts.  We  inform  you  further 
that  we  received  your  letter,  which  found  us  in  good  health,  which  we 
wish  to  you.  And  now  we  ask  how  is  the  weather  in  the  [old]  country, 
because  we  have  such  heat  that  the  sun  is  no  degrees  warm  and  many 
people  fell  dead  from  the  sun  during  the  summer  of  this  year.  Now, 
beloved  father  and  beloved  mother,  I  kiss  your  hands  and  legs.  I  end 
my  conversation  with  you.  Remain  with  God.  Let  God  help  you 
with  good  health  and  [permit  me]  to  meet  with  you,  beloved  parents. 
So  now  I  bow  to  you,  beloved  sister,  and  to  you,  beloved  brother- 
in-law,  and  I  wish  you  happiness  and  health  and  good  success — what 
you  yourselves  wish  from  God  this  same  I,  with  my  husband,  wish 
vou.  So  now  I  bow  to  Aunt  Doruta,  and  to  brother  Aleksander,  and 
to  Jozef ,  and  to  you,  my  grandmother,  and  I  wish  you  health  and  good 
success;  what  you  yourself  wish  from  God  the  same  I  wish  to  you, 
beloved  grandmother,  and  to  you,  beloved  sister,  together  with  you, 
])eloved  brother.  Now  I  bow  to  brother-in-law  Moscenski  and  to 
sister  Adela,  and  we  wish  them  all  kinds  of  success;  what  they  wish 
:  from  God  the  same  we  wish  them.  Now  we  send  the  lowest  bow  to 
i'  the  Doborkoskis,  to  brother-in-law  and  to  sister  and  to  their  children, 
and  we  wish  happiness,  health,  good  success.  What  they  wish  from 
Clod  the  same  we  wish  to  them.     Goodbye. 

Now  I,  Stanislaw  Pienczkowski,  send  a  bow  to  my  [wife's]  parents, 

and  I  inform  you,  beloved  parents,  about  my  health,  and  that  by  the 

favor  of  God  I  am  well,  and  the  same  I  wish  to  you,  beloved  parents, 

and  I  ask  you,  beloved  parents,  why  you  do  not  write  a  letter,  because 

I  sent  [a  letter]  to  the  Nowickis  a  week  later,  and  they  received  it, 

I   and  I  cannot  wait  long  enough  [cannot  endure  the  waiting]  to  get  a 

1   letter.     Therefore  I  ask  you,  beloved  parents,  to  write  me  back  a 

j   letter  quicker.  [No  signature] 


3IO 


PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 


Gerigswalde 


I,  Leon  Wesoly,  writing  April  28,  191 2.  "Praised  be  Jesus 
Christus."  First  of  all,  I  lay  down  low  bows  to  you,  Canon  Priest, 
as  to  my  shepherd,  and  I  inform  you,  Ecclesiastical  Father,  about 
our  work  and  health.  Thanks  to  God  and  the  Holiest  Mother,  I  am 
well.  The  work  that  I  have  is  to  arrange  the  bricks  for  burning. 
Also  I  inform  you,  Canon  Priest,  that  there  was  a  solar  eclipse  on  the 
ist  of  April  from  i  to  2  o'clock,  but  it  happened  so  indecently  that 
even  shivers  were  catching  a  man.  I  do  not  have  more  to  write,  only 
I  lay  down  sincere  low  bows  from  everybody  with  whom  I  work  and 
live  in  this  [despicable]  Germany.  Also  I  send  a  low  bow  to  my  wife, 
Rozalja.  I  do  not  have  more  to  write.  May  God  grant  it.  Amen. 
Praised  be  Jesus  Christus.     Address  the  same. 

Leon  Wesoly 


3  Warsaw,  April  29,  19 14 

"Praised  be  Jesus  Christus." 

Dear  Brother:  [Greetings;  health].  Although  we  write  little 
to  each  other,  almost  not  at  all,  and  I  don't  know  why  such  coldness 
prevails  between  us,  still  I  write  this  letter  from  fraternal  feeling,  not 
from  principle.  I  was  with  our  parents  for  the  holidays  of  the 
Resurrection  of  Our  Lord.  I  read  your  letters,  the  one  and  the  other. 
Our  parents  grieve  that  we  live  only  for  our  own  selves,  like  egotists. 
So  it  is  my  duty  to  take  the  pen  into  my  hand  and  with  God's  help 
to  write  you  a  few  words.  At  first,  I  thank  you,  dear  brother  Jan,  for 
your  kind  memory  of  our  parents — for  not  forgetting  them.  Don't 
forget  them  in  the  future.  Our  father  still  looks  sound  and  gay. 
Mother  has  grown  old  already,  but  she  does  not  look  bad,  either.  I 
have  seen  our  whole  brother-in-law  [all  of  him].  I  don't  know  whether 
you  are  acquainted  with  him.  Such  an  [ordinary]  boy!  Not  even 
ugly,  only  too  small  and  with  a  white  head.  But  our  sister  Marya 
looks  very  sickly.  I  could  not  recognize  her.  Stefa  is  in  good  health, 
but  she  "lacks  the  fifth  stave"  [is  crazy].  And  Franciszka  is  sick 
of  consumption.  I  don't  know  whether  it  will  be  possible  to  save  her, 
because  she  has  been  ill  for  the  whole  winter  and  looks  Hke  a  shadow. 
And  she  is  our  pride,  endowed  with  knowledge  and  a  clever  mind. 
What  faculties  she  possesses  for  learning  and  for  everything !  So,  dear 
brother,  we  ought  to  make  the  greatest  efforts  to  keep  alive  a  sister 
whom  we  love  exceedingly  and  who  loves  us.     This  is  the  result  of 


FUNCTION  OF  THE  PEASANT  LETTER  311 

my  inquiries  in  the  parental  home.  I  write  today  letters  to  our 
parents  also  and  to  our  aunt  in  Zambrow.  Write  to  them  also.  I 
send  them  my  photograph.     Send  yours  also.     I  send  my  photograph 

also  to  you.     Send  me  yours You  know  the  address  of  our 

aunt  ....  and  I  beg  you,  dear  brother,  [write  to  her].  She  loves 
us  so  much  though  she  never  sees  us.  Be  so  good  and  God  will 
reward  you.  This  will  be  her  whole  comfort,  because  who  can  com- 
fort her?  She  prays  God  for  our  health  and  good  success.  Don't 
forget  her.     I  kiss  you  and  shake  your  hand.     Your  loving  brother 

forever.  c  >t 

Stanislaw  Nuczkowski 

May  this  letter  warm  your  frozen  blood!  Let  us  Uve  in  love  and 
concord,  and  God  will  help  us. 

4  PoRii^BY  WoLSKiE,  January  30,  19 10 

"Praised  be  Jesus  Christus." 

Dearest  Children,  and  particularly  you.  Daughter-in-law  : 

We  write  you  the  third  letter  and  we  have  no  answer  from  you. 

[Greetings;   health;   wishes.]     We  hope  that  this  letter  will  come  to 

you  for  February  16,  and  on  February  16  is  the  day  of  St.  Julianna, 

patron  of  our  daughter-in-law.     Well,  we  congratulate  you,  dear 

daughter-in-law,  because  it  is  your  name-day.     We  wish  you  health 

and  happiness  and  long  life.     May  you  never  have  any  sorrow;  may 

you  love  one  another  and  live  in  concord  and  love;  may  our  Lord  God 

make  you  happy  in  human  friendship;   may  you  be  happy  and  gay; 

may  our  Lord  God  supply  all  your  wants;    may  you  lack  nothing; 

may  our  Lord  God  defend  you  against  every  evil  accident  and  keep 

you  in  his  protection  and  grant  you  his  gifts,  the  heavenly  dew  and  the 

earthly  fat.     May  our  Lord  God  give  you  every  sweetness,  make  you 

happy,  and  save  you  from  evil.     This  your  father  and  mother  wish 

you  from  their  whole  heart 

Jan  and  Ewa  Stelmacii 

5  28,  1912 

I  am  beginning  this  letter  with  the  words:  "Praised  ])e  Jesus 
Christus,"  and  I  hope  that  you  will  answer:  "For  centuries  of 
centuries.     Amen." 

Dearest  Olejniczka:  I  greet  you  from  my  heart,  and  wish  you 
health  and  happiness.     God  grant  that  this  little  letter  reaches  you 


[12 


PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 


well,  and  as  happy  as  the  birdies  in  May.     This  I  wish  you  from  my 
heart,  dear  Olejniczka. 

The  rain  is  falling;   it  falls  beneath  my  slipping  feet. 

I  do  not  mind;   the  post-office  is  near. 

When  I  write  my  little  letter, 

I  will  flit  with  it  there, 

And  then,  dearest  Olejniczka, 

My  heart  will  be  light  [from  giving  you  a  pleasure]. 

In  no  grove  do  the  birds  sing  so  sweetly 

As  my  heart,  dearest  Olejniczka,  for  you. 

Go,  little  letter,  across  the  broad  sea,  for  I  cannot  come  to  you. 
When  I  arose  in  the  morning,  I  looked  up  to  the  heavens  and  thought 
to  myself  that  to  you,  dearest  Olejniczka,  a  Httle  letter  I  must  send. 

Dearest  Olejniczka,  I  left  papa,  I  left  sister  and  brother  and  you, 
to  start  out  in  the  wide  world,  and  today  I  am  yearning  and  fading 
away  like  the  world  without  the  sun.  If  I  shall  ever  see  you  again, 
then,  like  a  little  child,  of  great  joy  I  shall  cry.  To  your  feet  I  shall 
bow  low,  and  your  hands  I  shall  kiss.  Then  you  shall  know  how  I 
love  you,  dearest  Olejniczka.  I  went  up  on  a  high  hill  and  looked 
in  that  far  direction,  but  I  see  you  not,  but  I  see  you  not,  and  I  hear 
you  not. 

Dear  Olejniczka,  only  a  few  words  will  I  write.  As  many  sand- 
grains  as  there  are  in  the  field,  as  many  drops  of  water  in  the  sea,  so 
many  sweet  years  of  Hfe  I,  Walercia,  wish  you  for  the  Easter  holidays. 
I  wish  you  all  good,  a  hundred  years  of  life,  health,  and  happiness. 
And  loveliness  I  wish  you.  I  greet  you  through  the  white  liUes,  I 
think  of  you  every  night,  dearest  Olejniczka. 

Are  you  not  in  Biehce  any  more,  or  what  ?  Answer,  as  I  sent  you 
a  letter  and  there  is  no  answer.     Is  there  no  one  to  write  for  you  ? 

And  now  I  write  you  how  I  am  getting  along.  I  am  getting  along 
well,  very  well.  I  have  worked  in  a  factory  and  I  am  now  working 
in  a  hotel.  I  receive  i8  (in  our  money  32)  dollars  a  month,  and  that 
is  very  good.  If  you  would  like  it,  we  could  bring  Wladzio  over  some 
day.  We  eat  here  every  day  what  we  get  only  for  Easter  in  our 
country.  We  are  bringing  over  Helena  and  brother  now.  I  had 
Si  20  and  I  sent  back  $90. 

I  have  no  more  to  write,  only  we  greet  you  from  our  heart,  dearest 
Olejniczka.  And  the  Olejniks  and  their  children;  and  Wladyslaw  we 
greet;   and  the  Szases  with  their  children;   and  the  Zwolyneks  with 


FUNCTION  OF  THE  PEASANT  LETTER  313 

their  children;    and  the  Grotas  with  their  children,  and  the  Gyrlas 
with  their  children;   and  all  our  acquaintances  we  greet. 
My  address:  North  America  [etc.] 
Goodbye.     For  the  present,  sweet  goodbye. 


6  WoLKA  SoKOLOWSKA,  April  22 

I  sit  down  at  a  table 

In  a  painted  room. 

My  table  shakes. 

I  write  a  letter  to  you,  dear  sister  and 

brother-in-law. 
A  lily  blossomed 
And  it  was  the  Virgin  Mary. 
I  dreamed  thus 

That  my  heart  was  near  yours. 
First  we  shall  greet  each  other, 
But  not  with  hands, 
Only  with  those  godly  words. 
The  words  "Praised  be  Jesus  Christus." 

I  inform  you  now  that  it  is  cold  here,  hard  to  plant  or  to  sow 
anything.  I  beg  you,  don't  be  angry  with  me  for  not  having  answered 
you  [for]  so  long,  but  I  had  no  time. 

Now  I  am  writing  to  you,  dear  brother-in-law,  with  a  smile,  for 
when  I  read  your  letter,  I  laughed  very  much  and  I  thought  that  you 
must  have  been  in  a  good  school  since  you  knew  so  [well]  how  to 
compose  that  letter.  But  all  this  [that  you  write]  is  nothing  [cannot 
come  to  pass],  for  is  there  any  boy  quite  ready  to  come  [and  to  marry 
me]  ? 

Now,  dear  sister  Ulis,  I  inform  you  that  Jasiek  went  to  you  and 
I  remained  at  home,  for  we  could  not  both  go  together.  And  then, 
perhaps  [sister]  Hanka  will  get  married,  so  there  would  be  nobody  to 
work.  Perhaps  there  will  be  a  wedding  [Hanka's]  when  everything 
is  planted.  Now  I  beg  you,  dear  brother-in-law,  and  you,  Ulis,  send 
me  a  few  cents,  for  when  I  am  a  best  maid,  I  should  like  to  treat  my 
....  [illegible  word],  and  I  have  no  money,  for  at  home  nothing  can 
be  earned.  And  I  think  that  you  don't  need  much  money  yet,  for 
you  have  no  children.  Now  I  thank  our  Lord  God  that  I  have  got 
such  a  good  and  funny  brother-in-law,  that  we  know  how  to  speak  to 


314  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

each  other  in  such  a  funny  way  in  our  letters.     When  I  am  marrying 

I  will  invite  you  to  be  my  best  man.     Now  there  won't  be  any  war. 

Now  there  is  nothing  more  interesting  at  home,  only  we  are  in  good 

health,  all  of  us,  and  we  wish  you  the  same.     Our  cattle  are  healthy, 

thanks  to  God.     There  is  nothing  more  to  write.     When  Hanusia  is 

married  they  will  write  for  you  [to  come]  and  invite  you 

[Greetings.] 

[Magdusia] 

Now,  dear  [cousin]  Jagus,  I  write  to  you.  When  father  was  once 
in  your  mother's  house,  your  mother  talked  much  against  you,  for 
when  Makar  was  coming  back  to  our  country  Jozef  [your  husband] 
wanted  to  give  [send]  trousers  and  a  blouse,  but  you  did  not  give 
[them].     So  your  mother  is  angry  with  you. 

7  April  6,  1914 
Go,  little  letter,  by  railway 

But  don't  go  to  the  tavern,  where  people  drink  beer, 
For  if  you  went  there,  you  would  get  drunk. 
And  you  would  never  find  the  way  to  my  sister, 
Go,  little  letter,  through  fields  and  meadows 
And  when  you  reach  Magdusia,  kiss  her  hand. 

And  now  "Praised  be  Jesus  Christus"  and  Mary,  his  mother,  for 

she  is  worthy  of  it 

[Jozef  Dybiec] 

8  Brannau,  December  11,  1910 

....  And  now,  beloved  brother  and  dear  brother-in-law, 
On  the  solemn  day  of  Christmas  and  New  Year 
I  send  wishes  to  your  home, 
And  I  beg  you,  beloved  brother-in-law  and  sister  and  dear 

brother. 
Accept  my  wishes, 
For  I  am  of  the  same  blood  as  you. 
On  this  solemn  day  I  am  also  rejoicing. 
And  if  I  live  and  come  back,  I  shall  wish  you  by  words. 
I  think  that  I  shall  live  to  come  back  to  you, 
And  I  wish  you  to  live  until  then, 
And  to  congratulate  together  one  another.  / 


FUNCTION  OF  THE  PEASANT  LETTER  315 

For  the  day  of  New  Year  I  wish  you  everything ; 

May  the  Lord  God  bless  you  from  His  high  heaven. 

I  wish  you  happiness  and  every  good  luck, 

And,  after  death,  in  heaven  a  heavenly  joy. 

As  many  sands  as  there  are  in  the  sea,  as  many  fishes  in  the 

rivers. 
Even  so  much  health  and  money  I  wish  you. 
As  many  drops  as  fall  into  the  sea, 
Even  so  much  happiness  may  God  grant  you. 
And  now  I  wish  you  happy  holidays 
And  a  happy  "Hey,  kolenda,  kolenda!"' 
And  may  you  live  until  a  gay  and  happy  New  Year. 
And  may  God  grant  you  health  and  strength  for  work, 
And  may  you  earn  much  money. 
And  I  wish  you  a  fine  and  merry  amusement 
On  Christmas  day  at  the  supper, 
I  will  not  write  you  more  in  verses, 
For  I  have  to  write  in  other  words  [i.e.,  in  prose]. 

Stanislaw  Dybiec 
•  Refrain  of  a  Christmas  song. 


CORRESPONDENCE  BETWEEN  MEMBERS  OF 
FAMILY-GROUPS 

In  addition  to  the  exhibition  of  various  attitudes  these 
letters  show  the  primitive  famihal  organization  in  its  relation 
to  the  problems  which  confront  the  group  in  the  various 
situations  of  life.  These  situations  are  conditioned  either 
by  normal  internal  and  external  processes  and  events  to 
which  the  familial  organization  was  originally  adapted — - 
birth,  growth,  marriage,  death  of  members  of  the  group, 
normal  economic  conditions,  traditional  social  environment, 
traditional  religious  life — or  by  new  tendencies  and  new 
external  influences  to  which  the  familial  organization  was 
not  originally  adapted,  such  as  the  increase  of  instruction 
and  the  dissemination  of  new  ideas,  economic  and  social  ad- 
vance, change  of  occupation,  change  of  social  environment 
through  emigration  to  cities,  to  America,  and  to  Germany, 
and  contact  with  neighboring  nationalities,  mainly  the 
Russian  and  German. 

Materials  of  this  character  do  not  lend  themselves  to  a 
strictly  systematic  arrangement,  but  the  letters  are  arranged 
as  far  as  possible  with  reference  to  the  presentation  of  two 
questions:  the  dominant  situation  in  which  the  group  or 
its  member  finds  itself,  and  the  progressive  disintegration 
of  the  family-group. 


316 


BOREK  SERIES 

We  place  first  a  short  series  of  letters  written  by  children. 
The  girl,  Bronislawa,  is  about  seventeen  years  old,  the  boy, 
Jozef,  thirteen  or  fourteen.  The  business  part  of  the  letters 
is  evidently  written  at  the  request  of  the  parents.  The 
Polish  of  the  letters  is  very  interesting,  typically  peasant, 
without  the  slightest  influence  of  the  literary  language ;  even 
many  phonetic  peculiarities  find  their  expression  in  the 
spelling.  This  proves  that  the  writers,  particularly  the 
girl,  who  is  the  principal  author,  are  untouched  by  new 
cultural  influences.  And  indeed  for  a  Polish  reader  Bronis- 
lawa appears  as  a  perfect  type  of  a  plain  peasant  girl  in  all 
her  attitudes  and  interests.  And  this  is  the  more  noticeable 
because  in  the  same  village  and  vicinity  live  families  who, 
particularly  in  the  younger  generation,  are  to  a  great  extent 
outside  and  partly  above  the  traditional  peasant  set  of 
attitudes.  This  proves  how  individualized  and  variable  is 
the  influence  of  modern  life  upon  the  peasant  milieu;  we 
meet  wide  variations  even  within  a  single  family. 

The  particular  freshness  and  vividness  of  interest  toward 
all  the  elementary  problems  of  communal,  familial,  and 
personal  life  shown  in  this  series — typical  for  the  peasant, 
though  in  the  case  of  Bronislawa  due  in  part  to  the  fact 
that  the  girl  is  passing  from  childhood  to  womanhood — 
may  be  compared  both  with  the  Markiewicz  series  (Nos. 
142  ff.),  where  many  interests  have  been  developed  under 
the  influence  of  instruction,  and  with  the  Kanikula  series 
where  the  lack  of  interest  in  the  communal  life  results  in 
an  intellectual  dulness  which  hinders  the  persons  from  be- 
coming interested  in  the  variety  of  situations  which  even  the 
simplest  life  involves. 

317 


3iS  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

Another  point  of  special  interest  in  this  series  is  the  early 
fi'xation  of  attitudes  in  the  peasant  child.  In  a  "primary" 
group  like  the  peasant  community  the  schematization  of 
life  in  its  main  outlines  is  relatively  fixed  and  simple,  and 
the  attitudes  and  values  involved  are  universally  and 
uncritically  accepted.  The  child,  as  we  may  note  in  these 
letters,  participates  freely  in  the  interests  of  the  family  and 
the  community  and  acquires  at  a  tender  age  the  elements  of 
a  very  stubborn  conservatism. 

9-16,   FROM  BRONISLAWA  AND   JOZEF   BOREK  IN  POLAND   TO 
THEIR   BROTHER   IN   AMERICA 

9  DoBRZYKOw,  October  g,  1913,  month  loth 

Dear  Brother:  [Usual  greetings  and  wishes;  letters  received 
and  sent.]  As  to  this  Alliance,  you  can  inscribe  yourself  [become  a 
member],  for  you  may  be  in  danger  of  life.^  Moreover,  you  will 
receive  a  paper,  you  will  have  something  to  read.  In  our  whole 
parish  there  is  no  news.  The  priest  is  building  a  barn  and  is  calling 
for  money.  The  organist  is  already  consecrated  as  priest.  He  was 
here  in  Dobrzykow.  In  Gombin  they  are  building  the  basement  of 
the  church.  In  Dobrzykow  they  sing  very  beautifully  [in  the  choir]. 
They  want  to  build  schools  in  the  commune  of  Dobrzykow,^  but 
people  don't  want  to  agree,  because  it  would  be  very  expensive  for 
every  morg  [taxes  being  paid  in  proportion  to  land].  Nothing  good 
happened  here.  It  rains  more  than  in  any  year.  [Crops  and  farm- 
work.]  We  should  have  harvested  everything,  but  we  had  to  work 
back  [pay  back  with  work]  for  the  horses  which  they  [our  neighbors] 
lent  us  to  plow.  When  we  were  digging  [potatoes],  an  accident 
happened.  Our  hog  broke  his  leg.  And,  in  general,  times  are  sad,  it 
is  autumn,  it  rains  continually,  and  everything  is  very  sad.     My 

'  The  Polish  National  .Alliance  in  America  insures  its  members.  But  the  plan 
of  life  insurance  is  little  kno\\Ti  among  the  peasants,  and  in  this  case  the  girl  seems 
to  assume  that  the  insurance  of  life  would  protect  from  death. 

*  The  result  of  a  new  law  permitting  every  commune  to  have  as  many  schools 
as  it  determined,  and  assuring  certain  governmental  help.  This  led  to  an  agitation 
among  the  peasants  by  the  intelligent  classes  for  the  development  of  public  instruc- 
tion.    (See  Vol.  IV.) 


BOREK  SERIES  319 

dear  brother,  I  am  also  weary  [with  staying]  at  home.  And  now,  we 
beg  you,  send  us  as  soon  as  possible  any  money  which  you  can,  for 

we  need  it  very  much And  now  you  have  a  new  suit,  so  send 

us  your  photograph,  for  I  am  curious  to  see Grodny's  [daugh- 
ter] Ewka  is  going  to  America,  also  to  Chicago.  She  boasted  that 
she  is  going  to  a  sweetheart.     She  told  it  only  to  me,  but  people  are 

also  talking  about  it.     Amen.  n,  n 

*="  [Bronislawa] 

10  '  October  26,  1913 

....  Dear    Brother:  ....  We   received    the    money,    100 

roubles,  for  which  we  thank  you  heartily With  [sister]  Micha- 

lina  it  is  as  it  was.  She  has  no  wish  to  marry  this  one,  she  waits  for 
another.  And  now  we  inform  you  what  we  did  with  this  money. 
We  gave  the  Markiewiczs  those  50  roubles  back  with  interest,  and 
to  the  [commune]  office  a  payment  and  interest.  You  asked  for  our 
advice,  dear  brother,  whether  you  ought  to  inscribe  yourself  in  the 
alliance.  [Repeats  the  advice  of  the  preceding  letter.]  When  you  send 
money,  now,  it  will  be  for  Michalina  [i.e.,  dowry].  We  are  very 
satisfied  that  our  Lord  God  helps  you,  so  that  people  even  envy  you. 
What  are  the  wages  for  girls  ?  What  could  I  earn  ?  Although  you 
work  much,  yet  at  least  you  earn  well. 

I  [Jozef]  have  an  accordeon,  and  I  assist  at  the  holy  Mass. 
Mother  bought  me  a  surplice.  Bronislawa  goes  to  the  choir  and  sings. 
Now  it  is  sad  here,  because  autumn  came. 

I,  Bronislawa,  and  I,  Jozef,  beg  you,  dear  brother,  with  our  whole 
heart,  send  us  10  roubles  for  a  gramophone.  Now  I  inform  you,  dear 
brother,  that  I  long  very  much  for  you,  because  I  never  see  you.  I 
have  tears  in  my  eyes  always  whenever  I  remember  you.' 

[Bronislawa] 

11  December  23,  1913,  month  12th 
....  Dear  Brother:  ....  We  received  your  letter 

We  were  very  sad,  particularly  Brohcia  [Bronislawa]  and  I,  Jozef, 

that  you  did  not  write  for  so  long  a  time We  have  now  not  so 

much  work We  have  holidays.     It  will  be  very  merry  for  us, 

'  Certainly  the  longing  is  sincere,  but  it  is  here  naively  used  to  make  the 
brother  more  favorable  to  the  request.  We  see  in  it  the  germ  of  the  policy  of 
Koziowska.     (Cf.  that  series.) 


320 


PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 


for  now  ihey  [the  season-workers]  have  come  from  Prussia,  so  there 
are  many  people  in  our  village.  We  have  no  horse,  for  we  don't  need 
it  any  more.     Our  young  cow  will  calve  soon.     After  Christmas  we 

shall  thresh  the  rest  of  the  rye.     We  killed  the  pig  for  ourselves 

There  is  no  new^s  now In  carnival  perhaps  there  will  be  more 

news.     [Marriages  enumerated.] 

There  is  a  blacksmith  who  wants  to  buy  the  forge Do  you 

order  us  to  sell  it  or  not,  for  he  is  waiting We  ask  you,  dear 

brother,  whether  you  write  letters  to  Bugel's  daughter,  for  Bugel 
boasted  to  our  father  that  she  intends  to  wait  for  you.  Wladyslawa 
Jarosinska  boasts  also  [that  you  write  to  her].  Bronka  [Bronislawa] 
is  curious  what  work  she  will  do  in  America  and  what  weather  is  there 
now\  We  thank  you  for  this  gift  which  you  intend  to  send  us. 
When  you  send  it,  address  it  to  Bronka's  name,  or  else  they  [the 
parents]  will  take  it.  Now  I,  Jozef,  know  already  how  to  assist  very 
nicely  at  the  Mass  in  Latin.  And  the  singers  [women]  sing  beautiful 
Christmas  songs.  Our  priest  built  a  very  nice  barn.'  And  in  Gombin 
they  built  a  barn  for  people  [to  worship],  because  only  the  basement 
of  the  church  is  ready.  And  Walenty  Ostroski  began  to  go  [to  the 
church]  and  to  sing,  but  he  had  no  voice. 

And  I,  Bronislawa,  will  probably  visit  you  in  the  spring,  for  we 
don't  know  with  certainty  whether  Michalina  will  get  married  or  not. 
I,  Bronislawa,  I  could  marry  if  I  wanted  to  take  the  first  man,  but 
I  won't  marry  just  anybody.  Szymanski's  son  wants  to  marry  me, 
and  perhaps  it  would  be  well  for  me,  because  he  wall  take  me  to 
Warsaw,  to  [set  up]  a  shop  or  restaurant.  But  I  don't  want  him,  for 
he  is  crippled.  I  have  another  who  turns  my  head,  but  only  when  he 
comes  back  from  the  army.  If  Michalina  marries,  I  will  also  marry. 
But  I  am  not  in  a  hurry  to  get  married.  Did  I  merit  wdth  God 
nobody  more  than  him  [the  cripple]  ?  Our  Lord  God  will  help  me  to 
get  somebody  else.  I  hide  myself  from  him,  but  he  comes  to  me 
nevertheless,  and  brings  with  him  more  boys  from  the  mills.  We  ask 
you  whether  Witkowski  has  children  in  America,  or  some  additional 
wife?  ....  Alina  Krajeska  brought  a  small  Prussian  for  herself 
[had  an  illegal  child  in  Prussia].  We  inform  you,  brother,  w^hat  a 
good  father  we  have.  He  lives  like  a  king,  and  we  all — you  know 
how  it  was  before  ?  Well,  now  it  is  still  worse.  It  is  hard,  much  to 
complain  of  on  all  sides 

I^  Bronislawa  and  Jozef  Borek 


BOREK  SERIES 


321 


12  February  10,  1914 

....  I,  Bronislawa,  received  10  roubles  and  i  copeck,  for  which 
I  thank  you  heartily,  dear  brother.  Now  we  inform  you  that  the 
wedding  [of  Michalina]  has  been  celebrated  already  on  the  day  of 
Our  Lady  of  the  Thunder-Candles,^  at  5  o'clock  in  the  afternoon. 
Very  few  guests  were  in  our  house,  only  60.  There  were  4  musicians. 
The  music  was  very  beautiful.     The  musicians  were  strangers,  from 

Wykow.     There    were   8    best    men   and    8   best   girls The 

wedding  was  very  merry,  so  that  even  grandmother  and  grandfather 
danced.  [Enumerates  other  weddings.]  We  were  at  the  poprawiny 
[supplementary  dancing;  literally,  "repairing";  a  festival  tocompelte 
a  former  one]  in  Trosin,  in  the  house  of  the  parents  of  our  brother-in- 
law.  He  is  a  great  success  for  us.  Their  fortune  is  big  enough.  . ".  .  . 
If  you  did  not  send  those  100  roubles,  don't  send  them  now,  only 
together  [with  the  next]  in  March,  because  we  don't  need  them  now. 
Don't  be  afraid,  you  can  send  this  money,  we  won't  waste  it,  we  shall 
lend  it  at  interest.  We  have  nothing  more  to  write,  only  we  salute 
you.  Brother-in-law  and  Michalina  salute  you.  And  now  we  will 
write  you  who  was  with  us  at  the  wedding.  [Enumerates.]  And  others 
also,  but  we  won't  express  [name]  any  more.  The  family  of  our 
brother-in-law  is  orderly  and  full  of  character  and  agreeable  and  good. 
The  brother-in-law's  brother  has  an  accordeon  of  one  and  a  half 
tunes  [octaves?],  worth  40  roubles.     He  plays  and  sings  very  nicely. 

Michalina  is  greatly  respected,  all  his  brothers  kiss  her  hand 

[Bronislawa  and  Jozef] 

13  February  26,  1914 

....  Dear  Brother:  ....  Our  young  cow  calved  on  Febru- 
ary 18.  Grandfather  and  grandmother  promise  to  will  their  land  to 
Michalina,  from  April  i.  They  are  to  live  in  the  grandparents' 
house,  to  give  them  to  eat  and  i  rouble  every  week.  Our  young  cow 
calved,  had  a  she-calf.  We  shall  keep  her.  And  you,  Wladzio,  don't 
be  afraid  that  we  shall  lose  this  money;  we  won't  waste  it,  we  won't 
spend  it  on  drinking;  when  you  come  back,  you  will  have  this  money. 
....  Michalina  collected  25  roubles  for  her  caul. 

And  I,  Michalina  Jasinska,  thank  you  for  the  forge  which  you 
gave  me  for  my  caul,  and  also  for  those  100  roubles  which  you  intend 

'  So  called  because  of  the  ceremony  of  the  consecration  of  candles  supposed  to 
avert  thunder-stroke. 


322 


PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 


to  send  me  for  the  wedding,  although  you  did  not  send  them 

We  borrowed  loo  roubles  from  Markiewicz,  but  this  money  we  paid 

back  to  K With  the  money  which  I  collected  for  my  caul  I 

bought  for  myself  a  feather-cover,  3  pillows,  and  I  paid  2  roubles  to 
the  cook.  There  were  gaps  enough  which  I  had  to  stop.  Only  10 
roubles  were  left,  and  they  want  me  to  give  even  them,  grandfather 
for  a  horse,  and  father  for  flour.  Well,  I  got  married,  it  is  true,  but 
I  am  neither  upon  water  nor  upon  ice  [not  settled] 

And  now  I  write,  Bronislawa  B In  our  choir  there  are 

few  girls  left,  for  the  others  got  married.  [Enumerates  these.]  On  the 
last  day  of  carnival  we  were  in  Trosinek  [with  the  parents  of  the 
brother-in-law] — our  brother-in-law,  Michalina,  grandfather  and  I. 
His  brothers  respect  me  much.  His  brother  played  the  accordeon,  and 
I  played  also.  They  were  at  our  house  on  Sunday.  People  en\y  us 
very  much  because  of  this  luck.  Now  our  brother-in-law  is  in  our 
house,  and  later  perhaps  he  will  be  in  grandfather's  house,  for  grand- 
father cannot  work.  And  perhaps  he  will  will  him  [his  farm],  for  he 
pleased  grandfather  much.  And  I,  Bronka,  shall  be  at  home,  for 
you  write,  dear  brother,  that  in  America  it  is  bad.  Don't  grieve,  dear 
brother,  about  me,  I  shall  get  married  even  in  our  country,  since 
Michalina  is  already  married.^  But  I  will  wait  until  you  come  from 
America,  for  I  desire  either  you,  dear  brother,  to  be  at  my  wedding, 
or  myself  to  be  at  yours.  Either  I  will  be  best  girl  at  your  wedding 
or  you  shall  be  best  man  at  mine. 

We  are  very  satisfied  that  Michalina  got  married,  only  we  were 
very  sorry  that  you  were  not  at  the  wedding.  His  brothers  are  so 
agreeable  that  nobody  could  be  ashamed  of  them.  They  greet  us 
while  they  are  still  far  from  us.  The  youngest  of  them  is  20  years  old. 
From  this  money  I,  Bronka,  bought  myself  stuff  for  a  dress,  and  I, 
Jozef,  a  suit,  and  we  gave  mother  the  rest.  Michalina  had  a  white 
dress  at  her  wedding.  Three  carriages  went  to  the  wedding.  I  greet 
you,  I,  Bronislawa,  and  I,  Jozef. 

14  May  19,  1914 

....  We  thank  you,  dear  brother,  for  your  photograph,  and 
father  asks  you  for  money — to  send  some  to  us.  If  you  cannot  send 
more,  send  at  least  100  roubles  for  the  Markiewiczs,  and  if  you  can 

'  The  younger  daughter  customarily  waits  for  the  marriage  of  the  older,  and 
parents  usually  refuse  to  let  the  younger  daughter  be  married  first. 


BOREK  SERIES  323 

send  more,  send  more.     We  should  lend  it  ....  in  a  very  sure 

place Markiewicz  [Stanislaw]  fromZazdzierzcameon  May  15 

[from  America],  and  gave  us  money,  2  roubles I,  Jozef,  thank 

you  for  these  2  roubles Our  brother-in-law  got  acquainted 

with  Michahna  as  boys  usually  do  with  girls,  as  you  did  with  Bug- 
lowna.     Dear  Wladzio,  Bugiel  boasts  that  Staska  is  to  wait  for  you. 

But  she  is  sick  with  consumption If  our  Lord  God  allows  you 

to  come  back,  you  could  marry  where  Wiktor  Markiewicz  did.  He 
wishes  you  to  marry  there  [his  wife's  sister].  And  of  those  singers 
none  sings  any  more,  because  they  quarrelled  with  the  organist  and 
the  priest,  and  now  others  are  learning.     I  go  to  sing  whenever  I  have 

time,  and  later  perhaps  I  shall  go  weeding I  shall  earn  at 

least  enough  to  buy  slippers.  Bronislawa 

15  June  5,  1914 

Dear  Brother:  ....  We  received  money,  500  roubles,  for 
which  we  thank  you  heartily Michalina  and  our  brother-in- 
law  are  leaving  us.  They  will  rent  a  lodging,  because  the  old  ones 
[grandparents]  won't  take  her  yet.  Now  we  inform  you  what  was 
the  news  at  Pentecost:  a  merry-go-round,  a  theater,  12  crosses 
[processions],  many  of  them  from  far  away.  [Jozef] 

I,  Bronislawa  Borek,  write  to  you  a  few  words,  dear  brother. 
About  money  I  shall  write  later  on,  where  we  lend  it,  for  now  we  don't 
know  yet.  And  so,  my  dear  brother,  our  father  cannot  come  to  an 
understanding  with  our  brother-in-law.  I  am  very  ashamed  and 
pained,  and  I  don't  know  how  it  will  be  further.  I  will  write  you 
more,  for  I  have  nobody  to  whom  to  complain.     I  will  go  soon  to 

work,  for  4  weeks Wladysiaw  ^abka  writes  me  letters  from 

the  army.  He  wants  to  marry  me  when  he  comes  in  autumn  from 
the  army,  but  I  don't  want  to.  I  should  prefer  some  craftsman,  and 
I  will  wait  until  I  get  some  craftsman '  [Bronislawa] 

16  July  23, 1914 

Dear  Brother:  ....  Your  money  is  lent.  Jan  Gol^biewski 
borrowed  100  roubles  and  Jan  Switkowski  300  roubles.  We  have 
notes Now  we  inform  you  about  our  farm-slock.     We  have 

'  Because  she  wants  to  go  to  the  city. 


324  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

2  COWS  and  one  she-calf  from  the  young  cow.  Father  bought  a  cow 
for  Michalina  ....  and  they  were  to  go  and  rent  a  lodging,  but 

they  sold  the  cow  and  took  the  money  and  don't  go  anywhere 

Michalina  does  not  want  to  buy  a  cow  for  herself,  but  they  began 
to  trade  in  pigs  and  orchards.  For  me,  Jozef,  they  [the  parents] 
bought  nice  shoes,  but  only  a  cotton-suit,  for  there  was  not  enough 

left  for  a  cloth-suit.     Father  hardly  could  calculate 

[Jozef] 

And  now  I,  Bronistawa,  write  you  a  few  words,  dear  brother. 
....  We  inform  you  what  father  did  with  these  loo  roubles.  He 
bought  a  cow  for  Michalina,  a  horse  [for  himself]  and  made  the 
payment  in  the  [communal-bank]  office.  We  gave  Michalina  a  cow 
once,  but  we  won't  give  her  one  a  second  time.  You  have  sent  us 
already  600  and  1 2  roubles.  Dear  brother,  we  thank  you  very  much 
for  the  money  which  you  sent.  People  marvel  much,  that  our  Lord 
God  helps  you  so,  and  they  envy.  Don't  grieve  that  a  single  grosz 
will  be  lost.  When  you  return,  all  this  will  be  given  back  to  you. 
....  I  intended  to  send  you  wishes  for  your  name-day,  but  I  was 
not  at  home,  I  was  working  on  the  other  side  of  the  Vistula.  I  have 
worked  for  5  weeks.  I  earned  enough  to  buy  a  nice  velvet  dress  and 
slippers,  and  I  have  also  a  watch.  Perhaps  later  I  will  send  you  a 
photograph  of  my  person.     I  am  not  going  to  sing  any  more,  for  I  have 

no  time Although  I  am  tired  with  work  and  burned  with  the 

sun,  at  least  I  have  something  to  dress  myself  in Michalina  is 

with  us,  but  for  the  winter  we  want  her  to  go  away,  because  it  is  too 

difficult  to  live  all  together ^  Dear  brother,  I  would  ask  you, 

I,  Bronislawa,  be  so  kind  and  add  some  money  for  a  sewing-machine 

for  me I  will  now  go  to  work,  I  will  work  for  some  weeks,  and 

if  you  offer  me  anything  I  could  buy  one But  if  you  oflfer  me 

anything,  send  it  to  my  name,  because  those  10  roubles  our  parents 

took 

[Bronislawa] 

'  Michalina's  grandfather  was  evidently  expected  to  retire  and  will  her  the 
farm,  but  he  declined  to  do  this  and  her  father,  counting  on  the  grandfather's  help, 
had  failed  to  provide  her  with  a  sufficient  dowry.  So  the  young  people  find  them- 
selves in  a  difficult  situation.  We  see  here,  as  elsewhere,  that  the  retirement  of  the 
old  people  is  a  necessary  link  in  the  familial  organization. 


WROBLEWSKI  SERIES 

The  Wroblewskis  live  in  the  northeastern  part  of 
ethnographical  Poland,  in  a  relatively  poor  province.  The 
family  (whose  real  name  we  do  not  use)  belongs  to  the 
peasant  nobihty  and  is  relatively  well  instructed.  It  has 
lived  in  the  same  village  since  at  least  the  fifteenth  century. 
Twelve  neighboring  villages  are  chiefly  occupied  by  de- 
scendants of  the  same  ancestors,  though  their  names  have 
been  partly  diversified.  The  community  of  origin  has 
probably  been  in  a  large  measure  forgotten. 

The  main  figure  of  the  series  is  Walery  Wroblewski, 
the  author  of  most  of  the  letters.  His  letters  belong  almost 
exclusively  to  the  informing  and  relating  type;  their 
function  is  to  keep  up  the  familial  connection  between 
Walery  and  his  brothers  by  sustaining  and  developing  a 
common  "universe  of  discourse"  and  a  sphere  of  common 
interests.  Thanks  to  this,  the  letters  become  particularly 
valuable  for  us.  They  give  us,  indeed,  a  full  account  of 
the  fundamental  life-interests  of  Walery,  who  in  this 
respect  represents  very  well  the  normal  Polish  peasant. 

The  essential  interest  is  clearly  that  of  work,  particularly 
of  personal  work.  The  salaried  labor  (as  gardener  at  the 
governmental  railway-station)  plays  in  Walery's  life  a 
purely  additional  part  and  is  done  merely  for  the  sake  of 
money,  while  his  life-business  is  farm-work.  It  is  the  same 
with  the  average  Polish  peasant,  with  whom  even  the  dif- 
ference between  farm-work  and  salaried  work  is  frequently 
expressed  in  a  separation  of  economic  aims:  the  farm  has 
to  give  living  for  the  whole  family  (lodging,  board,  fuel), 
better  or  worse  according  to  its  size,  the  value  of  the  soil, 
etc.,  while  any  cash  needed  for  clothes,  pleasures,  ceremonies, 

32s 


326  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

etc.,  has  to  be  earned  outside,  by  salaried  work,  either  on 
a  neighboring  estate  or  through  season-emigration.  A 
peasant  who  does  not  need  additional  income  from  his  own 
or  his  children's  paid  labor  is  above  the  normal;  a  peasant 
who  needs  additional  income  for  living  is  on  the  edge 
between    the   farmer-class   and    the   country   proletariat.' 

But  the  curious  point  in  the  present  case  is  that  the 
interest  in  work  as  such  is  already  independent  of  its  eco- 
nomic purpose,  and  that  this  independent  interest  is  shown 
only  with  regard  to  the  farm- work.  Walery  puts  his  whole 
life  into  farming,  house-building,  etc.,  and  does  not  care 
much  about  his  salaried  work,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  the 
farm  is  not  his  ovm,  while  the  money  which  he  earns  is  his 
personal  property.  He  complains  continually  about  his 
insecure  situation,  and  still  he  works  for  the  pleasure  of 
work.  The  interest  is  objectified.  The  same  objectifica- 
tion  is  shown  in  his  eagerness  to  learn  everything  about  the 
farming  of  his  brothers  in  America. 

The  second  fundamental  set  of  interests  is  that  of  the 
family.  It  happens  that  we  find  here  most  of  the  possible 
familial  situations: 

I.  Walery 's  relation  to  his  father  and  brothers  on  the 
ground  of  the  problem  of  inheritance.  In  this  relation 
Walery,  the  oldest  brother,  as  against  the  father  and  partly 
against  Feliks,  represents  the  old  principles  of  familial 
solidarity — according  to  which  the  family  should  act 
harmoniously  as  a  whole,  and  the  father  should  pursue  the 
interests  of  this  whole,  not  his  own  egotistic  ends — and  of 
justice — according  to  which  the  economic  problems  should 
be  settled  upon  a  moral  as  against  a  merely  legal  basis. 
This  relation  is  expanded  and  complicated  by  the  new 
marriage  of  the  father.  The  stepmother  is  not  an  isolated 
individual,  but  the  member  of  another  family,  and  the 

'  Cf.  Introduction:    "Economic  Attitudes." 


wrOblewski  series  327 

antagonism  of  interests  prevents  absolutely  her  assimila- 
tion to  her  husband's  family.  On  the  contrary,  as  no 
harmonious  coexistence  of  the  two  families  is  possible,  it  is 
the  husband,  Walery's  father,  who  loses  all  connection  with 
his  own  family  and  becomes  assimilated  to  his  wife's 
family. 

2.  Purely  sentimental  and  intellectual  relation  between 
Walery  and  Antoni. 

3.  Walery's  relation  to  his  first  wife  through  her  sickness 
and  death.     (See  notes.) 

4.  Walery's  relation  to  his  stepdaughter  Olcia — an  eco- 
nomic and  sentimental  problem.     (See  notes.) 

5.  Walery's  relation  to  his  children,  and  the  evolution 
which  goes  on  under  the  influence  of  changes  in  the  economic 
situation  and  of  the  progressive  manifestation  of  the  char- 
acter of  the  children.  He  continues  to  work  on  the  farm 
for  their  sake  and  out  of  interest  in  work;  but  his  feelings 
change.  As  long  as  his  first  wife  lives  his  paternal  attitude 
is  perfectly  normal;  he  is  the  head  and  representative  of 
the  family.  After  her  death  he  becomes  merely  a  guardian, 
and  his  security  and  authority  are  shaken.  But  the  children 
are  small,  and  they  may  be  as  poor  as  he,  for  half  of  the 
farm  belongs  to  Olcia,  and  thus  a  feeling  of  pity  keeps  his 
paternal  attitude  definite  and  strong.  After  the  death  of 
Olcia  his  children  are  the  only  rightful  proprietors  of  the 
farm.  But  as  they  become  older  his  personal  situation 
isolates  itself  in  his  mind  from  that  of  his  children,  and  a 
slight  antagonism  appears  between  himself  and  the  oldest 
son,  though  he  still  hopes  that  the  latter  will  eventually  take 
the  farm  and  care  for  him  in  his  old  age.  Finally  he  marries 
again,  new  children  appear,  it  becomes  evident  that  his  son 
cannot  be  expected  to  take  him  and  his  new  wife  and 
children,  and  his  interests  become  almost  completely  dis- 
sociated from  those  of  the  children  of  his  first  wife.     The 


328  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

sentimental  connection  is  the  only  one  left  and  even  this 
seems  weakened  in  the  last  letters. 

6.  Walery's  relation  to  his  second  wife.     (See  notes.) 

7,  Walery's  relation  to  his  sister-in-law,  Feliks'  wife. 
This  is  only  sketched,  but  in  very  distinct  lines.  There  is  a 
marked  mutual  hostility  whose  immediate  cause  is  certainly 
economic  antagonism,  but  it  is  prepared  by  the  total 
estrangement  resulting  from  the  long  separation  and  the 
quite  different  conditions  in  which  Feliks  and  his  family 
have  lived.  These  facts  illustrate  two  very  general  phenom- 
ena: (i)  As  we  see  in  many  letters,  even  a  normal  relation 
through  marriage  (to  say  nothing  of  an  abnormal  one  like 
that  resulting  from  the  third  marriage  of  Walery's  father) 
is  ceasing  more  and  more  to  produce  a  connection  between 
the  persons  thus  allied;  acquaintance  and  friendship,  if  not 
community  of  interest,  are  necessary  to  consolidate  the 
relation.  In  other  words,  the  assimilation  of  a  new  member 
has  become  more  difficult  and  longer  since  the  old  type  of 
peasant  family  began  to  disintegrate.  (2)  The  estrange- 
ment brought  by  emigration  to  Russia  is  much  more  pro- 
found than  that  resulting  from  emigration  to  America. 
This  difference,  it  seems,  is  due  to  the  fact  that  emigration 
to  America  has  become  a  more  normal  and  ordinary  course, 
always  with  the  expectation  of  return,  and  that  the  emigrant 
is  more  or  less  identified  in  America  with  strong  and  nu- 
merous Polish  communities.  At  any  rate,  the  Russian 
life,  wdth  its  weaker  familial  organization,  exerts  a  more 
disorganizing  influence  on  the  emigrant.  Another  good 
example  of  this  is  found  in  the  Raczkowski  series,  letters  of 
Ludwik  Wolski. 

With  regard  to  the  religious  interests,  Walery's  attitude 
is  also  the  typical  attitude  of  the  modern  peasant.  His 
religious  life,  while  very  strong,  has  mainly  a  social  form. 
The  individual  relation  to  the  Divinity,  as  expressed  in 


WRCBLEWSKI  series  329 

prayer,  vision,  ecstacy,  feeling  of  subordination,  etc.,  is 
quite  secondary  as  compared  with  the  social  side  of  religious 
reality— meetings,  public  service,  church-building,  priest- 
hood, etc.  We  find  the  former  attitude  only  once  clearly 
expressed  (No.  37).  There  are  but  slight  traces  of  the  old 
naturalistic  rehgious  system  and  little  interest  in  the  magical 
system. 

The  social  interests  of  Walery  are  limited  practically  to  his 
relations  with  neighbors  and  acquaintances.  He  does  not 
seem  to  play  any  active  part  in  the  political  organization  and 
activity  of  his  commune — the  only  political  group  in  which  a 
peasant  can  be  active.  But  he  is  interested  as  an  observer 
in  general  social  and  political  phenomena,  upon  which  he 
can  exert  not  the  slightest  influence.  The  form  of  this  inter- 
est is  also  typical  for  the  peasant  of  the  present  time;  it 
marks  the  transition  from  a  total  lack  of  such  interests  to 
the  effort  to  influence  practically  the  political  and  social 
organization,  as  we  already  find  it  among  the  city  workers 
and  to  some  extent  among  the  peasants,  and  expressed 
in  socialistic,  nationalistic,  and  economic  associations. 

The  interest  in  plays  and  amusements  is  not  strong  in 
Walery,  and  is  never  so  in  peasants  of  his  age,  burdened  by 
the  heavy  task  of  Hfe.  Social  entertainments  are,  in  fact, 
the  only  form  of  recreation  which  a  peasant  knows — besides 
drinking  and  card-playing,  which  may  be  regarded  also  as 
forms  of  social  entertainment,  and  in  this  character  (not 
as  independent  amusements)  are  morally  permitted.  The 
variety  of  amusements  is  much  greater  among  city  workers. 
Nevertheless  in  the  case  of  Walery  we  find  a  relatively  new 

i|   amusement — photography. 

Walery's  purely  theoretic  interests  are  turned  toward 
natural,  particularly  cosmic,  facts.     It  may  be  noted  that 

'\  in  general  popular  books  on  natural  sciences  are  the  favorite 
reading  of  the  peasants. 


330 


PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 


We  notice  an  absolute  lack  of  one  interest  which  prevails 
in  many  other  series — the  one  which  we  may  term  the 
"climbing"  tendency.  Walery  does  not  try  to  get  into  a 
higher  class,  although  the  fact  that  he  is  a  skilled  workman 
(gardener)  and  the  relative  degree  of  his  instruction  would 
enable  him  to  do  this  more  easily  than  could  many  others. 

The  lack  of  this  tendency  may  be  explained  by  the 
exceptional  social  conservatism  prevailing  among  the 
peasant  nobility  of  this  province.  Living  for  centuries  in 
analogous  conditions,  with  very  few  opportunities  to  rise 
to  the  level  of  the  middle  nobility,  particularly  since  a 
political  career  was  closed  after  Poland's  partition,  and 
economic  advance  hindered  by  overpopulation,  poor  soil, 
and  lack  of  industry  in  this  province,  lacking  the  incentive 
to  advance  which  was  given  to  the  peasants  proper  by 
liberation  and  later  by  endowment  with  land,  -the  peasant 
nobility  is  more  stabilized  in  its  class-isolation  than  any 
other  of  the  old  classes.  And  there  is  little  to  achieve 
within  the  community  by  climbing.  Walery  tries  perhaps 
to  be  the  first  of  his  village,  but  rather  by  personal  qualities 
than  by  social  or  economic  influence. 

He  has  some  pride  in  his  work,  in  his  house,  and  his 
garden-products,  but  no  vanity.  And  in  general,  the 
problem  of  social  hierarchy  seems  hardly  to  exist  for  him. 
No  determined  attitude  toward  the  higher  classes  is  ever 
expressed. 

The  only  other  type  more  or  less  definitely  outlined  in 
these  letters  is  that  of  the  father.  His  fundamental  feature,  ■ 
by  which  his  whole  behavior  is  explained,  is  the  powerful 
desire  to  live  a  personal  life  up  to  the  end,  in  spite  of  the 
tradition  which  requires  the  father  to  be  the  bearer  of  the 
familial  idea  and  to  resign  his  claims  on  the  control  of 
economic  and  general  familial  matters  when  he  is  parth' 
invalided  by  age  and  unable  to  manage  those  matters  for 


WROBLEWSKI  series  331 

the  greatest  benefit  of  the  family.''  In  his  struggle  against 
this  tradition,  the  old  Wroblewski  finally  has  no  course  other 
than  to  resign  completely  his  place  in  his  own  family.  In 
fact  he  becomes  a  stranger,  and  can  thus  live  an  unimpeded 
personal  life.  By  marriage  he  gets,  it  is  true,  into  another 
family,  but  the  latter  has  no  claims  upon  him. 

The  other  characters,  as  far  as  determined  in  the  material, 
seem  perfectly  clear. 

THE  FAMILY  WROBLEWSKI 

Wroblewski,  a  farmer 
His  second  wife 
"Klimusia,"  his  third  wife 
Walery,  his  son 
Jozef,  his  son 

Antoni  (Antos),  his  son  (lives  in  America) 
Konstanty  (Kostus),  his  son  (lives  in  America) 
Feliks,  his  son  (lives  in  Russia) 
Walery's  first  wife 
Anna  P.,  Walery's  second  wife 
Feliks'  wife 
Jozef's  wife  


Olcia  (Aleksandra),  daughter  of  Walery's  first  wife 
Edward 

Walery's  children  by  his  first  wife 


Waclaw 
Jozia 
Michal ' 


jy_^y^   PROM  WALERY  AND   JOZEF  WROBLEWSKI  IN  POLAND, 

TO  THEIR  BROTHERS  IN  AMERICA:    1 7-54,  FROM  WALERY; 

55-57,    FROM   JOZEF. 

JJI7  Lapy,  January  2,  igo6 

....  Dear  Brothers:   [Usual  greetings  and  generalities  about 

health.]     Your  letter  of  October  29  I  received  on  December  30.     It 

traveled  for  about  2  months,  and  perhaps  it  lay  in  the  post-offices, 
'Ir  this  regard  there  is  a  striking  likeness  between  him^e'f  and  Francis/.ka 

Kozlowska  (cf.  that  series),  with  this  difference,  that  Kozlowska,  as  a  woman,  was 

never  called  upon  to  be  the  representative  of  the  familial  idea. 


35^ 


PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 


because  there  has  been  a  strike.  All  the  trains  stopped  for  more  than 
a  week,  and  afterward  in  the  post  and  telegraph  service  there  was  a 
strike  for  3  weeks.  "Strike"  means  in  our  language  "bezrobocie" 
and  in  Russian  "zabastowka"  ["stopping  of  work"].  It  happens 
now  very  often  among  us,  particularly  in  factories.  Workmen  put 
forward  their  demands.  They  want  higher  pay  and  a  shorter  working- 
day;  they  refuse  to  work  more  than  8  hours  a  day.  Now  everything 
has  become  terribly  dear,  particularly  with  shoemakers  and  tailors. 
....  Even  now  there  is  no  order  in  the  country,  the  whole  time 
tumults  about  liberty  are  going  on,  because  on  October  30  the  Highest 
Manifesto  was  proclaimed  concerning  personal  inviolability,  liberty 
of  the  press,  etc.  In  a  word,  by  favor  of  the  monarch  we  have  more 
liberty,  because  we  are  citizens  of  the  country,  not  as  formerly,  when 
we  were  only  subjects;  now  we  are  all  equal  in  the  country.  Papers 
are  published  without  censure,  so  they  now  write  more  truth,  only 
all  this  is  not  yet  fixed.  The  liberty  of  speech  has  also  been  given  by 
the  Highest  Manifesto,  and  for  this  reason  different  songs  are  sung, 

as  "Boze,  cos  Polsk§ "     In  short,  thanks  to  God,  conditions 

would  not  be  bad,  but  still  much  trouble  can  happen,  because  there 
is  no  peace  in  the  land,  and  even  terrible  things  happen,  as  in  Moscow 
and  many  other  towns ' 

'  The  revolution  of  1905-6  contributed  greatly  to  the  development  of  social 
consciousness  and  interest  in  political  problems  among  the  peasants.  Up  to  this 
time  those  interests  in  Russian  Poland  were  developed  artificially,  by  patriotic 
agitation  from  the  intelligent  classes.  Indeed,  the  relative  simplicity  and  isolation 
of  peasant  life,  together  with  the  bureaucratic  organization  of  the  Russian  state 
made  it  hardly  possible  for  the  peasant  to  understand  that  there  was  any  relation 
between  the  real  interests  of  his  life  and  the  more  general  political  problems.  The 
communal  self-government  allowed,  within  certain  limits,  the  settlement  of  most 
of  the  problems  of  everj'day  life,  but  outside  of  the  commune  the  peasant  had  no 
influence  upon  social  and  political  life,  and  thus  all  the  phenomena  whose  source 
lay  in  the  state  and  in  the  economic  organization — law,  military  service,  taxes, 
school-organization,  official  language,  means  of  communication,  prices  of  natural 
and  manufactured  products — appeared  to  him  as  regulated  once  and  forever  by  a 
superior  and  undetermined  force.  His  attitude  toward  them  was  more  or  less  like 
his  attitude  toward  the  weather — fundamentally  passive  resignation,  mth  some- 
times an  attempt  to  influence  with  prayer  or  gift  the  powers  in  their  treatment  of  the 
individual's  own  sphere  of  interests.  (Cf.  Introduction:  "Social  Environment".) 
The  revolution  of  1905-6  showed  the  peasant  that  this  assumed  order  is  modifiable 
and  may  be  influenced  directly  and  in  its  organization  by  human  will;  it  showed  at 
the  same  time  unknown  and  imsuspected  relations  between  many  apparently 
abstract  problems  and  the  facts  of  everyday  life. 


WROBLEWSKI  series  333 

At  last  I  received  your  letter  which  I  awaited  so  impatiently. 
....  It  is  not  right  not  to  write  for  so  long  a  time;  for  more  than 
half  a  year  we  had  no  news  from  you.  We  don't  ask  you  to  send  us 
money,  because  we  still  live  as  we  can,  but  we  request  you  to  send 
letters  more  often;  other  people  send  them  every  month  or  even  more 
often.  Although  they  don't  know  how  to  write  themselves,  still 
they  give  news  and  ask  for  information  about  what  is  going  on  at 
home.  I  believe  that  you  are  interested  to  know,  particularly  now. 
....  Jozef  was  somewhat  offended  by  your  letter.  It  was  impos- 
sible to  avoid  it.  I  had  to  give  him  the  letter  to  read;  if  I  had  not,  he 
would  have  said  that  we  have  a  secret,  and  this  ought  not  to  be 
among  us.'  As  to  your  coming,  do  as  you  wish,  only  reflect  about  it 
and  write  us  positively  this  or  that,  because  the  farm  cannot  remain 
as  it  is  now.  If  you  don't  intend  to  come,  Feliks  will  agree  to  return, 
but  I  believe  that  he  is  too  weak  for  farm-work.  Nevertheless  there 
seems  to  be  no  other  way,  because  it  will  be  difficult  to  repair  the 
losses.  I  intend  also  to  leave  my  position  soon  and  to  stay  at  home, 
because  it  is  very  difficult  [to  be  employed  and  to  farm  together]. 
It  will  be  worse  at  home  for  some  years,  I  know  it  surely,  but  later 
on  perhaps  it  will  get  better,  if  our  Lord  God  helps,  because  "It  is 
better  to  be  in  a  sheep-skin  with  God  than  in  a  fur-cloak  without 
God,"  and  "As  Kuba  behaves  toward  God,  so  God  behaves  toward 
Kuba."*  I  sold  the  oxen  in  the  fall  and  I  bought  one  cow.  I  intend 
to  buy  one  more  in  order  to  have  4.  I  intend  to  sell  one  horse  and  to 
buy  another,  because  this  one  is  bad  for  plowing,  and  I  intend  to 
plow  with  horses.  I  will  keep  two  cows  for  myself  and  sell  the  milk 
of  the  two  others.  I  bought  also  7  geese;  I  don't  know  how  they  will 
breed.     I  intend  also  to  carry  out  my  plan  of  building  a  house. 

'  This  is  the  last,  reasoned  explanation  of  the  original  and  unreasoned  fact 
that  the  letter  is  not  individual  but  familial  property.  In  this  fact  is  to  be 
found  the  fundamental  function  of  the  peasant  letter  in  general— retaining  or  re- 
establishing the  connection  of  the  mdividual  with  the  family-group  when  this  con- 
nection has  been  weakened  by  separation. 

'  The  confidence  in  God  as  shown  in  the  belief  that  God  will  interfere  practi- 
cally in  human  business  is  naturally  more  developed  in  isolated  communities  with 
little  practical  energy  and  a  slow  rate  of  life,  and  decreases  near  the  industrial 
centers  and  in  active  and  evolving  communities.  It  is  of  interest  that  Walery, 
himself  a  very  active  person,  still  retains  the  attitude  of  religious  fatalism  perfectly 
adapted  to  the  low  mtensity  of  the  practical  life  of  his  environment  but  unadajjlcd 
to  his  own  character. 


334  PRBIARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

Edward  is  going  this  year  to  school  in  Lapy ;  I  pay  now  for  his  learning 
50  copecks  monthly,  but  when  I  leave  my  position  [as  gardner  of  the 
governmental  railway-station]  probably  they  will  demand  more. 
Both  my  horses  had  the  strangles,  and  now  they  look  bad.  The 
winter   up   to    Christmas   was   light.     Now,    since  New  Year,  the 

weather  is  colder;    it  is  already  possible  to  go  on  sledges I 

don't  remember  whether  I  have  written  about  building  a  church  in 
Lapy.     They  intend  to  build  first  a  chapel,  and  later  on,  when  they 

have  money,  a  church In  our  mill  we  grind  corn,  father  for 

himself  and  I  for  myself,  when  the  one  or  the  other  has  time.  Now  I 
send  you  a  salutation  from  us,  and  the  children  salute  you — Alek- 
sandra,  Waclawa,  Edward,  Jozefa  and  Michal.     We  wish  you  every 

good.     May  God  grant  it. 

W.  Wroblewski 


18  February  8,  1906 

Dear  Brothers  Antos  and  Kostus:  ....  Now  I  inform  you, 
that  I  will  probably  remain  at  my  post,  although  I  am  not  very  glad 
because  I  don't  know  when  I  shall  be  able  to  do  something  for  myself 
[build  the  house].  Every  year  I  hope  to  do  it  and  I  cannot.  Now  also 
I  was  sure  that  I  should  remain  at  home,  and  a  week  ago  I  thanked 
for  [resigned]  my  place.  They  gave  me  one  day  for  reflection,  and 
after  this  they  were  to  say  something  to  me.  One  day,  then  another, 
then  a  week  passed  and  they  said  nothing.  I  was  sure  that  they 
were  trying  to  find  somebody  else.  I  was  sure  because  last  year  it 
seemed  as  if  they  intended  to  change  me,  although  when  I  thanked 
them  they  said  that  they  were  satisfied  with  me.  After  more  than  a 
week,  when  I  went  to  the  office  for  a  ticket  to  go  to  Warsaw,  the  chief 
asked  me  whether  I  intended  to  remain  or  not.  I  said  that  I  could 
remain  on  different  conditions,  but  I  did  not  hope  to  obtain  them. 
I  asked  for  some  improvements  in  the  service,  and  moreover  for  fuel. 
The  chief  said  that  he  was  willing  to  grant  it.  If  so,  I  will  remain,  but 
I  am  not  sure,  because  meanwhile  it  is  only  a  promise;  if  they  don't 
fulfil  it,  I  will  not  serve. 

Everything  else  is  unchanged.  Father  still  provides  for  himself 
at  home.  He  has  threshed  all  his  grain,  but  he  has  not  yet  brought 
the  hay  from  the  riverside,  and  now  it  is  impossible  to  get  through 
to  the  riverside,  and  I  don't  know  how  it  will  be,  because  now  we  have 
successively  two  days  of  frost  and  three  days  of  rain.     But  when 


[ 

I 

WRObLEWSKI  series  335 

summer  comes  I  don't  know  how  we  shall  do.  I  don't  know  whether 
Feliks  will  come  or  not,  and  father  probably  won't  be  able  to  keep 
the  farm  alone.  If  Feliks  does  not  come,  I  don't  know  what  will 
result,  because  father  does  not  promise  to  work  any  longer  on  the  farm. 
Perhaps  he  will  finally  sell  it,  although  he  could  take  somebody  to  help 
him,  because  he  has  money  enough,  but  he  does  not  intend  to  do  it. 
....  On  my  farm  there  is  also  nobody  to  work.  I  thought  that  I 
should  do  it  myself,  but  now  nothing  is  certain;   on  the  other  hand, 

I  want  very  much  this  little  money  which  I  can  earn Now  the 

church  in  Plonka  has  been  robbed The  thief  stole  into  the 

church  in  the  evening,  was  shut  in  there,  took  the  money  and  fled 

through  the  window We  have  no  weddings  here,  although 

it  is  carnival 

W.  Wroblewski 


19  April  2,  1906 

Dear  Brothers:  ....  We  will  divide  with  you  in  thought 
at  least  the  consecrated  food  [swi^cone].  It  is  a  pity  that  you  will 
probably  have  no  swigcone,  because  you  are  surely  far  away  from  the 
church.  Well,  it  cannot  be  helped ;  you  will  probably  only  remember 
our  country  and  nothing  more.'  But  perhaps  our  Lord  God  will 
allow  you  to  return  happily;  then  we  shall  rejoice 

As  to  the  money,  when  I  receive  it  I  will  do  as  you  wrote;  I  will 
give  10  roubles  to  father  and  will  keep  by  me  the  remaining  240,  or  I 
will  put  it  somewhere  until  you  come  back.  Meanwhile  my  children 
thank  their  uncle  for  the  remembrance  and  the  promise.  Spring 
approaches,  but  although  it  is  already  April,  weather  is  bad,  it  snows 
every  day.  Some  people  have  seen  storks  already;  they  must  be 
wretched,  walking  upon  white  [snow].^  As  I  wrote,  I  have  sold  ihc 
oxen  and  bought  a  cow;  I  wanted  also  to  buy  another,  but  there  has 
been  no  opportunity,  because  cows  are  bad  and  very  dear.  I  have 
sold  also  the  horse  which  you  bought,  for  62  roubles,  and  I  have 

'The  Easter  wishes,  dividing  the  "gwi?cone"  with  the  thought  of  absent 
relatives,  are  evidently  means  of  preserving  the  family  connection  in  spite  of 
separation,  and  in  the  particular  form  which  this  connection  assumes  in  group- 
festivals. 

»  An  example  of  the  sympathy  of  the  peasant  with  animals.  The  peasant 
stories  show  that  this  sympathy  developed  to  a  very  high  degree.  Spontaneous  to 
some  degree,  it  is  also  a  vestige  of  the  naturalistic  religious  system. 


336  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

bought  another  for  64  roubles.  He  is  4  years  old,  of  the  same  color 
as  the  other;  it  would  even  be  difficult  to  distinguish  them, 
because  the  movement  is  also  the  same,  only  the  other  had  white 
fetlocks  on  his  hind  legs,  and  this  one  is  a  little  longer.  I  intend 
to  plow  with  him  and  the  two-year-old.  Adam  Drop  from  Plusniaki 
promises  to  plow.  I  bought  this  horse  in  Skwarki  in  the  neighbor- 
hood where  Frania  Perkoska,  the  daughter  of  Wojciech,  is  now 
with  her  husband.  I  don't  know  whether  I  have  wTitten  you,  she 
married  Kleofas  Golaszewski.     When  you  go  from  us  to  Sokoly,  you 

have  to  turn  near  their  barn,  at  the  left,  on  the  corner '     The 

wedding  was  in  the  last  days  of  carnival  and  we  were  there  at  dinner. 
During  the  dinner  I  played  on  the  phonograph  of  Jozik;  he  lent  me  it 
for  that  time.  He  bought  it  in  Warsaw  and  he  has  a  score  of  different 
songs  and  marches. 

Now  I  don't  know  whether  I  have  written  you  about  the  mis- 
fortune from  which  only  our  Lord  God  kept  our  father.  At  the  end 
of  the  carnival  thieves  came  to  steal  horses,  and  father  slept  in  the 
barn  near  the  granary.  He  heard  something  tapping  and  got  up  and 
stepped  out  of  the  door.  He  saw  something  black  under  the  wall 
and  called,  "W^ho  is  there?"  The  man  shot  with  a  revolver,  but 
happily  he  missed.  They  ran.  There  were  two  of  them.  On  the 
next  day  people  found  the  bullet  in  the  door.  Father  made  a  noise, 
and  came  to  us  and  awoke  us  and  other  people,  but  they  were  not 
to  be  found.  They  went  to  Ptonka,  stole  a  horse  and  a  wagon  of 
grain  and  disappeared.  So  the  misfortune  ended.  At  present  there 
are  terrible  thefts  and  robberies  in  our  country.  Highwaymen 
attack  people  on  the  roads  and  rob  them,  and  in  towms  robbers  come 
to  houses,  kill  or  threaten  with  revolvers,  take  whatever  they  can  and 
usually  disappear  without  any  trace.  And  all  this  goes  on  since  the 
strikes  of  the  last  year.  IMany  factories  stopped,  workmen  were 
turned  out,  and  that  is  the  cause  of  the  present  robberies.^ 

'  This  kind  of  detailed  information  reminding  the  absent  member  of  the  family 
of  the  environment  in  which  the  family  lives  has  CN^dently  the  function  of  keeping 
up  the  old  common  "universe  of  discourse"  and  thus  maintaining  the  familial 
connection. 

^  The  real  cause  was  evidently  different.  Although  lack  of  work  may  have 
played  a  certain  role  in  recruiting  the  bands  of  robbers,  the  fundamental  reason 
was  the  disorganization  of  social  and  moral  life  brought  by  the  new  ideals,  which 
for  the  mass  of  the  people  were  not  equivalent  to  the  traditional  social  constraint 
in  organizing  practical  life.     (Cf.  notes  to  Jasinski  series,  Nos.  757  ff.) 


WROBLEWSKI  series  337 

After  the  holidays  brother  Feliks  is  coming  to  the  farm,  but 
mainly  because  he  has  no  church  there  and  nowhere  to  teach  the 
children.  But  I  believe  that  it  will  be  too  difficult  for  him  to  work 
on  a  farm.  Well,  but  he  cannot  remain  there  either,  because  of  what 
I  have  said. 

Now  I  inform  you  that  in  our  holy  Roman  Cathohc  faith  a  new 
sect,  heresy  or  falling-off  has  arisen,  and  the  priests  themselves  produce 
it.  The  papers  write  that  there  are  50  to  70  such  priests  who  call 
themselves  "Maryawitas,"  and  the  people  have  nicknamed  them 
"Mankietniks."  They  regard  some  girl,  a  "tertiary,"  as  a  saint, 
She  dictates  to  them  her  different  visions,  and  they  believe  her;  they 
won't  listen  to  their  bishops,  and  they  proclaim  a  doctrine  about  her — 
that  she  was  immaculately  conceived.  They  have  drawn  some 
parishes  to  their  side;  people  believe  their  erroneous  teaching.  This 
happens  in  the  neighborhood  of  Ptock,  on  the  other  side  of  Warsaw 
from  us.  Those  priests  say  three  masses  every  day.  The  bishop 
sent  priests  to  close  and  seal  these  churches,  but  the  Maryawitas 
beat  the  true  priests  and  did  not  allow  them  to  close  [the  churches]. 
All  this  is  going  on  at  present.  It  is  a  she-devil,  as  a  bishop  writes,  a 
certain  Felicia  Kozlowska,  seamstress  of  priest-clothes,  and  therefore 
it  is  clear  that  young  priests  favor  her.  It  is  a  horror  to  read  in 
papers  what  is  going  on  there ;  perhaps  the  end  of  the  world  is  not  far 
away.^ 

I  wrote  you  what  I  could  about  our  country,  although  in  short, 
for  if  I  wanted  to  write  in  detail,  I  should  need  many  sheets  of  paper. 
Now,  please,  write  us  about  the  mines.  How  are  the  passages  to 
them  made  under  the  earth  ?  Are  there  any  props  ?  What  happens 
when  coal  is  dug  out — whether  they  [the  passages]  fall  in  or  stand  ?     In 

short,  whatever  may  be  new  for  us " 

W.  Wroblewski 

'The  sect  of  the  "Maryawitas"  represented  the  first  heresy  in  which  the 
peasants  had  taken  part  for  centuries.  We  shall  have  more  details  of  tliis  in 
Part  II.  The  "end  of  the  world"  is  assumed  whenever  any  great  and  gen- 
eral demoralization  is  noticed.  It  is  of  course  dependent  upon  the  eschato- 
logical  Christian  ideas. 

» Here,  as  in  many  other  similar  questions,  it  seems  as  if  the  interest  of  the 
writer  were  purely  objective,  i.e.,  not  determined  by  the  fact  that  the  conditions 
about  which  he  asks  are  those  in  which  his  relatives  live.  But  the  cjjcci  is  evidently 
the  constitution  of  a  new  common  field  of  intellectual  life  and  thus  the  main- 
tenance of  the  group-connection,  whether  this  was  the  conscious  aim  or  not. 


338  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

20  April  25,  1906 

Dear  Brothers:  ....  I  have  remained  in  service.  Here  we 
have  full  spring;  people  sow  in  the  field  oats,  peas  and  potatoes,  trees 
blossom,  storks,  swallows  and  other  birds  have  come  back.  I  am 
waiting  now  for  brother  Feliks.  He  has  already  thanked  for  [resigned] 
his  place  and  is  waiting  only  for  his  pay  and  tickets  for  the  journey. 
They  will  come  very  soon.  Father  looks  for  help  every  day.  Now 
I  send  you  some  photographs  made  [by  myself]  at  Easter.  [Descrip- 
tion of  the  photographs.]  We  know  from  the  papers  that  a  terrible 
misfortune  has  happened  in  California,  in  the  city  San  Francisco. 
May  God  keep  us  and  you  from  this!     [Salutations.] 

W.  Wroblewski 


21  May  12,  1906 

Dear  Brother:  ....  I  don't  wonder  that  you  wrote  so  [being 
ill],  but  I  don't  know  why  Kostus  ....  presented  me  to  you  in 
such  a  manner,  as  if  I  had  done  some  mischief  to  him.  He  ought  to 
understand  that  you,  being  sick,  could  not  bear  all  this;  in  other 
conditions  [you  would  look  upon  it]  as  a  trifle.  But  in  human  life 
the  road  i§  not  always  strewn  with  flowers;  there  are  many  different 
thorns  upon  it.' 

Now  you  know,  probably,  that  I  remain  at  home  on  my  farm. 
Work  is  going  on  in  the  field,  we  are  planting  potatoes,  and  when  we 
finish  planting,  we  will  set  to  building  the  house.  I  cannot  buy  that 
field  from  Tomasz  Pal.  After  a  long  reflection  he  said  finally,  that 
he  would  sell  it,  but  only  if  I  gave  him  150  roubles  for  the  field  near 
the  garden.  I  offered  him  80  roubles,  but  he  does  not  agree.  Later 
I  heard  from  his  servant  that  he  would  part  with  it  for  100  roubles,  but 
I  am  not  in  a  hurry,  because  it  would  be  too  expensive.  I  could  pay 
so  much  only  if  I  had  as  much  money  as  he  has. 

Now  I  inform  you  that  Jan  Gluchy  came  back  from  America  and 
intends  to  build  his  house  in  the  garden  near  Stas.  Before  he  came 
back,  his  wife  wanted  to  build  some  sort  of  shack,  but  Filus  did  not 

want  to  give  her  a  lot.     He  proposed  the  lot  near  my  garden 

but  it  was  too  small  for  her.  She  was  set  on  having  father  sell  her  an 
[adjacent]  bed,  but  I  did  not  wish  to  have  such  a  neighbor  so  near  and 

'  Allusion  to  some  incidents  which  we  cannot  determine,  as  we  have  only  the 
letters  written  to  Antoni,  not  those  to  Kostu§. 


WROBLEWSKI  series  33(, 

I  asked  father  not  to  sell;  I  was  ready  to  pay  it  myself.  But  father 
has  planted  it  himself.  Later  Filus  proposed  to  give  her  the  lot  near 
the  pond,  but  this  was  also  too  small  for  her,  because  there  also  she 
would  be  my  neighbor.  At  last,  after  much  begging,  he  gave  them 
the  lot  near  Stas  Laba,  and  there  they  will  build  their  house.  Now, 
as  people  say,  they  hang  dogs  upon  me  [abuse  me],  especially  Filus, 
because  Jan  got  the  best  of  it  in  getting  that  lot.' 

Now  as  to  the  marriage  of  Jozef,  our  brother.  I  went  with  Olcia 
to  the  wedding,  and  after  dinner  I  returned  home.  It  was  a  week 
before  the  end  of  the  carnival.  Now,  as  I  wrote  already,  he  lives 
with  his  wife  in  the  house  of  Stas  Gembiak,  and  our  father  took  a 
small  boy  from  Kozly  and  is  still  farming  himself.  Jozef  is  planting 
potatoes  for  himself  upon  a  part  of  father's  land.  I  have  now  a 
dispute  with  Feliks  Gembiak;  he  crawled  into  my  garden  behind  my 
house  and  plowed  the  part  of  the  garden  up  to  the  fence.  I  will 
write  you  later  how  this  ends. 

Spring  is  late  this  year,  trees  blossom  only  now,  and  last  year  they 
blossomed  at  St.  Wojciech  [St.  Adalbert's  day].  Now  I  have  nothing 
more  of  interest  to  write,  only  I  inform  you,  that  our  Michalek  began 
to  walk  on  the  first  day  of  Easter,  and  he  says  that  Little  God  ordered 
him  to  walk,  because  He  rose  from  the  dead.     Now  he  walks  well 

enough,  and  he  would  like  to  walk  the  whole  day  in  the  yard 

W.  Wroblewski 

22  June  30,  1906 

....  Dear  Brothers:  ....  First  I  inform  you,  that  here  in 
Plonka  the  basement  for  the  new  church  has  been  made  already; 
in  a  week,  on  Sunday,  the  consecration  of  the  headstone  will  be 
celebrated.  Now  everybody  is  bringing  offerings,  whatever  he  can. 
If  it  is  not  very  difficult  for  you,  I  beg  you  to  send  a  little  money.  The 
priest  proclaims  every  Sunday  who  gave  and  what  the  offering  was.' 
In  Lapy  divine  service  is  celebrated  in  the  chapel  as  in  every  church. 
They  will  also  build  a  church. 

'  Most  of  the  quarrels  of  neighbors  are  the  result  of  the  system  according  to 
which  all  the  old  villages  are  built,  and  which  makes  any  increase  of  the  area 
occupied  by  the  single  farm-yard  impossible  except  by  buying  from  a  neighbor  an 
adjacent  lot  behind  the  yard.     (Cf.  Nos.  26,  39,  4°-) 

nt  is  a  question  of  family  pride.  By  sending  an  offering  the  brothers  in  America 
would  prove  that  they  still  consider  themselves  members  of  the  family  and  com- 
munity and  at  the  same  time  that  they  are  in  good  circumstances. 


34° 


PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 


Now,  on  Corpus  Christi  day  in  Bialystok  there  was  a  pogrom  of 
the  Jews.  Two  processions  walked  around  the  city,  one  ours,  the 
other  [Greek]  orthodox.  Some  persons  began  to  fire  from  a  house 
with  revolvers  on  the  orthodox  procession.'  Panic  arose  among  the 
people,  but  it  is  said  that  nobody  was  killed  by  these  shots.  The 
army  was  called  and  fired  at  the  windows;  whoever  looked  at 
the  street  [was  shot  at].  Other  robbers  rushed  to  Jewish  shops;  they 
broke  and  stole  whatever  they  could  and  killed  Jews.  About  600 
Jews  were  killed  and  many  wounded.  Along  some  streets  all  the 
shops  were  ruined.  Next  day  in  Lapy  local  vagabonds  destroyed 
a  few  shops,  but  they  are  sitting  now  in  prison.  The  Jews  fled 
wherever  they  could,  and  so  it  ended.  Now  we  have  a  state  of  war; 
the  army  is  stationed  everywhere. 

Yesterday  we  had  a  storm  with  lightning;  rain  poured  down,  and 
the  hay  is  upon  marshes.  People  began  to  mow  grass  although  water 
stood  upon  the  meadows,  but  now  the  hay  will  float.  In  the  river 
water  is  also  high,  and  it  is  impossible  to  mow.  Probably  there  will 
be  no  hay  this  year,  but  in  the  fields  everything  is  growing  beautifully. 
In  a  week,  if  we  have  fine  weather,  people  will  begin  to  harvest  rye. 
This  year  the  spring  has  been  warm,  and  the  harvest  will  be  early. 
I  intend  to  go  to  Cz^stochowa  [on  a  pilgrimage]  with  my  wife  and 
Edward  about  this  time,  but  I  don't  know  how  soon  the  tickets  will 
come 

Now  I  inform  you  how  farming  is  going  on  at  home.  Well,  it 
turns  out  that  Feliks  cannot  get  along  with  the  old  people.  Although 
he  does  work,  he  plows  and  carts  manure,  in  short,  he  does  everything 
necessary  in  farming,  yet  under  the  management  of  the  old  man  it  is 
impossible  to  work.  He  must  dress  himself  and  his  children,  and 
live,  but  the  old  man  does  not  give  any  money;  he  keeps  everything 
himself.  He  does  not  even  give  possible  food.  He  wants  to  drive 
them  away  in  this  way  the  soonest  possible,  and  that  will  probably 
happen  very  soon,  and  the  old  man  will  again  sell  [parts  of  his  land] 
and  gratify  himself  and  the  old  woman.  It  will  be  enough  for  them 
both  [the  land  will  last  as  long  as  they  last].  And  now  the  quarreling 
is  incessant.  "Why  did  they  come  ?"  But  he  wanted  them  to  come, 
because  he  said,  "I  sell  the  ground  because  there  is  nobody  to  work." 

'  It  is  known  that  these  shots  were  a  provocation  from  Russian  hooligans, 
preparatory  to  the  pogrom.  They  were  directed  at  the  Russian  procession  in 
order  to  assure  the  sympathy  or  at  least  the  passivity  of  the  Russian 
authorities. 


WROBLEWSKI  series  341 

And  now,  "Do  as  you  please  and  get  your  living  where  you  please!" 
So  Feliks  will  be  obliged  to  seek  a  job,  and  father  will  farm  on  in  the 
old  way,  until  there  will  not  be  a  single  lot  of  land  left.  If  he  lives 
long,  then  finally  a  bag  and  a  stick  only  will  remain  from  this  farming, 
and  that  will  be  our  only  inheritance,  because  there  is  no  possibility  of 

getting  along  with  father 

W.  Wroblewski 


23  July  5,  1906 

Dear  Brother:  ....  I  mentioned  about  brother  Feliks,  how 
they  are  farming  at  home.  Now  I  will  write  you  still  more.  As  I 
wrote  already,  father  gave  him  the  farm  to  manage,  but  this  lasted 
perhaps  for  two  days;  then  father  took  it  again  into  his  hands.  And 
then  began  the  misery  and  quarreling.  Feliks  complains  that  he 
was  wronged,  that  he  lost  his  employment,  and  now  father  gives  him 
nothing.  He  was  angry  with  me,  because  I  wrote  him  that  father 
intended  to  give  him  [the  management  of  the  farm]  and  now  he  does 
not  give  it,  or  rather  he  gave  it,  but  took  it  away.  I  began  also  to 
claim  for  their  sake,  that  father  was  acting  badly — first  so,  then 
otherwise.  Then  father  said,  "If  it  is  my  fault,  I  will  will  them 
Kopciowizna  [some  part  of  the  farm].  Let  them  work  and  help  me 
to  the  end,  then  they  will  have  this  as  a  reward."  I  did  not  oppose 
this  strongly,  only  I  said  that  I  could  not  decide  alone,  but  that  I  must 
write  to  you  and  ask  what  you  say,  and  meanwhile  wait.  So  I  wrote, 
but  I  have  no  answer  yet,  and  they  did  not  wait.  At  home  they 
quarrel  continually;  Feliks  complains  about  his  misery,  that  he  has 
enough  work  but  not  enough  to  eat— that  father  gives  them  nothing 
to  eat.  Feliksowa  [wife  of  Feliks]  comes  to  me  several  times  a  day, 
and  every  time  with  a  new  complaint.  Things  went  so  far  that 
Feliks  and  father  took  knives  and  axes.  And  she  runs  freciucntly  to 
me,  saying  once  that  father  wants  to  beat  them,  then  again  that  he 
wants  to  drive  them  away  from  his  home  with  hunger.  Evidently,  I 
did  not  praise  father  for  all  this.  But  whatever  I  said  against  father, 
Feliksowa  reported  it  so  to  father  that  I  [seem  to]  incite  her  against 
him,  and  she  complained  to  father  against  me.     At  last  all  their 

knavery    and    meanness    appeared    clearly When    brother 

Jozef  came,  he  told  me  that  when  they  quarreled  with  father,  father 
gave  the  whole  secret  up  and  confessed  it  himself.  He  said,  "I 
wronged  the  other  [children]  and  willed  you  Kopciowizna,  and  this  is 


342 


PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 


your  gratitude  ?"'  Up  to  this  time  all  was  done  secretly;  we  did  not 
know  anything  about  it,  neither  I  nor  Jozef.  Then  I  understood  the 
whole  thing  in  a  different  way,  and  I  told  Feliks  everything  about  their 
meanness.  I  brought  their  anger  upon  me;  they  were  provoked 
with  me  for  telling  them,  "  You  have  robbed  us  all,  because  you  have 
done  it  secretly."^  He  said  that  father  had  forbidden  them  to  tell. 
They  circumvented  father  in  some  way  during  the  fair  in  Sokoly,  and 
father  willed  [the  land]  to  them  in  such  a  way,  that  now  he  will  own 
this  up  to  his  death,  and  after  his  death  it  will  be  theirs,  as  a  gift  from 
father,  the  remainder  of  the  farm  to  be  divided  equally.  After  that 
they  quit  boarding  with  father  and  yesterday  they  moved  over  to 
Jozef  Pilat,  and  live  there.  What  happens  later  I  will  inform  you 
in  due  time.  I  hear  that  they  plan  a  law-suit  against  father  and  me 
for  indemnity  for  their  pretended  wrongs.  They  will  try  to  prove  by 
my  letter  that  I  wrote  them  to  come,  that  father  intended  to  give 
them  the  farm  to  manage,  and  now  he  refuses,  that  he  gave  it,  but 
took  it  away,  etc.,  and  so  they  are  wronged.  But  I  wrote  him,  ''If 
you  have  to  come,  reflect  well  about  it."  He  answered,  "  I  must  move 
to  my  country  because  of  my  children."  Well,  and  he  came,  making 
a  good  move !  I  told  him  that  he  can  now  lie  lazy  for  two  years,  since 
he  has  already  [in  the  bequest]  earned  his  full  wages;    he  need  not 

search  for  an  employment Please  write  us  your  opinion  about 

this  affair.  Perhaps  this  letter  will  find  itself  among  the  documents 
of  Feliks?  [Perhaps  you  will  concert  with  Feliks  against  me  and 
send  him  this  letter.]     But  I  don't  believe  it. 

I  remain  respectfully  yours,  but  writing  always  the  truth 

W.  Wroblewski 


24  July  27,  1906 

Dear  Brother:  ....  On  July  23 — a  day  which  will  remain 
forever  memorable  for  us — I  was  with  my  wife  and  Edward  in  Cz^sto- 
chowa.     It  is  worth  seeing.     I  don't  know  whether  I  shall  have  such 

'  This  act  of  the  old  man  was  evidently  done  with  the  intention  of  assuring 
himself  of  the  alliance  of  at  least  one  son  against  the  others  and  of  getting  rid  of 
his  control  without  making  him  an  enemy.  It  proves  that  the  old  man  did  not 
feel  his  position  very  strong  morally,  although  he  had  legally  full  right  to  do  as 
he  pleased  with  his  farm. 

'  The  secrecy  is  particularly  bad,  because  to  the  economic  wrong  is  added  a 
social  wrong — destruction  of  the  familial  solidarity. 


WRCBLEWSKI  series  343 

an  opportunity  again;  it  was  the  first  time,  and  probably  also  the 
last,  for  it  is  far  enough  from  us.  But  it  would  be  worth  seeing 
once  more.  Well,  it  will  be  as  it  pleases  our  Lord  God,  whether  He 
will  grant  us  the  opportunity  to  be  in  a  locality  so  renowned  by  its 
miracles,  or  not.  Thanks  be  to  God  that  we  visited  it  at  least  once 
in  our  life. 

Now  I  inform  you  about  Jan  Gluchy.  He  is  in  New  York  and 
sends  money  for  his  wife.  Not  long  ago  he  sent  to  my  address  210 
roubles;  I  received  it  for  her.  Smaller  sums  he  sends  directly  to  her, 
and  wants  to  send  everything  through  me,  but  I  don't  wish  to  have 

trouble  about  other  people's  money '     Now  I  send  you  one 

photograph,  although  a  bad  one,  of  the  church  of  Plonka,  taken  on  the 

day  of  the  consecration  of  the  basement On  the  same  day  a 

new  cemetery  was  consecrated.  [Description  of  the  cemetery.]  Now 
I  inform  you  that  we  have  already  harvested  the  rye.  The  weather 
now  is  good,  dry,  even  too  dry.     Only  now  we  have  begun  to  mow 

summer  grain  and  hay The  crops  are  mediocre,  the  potatoes 

won't  be  so  good  as  last  year 

Now  I  inform  you  about  home  and  the  conflict  with  Feliks.  If  you 
received  my  letter,  you  know  already  how  it  was  about  the  willing 
of  Kopciowizna — how  they  did  it  secretly  with  father,  then  how  they 
quarreled  with  father,  how  he  moved  to  the  house  of  Jozef  Pilat. 
Now  she  remains  here  with  her  children,  and  he  went  to  the  old  place 
in  search  of  employment.  He  does  not  write  me  anything,  because 
we  are  angry  with  each  other.  I  told  him  that  such  things  ought  not 
to  be  done  by  cunning,  but  that  he  could  have  done  all  this  so  that 
everybody  might  know.  He  excuses  himself,  on  the  ground  that 
father  forbade  him  to  mention  anything  to  us  about  his  having  willed 
[the  land]  to  them.  But  even  now  I  don't  know  whether  there  is  in 
this  will  any  mention  about  the  mill;  probably  not,  and  then  I  must 
move  it  away  from  that  lot.  Father  is  farming  as  he  did  formerly ;  he 
hires  harvesters  and  drives  the  crops  from  the  field,  but  I  don't  know 
how  long  this  will  last.  When  the  old  man  goes  to  bed  I  don't  know 
how  he  will  do  the  farming.  Feliks  has  received  his  part  already,  and 
if  the  old  man  does  not  change  it,  he  will  still  receive  an  equal  part 
with  us.     What  ought  we  to  do  ?    I  ask  you  beforehand,  how  are  wc 

'  Gluchy  evidently  distrusts  the  ability  of  his  wife  to  manage  the  money. 
In  such  cases  the  man  in  America  attempts  to  exert  a  control  over  the  wife  through 
the  medium  of  relatives  and  friends. 


344  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

to  act?  In  my  opinion  he  ought  to  have  only  this  lot  and  nothing 
more,  and  father  ought  to  divide  the  remainder  among  us.  Judge 
yourself ^    ^ 


25  August  27,  1906 

Dear  Brother:  ....  Jozef  told  me  that  he  also  received  a 
letter  from  you.  Whether  he  answered  I  don't  know,  but  he  says 
that  he  is  unwilling  to  go  to  America,  because  he  has  it  here  well 
enough.  Now  you  ask  me  for  advice,  whether  you  ought  to  remain 
in  the  mines,  or  to  return  home,  or  to  search  for  other  work  in  America. 
Well  I  leave  the  decision  with  you,  but  in  my  opinion  it  would  be 
dangerous  to  throw  your  work  away  just  now,  but  rather  [I  advise 
you]  to  search  first  for  other  work  in  America  and  then  to  come  back 
about  spring,  or  to  remain  where  you  are  meanwhile  and  then  to  come 
back.  But  don't  take  my  advice.  Whatever  you  do  will  be  well, 
because  I  fear  it  may  be  as  with  Felus,  though  I  don't  believe  that 
you  could  be  so  mean  as  he.^  He  curses  me  now  ceaselessly  for  his 
own  meanness.  I  wrote  to  him  also :  "  If  you  are  to  come,  first  think 
it  over  thoroughly  lest  you  regret  it  later."  (And  he  [answered]: 
"I  must  move  to  my  country  for  my  children's  sake.")  And  what 
has  resulted  ?  He  robbed  us  all,  and  he  continually  slanders  me  and 
father.  The  old  man  is  somewhat  guilty  in  not  having  given  him 
what  he  promised;  but  he  rewarded  him,  even  more  than  is  right,  in 
the  will.  And  what  does  he  want  from  me  ?  I  have  heard  that  he 
abuses  me  also  in  the  letters  which  he  writes  to  her  [his  wife],  saying 
that  he  suffers  misery  by  my  fault.  And  why  does  he  abuse  me  ? 
Because  I  said  the  truth  openly,  that  it  is  unfair  to  act  in  such  a 
thievish  manner;  everybody  ought  to  know  what  you  intend  to  do. 
This  pricked  him,  my  telling  him  his  fault  to  his  eyes.  But  even  if 
father  gave  him  the  whole  fortune,  still  he  would  not  get  on  so  well 
as  he  did  there.  But  whose  fault  is  it  ?  Did  he  not  know  farm-work  ? 
He  ought  to  have  known  what  work  there  is  on  a  farm  and  what  a 
life,  and  if  he  risked  it  he  ought  not  to  slander  others  now  without  any 

'  The  responsibility  of  an  adviser  for  the  consequences  of  his  advice  is  particu- 
larly great  when  the  personal  influence  of  the  adviser  is  great,  because,  as  we  have 
pointed  out  (Introduction:  "Theoretic  and  Esthetic  Interests"),  the  peasant  gives 
to  the  advice  a  consideration  proportionate  to  the  prestige  of  the  adviser  rather 
than  the  intrinsic  value  of  the  advice.  In  the  present  case  the  advice  of  Walery 
is  the  more  weighty  because  he  is  the  oldest  brother. 


WROBLEWSKI  series  345 

cause.     I  loved  him  like  all  my  brothers,  but  now  I  hate  him  for  his 

action,  for  such  meanness;  even  a  stranger  would  not  do  this,  and  he 
is  a  brother.  Well,  enough  of  this,  let  him  bark  what  he  pleases. 
But  now,  dear  brother,  I  am  even  afraid  to  write  my  opinion.  It 
seems  to  me  that  it  would  be  the  best  to  do  as  I  wrote  you  above, 
because  it  seems  to  me  that  even  if  you  had  much  money,  but  if  the 
earth  were  to  cover  you,  you  would  rather  prefer  to  look  once  more 
upon  your  native  country,  even  without  a  penny.  And  if  you  had 
some  money  in  your  pocket  it  would  be  still  better. 

Now  I  inform  you  that  summer  has  been  dry  this  year.  I  walk 
with  Edward  through  the  marsh  in  shoes,  to  fetch  horses  from  the 
pasture;  the  water  has  dried  up  everywhere.  Edward  rides  also  on 
the  young  horse ;  he  drives  him  home.  Now  he  will  soon  begin  to  go 
to  school  again  in  Lapy.  I  send  you  herewith  their  photograph. 
As  you  see  they  have  all  grown  pretty  well,  only  Michalek,  your 
foster-son,  is  not  there.  He  does  not  walk;  he  is  somewhat  ill;  but 
perhaps  he  will  get  better. 

The  crops  are  mediocre  this  year;  on  the  Transfiguration  of  Our 
Lord  there  was  no  more  summer-grain  in  the  fields;  everything  had 
been  harvested,  because  the  weather  was  favorable.  We  are  already 
digging  potatoes.  They  are  not  so  bad  for  such  a  dry  season.  In 
some  places  they  even  grew  big.  Yesterday  Waclawa  with  Edward 
dug  a  whole  wagon-load  from  the  small  ravine  near  father's  enclosure. 
Waclawa  tended  geese  during  the  summer,  but  there  were  not  many 
of  them.  The  6  geese  brought  23  young  ones,  for  which  we  got  23 
roubles,  and  besides  some  worse  ones  walk  about,  which  did  not  grow 
big  enough.  It  would  be  well  to  make  a  road  now  to  the  pasture 
fields,  because  it  is  dry ;  but  in  our  village  people  don't  unite.  Nobody 
went  to  make  it.  I  worked  alone  for  some  mornings,  making  the 
beginning,  but  I  was  the  only  one  so  stupid;  all  the  others  are  so 
clever,  and  nobody  goes  to  work,  although  it  is  difficult  to  get  a  better 
time.  Why,  laziness,  stupidity  and  darkness  will  never  make  any- 
thing good! 

Now,  since  the  Japanese  war,  there  is  much  news  in  the  country, 
but  I  won't  relate  it  here,  because  whole  newspapers  would  be  neces- 
sary to  describe  all  that  is  going  on  here.  If  you  read  papers,  surely 
you  know.  You  ought  to  subscribe  at  least  to  Gazeta  Swir.tcczna,  for 
now  all  the  papers  write  more  truth,  because  they  are  publisher) 
without  censure. 


346  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

Up  to  the  present  father  is  farming  alone,  and  I  don't  hear  him 
complain  that  it  is  hard  to  work.  He  plows,  he  carts  manure,  and 
the  work  goes  on.     But  how  long  will  this  last? 

Last  Sunday  in  Sokoty  the  basement  of  the  new  church  was 
consecrated  and  I  was  there  with  my  children.     On  the  same  day  I 

photographed  them  in  my  house,  or  rather  before  my  house 

W.  Wroblewski 

26  October  29,  1906 

Dear  Brother:  ....  I  received  your  second  letter  also,  from 
which  I  learned  about  your  misfortune,  the  bruising  of  your  arms. 

Now  I  inform  you  first,  that  I  intend  to  remain  at  home  this  year, 
unless  any  unforeseen  circumstances  happen.  I  do  nothing  but  plan 
about  my  house.  I  bought  this  year  more  than  5  kop  [5X60]  flower- 
pots for  my  garden.  As  to  the  field  from  Tomaszek,  I  have  not 
bought  it  yet.  Although  I  am  somewhat  short  of  money,  the  thing 
could  be  done  in  some  way  or  other,  if  he  wanted  to  sell  it.  But  what 
can  I  do  ?  Last  year  I  went  often  expressly  to  him,  asking  him  to  sell 
]^,  but  he  declined  under  some  pretext  or  other.  He  is  willing  to 
exchange,  but  I  have  nowhere  [to  give  him  a  corresponding  lot].  If 
I  could  only  buy  somewhere  for  him;  but  nobody  wants  to  sell. 
And  it  would  be  very  useful  to  me  [to  have  this  lot]  near  the  garden, 
because  Lapy  is  growing  continuously.  Now  we  have  a  chapel  in 
Lapy,  I  send  you  its  photograph.  They  are  building  now  a  small 
tower  upon  it.  It  is  very  convenient  now  with  the  churches.  One 
can  go  where  one  wishes,  either  to  Lapy  or  to  Plonka;  it  is  near  in 
both  directions.  When  returning  from  my  work  I  enter  the  chapel  to 
say  the  rosary,  because  now  in  the  evening  rosary-service  is  cele- 
brated by  candle-light,  and  this  looks  very  pretty. 

Now  I  inform  you  that  Roch  came  home  some  weeks  ago.  I  have 
not  spoken  with  him  yet,  but  people  say  that  he  was  captured  when 
crossing  the  frontier  and  was  sent  home  by  etapes  [with  criminals]. 
Now,  as  to  the  horse,  father  sold  it  in  the  summer  for  60  roubles,  and 
today  perhaps  he  will  buy  something  in  Suraz,  if  horses  are  not  too 
expensive,  because  there  is  a  small  fair  today.  Feliksowa  has  left 
again  and  went  there  to  him  [Feliks],  having  sold  her  things  to  Jozef 
Pilat.  She  sold  the  cow  also  which  father  gave  them,  because  she 
lived  in  Pilat's  house.  She  went  like  a  swine,  because  she  called 
neither  on  me  nor  on  father  before  leaving  for  those  forests.     That  is 


wrOblewski  series  347 

just  where  she  ought  to  live,  with  bears,  not  with  men.  She  was 
something  of  an  ape  before,  and  there  she  became  altogether  an  ape. 
No  honest  person  would  have  done  as  they  did.  Whose  fault  is  it  ? 
And  how  much  they  have  cursed  me,  and  father!  May  God  not 
punish  them  for  it.  They  think  only  about  a  fortune  and  money  and 
don't  want  anything  else;  they  don't  regard  church-going  and  fasting, 
if  only  they  can  live  comfortably  in  this  world.^ 

Now,  as  to  Michalek,  he  is  already  better  and  begins  to  walk  by 
himself.     Edward  has  been  sick  recently  with  small-pox.     Now  he  is 

getting  better  slowly We  had  a  dry  summer,  and  the  autumn 

is  also  dry.  There  is  lack  of  water  in  the  wells,  and  the  cold  is  not 
far  away.     If  it  goes  on  like  this  we  shall  have  no  water  in  the  winter. 

Now  in  our  country  disorders  still  go  on,  sometimes  robberies, 
sometimes  killing  with  bombs  or  revolvers.  Not  long  ago  there  was 
a  pogrom  in  Siedlce,  where  the  army  even  fired  with  guns  for  3  days, 
as  the  papers  write.  Now  we  have  a  state  of  war;  the  general 
governor  of  Warsaw  proclaimed  that  whoever  does  not  come  at  the 
call  to  military  service,  his  parents  will  be  condemned  for  3  months  to 
prison  or  300  roubles  fine,  and  the  head-minister  added  that  in 
localities  where  the  state  of  war  exists  whoever  does  not  come  is 
subject  to  court-martial.  And  what  a  court-martial  is  you  know 
probably,  and  I  won't  describe  it 

It  would  be  well  if  Kostus  thought  sometimes  about  his  native 
country  and  wrote  something,  at  least  about  his  health  and  success. 
Roch  brought  the  news  that  he  is  married.  Perhaps  on  that  account 
he  has  changed  and  does  not  write.^  ^^    Wroblewski] 

217  February  24,  1907 

Dear  Brother:    I  learned  about  the  misfortune  which 

happened  to  you This  news  dismayed  us  all  very  much,  and 

we  are  very  sad  that  such  a  misfortune  happened  to  you.  I  got  also  a 
letter  from  Kostus  today  ....  and  I  learned  that  you  are  somewhat 

'  Typical  expression  of  the  peasant's  idealism,  which  is  always  latent  in  .ill 
the  practical  attitudes.  There  is  a  marked  difference  in  this  respect  between  a 
peasant  like  Walery  and  a  handworker  like  Wiadek.  For  the  character  of  the 
latter,  see  Vol.  III. 

^  There  is  a  proverb,  "Whoever  gets  married  gets  changed,"  which  is  justified 
in  the  sense  that  the  individual  is  determined  to  a  large  extent  by  his  family-grouf*, 
and  by  marrying  he  comes  under  the  influence  of  an  additional  group. 


34S  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

belter,  and  I  learned  also  from  him  that  a  little  miner  came  to  him; 
only,  please,  let  him  send  us  a  photograph  of  his  family.  I  received 
also  your  other  letter  of  February  4,  in  which  you  tell  about  your 
misfortune  and  write  that  I  caused  you  a  great  displeasure  by  my 
letter — that  I  gave  you  the  last  blow.'  Believe  me,  if  I  had  known 
that  it  would  reach  you  when  you  were  in  such  a  condition,  I  would 
have  chosen  not  to  mention  anything,  but  who  could  have  expected 
anything  like  this  ?  ....  If  I  made  some  reproaches,  your  own  letter 
induced  me  to  do  it.  You  wrote  that  you  keep  company  in  which  you 
cannot  get  along  for  a  single  day  without  beer  or  whisky.  Then  I 
wanted  to  draw  you  back  from  it,  and  therefore  I  made  some  remarks 
— that  this  money  would  be  useful  here,  and  for  whom  [it  would  be 
useful].^  I  had  also  had  no  idea,  that  you  had  any  difficulties  in 
sending  money.  I  know  only  this,  that  if  somebody  has  money  and 
wants  to  send  it,  and  has  anybody  to  whom  he  may  send  it,  he  does 
send  it,  and  does  not  write  that  it  is  difficult,  unless  he  has  none. 
But  what  happened  between  us  is  quite  ridiculous.  Well,  never 
mind,  let  it  be  as  you  do  it.  Today,  in  your  present  condition,  I  don't 
want  anything  from  you.  But  you  were  wrong  in  writing  that  you 
did  not  take  any  property  with  you.^  I  have  none  either,  and  it  is 
possible  that  nobody  among  us  will  have  any.  I  don't  get  any  benefit 
out  of  it.  If  I  want  a  bushel  of  corn,  and  if  I  take  it  from  father,  I  pay 
him  like  any  other  neighbor.  And  what  can  yet  happen  with  father's 
farm,  nobody  knows.     As  I  said,  it  is  possible  that  no  one  among  us 

will  get  anything We  might  perhaps  be  able  to  prevent  it, 

but  we  should  think  about  it  all  together,  because  it  is  high  time. 
....  I  cannot  prevent  it  alone,  and  perhaps  you  would  not  like  it; 
so  it  is  necessary  to  deliberate  as  soon  as  we  can  about  father  and  the 
farm.  .'  ' 
Now,  as  to  Jozef,  he  got  married  during  last  carnival.  He  does 
not  want  to  live  with  father,  but  he  rented  a  lodging  in  the  new  house 
of  Stas  Gembiak,  where  he  moved  with  his  wife.  He  is  serving  as 
before.  I  have  left  my  employment  already,  and  since  the  first  day 
of  Lent  I  am  home  and  will  think  about  building  my  house 

W.  Wroblewski 
'  The  letter  referred  to  is  lacking. 

^  Walerj-  probably  asked  for  the  payment  of  some  money  which  Antoni  owed 
him.     Cf.  No.  29. 

■5  Wrong  because  it  looked  like  a  hint  that  Walery   was   profiting  from  the 
common  family  property. 


WROBLEWSKI  series  349 

28  August  15,  1907 

....  Dear  Brother:  [Greetings.  News  about  crops.]  Now 
I  inform  you  ....  that  there  is  news.  On  August  7,  after  the 
Transfiguration  of  Our  Lord,  grandmother,  or  rather  our  stepmother, 
died.  She  had  put  aside  some  money,  but  had  given  it  to  the  priests 
for  the  building  of  the  church,'  and  different  rags  [dresses,  etc.]  which 
remained  were  stolen  by  her  family  even  before  her  death,  so  that 
when  she  died  there  was  not  a  single  rag  left;  everything  was  empty. 
Even  a  hen  disappeared  during  the  funeral.  Father  asked  a  priest  to 
come  to  lead  the  burial-procession,  but  without  a  speech,  and  so  it  was 
decided.  But  Mrs.  Malinowska  [some  relative  of  the  dead]  did  not 
like  it  and  she  requested  the  priest  to  thank  [the  dead]  before  the  grave. 
Evidently  she  had  some  reasons  to  thank;  the  dead  must  have  been 
good  to  her.  Now  we  don't  know  how  father  will  act;  perhaps  he 
will  get  married  even  for  the  third  time.  It  would  be  very  undesirable 
for  us,  perhaps  even  a  great  calamity.  But  what  can  be  done,  since 
father  does  not  say  anything  about  the  future.  He  could  very  well 
live  with  me  and  Jozef,  or  divide  the  farm  between  us,  and  we  would 
give  him  his  living.  We  don't  know  how  it  will  be.  But  if  he  gets 
married  once  more,  we  are  totally  lost.  I  ask  your  advice,  how  to 
prevent  it  ? 

Now,  as  to  the  building  of  my  house,  probably  this  year  only  the 
basement  will  be  ready.  I  have  no  time  to  carry  the  building  further, 
because  I  have  enough  to  do  alone  on  my  farm.  I  lacked  stones  and 
I  paid  8  roubles  for  half  a  cube  which  they  brought  me.  There  will 
not  be  enough  lime,  and  other  material  will  be  needed.  Meanwhile 
my  money  is  almost  out  and  my  geese  have  died,  and  my  pigs  also.  In 
short,  it  is  going  on  very  badly.  Moreover,  I  have  been  already  3 
times  in  Markowszczyzna  to  fetch  bricks  for  the  church,  and  that  is  not 
the  end  of  it.  And  I  have  still  other  work  to  do.  Now,  some  boys 
from  Kozly,  who  are  in  America,  sent  no  roubles  for  the  building  of 
the  church.     The  priest  announced  their  names.     Some  lady  from 

'  Walery  is  evidently  provoked  that  she  gave  her  money  to  the  church  and  her 
clothes  to  her  own  family,  so  that  nothing  was  left  for  her  husband's  family.  The 
money  was  given  by  her  to  the  church  in  order  to  assure  her  soul's  salvation.  ^  In 
this  respect  the  peasant  women  show  the  most  profound  and  reckless  egotism. 
We  have  met  a  woman  who  has  about  2,000  roubles  and  is  still  earning  as  a  cook. 
She  has  a  widowed  daughter  with  small  children,  but  never  helps  her  and  says 
openly  that  all  her  money  will  eventually  go  to  the  church  to  secure  masses  for  her 
soul. 


350  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

Bialystok  sent  also  loo  roubles.  In  a  word,  offerings  flow,  but  the 
parishioners  are  not  in  a  hurry  about  bringing  bricks,  otherwise  the 
church  could  be  covered  before  winter. 

Now  I  ask  you,  dear  brother,  how  about  your  leg  ?  Is  there  any 
hope  that  you  will  recover  ?  How  do  you  live  there  ?  Why  does 
Kostus  never  mention  himself  or  us  ?  Does  he  care  no  more  for  our 
father  and  for  our  country  ?  He  could  perhaps  remember  once  that 
he  has  a  father  and  brothers ^   Wroblewski 

29  October  7,  1907 

....  Now,  as  to  that  debt,  please  don't  make  yourself  any 
trouble  about  it.  Although  it  would  now  be  useful  to  me,  it  is  true, 
yet  since  you  are  in  such  a  situation,  you  need  it  also.  In  the  last 
necessity  I  can  ask  father  to  give  me  at  least  the  interest,  either  in 
food-stuffs  or  in  a  field  to  sow,  since  he  sells  now  and  then  piece  after 
piece  to  strange  people.  But  as  yet  I  defend  myself  against  poverty 
as  best  I  can.  Now  as  to  my  building,  the  work  advances  only  since 
St.  Michael.  It  would  be  very  well  to  do  it  now,  because  the  weather 
is  favorable,  but  I  must  often  stop  and  go  to  other  work.  Jozef  has 
helped  me  also  more  than  once  by  preparing  mortar.  If  the  weather 
were  good  and  the  walls  dried  rapidly,  the  work  would  progress;  and 
if  there  were  somebody  preparing  mortar 

Now,  I  learned  in  Lapy  that  brother  Feliks  came  here  for  some 
weeks,  but  he  evidently  does  not  want  to  show  his  eyes  among  us 
any  more,  because  he  went  directly  from  Lapy  by  the  Narew  railway 
to  Sokoly  and  thence  to  Jabionowo.  Somebody  asked  him  there  why 
he  did  not  go  to  Ziencinki.  He  said  there  was  nothing  to  go  for. 
And  he  came  for  a  church-festival  with  his  whole  family  [to  Jabio- 
nowo]. That  is  nice,  what  he  is  doing!  It  is  human  to  sin,  but  it  is 
devilish  not  to  repent  and  not  to  amend  his  faults.  Because  it  is 
said,  "  If  you  want  to  offer  a  gift  to  God  and  you  remember  that  your 
brother  has  anything  against  you,  put  your  offering  do\Mi  near  the 
altar  and  go  and  make  peace  with  your  brother,"  or  in  general  with 
whomever  it  may  be.  But  he  forgot  this  for  he  does  not  want  to  see, 
not  only  his  brother,  but  even  his  father.  Perhaps  he  will  yet  change 
his  mind,  but  I  doubt  it,  because  in  his  letters  to  Jabionowo  he  wrote 
only  curses  against  father  and  against  me. 

Now  as  to  our  father,  you  wrote  that  Kostus  advises  him  to  come 
to  America,  where  he  could  quietly  spend  the  rest  of  his  age  with  him. 


WRCBLEWSKI  series  351 

This  won't  be.  Although  I  have  not  spoken  with  father  about  it,  I 
know  that  he  would  not  go.  And  why  should  he  ?  If  he  did  not  want 
to  work  himself  on  his  farm,  we  could  give  him  support  but  how  can 
he  part  with  his  farm,  leave  the  barn,  etc.  ?^  And  Kostus  deserves 
praise  for  having  taken  care  of  you,  but  he  might  work  himself  in  as 
dangerous  a  place,  and  if— God  forbid!— any  accident  happened  to 
him,  with  father  in  America,  what  then  ?  It  would  be  very  unwise. 
And  we  could  then  give  no  effective  help,  because  if  we  sent  10  roubles, 
you  would  receive  there  only  5,  and  moreover  it  is  so  difficult  to  get 
money  here,  while  from  America,  when  you  send  5,  we  receive  here  10, 

and  that  is  a  different  thing 

W.  Wroblewski 


30  November  10,  1907 

....  Dear  Brothers:  ....  Now  I  inform  you  about  my 
building.  I  have  raised  it  up  to  the  windows  and  I  end  here  my  work 
for  this  year,  because  winter  is  near,  and  there  is  yet  plowing  in  the 
field  to  be  done  before  winter,  and  some  arrangements  to  be  made 
around  the  house  for  winter.     The  autumn  is  clear  and  dry 

Now  I  pass  to  the  news.  I  inform  you  that  our  dear  father 
[ironical]  got  married  for  the  third  time.  He  took  for  wife  that 
Klimusia,  or  rather  Franciszkowa  [widow  of  Franciszek]  Pilat,  that 
bitch,  so  to  speak,  because  she  came  in  order  to  rob  us.  Her  children 
did  not  drive  her  away  from  their  home,  but  she  wants  to  profit  out 
of  our  fortune.  When  father  gave  [money]  for  the  banns,  he  did  not 
mention  anything  to  us,  but  did  it  secretly.  When  we  heard  the 
banns  of  our  father,  we  went  directly  to  him  with  Jozef ,  and  we  tried  to 
persuade  him  in  different  ways  not  to  marry.  But  he  refused  to 
listen,  he  wanted  only  to  marry.  We  tried  also  to  persuade  her  not 
to  marry  our  father.  About  this  time  somebody  broke  her  windows 
on  All  Saints'  Day,  and  she  throws  the  suspicion  upon  me;  she  had 
the  policeman  come  and  drew  up  a  verbal  process,  and  there  will  be  a 
law-suit.  I  will  write  you  how  this  ends;  but  she  has  no  witnesses  to 
testify  who  broke  her  windows.^  I  also  begged  our  priest  to  dissuade 
father  from  marrying  her,  but  even  this  did  not  help,  because  the  old 
man  stubbornly  stood  upon  marrying  her.  On  Wednesday,  Novem- 
ber 6,  the  wedding  was  performed.     We  did  not  know  anything  about 

'  Ironical,  meaning  that  he  is  toe  avaricious  and  egotistic  to  leave  his  property, 

»  Certainly  the  writer  or  his  children  did  it. 


7,^2  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

it,  but  I  saw  the  old  man  coming  back  from  the  church,  and  I  guessed 
it.  On  the  very  next  day  we  went  with  Jozef  to  say  good  morning  to 
the  new  couple  and  we  greeted  them  so  that  it  went  to  their  heels 
[proverbial:  They  felt  it  deeply.].  The  old  man  saw  that  he  could  not 
evade  and  promised  to  give  us  the  small  lots  to  cultivate,  and  to  leave 
for  himself  the  riverside  and  Uskowizna.  So  he  got  rid  of  us  for  this 
time,  but  "Promise  is  a  child's  toy";  we  won't  be  satisfied  with  it,  we 
will  insist  as  strongly  as  we  can  that  he  do  it  black  upon  white  [in 
writing],  for  us  and  for  you  also.  We  care  not  only  about  ourselves, 
but  also  about  you,  lest  Klimusia  get  it.  She  is  a  cunning  [avaricious] 
old  woman,  since  she  dared  to  go  to  marriage  almost  in  the  face  of 
violence.  I  will  tell  you  everything  that  happens.  We  want  father 
to  will  us  all,  everything,  and  to  keep  to  it,  but  we  don't  know  how  it 
will  turn  out.  Of  course,  we  except  Feliks,  because  he  has  his  part 
already.  I  wrote  you  that  he  was  in  Jablonowo  with  his  family  and 
did  not  show  his  eyes  among  us.  He  was  there  for  4  days  and  went 
back,  although  I  know  that  he  had  leave  for  2  weeks.  That  is  also  a 
meanness.  What  is  the  matter  with  our  family,  that  they  keep 
things  secret  from  one  another,  like  thieves  ?....' 

W.  Wroblewski 

31  March  25,  1908 

Dear  Brothers:  ....  I  did  not  write,  as  I  was  waiting  for  the 
news  which  I  expected  from  our  father.  We  have  called  upon  him 
more  than  once,  with  Jozef,  asking  him  to  make  some  division  of  the 
farm,  but  he  got  stubborn  and  refuses  to  do  anything  for  us;  only  to 
his  Klimusia  he  refuses  nothing.  We  called  upon  him  with  the  priest , 
then  alone,  then  with  people;  nothing  helps. ^  Once  he  took  an  ax 
to  us  and  tried  to  frighten  us;  he  jumped  around  wildly,  like  a  mad- 
man. He  gives  us  in  words  the  field  in  Szalajdy  to  sow,  but  Jozef 
refuses  to  take  it  without  a  [written]  will.  I  intend  myself  to  harvest 
what  I  have  sown,  but  I  don't  know  how  it  will  be  later.     Jozef 

'  Expression  of  the  feeling  that  the  family  is  disintegrating.  "  Keeping 
things  secret"  is  clearly  a  proof  that  there  is  no  real  solidarity.  In  the  primitive 
peasant  family  no  member  can  have  any  secret  from  other  members;  there  are  no 
purely  personal  matters. 

^  Calling  with  the  priest  and  with  people  proves  that  in  the  general  opinion 
the  father  is  morally  wrong  in  his  behavior,  that  he  ought  to  occupy  the  familial, 
not  the  personal  standpoint. 


wrOblewski  series  353 

advises  me  not  to  do  even  this,  but  it  seems  to  me  that  would  be  bad, 
for  father  will  justify  himself  afterwards  saying  that  he  gave,  but  we 
would  not  take,  and  he  will  sell  more  readily.  We  also  drove  the 
Trusie  [the  stepmother's  family]  away  from  father's  house,  for  they 
had  settled  their  whole  family  already.  Now  at  least  they  only  call 
often.  There  would  be  much  to  write,  whole  newspapers  would  be 
necessary;  in  this  letter  the  rest  cannot  be  described.  I  spit  upon  all 
this,  so  to  speak;  if  he  is  determined  to  waste  all  this,  let  him  waste  it; 
if  his  own  children  are  not  dear  to  him,  only  strange  children,  for 
everything  there  is  free  to  strangers. 

At  the  end  of  the  carnival  Jozef  Laba  got  his  daughter  married  to 
the  son  of  Fortus  from  Lynki.  We  were  not  at  the  wedding,  but 
father  with  his  Klimusia  was  there,  and  he  got  so  drunk  that  he  lay 
under  the  hedge.  The  next  day  he  invited  perhaps  half  the  people 
from  Gozdziki,  but  we  were  left  out.  Although  I  never  overlooked 
father  [in  my  invitations],  he  always  keeps  away  from  us,  as  from 
enemies.     Well,  I  end  it,  because  I  loathe  all  this. 

[News  about  weather.]  Now,  a  terrible  thing  happened.  On 
March  23  in  the  village  Somachy  a  score  of  robbers  came  in  the  evening 
to  the  Porowskis.  They  found  the  whole  family  at  home.  They 
attacked  Porowski  and  killed  him  with  a  blow  on  the  head  and 
revolver-shots,  they  wounded  and  bound  the  other  members  of  the 
family,  they  took  all  the  money  they  could  find  and  fled,  nobody 
knows  where.  This  terrible  incident  frightened  everybody.  The 
next  day  I  drove  lumber  from  the  forest  of  Kruszewo  ....  and  I 
saw  [mourning]  banners  on  the  house  of  Porowski,  and  I  learned  about 
this  accident  after  coming  to  Matyski 

I  made  window  frames  during  the  winter,  and  in  the  spring,  if 
God  grants  health,  we  will  set  to  work  in  the  field  and  near  the  house. 
The  walls  of  the  house  have  been  spoiled  a  little  by  the  cold.  Work 
approaches,  and  there  is  nobody  to  help.  Although  Michalek  [3 
years  old]  promises  to  help,  still  I  don't  believe  in  the  efliciency  of  his 
help.  I  will  tell  you  something  more  about  him.  Mother  laid  upon 
him  the  duty  of  helping  the  poor.  He  asked  why  she  let  him  give  a 
grosz  to  a  beggar.  She  answered,  "In  order  that  he  may  pray  our 
Lord  God  to  let  your  foster-father  in  America  recover.'"     Now  he 

'  The  beggar  is  a  religious  personality,  and  giving  of  alms  a  religious  act  In 
tales  most  of  the  beggars  are  either  personifications  of  God  or  of  the  saints,  or  good 
magicians— bearers  of  a  beneficent  divine  power— or  at  least  instruments  of  the 


354 


PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 


asks  very  often,  "Has  my  foster-father  recovered  yet?"     He  is  in 
good  health,  himself  and  Jozefa  as  well.     The  latter  can  read  a  book 

pretty  well  already.     Edward  goes  to  school  in  Lapy 

W.  Wroblewski 

32  May  8,  1908 

....  Dear  Brothers:  As  always,  I  inform  you  also  today 
first  about  our  health,  that  we  are  all  in  good  health,  thanks  to  our 
Lord  God  the  Highest,  and  we  wish  you  the  same.  Only  my  wife  i> 
in  rather  bad  health;  for  more  than  a  year  she  has  not  been  able  to 
work  much.  She  cannot  eat  much  either;  therefore  she  has  no 
strength  to  work.  She  coughs  incessantly  and  no  medicine  can  help 
her  much,  neither  doctor  nor  home-medicine.  Probably  it  will  end 
badly.     [Remarks  about  letters  received  and  sent.] 

We  have  spring  already.  All  the  birds  are  here — larks,  lapwings, 
storks,  swallows,  cuckoos,  nightingales — in  short,  all  of  them.     But 


dixdnity.  The  function  of  the  beggar  is  to  pray,  and  not  only  his  prayer,  but  also 
almsgiving  has  a  magical  importance,  compels  the  divinity.  This  religious  char- 
acter of  beggary  is  shown  also  by  the  fact  that  beggars  in  towns  stay  around 
churches,  that  in  the  country  the  parish  festivals  are  the  meeting-dates  and  -places 
of  beggars,  that  "miraculous"  places  like  Cz^stochowa  are  the  main  centers  of 
beggar}'.  This  may  be  accounted  for  partly  by  the  fact  that  in  these  places  and 
on  these  dates  the  largest  crowds  gather,  but  this  does  not  explain  it  completely. 
The  peasant  gives  alms  more  frequently  to  the  beggar  before  the  church  than  to 
the  beggar  upon  the  street;  more  frequently  during  a  parish  festival  than  on  an 
ordinary  day,  more  frequently  in  a  miraculous  locality  than  in  an  ordinary  church. 
This  is  evidently  because  the  religious  character  of  the  beggar,  the  value  of  his 
prayers  and  of  his  mediation  before  God  and  the  saints,  increase  in  proportion 
to  the  sacredness  of  the  time  and  the  place.  The  principle  is  exactly  the  same  as 
that  which  determines  the  value  of  a  mass.  A  mass  said  on  Sunday  is  more  valu- 
able than  one  on  a  week  day,  during  a  parish  festival  more  valuable  than  on  an 
ordinary  Sunday,  in  a  miraculous  locality  more  valuable  than  in  an  ordinar\- 
locality.  Further,  the  religious  character  of  the  beggar  is  proved  by  the  conditions 
required  for  the  acknowledgment  of  his  occupation.  Only  the  old  man  or  the 
cripple  can  be  a  proper  beggar,  not  because  of  any  consideration  of  social  utility, 
but  because  more  or  less  consciously  these  features  are  considered  the  marks  by 
which  God  destined  them  to  this  function.  The  proof  that  no  utilitarian  reflections 
play  here  any  role  is,  that  women,  though  less  able  to  work,  do  not  enjoy  so  full  an 
acknowledgment  of  their  begging  function  as  the  men.  The  woman,  indeed,  can 
be  a  member  of  the  congregation  or  a  divinity  (saint),  but  not  a  priest,  an  inter- 
mediary between  both.  The  women  beggars  are,  on  the  contrary,  often  the 
bearers  of  a  mischievous,  magical  character — witches.  The  religious  character 
of  the  beggar  is  perfectly  expressed  in  the  popular  stories.     (Cf.  No.  261.  note.) 


wrOblewski  series  355 

the  spring  does  not  progress  favorably.  We  have  St.  Stanislaus  [da>  | 
today,  and  the  trees  are  still  black  and  don't  think  of  blossoming. 
Some  years  ago  the  orchards  had  blossomed  already  at  St.  Wojciech. 
Cold  wind  blows  from  all  sides.  I  wasted  all  the  food  from  my  barns 
in  feeding  my  stock;  everything  is  empty.  There  was  no  hay. 
Moreover  water  flooded  the  potatoes  in  early  spring  ....  and 
afterward  they  froze  in  the  barns.  Everything  goes  on  unfavorably. 
Now  my  fields  are  already  sown  and  I  expect  soon  to  begin  building 
....  but  my  capital  is  exhausted,  I  must  now  ask  father  [for  the 
debt],  because  ....  otherwise  I  can  do  nothing.  If  God  helps  me 
to  move  to  the  new  house  perhaps  it  will  go  on  better,  for  now  I  can 
change  nothing,  because  so  many  things  are  commenced.  I  could 
return  even  today  to  my  old  employment,  but  I  cannot  because  of  this 
building;  ....  and  if  I  could  keep  a  garden  at  home,  I  should  have 
a  good  bargain;  people  come  themselves  from  Lapy,  if  I  only  had 
something  to  sell.     These  few  hot-beds — what  do  they  amount  to  ? 

As  to  our  father — our  fortune  runs  out  in  different  ways;  one  feels 
oppressed  inside  at  seeing  how  the  care  of  us  all  [what  we  have  worked 
for]  is  wasted  in  vain.  But  what  can  be  done,  since  there  is  nobody 
among  us  to  look  after  this,  strange  people  benefit  now 

W.  Wroblewski 


33  June  29,  1908 

Dear  Brothers:  ....  My  wife  is  unwell  all  the  time,  and  I 
don't  know  whether  she  will  recover.  Although  much  money  has 
been  spent,  no  improvement  can  be  seen 

Now  I  inform  you  that  I  got  from  father  the  money  which  I 
needed  so  much,  but  after  much  bargaining.  When  I  mentioned  it, 
he  talked  without  end ;  he  told  me  to  bring  a  law-suit.  At  last  he  saw 
that  he  could  not  extricate  himself  by  shifts  and  he  paid  it  back. 
But  what  happened  then?  Instead  of  the  100  roubles  he  sold  the 
riverside  near  Bociany  to  Roszkowski,  from  Ziencinki,  for  300  roubles, 
because  Marcinek  [Roszkowski's  son]  came  from  America  and  brought 
money.  That  is  the  way  it  goes  on  with  us.  And  he  could  have  i)ai(l 
the  debt  without  selling  anything,  for  not  long  ago  he  got  100  roubles 
from  Stas  Laba  which  the  latter  had  borrowed  from  him.  But  this 
money  surely  fell  into  the  claws  of  Klimusia.  Finally,  he  could  have 
borrowed,  if  he  had  no  money,  or  by  giving  a  mortgage  on  the  meadow, 


356  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

he  would  also  have  got  loo  roubles;  or  he  could  have  sold  somewhere 
a  lot  for  loo  roubles,  but  not  so  big  a  one  for  300.  Everybody  says 
that  the  riverside  is  worth  about  400.  In  this  way  our  dear  father 
gets  rid  of  land  and  rids  us  of  it  at  the  same  time.  Jozef  went  to 
remonstrate  with  father,  for  wasting  the  fortune  so.  They  almost 
fought.  Father  jumped  upon  Jozef  with  a  yoke  [for  carrying  buckets] 
and  Jozef  took  a  pole.  The  old  man  brandished  his  yoke  so  that  he 
broke  the  pole.  At  last  Jozef  sprang  forward  and  wrested  the  wood 
from  him,  and  so  they  separated.  I  was  not  there  at  that  time,  but 
Jozef  came  back  and  told  how  it  was.  The  old  man  said  that  we  are 
bad.  "Why  did  I  ask  for  the  100  roubles?"  Does  he  think  I  am 
going  to  give  him  my  work  for  the  benefit  of  my  enemies,  that  they 
may  have  more  and  live  better  ?  He  does  not  give  us  his  fortune, 
which  justly  belongs  to  us  after  him,  and  he  wants  us  not  to  claim  this 
[our  owTi  money]  until  he  wastes  everything  and  there  is  nothing  left 
from  which  to  recover  [the  debt].  He  said  that  you  had  sent  money 
as  if  for  a  joke  [so  little].  But  I  told  him  that  it  was  lucky,  for  now 
our  dear  father  would  not  care  even  if  you  were  dying  there  from 
hunger.  Why  do  other  people  not  act  in  this  way  ?  What  shall  we 
do  now  ?  Perhaps  it  would  be  best  to  help  him  to  finish  it  the  soonest 
possible!  Let  there  be  no  more  of  this  grief  and  this  sorrow!  One 
cannot  bear  it,  seeing  how  strange  people  profit  from  us  and  grow 
rich  from  the  fruit  of  our  labor.  [Sends  a  photograph  of  the  house 
which  he  is  building  and  of  his  family;   describes  the  photograph.] 

W.  Wroblewski  and  A.  A.  W.  E.  J.  M., 

[initials  of  other  members  of  the  family]  also  Wroblewskis 


34  November  22,  1908 

Dear  Brothers:  ....  First  I  inform  you  about  the  building 
of  my  house,  that  it  is  covered  already  with  a  roof,  but  inside  there 
is  still  much  to  do;   nothing  yet  is  finished.     [News  about  weather.] 

In  the  spring  I  intend  to  move  the  granary The  worst  is  that 

I  have  spent  all  my  money;  but  if  God  grants  us  health,  with  some 
pains  everything  will  be  done.     People  praise  my  house;   many  have 

said  already,  that  I  have  adorned  all  Ziencinki  with  it The 

granary  and  barn  must  be  moved,  because  it  will  be  very  inconvenient 
if  they  remain.  There  will  be  much  work  in  moving  them.  Now 
I  know  how  much  work  it  costs  to  build  a  house  and  to  do  everything 


WRCBLEWSKI  series  357 

with  one's  own  hands,  but  perhaps  our  Lord  God  will  yet  help  me  to 

do  this  also  [transfer  the  barn].     Now  I  don't  know  what  to  do  with 

that  unlucky  mill.     I  cannot  take  it  down  alone  without  breaking  it. 

I  pay  about  4  roubles  taxes  yearly  for  it,  and  I  drive  my  grain  to  grind 

to  strange  mills,  because  it  is  not  worth  grinding  in  it — only  loss  of 

time  and  repairs.     Father  drew  out  long  ago;   he  refuses  to  help  in 

paying  the  tax  and  in  repairing.     If  I  found  an  amateur  [one  who 

wanted  it]  I  would  sell  it,  and  if  not,  I  must  demolish  it  the  best  I  can 

for  it  is  impossible  to  pay  so  much  and  to  have  no  benefit.     At  least 

there  will  be  some  fuel.     It  cost  money  enough,  and  there  is  no  use 

from  it.     [Description  of  the  last  summer  and  autumn.]     Now  I 

inform  you  that   Felus  Laba  is   dead  ....  and  his  son  has  got 

married Brother  Jozef  received  your  letter  about  the  accor- 

deon,  and  certainly  he  will  attend  to  it  when  he  has  money 

My  wife  is  always  the  same,  she  cannot  work  at  all.     She  does 

not  lie  down  continually,  but  there  is  no  help  from  her.     It  is  a  great 

damage  for  me.     The  girls  do  everything  alone.     Edward  goes  to 

school  in  Lapy.     After  this  year  he  will  have  still  two  years  to  learn 

in  order  to  finish  the  school.     Jozefa  is  learning  already  to  read 

Russian.     Michalek  is  at  least  in  good  health;   he  calls  for  bread  as 

soon  as  he  wakes 

W.  Wroblewski 


35  December  22,  1908 

Dear  Brothers  :  ....  I  inform  you  that  last  Friday  I  received 
from  the  post-office  in  Lapy  80  roubles  through  a  money-order  in  which 

there  is  no  mention  from  whom  it  comes Surely  it  is  from  you, 

and  surely  for  the  purchase  about  which  you  wrote  in  the  previous 
letter I  will  wait  for  word  from  you. 

Now  I  inform  you  that  my  wife  is  already  very  ill;  when  you  read 
this  letter,  dear  brother,  probably  she  will  be  no  more  among  the 
living  in  this  world,  and  if  God  grants  you  to  come  again  to  our 
country,  dear  brother,  you  will  see  your  sister-in-law  no  more.  We 
are  sad,  and  we  shall  have  sad  Christmas  hoHdays,  although  they  will 
come  in  a  few  days.  But  nobody  knows  what  will  happen.  Not 
long  ago  we  brought  the  priest  to  her.  There  was  no  hope  of  her 
living  up  to  the  present.  Like  this  candle  which  is  l)uriud  almost  to 
the  end  and  is  already  going  out,  so  is  her  life;  it  will  soon  go  out,  and 
we  shall  remain  in  deep  sorrow. 


358  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

As  I  MTotc  you  already,  I  am  now  in  a  very  bad  situation.  I 
have  spent  all  my  money  and  shall  be  obliged  to  borrow  about  loo 
roubles  when  tlie  funeral  and  the  moving  of  the  barns  come.'  So,  dear 
brothers,  perhaps  you  could  do  it  for  me,  and  lend  me  [this  money]. 
I  beg  you,  if  you  can.  But  probably  it  is  difficult  for  you  now.  In 
that  case  I  shall  be  obliged  to  ask  for  a  loan  in  the  communal  bank. 
I  should  not  like  to  let  people  know  that  I  lack  money,  though  I  hope 
soon  to  get  rid  of  this  debt.  But  I  must  borrow  somewhere  now, 
because  the  moving  of  the  barns  cannot  wait  until  I  have  cash 

W.  Wroblewski 


36  February  2,  1909 

Dear  Brothers:  ....  I  received  the  letter  in  which  you 
wrote  how  to  use  those  80  roubles  and  we  acted  according  to  it. 
Jozef  had  a  suit  made  for  w?iich  he  paid  32  roubles,  but  it  will  prob- 
ably be  somewhat  difficult  to  send  it.  Probably  somebody  going  to 
America  will  take  it  and  send  it  to  you.  We  gave  for  the  holy  mass 
which  was  celebrated  on  January  18  at  which  we  were — I,  Olcia  and 
Jozef.  Now  I  thank  you  very  much  for  that  money  which  you  sent 
to  buy  gifts  for  my  children  ....  because  it  was  very  useful  to  us 
at  that  time.  If  God  permits,  we  shall  be  able  perhaps  to  prove  our 
gratitude  in  some  way.  Meanwhile  we  remain  indebted  to  you  and 
we  all  thank  you  once  more. 

Now  I  inform  you  that  my  wife  is  still  alive,  although  before 
Christmas  we  did  not  expect  her  to  live  through  the  holidays.  And 
we  don't  know  how  long  it  will  last;  but  she  will  never  more  have 
health.  If  we  could  only  move  from  here  to  the  new  house  [before 
she  dies]. 

'  This  anticipation  of  the  funeral  expenses  \Yhile  his  wife  is  still  alive,  and  in 
general  the  calm  foresight  in  speaking  of  her  imminent  death  are  not  a  proof  of  any 
coarseness  of  feeling.  It  is  the  normal,  traditional  attitude  of  the  peasant  toward 
death.  Death  is  a  perfectly  normal  phenomenon  for  the  peasant,  normal  not  only 
in  the  naturalistic,  but  in  the  sentimental  sense.  It  has  a  perfectly  established  and 
predetermined  social  and  religious  meaning,  so  that  the  individual  reaction  toward 
it  has  a  very  narrow  field  of  unexpected  possibilities  open  within  the  range  of  the 
traditional  attitudes.  And  the  practical  anticipation  of  death  belongs  precisely  to 
the  sphere  of  these  traditional  attitudes.  Moreover,  the  practical  side  of  life  has 
nothing  base  in  the  peasant's  eyes  which  would  make  a  connection  of  death  and 
money-affairs  unsuitable.  (Cf.  Introduction:  "Religious  Attitudes,"  and  note  to 
Osinski  series,  No.  69.) 


WR6BLEWSKI  SERIES  359 

Spring  will  come,  and  during  spring  I  have  a  great  task  to  accom- 
plish. I  want  to  clear  everything  out  of  this  place  before  the  sowing- 
season,  in  order  that  nothing  except  the  ground  may  be  left  here, 
I  want  to  move  the  barns,  to  sell  the  house  to  somebody  who  will  take 
it  away,  to  transplant  different  shrubs  which  are  good  and  to  destroy 
these  which  are  not  good,  and  all  this  will  require  much  work.  The 
new  house  is  not  ready  either;  there  are  neither  ceilings  nor  floors,  and 
the  middle-walls  are  also  not  quite  ready.  But  if  I  can  prepare  at 
least  one  room  for  summer,  we  can  move,  and  then  before  winter  we 

shall  finish  the  rest And  I  have  still  threshing  enough  up  to 

the  end  of  the  carnival There  will  be  much  work  and  many 

expenses  from  now  on.  But  if  God  allows  us  to  win,  then  perhaps  we 
shall  be  able  to  arrange  everything  better  about  the  home,  being  rid 
at  last  of  this  detestable  neighborhood,  with  this  street  and  [adjacent] 
barns  and  everything,  that  I  cannot  enumerate  here,  but  of  which  I 
have  had  enough The  winter  is  steady,  cold  and  good  sledge- 
road,  but  there  are  neither  weddings  nor  visits,  and  probably  there 
will  be  none,  because  the  end  of  the  carnival  is  approaching.  And 
even  if  there  were  some,  we  could  not  amuse  ourselves.  [Meaning 
not  clear:    "It   would  not   be   suitable,"  or,  "We   should   not  be 

able."] 

W.  W. 


017  IMarch  21,  1909 

Dear  Brothers:  ....  First  I  inform  you,  dear  brother  Kostus, 
that  I  received  both  your  sad  letters,  for  which  I  thank  you.  I  went 
on  Sunday  to  the  post-office  for  the  paper  and  I  received  the  two 
letters  at  once  and  I  knew  by  the  writing  that  they  were  from  you, 

and  I  had  at  once  a  bad  foreboding I  was  not  mistaken  for 

....  I  found  such  terrible  news  about  the  breaking  of  the  legs  of 
Antos.  What  misfortunes  came  one  after  the  other!  Evidently 
God  is  putting  us  to  the  test.  For,  as  it  is  said,  "Whom  God  loves, 
He  gives  him  crosses,  and  who  bears  them  meekly,  becomes  happy." 
And  perhaps  God  punishes  us  for  our  sins  or  for  the  sins  of  other 
people ?  Still  we  must  submit  to  the  will  of  God,  because  it  is  said: 
"Oh  Lord,  here  cut  me,  here  burn  me,  but  in  eternity  pardon  me." 
And  you  know  that  our  Lord  God  inflicted  upon  St.  Job  such  a  terrible 
calamity,  that  being  rich  he  became  a  lazar,  and  yet  he  said:  "The 
Lord  gave,  the  Lord  took  away,  blessed  be  His  name."     For  what 


36o  rRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

have  \vc  of  our  o\ati  ?  Nothing.  Fortune  and  health,  everythhig  is 
from  our  Lord  God.'  And  the  worst  misery  for  man  is  if  God  takes 
the  latter  [health]  away  from  him. 

I  have  still  another  great  sorrow  besides  our  brother's  misfortune. 
Hardlv  did  our  brother  get  out  of  one  misery  when  another,  one 
worse  still,  befell  him.  In  the  same  way  it  goes  on  in  my  home.  My 
wife  has  been  ill  for  two  years,  and  now  since  autumn  she  has  not 
risen  from  her  bed.  She  has  dried  up  like  a  skeleton,  and  we  look 
onlv  for  the  time  when  she  will  close  her  eyes.  Twice  already  we 
brought  the  priest  with  our  Lord  God,  and  we  thought  that  she  would 
be  in  the  tomb  long  ago.  But  now  there  remains  only  a  short  time 
to  live,  we  think  a  few  days  perhaps.  Therefore  I  am  very  sad,  and 
now  from  two  sides.  But  what  can  I  do  ?  I  owe  money  already  to 
brother  Antoni,  and  now  I  must  contract  a  still  greater  debt  for  my 
needs,  and  if  it  is  nece<=sary,  I  must  try  to  send  him  [money].  Write 
about  this,  for  ....  I  am  very  badly  off  for  money  now,  with  this 
building  and  the  sickness  of  my  wife.  Surely  I  shall  have  to  bury 
her  soon 

I  am  planning  now  to  move  the  barns  to  where  the  new  house 
stands.  It  will  require  work  and  workmen,  because  I  cannot  do  it 
alone.  And  this  makes  me  sorrowful,  for  I  build  everything  as  if 
upon  ice,  as  people  say,  because  what  do  I  own  here  ?  Ever>^thing  is 
my  children's  property.  But  it  is  difficult  to  do  nothing.  Perhaps 
[my  reward  will  be]  that  I  shall  Hve  my  last  years  I  don't  know  how 
and  where  [my  children  will  perhaps  drive  me  away],  but  I  cannot 
leave  them  now  and  go  somewhere  else.     [News  about  weather.] 

W.  Wroblewski 


38  ]March  31,  1909 

"Praised  be  Jesus  Christus!" 

Dear  Brothers:  '"The  world  will  rejoice,  and  you  will  weep," 
so  said  Christ  our  Lord  to  his  disciples.  And  so  it  happened  with 
me,  because  everything  in  the  world  rejoices  at  the  coming  of 
spring,  and  I  remain  in  a  heavy  sorrow  after  the  death  of  a  person 
so  dear  to  me. 

'  This  is  the  only  clear  example  in  this  series  of  a  mystical  subordination  to 
the  will  of  God.  There  are  a  few  examples  in  other  series,  e.g.,  Cugowski  series, 
No.  314. 


wrOblewski  series  361 

On  March  31  died  Anna  Wroblewska,  born  Gonsowska,  having 
Hved  46  years,  after  a  long  iUness,  provided  with  the  holy  sacraments.' 

I  send  you  today  the  sad  news  of  the  leaving  of  this  world  by  my 
wife.  I  am  still  more  grieved  about  the  misfortune  which  befell  you, 
brother.^  God  puts  us  indeed  to  a  heavy  test,  but  let  us  be  true  to 
him  unto  our  death,  and  He  will  give  us  the  crown  of  eternal  life. 

Dear  brother  Kostus,  write  me  as  you  can,  what  is  the  condition 
of  Antoni,  how  is  his  health,  whether  there  is  a  hope  that  he  will  live. 
And  when  he  gets  out  of  this  misery,  let  him  not  grieve  about  his 
further  life.  Perhaps  our  Lord  God  will  grant  us  that  if  we  are  in 
good  health  he  will  find  some  support  with  us.  It  is  true  that  I  am 
now  left  as  if  upon  ice,  ....  because  everything  there  is  belongs  to 
the  children,  but  with  the  children  I  can  live  in  some  way,  and  if  God 
grants  them  not  to  be  bad,  we  could  perhaps  keep  our  brother  also. 
Now,  although  we  are  in  such  a  difficult  situation,  I  begin  the  work 
of  moving  the  barns.  I  will  now  end  with  my  children  what  was 
before  intended  with  my  wife.^  When  we  do  this,  with  God's  help, 
it  will  be  perhaps  somewhat  better.  We  shall  be  able  to  do  something 
with  the  garden  and  this  will  give  us  a  better  possibility  of  living. 

Now  I  refer  to  our  father,  how  well  disposed  he  is  toward  us  all. 
When  my  wife  was  sick  neither  he  nor  his  Klimusia  showed  them- 
selves, although  the  priest  passed  by  twice  with  our  Lord  God.  All 
the  people  from  the  village  called  upon  us,  but  they  did  not  call. 
And  they  did  not  come  either  for  funeral  and  burial,  although  I  asked 
[him].  That  is  a  good  father!  He  has  disowned  us,  but  he  has 
renounced  God  also,  because  he  would  not  come  to  honor  Him  in  the 

'  The  form  of  this  announcement  is  evidently  imitated.  The  first  part  reminds 
us  of  the  beginning  of  a  funeral  speech,  the  second  part  is  a  typical  oflicial  death 
notice.  The  man  keeps  in  his  whole  correspondence  about  his  wife's  death  wiliiin 
the  strict  limits  of  the  socially  sanctioned  attitude,  with  sometimes  a  slight  individ- 
ual sentiment.     (Cf.  No.  35,  note.) 

^'With  the  strong  familial  feeling  of  the  Polish  peasant,  an  attachment  to 
brother  or  sister  greater  than  that  to  husband  or  wife  is  not  an  exception.  It 
would  probably  be  much  more  frequent,  were  it  not  for  the  fact  that  marriage 
creates  an  active  community  of  interests  which  strengthens  the  mere  sentimental 
and  sexual  attachment.  This  explains  the  fact  that  whenever  the  husband  or  wife 
comes  to  live  with  the  family  of  the  other,  i.e.,  when  no  separate  household  is 
constituted,  his  or  her  position  is  very  difficult,  because  the  old  familial  connection 
of  the  other  remains  stronger  than  the  new  marriage  connection. 

3  This  hint  of  a  personal  sentiment  and  one  in  No.  43  ^irc  the  only  ones  made; 
by  Walery  with  reference  to  his  wife. 


362  TRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

most  Holy  Sacrament.  He  said  that  he  did  not  know.  But  who  can 
beHeve  it  ?  The  whole  village  knew,  he  alone  did  not  know.  I  told 
him  that  perhaps  he  saw  at  least  the  [mourning]  banner  when  the 
wiTid  waved  it  for  almost  two  days.     He  muttered  something,  and 

so  it  ended ^ 

I  cannot  even  send  you  wishes  for  the  approaching  merry  holidays 
of  our  Lord's  Resurrection,  because  I  know  that  they  will  not  be 

merry  for  either  you  or  me 

W.  Wroblewski 

39  May  16,  1909 

Dear  Brothers:  ....  In  the  Green  Holidays  [Pentecost]  we 
intend  to  move  to  the  new  house  ....  because  here  the  house 
stands  alone  and  on  a  bare  place;  everything  is  cleared  away,  the 
bams  moved  there;    we  live  here  still  only  until  the  chimney  and 

stoves  are  built  in  the  new  house Although  there  are  no 

ceilings  and  floors  we  shall  move,  ....  and  finish  the  rest  before 
winter.     My  farm  buildings  look  very  good  now;    I  put  both  barns 

on  the  side  of  the  road  and  between  them  I  made  a  gate-way 

The  sties  are  on  the  edge  of  the  field If  I  have  the  opportunity 

to  make  a  photograph  of  the  house,  I  will  send  it  to  you My 

brothers-in-law  helped  me  for  some  days,  only  brother  Jozef  could  not 
make  up  his  mind  to  come  and  help;  ....  he  did  not  refuse,  but 
before  he  came  we  had  done  everything.  Now  we  shall  have  a 
dispute  with  Kazimierz  Plaksa.  He  has  here  now  too  much  and  too 
little  room  at  once,  for  he  will  have  no  way  to  drive  behind  the  barns 
if  I  make  a  fence  from  the  road-side.  He  bought  a  strip  near  us  from 
Piotr  Pilat  for  70  roubles,  in  the  hope  that  we  shall  cross  it  and  then 
he  will  have  the  whole  road,  his  own  and  ours,  but  I  don't  know 
whether  I  will  cross  it  ....  at  any  rate  not  at  once 

W.  Wroblewski 

40  June  13,  1909 

Dear  Brothers:  ....  Now  I  inform  you  that  I  had  some  bad 
luck  also.  Before  Pentecost  I  was  invited  by  the  priest  in  Plonka  to 
plant  flowers  in  his  garden.     I  did  not  refuse,  although  I  had  enough 

'  This  is  a  proof  that  the  father  in  fact  no  longer  considers  himself  a  member 
of  the  family.     For  a  relative  not  to  assist  at  a  funeral  is  unheard  of. 


WROBLEWSKI  series  363 

work  of  my  own.  When  I  had  finished  the  work  the  priest's  coach- 
man was  going  to  Lapy  to  bring  the  priest's  sister,  and  he  took  me 
home.  Suddenly  the  mare  ran  away  and  ....  overturned  us  with 
the  carriage.  I  got  a  terrible  blow  upon  my  leg.  Three  weeks  have 
passed  ....  and  I  cannot  walk  without  pain.     May  God  grant 

me  to  recover  before  the  hay-harvest,  or  else  it  will  be  bad 

We  are  living  in  the  new  house Upon  the  old  place  there  is 

nothing  more,  no  trace  left I  sold  the  house  for  56  roubles 

and  I  gave  them  directly  back,  because  I  had  borrowed  exactly  as 
much  from  brother-in-law  Feliks  for  the  funeral  and  for  the  moving 
of  the  buildings.  Well,  after  long  bargaining,  I  exchanged  with 
Kazimierz  Plaksa  some  land  for  the  road.  Though  he  barked  enough 
he  had  to  give  what  I  wanted.  He  had  said  that  the  road  would  be  his 
without  anything,  because  it  is  common.  Well,  for  this  "common" 
road  he  had  to  give  me  the  hillside  opposite  the  old  gate  ....  and 

I  gave  him  my  road  up  to  his  house He  had  bought  from 

Piotr  Pilat  a  bed  near  my  garden  with  the  idea  that  I  would  cross  it 
[with  the  road]  and  then  he  would  have  the  road.  He  had  paid  70 
roubles  for  it — rather  expensive.  But  I  did  not  want  it,  because  there 
are  minors  who  have  a  part  [in  Pilat's  property;  therefore,  the 
proposed  combination  was  not  to  be  considered  cjuite  secure];  let 
him  rather  keep  what  he  bought.  It  looks  ridiculous;  he  had  l)ou^ht 
it  for  me  and  I  did  not  want  it.  I  shall  now  have  much  to  do  still 
before  I  have  everything  in  proper  order,  but  people  are  already 
praising  me  and  saying  that  I  live  as  in  a  small  manor.  'Ilie  house 
does  not  look  bad  and  the  barns  look  good  also.  The  fruit  trees  have 
grown  well  enough;  they  blossomed  this  year;  a  few  bee-hives — all 
this  together  looks  pretty  good.  I  send  you  a  photograph  of  m\- 
house,  although  a  very  bad  one.  It  is  the  front-wall,  3  windows  in  it; 
a  fourth  and  fifth  in  the  side- wall,  near  the  door;  before  the  door  a 
sort  of  a  veranda;  upon  the  roof  two  vanes  turned  by  the  wind,  in  tlie 
other  side- wall  two  windows  and  in  the  rear  also  two  windows.  Alto- 
gether 7  ordinary  windows  and  2  big  ones  near  the  door [News 

about  weather.] 

W.  W. 

[Two  letters,  dated  May  16,  and  June  13,  relate  the  moving  into  the- 
new  house,  the  transfer  of  the  barns,  an  exchange  of  land  with  I'l;iksa, 
minute  description  of  new  house,  etc.] 


364  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

41  September  29,  1909 

Dear  Brothers:  ....  I  received  from  you  the  letter  for  which 
I  had  waited  so  long,  and  I  learned  the  curious  news  that  brother 
Kostus  has  bought  such  a  big  farm.  This  pleased  me  very  much. 
I  am  almost  carried  away.  Could  I  have  such  a  fortune,  or  even  the 
half  of  it!  There  are  probably  about  60  morgs,  and  I  have  7,  and 
these  are  in  more  than  40  places;  and  even  with  these  7  morgs  I  don't 
know  how  it  will  be,  because  Olcia  can  take  half  of  them.  People  are 
already  instigating  her.  If  it  happens  so,  I  don't  know  what  I  shall 
do  with  the  other  children.  And  surely  she  won't  be  long  with  us, 
because  people  want  to  extort  this  small  bit  of  land  as  soon  as  possible. 
Envy  does  not  sleep.  My  late  wife  foresaw  it  and  told  me  before  her 
death  that  when  I  built  the  new  house  and  everything  looked  better 
there  would  be  terrible  en\y.  And  so  it  is.  If  she  had  lived,  it 
would  be  only  half  a  misery  [not  so  bad],  but  now  I  don't  know  how 
it  will  be.  To  remain  alone  with  the  children  would  be  bad.  To  go 
anywhere  into  the  world  would  also  be  impossible.  How  could  I 
leave  these  little  ones  alone  ?  There  will  be  nothing  to  farm  upon ; 
if  it  were  at  least  as  it  is  now,  one  could  live  along,  though  not  without 
difficulty.  (People  have  often  talked  of  my  marrying  Olcia,  that  it 
is  possible.  I  asked  the  priest  about  it.  He  told  me  that  there  have 
been  such  situations  and  people  have  asked  for  permission,  but  that 
it  is  not  possible  in  any  way.  Although  different  difficulties  about 
property  have  been  exposed,  it  has  been  refused.)  Here  I  stop 
[writing]  about  this. 

Now  I  want  to  ask  about  this  farm  which  Kostus  bought,  in  what 
country  it  lies,  whether  there  is  a  town  near  it,  whether  there  can  be 
a  good  sale  of  agricultural  products  ?  Still  I  believe  that  if  he  found 
his  way  before  and  could  gather  money  enough  to  buy  such  a  farm, 
he  surely  will  know  how  to  manage  further  and  pay  the  rest.  And 
if  the  garden  is  in  a  good  state  and  the  town  is  not  far  away,  it  can 
give  a  good  income.  And  also  it  is  necessary  to  cultivate  those  plants 
which  can  be  sold  most  easily.' 

W.  Wkoblewski 

'  The  fact  that  Kostus  has  bought  a  farm  creates  between  the  brothers  a  new 
community  of  interests  and  strengthens  the  famiHal  connection.  All  the  following 
letters  are  full  of  agricultural  details,  advice,  information,  experiments  (mainly 
omitted  here).  In  spite  of  the  passage  of  time,  the  correspondence  remains  as 
animated  as  it  was  at  the  beginning  of  their  separation. 


wrOblewski  series  365 

[Two  letters,  November  14,  1909,  and  January  i,  1910,  contain  advice 
about  farming  and  gardening.  Writes  that  his  house  has  been  reproduced 
in  Gazeta  Swiq.teczna.  Complains  that  he  cannot  get  along  alone  with  the 
children.] 

42  February  22,  1910 

Dear  Brothers:  [Weather,  early  spring,  larks  and  bees  have 
appeared,  farm-work.]  Thanks  to  God,  we  have  not  so  much  trouble 
as  last  year.  This  has  been  a  very  hard  year  for  us  after  the  loss  of  a 
wife  and  mother 

Now  you  asked  me,  dear  brother,  to  write  about  our  father.  I 
can  cay  that,  although  we  don't  live  far  from  each  other,  I  don't  know 
anything  about  him,  for  he  never  comes  to  us  and  we  never  go  to  him. 
Why  should  we  go,  since  he  has  disowned  us.  He  said  that  he  did  not 
want  our  tutorship,  that  he  will  get  on  pretty  well.  It  is  true  that 
he  gets  on  pretty  well,  because  from  time  to  time  we  hear  that  he  has 
sold  some  gully  or  patch.  He  keeps  Klimusia  and  her  children ;  they 
are  all  there  continually,  so  we  have  no  reason  to  go  there.  It  is  sad. 
But  what  can  be  done?  I  am  happy  only  when  I  don't  remember 
him;  then  my  heart  does  not  pain  me.  But  whenever  I  recall  it  all 
I  am  very  sad.  If  he  were  a  father  loving  his  own  children  and  not 
those  of  others  surely  we  should  all  be  better  off  now.  It  is  all  right 
when  strange  brats  ["bachory,"  contemptful  word  for  "children"] 
creep  upon  him  from  all  sides  like  vermin,  but  he  refused  to  live  with 
his  own  children.  I  am  not  of  his  age  today  [it  is  natural  for  old 
people  to  live  dependent  on  their  children]  but  I  live  with  my  children 
upon  their  fortune,  and  still  I  don't  weep.  I  commend  myself  to 
God's  care  and  I  live  along.  For  me  in  my  actual  situation  it  is  very 
bad  that  he  did  so,  but  may  God's  will  be  done.  [Asks  about  the 
exact  place  of  the  brothers'  farm  upon  the  map,  about  the  corn, 
vegetables,  trees  which  grow  there.]  In  our  village  and  neighborhood 
a  great  deal  is  changed,  it  would  seem  strange  to  you  now.  And  as  to 
Feliks,  I  don't  know  for  certain  his  address,  because  he  does  not  write 
to  us  at  all W.  W. 

.^  March  8,  1910 

Dear  Brothers:  ....  I  thank  you  for  your  letter;  I  learned 
much  from  it  about  what  grows  there  and  how  things  are  paid.  I 
understood  everything.     Now  I  describe  to  you  my  farm-stock.     I 


366  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

have  two  horses,  one  6  and  the  other  3  years  old,  two  cows,  both  have 
calved  now;  for  the  milk  which  I  send  to  Lapy  I  get  6  roubles  monthly, 
....  for  2  calves  I  got  7^  roubles,  ....  I  have  2  old  sheep  and 
3  young  ones,  2  pigs,  4  hens,  a  dog  and  a  pair  of  turtle-doves,  and  that 
is  all  my  farm-stock.  [Describes  prices,  probable  crops,  farm-work, 
weather,  new  churches  in  Lapy  and  Plonka.] 

Now  there  are  many  changes  in  our  village;  Jozef  Laba  built  a 
new  house,  Boleslaw  a  new  one,  Stas  Gembiak  a  new  one,  Roch  a  new 
one,  Jan  Gluchy  a  new  one.  Gkichy  has  gone  now  for  the  third  time 
to  America,  and  Roch  is  in  America  again.  I  moved  to  the  new  place. 
Where  it  was  there  is  nothing,  and  where  there  was  nothing,  there  it  is. 
Now  I  have  it  nice  and  comfortable,  everybody  says  that  it  looks  like 
a  manor,  only  it  is  a  pity  that  mine  [my  wife]  is  not  there  and  that  I 
still  have  a  few  roubles  of  debt.  But  the  latter  would  be  a  trifle 
if  she  lived.  Now  there  can  be  a  bad  misfortune  for  me  with  the 
children,  especially  with  such  a  difference  of  age.     Now  all  of  them 

would  like  to  learn,  but  there  is  nobody  to  work  for  them 

[Advises  them  to  keep  bees;  sends  wishes  for  Easter.] 

W.  Wr6blewski 


44  April  23,  1910 

....  Dear  Brothers:  ....  I  received  your  letter  with  the 
picture-patterns  for  [Easter]  eggs,  for  which  we  thank  you;  we  have 
no  such  yet.  America  is  always  the  first  to  invent  anything. 
[Weather,  farm-work,  crops.]  The  seeds  called  "pop-corn"  which 
you  sent  me  sprang  up,  but  the  cotton  has  not  yet  come  up,  though  it 
was  sown  long  ago. 

Now  I  inform  you  more  about  my  condition.  In  the  introduction 
I  wrote  that  we  are  in  good  health,  but  not  all  of  us,  for  Olcia  coughs 
too  much  since  carnival.^  She  does  different  things  but  all  this  does 
not  help.  I  went  with  her  to  a  doctor,  he  gave  a  medicine  and  advise? 
her  to  work  in  the  fresh  air.  He  said  to  me,  "  May  it  not  be  with 
her  as  with  her  mother!"  He  says  that  her  left  lung  is  weak.  Now 
there  is  almost  no  work  from  her,  she  stops  to  rest  every  moment. 
At  home  lack  and  disorder  are  growing.  I  don't  know  what  will  come 
of  it.     There  is  work  enough  for  women  at  home,  and  there  is  nobod>' 

'  An  instance  of  the  purely  formal  nature  of  the  introductory  news  about 
health,  prosperity,  etc. 


WROBLEWSKI  series  367 

to  work;  everything  is  torn  and  worn,  and  there  is  nobody  to  make 
anything.  I  hope  I  may  be  not  obUged  to  look  for  some  woman  [as 
wife],  for  I  am  not  very  wilHng  to  do  it.'  As  long  as  this  one  was  in 
good  health,  we  were  going  on  more  or  less,  although  with  difficulty; 
but  now  it  is  indeed  a  misery;  there  is  nobody  either  to  govern  or  to 
work  at  home.  I  give  directions  and  leave  the  house;  when  I  come 
back,  nothing  is  done.  The  one  cannot,  the  other  [the  boy]  is  too 
lazy.  They  are  quarreling  continually.  [Sends  vegetable  seeds  to 
be  tried  in  America.] 

W.  Wroblewski 


45  May  i,  1910 

Dear  Brothers:  ....  I  thank  you  for  your  letter.  Now  it  is 
somewhat  clearer  to  me  about  America.  I  learned  much  from  your 
letters,  what  grows  there,  what  are  the  prices,  and  in  what  locality  you 
are  settled.  [Weather,  crops,  prices,  farm-work.]  We  have  this  year 
enough  to  eat  and  work  enough,  but  too  little  money.  Thanks  to  God, 
at  least  I  am  gradually  getting  rid  of  my  debts.  It  is  bad  that  at 
home  there  is  nobody  to  keep  the  house.     Too  much  trouble  for  me. 

'  It  would  be  interesting  to  know  why  he  does  not  wish  to  remarry.  He  is 
certainly  not  deterred  by  the  remembrance  of  his  first  wife,  as  such  sentiments  are 
absolutely  strange  to  the  peasant's  traditional  attitude.  There  are  only  two  pos- 
sible reasons — his  attachment  to  Olcia,  or  his  unwillingness  to  introduce  an  incal- 
culable element  of  change  into  his  life.  But  the  latter  supposition  is  less  probable, 
because  he  does  not  hesitate  to  marry  after  Olcia's  death,  and  because,  as  far  as 
we  see,  there  is  no  example  of  any  fear  of  remarriage  among  peasants.  His  attach- 
ment to  Olcia  does  not  express  itself  openly,  because  of  the  unlawfulness  of  such  a 
feeling.  Still,  it  can  be  inferred.  He  mentions  that  Olcia  sometimes  accom- 
panied him  to  entertainments,  ceremonies,  fairs,  etc.,  and  he  had  the  idea  of  marry- 
ing her.  Even  if  this  idea  was  mainly  determined  by  economic  considerations,  the 
sentimental  and  sexual  elements  were  hardly  absolutely  lacking;  these  are  almost 
always  present  in  peasant  marriages,  even  in  men  of  a  rather  low  level  of  intellectual 
and  moral  development,  while  Walery  is  certainly  a  peasant  a  little  above  the 
average.  Finally,  even  if  the  love-element  was  originally  absent,  this  idea  of 
marrying  Olcia  made  the  man  look  upon  her  in  a  new  way,  as  upon  a  woman,  and 
some  degree  of  love  must  have  developed,  particularly  if  we  remember  what  an 
influence  the  conscious  idea  and  its  expression  in  words  have  upon  the  feelings  of 
the  peasant. 

Some  indications  can  be  found  also  in  letter  48.  Walery  writes  there  of  Olcia's 
death  in  a  much  more  informal  personal  way  than  that  of  the  death  of  his  wife. 
He  mentions  also  that  Olcia  wished  to  will  to  him  her  part  of  the  inheritance,  but 
this  may  have  been  caused  only  by  the  usual  familial  attachment.  At  any  rate,  it 
is  probable  that  his  feeling  for  Olcia  was  only  half-conscious. 


368  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

But  what  else  can  be  done  ?  If  mine  [my  wife]  were  living  everything 
would  be  well,  and  so  even  all  this  rejoices  me  not  much,  although  ihe 
farm  is  in  a  better  order  and  the  buildings  nice 

Now  I  mention  what  you  wrote  about  the  comet  of  Halley. 
Among  us  people  also  know  it,  and  different  wicked  speculators  spread 
various  rumors.  There  is  nothing  true  m  it.  Our  editor  of  Gazeta 
Swiqteczna  explains,  that  there  is  nothing  to  be  feared  from  it,  because 
the  moon  moves  50,000  miles  from  the  earth  and  the  one  does  no  harm 
to  the  other;  what  damage  then  can  the  one  bring  to  the  other  when 
the  comet  of  Halley  moves  3,000,000  miles  away  from  the  earth  ? 
I  don't  know  where  it  is  now;  in  March  after  sunset  we  saw^  it  above 
the  western  sky,  but  now  we  don't  see  it  any  more.  Perhaps  you  see 
it  in  America?  ....  Now  what  you  wrote  about  the  sun,  if  we 
live  next  year  I  will  do  so  here  at  the  appointed  time,  and  so  we  shall 
learn  who  of  us  is  nearer  the  equator.  You  had  a  very  good  idea, 
but  now  it  cannot  be  done,  for  during  this  time  the  sun  has  turned 
much  off  from  the  earth,  or  rather  the  earth  from  the  sun,  and  a  second 
trial  ought  to  be  made.' 

Now  as  to  the  machines  which  you  bought  and  which  are  so 
expensive — don't  they  know  scythes  and  sickles  there  ?  With  these 
tools  you  can  do  much  during  the  summer.  But  you  ought  not  to 
lose  hope,  even  if  one  year  disappoints  you;  perhaps  the  next  year 
will  be  better.  One  always  works  more  willingly  upon  his  own  [land] 
and  has  more  pleasure  in  everything  and  particularly  it  makes  a 
difference  in  old  age ;  you  can  live  more  easily  to  the  end  on  your  own 

t^^^^] W.  Wroblewski 

[Letter  of  June  19,  entirely  filled  with  questions  of  agriculture  at  home 
and  in  America;  one  of  August  5,  with  news  of  the  visit  of  bishop,  con- 
firmation of  Edward  and  Jozefa,  arrest  and  imprisonment  of  brother  Jozef, 
by  mistake;  one  of  December  i,  filled  again  with  news  and  advice  aboiu 
farming  and  gardening.] 

46  January  8,  191 1 

Dear  Brothers:  [Usual  beginning.]  The  holidays  passed,  we 
decorated  the  [Christmas]  pine-tree  and  the  children  had  great  joy. 
[Difficult  to  bring  in  the  hay.]     Now  I  answer  your  questions.     The 

'  Their  idea  is  probably  to  measure  the  length  of  a  shadow.  It  does  not  occur 
to  them  to  consult  a  map,  because  of  the  total  lack  of  any  tradition  about  the  use 
of  books  of  reference.  When  information  was  needed  it  was  always  sought  either 
by  asking  someone  or,  whenever  possible,  by  observation  and  experiment. 


vvrOblewski  series  369 

village-elder  is  Kazimierz  Plaksa;  he  is  ending  his  third  year.  The 
shop  in  Lapy  under  the  name  "Consumers  Association  in  Lapy" 
exists,  but  the  income  scarcely  covers  the  expenses.  It  would  prosper 
pretty  well,  if  it  were  not  for  our  darkness  [lack  of  instruction]. 
What  can  be  done,  if  people  prefer  to  go  to  the  Jews?  They  are 
afraid  of  making  the  Jews  angry.  Perkowski  Roman  opened  a  shop 
in  his  house  also  ....  and  it  is  not  going  badly.  In  the  autumn 
I  gave  him  a  pumpkin  for  his  shop  which  weighed  more  than  2  poods, 
and  upon  which  was  written:  "Village-gardener  W.  W. " 

Now  as  to  the  autonomy  of  the  Kingdom  of  Poland,  it  will 
probably  be  no  sooner  than  pears  grow  upon  a  willow  [Proverb]. 
[News  about  farm-work,  crops,  prices.]  If  it  were  always  so  [as  this 
year],  it  would  be  only  half  a  misery,  but  I  don't  know  how  it  will  be 
in  the  future  with  this  farm.  Perhaps  it  will  soon  fall  into  pieces, 
and  then  neither  here  nor  elsewhere.  I  like  to  work,  but  only  if  there 
is  something  to  work  upon.  I  think  that  for  you  it  is  also  agreeable 
to  work  upon  a  farm,  and  the  more  so  upon  such  a  farm.  If  our  Lord 
God  helps  you  to  pay  [the  mortgage],  it  is  the  most  sure  piece  of  bread. 
....  If  I  had  so  much  of  my  own  land  I  believe  that  I  should  feel 

fine,  but  I  commend  myself  to  the  will  of  God I  am  in  a  bad 

situation.  Even  if  it  came  to  paying  [the  stepdaughter's  part  of 
inheritance  in  cash,  instead  of  giving  her  land,  in  the  case  of  her 
marriage],  it  would  be  difficult  to  find  a  loan,  because  I  don't  know 
myself  what  and  upon  what  I  am  [what  is  my  position,  as  the  father 
of  the  heirs].  The  worst  is  that  my  hands  are  tied,  so  that  I  cannot 
manage  the  affairs  freely.  Even  now  I  do  much,  for  I  don't  know 
what  another  man  would  do  in  my  situation  [probably  less].  Now  I 
think  it  a  pity  that  I  did  not  go  earlier  to  America;  at  present  it  is  too 
difficult Walery  Wroblewski 

The  stork's  nest  fell  down  last  summer;  it  was  rotten  with  rains. 
Now  there  is  none. 

4y  March  15,  191 1 

Dear  Brothers:  [More  than  half  the  letter  filled  with  farm  and 
weather  news.]  Now  as  to  the  fast  in  our  country,  the  Holy  Father, 
or  the  Pope,  gave  an  exemption  for  7  years.  On  all  the  days  of  the 
whole  year  except  the  eve  of  the  day  of  God's  Mother,  Decemljcr  8, 
and  Good  Friday,  we  can  eat  milk.     On  all  Saturdays  of  the  year,  if  it 


370  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

docs  not  happen  to  be  the  eve  of  some  holiday  or  quarterly  fast-day, 
we  can  cat  meat.  On  all  the  Sundays  during  Lent,  we  can  eat  meat, 
even  more  than  once.  On  all  the  Mondays,  Tuesdays,  Thursdays  in 
Lent,  except  Good  Thursdays,  we  can  eat  meat  once  a  day.  The 
Holy  Father  gave  an  exemption  for  the  Kingdom  of  Poland  for  7 
years,  commuting  the  fast  for  other  good  deeds.  He  did  it  last  year, 
in  April.  The  papers  published  it  at  once.  The  priests  did  not 
publish  it;  only  when  the  whole  people  learned  it  and  it  was  impossible 
to  keep  it  secret  they  proclaimed  it.  Nevertheless  we  keep  the  old 
habit  about  meat,  only  in  Lent  we  eat  milk  on  Sundays,  Mondays, 
Tuesdays  and  Thursdays,  and  on  the  other  days  we  fast ' 

W.  Wroblewski 

48  March  16,  191 2 

"Praised  be  Jesus  Christus!" 

Dear  Brothers:  I  announce  to  you  today  sad  and  painful 
news.  Today,  March  16,  at  4  o'clock  in  the  morning,  our  Olcia  ended 
her  temporal  life,  and  moved  to  eternity,  toward  which  we  also  are 
going.  It  is  sad  and  sorrowful  news.  For  the  second  time  I  bear 
such  a  painful  blow.  What  is  left  to  me  ?  Even  this  one  who  has 
been  instead  of  a  mother  to  these  younger  ones  bade  us  farewell,  not 
for  a  day,  not  for  a  week,  but  for  eternity.  She  went  often  to  church, 
but  she  came  back,  and  now  she  will  never  come  back.  Oh,  how  sad 
it  is  to  think  of  it!     And  the  house  is  empty  without  her. 

The  spring  comes,  and  there  will  be  much  work.  Who  will  do 
this?  Now  I  can  do  almost  nothing  at  home,  I  must  do  my  work, 
because,  thanks  to  it,  we  can  more  easily  drive  poverty  away,  the 

more  so  as  this  funeral  will  cost  more  than  60  roubles And 

moreover,  there  are  rumors  that  the  Stalugis  from  Barwiki  and  Feliks 
....  Laba  intend  to  claim  the  inheritance  after  her,  but  I  believe 
that  they  will  receive  from  us  as  much  as  the  Stalugis  formerly  received 

from  my  late  wife  [nothing] Olcia  wanted  to  bequeath  it  to 

me,  but  it  was  not  possible,  because  she  was  not  full  21  years  old. 

'The  persistence  of  old  customs  among  peasants  is  very  well  shown  in  the 
matter  of  fasting.  The  example  of  Wroblewski,  who  fasts  in  spite  of  the  exemp- 
tion, is  typical.  The  whole  modern  evolution  in  the  church's  attitude  toward 
fasting  remained  without  any  influence  upon  the  isolated  peasant  communities. 
This  shows  also  the  relative  independence  of  religion  as  custom  from  the  sanction 
of  the  church. 


WROBLEWSKI  series  371 

But  as  far  as  I  have  asked,  her  part  belongs  by  the  right  of  inheritance 

to  the  younger  half-brothers  and  half-sisters 

W.  W. 


49  May  14,  191 2 

Dear  Brothers:  ....  Now  I  inform  you  that  I  have  already 
a  new  housewife  at  home.  I  took  her  from  Plonka.  She  is  Miss 
Anna  Perkowska,  from  the  house  where  Horko  formerly  lived.  She 
is  the  daughter  of  Horko's  son-in-law,  and  30  years  old.  Moreover, 
she  is  a  good  seamstress,  because  others  learn  from  her.  Although 
she  does  not  look  pretty,  for  me  it  is  more  than  enough,  for  I  am  no 
longer  the  same  as  I  was  long  ago.  Now  I  have  two  sewing-machines; 
one  can  even  be  sold.  Her  stock  of  clothing  is  substantial  enough — 
no  need  to  buy  her  new  dresses  soon.  And  the  order  at  home  is 
becoming  different,  and  I  am  glad  of  it,  because  up  to  the  present 
there  has  been  a  terrible  confusion  in  the  house.     Now,  if  only  good 

harmony  prevails  at  home,  it  will  be  better,  I  hope I  have 

nothing  more  of  interest  to  write.  I  mention  only  that  our  marriage 
was  performed  on  May  7,  on  the  eve  of  St.  Stanislaw,  and  there  was 
a  good  enough,  although  not  a  big  wedding-feast ' 

W.  Wroblewski 

50  August  2,  191 2 

Dear  Brothers:  [Weather,  farm- work,  crops.]  Now  I  have 
had  no  letter  from  you  for  a  long  time.     I  wrote  in  May  that  a  change 

had  happened  with  me,  that  I  had  taken  a  new  wife Now  at 

least  the  order  at  home  is  somewhat  better,  because  up  to  this  time 
it  has  been  very  bad;  and  a  Httle  money  is  more  easily  found  when 
necessary,  since  I  took  my  position  again.  Although  my  occupations 
are  more  numerous,  at  least  there  is  some  result.  Now  it  will  be  more 
easily  possible  to  go  somewhere  and  to  see  something.  It  would  not 
be  bad,  only  Edward  is  somewhat  lazy.     Perhaps  he  will  imi)r.)vc 

when  he  grows  up 

W.  Wroblewski 

'  Less  ceremonial  and  less  social  importance  arc  always  attached  to  second 
marriages,  but  the  lack  of  any  touch  of  romance  and  of  any  weddinK  announce- 
ments marks  this  as  an  unusually  matter-of-fact  arrangement. 


372  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

51  October  21,  1912 

Dear  Brothers:  [Weather,  crops,  prices;  news  about  acquaint- 
ances.] Now  in  PJonka  we  have  a  new  church  ....  it  will  be 
consecrated  next  year.  Our  village  gathered  150  roubles  for  one 
window  of  the  new  church;  other  villages  give  money  also,  but  we 
have  shown  ourselves  munificent  as  compared  with  the  others,  for 
which  we  have  been  praised  more  than  once  from  the  chancel  by  the 
priest.  Now,  at  home  it  does  not  go  badly.  My  present  housekeeper, 
or  rather  wife,  keeps  good  order  at  home  and  also  with  the  children; 
they  are  all  cleaner  than  before,  and  my  Jozia  says  that  she  never  had 

such  a  chemise  as  she  has  now Well,  the  service  is  not  bad; 

I  get  30  [roubles]  every  month.     She  earns  for  herself  by  sewing 
....  and  I  do  not  have  to  pay  for  the  weeding,  harvesting,  digging, 

etc [More  farm-news.] 

W.  Wroblewski 


52  March  7,  1913 

....  Dear  Brothers:  ....  We  live  still  in  the  old  way,  but 
perhaps  soon  there  will  be  something  new  [war].  Everything  here  is 
as  you  wrote.  We  expected  bad  times  very  soon.  Now  it  seems  that 
for  the  present  there  will  be  peace,  but  it  seems  that,  as  the  papers 
write,  this  misery  is  unavoidable  sooner  or  later.  Where  shall  we  go 
then?     We  shall  all  perish  probably  in  some  awful  way,  if  we  live 

long  enough  to  see  it  come Although  even  now  we  don't 

enjoy  any  delights,  then  a  terrible  misery  awaits  us,  and  we  shall  be 
separated  from  you,  not  singly,  but  all  together,  and  we  shall  give 
no  news  about  ourselves  and  get  none  from  you 

These  30  roubles  which  I  earn  monthly  are  still  not  enough  for 
such  expenses.  And  as  my  son  is  moreover  a  lazy  boy,  the  farming 
is  bad  at  home.  Even  now  I  have  been  obliged  to  kill  a  cow;  she 
could  neither  rise  nor  calve.  Only  two  are  left.  And  then  everybody 
must  be  clothed  and  shod,  and  I  must  count  well  in  order  to  get  our 
li\dng.  I  got  entangled  in  this  misery  so  that  there  is  no  way  out  of  it. 
I  became  the  slave  of  my  own  family.  If  I  saw  that  my  son  would  be 
a  farmer  and  that,  if  God  allowed  me  to  live  until  old  age,  I  could 
spend  it  with  him,  then  it  would  be  possible  to  bear  it.  But  I  don't 
see  it,  for  he  is  lazy  in  every  line,  careless.  Wherever  he  goes,  he 
will  have  hard  times.     Now  when  I  am  not  at  home  he  becomes  still 


WROBLEWSKI  series  373 

more  idle.  I  cannot  decide  about  this  property,  and  he  will  be  no 
farmer,  as  it  seems.  So  if  I  live  so  long  that  I  am  unable  to  work 
myself — what  then?     [Weather;  Easter- wishes.] 

Walery  Wroblewski 

53  October  lo,  1913 

Dear  Brothers:  ....  I  am  always  very  interested  in  how  you 
live  there  in  the  foreign  country.  It  is  a  pity  that  you  have  worse 
luck  this  year,  but  this  happens  always  and  everywhere.  Do  you 
hope  at  least  to  keep  this  farm  ?  Will  there  be  no  failure  ?  Now  I 
inform  you  that  there  is  a  change  with  me.  My  chief  went  away 
and  a  new  one  came.  I  don't  know  whether  it  will  be  possible  to 
serve  under  him;  it  seems  that  he  will  be  very  particular.  I  should 
be  glad  to  remain  at  least  for  the  winter 

Now  I  inform  you  that  we  shall  surely  have  colonies  [commassa- 
tion  of  land],  because  all  the  villages  of  the  commune  Lapy  agree; 
and  not  a  great  agreement  is  needed,  because  it  is  enough  if  more  than 

half  of  the  village  wants  it;    then  the  others  must  agree 

Everybody  will  sit  upon  a  single  spot,  the  pasture  will  be  common, 
and  the  fields  and  meadows  will  be  measured  anew.  I  am  very 
curious  what  will  come  of  it.^ 

Now,  on  August  24  was  the  consecration  of  the  new  church  in 

Plonka.     Now  we  are  already  going  to  the  new  church.     It  is  a 

pleasure  to  see,  how  beautiful  it  is Michal  is  now  going  lo 

school,  and  the  youngest  boy  Wactaw  [son  of  the  new  wife]  is  growing 

very  well 

W.  Wroblewski 

54  April  4,  1914 

Dear  Brothers:  ....  Now  I  remain  in  the  same  employ- 
ment. My  chief  will  go  away  again  and  a  new  one  will  come.  It 
is  not  very  good  to  have  to  get  accustomed  to  a  new  one  so  often. 
There  is  now  work  enough  for  me  ...  .  and  there  is  always  some- 
thing for  the  work  [some  money],  but  there  is  one  misfortune.     My 

'  Under  the  old  system  the  peasant  had  his  land  in  small  pieces  (Wr6blewski, 
as  he  says,  had  his  seven  morgs— nine  and  one-half  acres—in  forty  spots),  and  with 
as  many  neighbors  as  he  had  plots  of  land  the  peasant  was  in  constant  (hsputes 
over  questions  of  trespass  and  the  like.     The  new  system  has  resulted  m  mcom 
parably  fewer  quarrels  and  lawsuits. 


374  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

Edward  every  year  sees  the  stork  for  the  first  time  standing  or  lying, 

and  I,  on  the  contrary,  see  him  always  flying.     Yesterday  also  I  saw 

the  first  stork  this  year  flying;   surely  he  will  brmg  something  this 

year.     Such  is  my  luck.' 

My  youngest  Waclaw  is  a  strong  boy  and  keeps  well.     Perhaps 

he  will  have  more  energy,  because  these  older  ones  have  been  bad 

and  miserable  since  childhood,  and  even  now  there  is  little  energy  in 

them;   and  there  is  work  enough,  if  not  at  home,  then  elsewhere,  if 

one  is  not  a  lazy  fellow ' 

W.  Wroblewski 


55  Tuesday,  December  lo,  1907 

Dear  Brother:  ....  I  thank  you  for  your  letter,  which  pleased 
and  grieved  me  at  the  same  time.  It  pleased  me  because  I  learned 
something  about  you  from  your  own  hand,  and  grieved  me  because 
you  described  truly  your  situation.  I  knew  about  it  long  ago,  it  is 
true,  but  up  to  the  last  moment  I  could  not  believe  that  the  danger 
was  so  imminent.  How  c::n  I  help  you?  I  may  only  say  that  if 
you  are  unhappy  (in  this  life),  think  that  perhaps  there  are  others, 
a  hundred  times  more  unhappy  than  you;  and  even  those  who  at 
first  sight  seem  to  succeed  well  enough,  if  we  looked  nearer,  and  if  we 
could  discover  the  mysteries  of  their  life,  we  should  know  that  the 
life  of  every  one  of  them  is  one  series  of  sufferings.  And  if  a  man 
could  see  all  his  sufferings  at  once,  he  would  certainly  try  to  shorten 
them  voluntarily. 

But  let  us  not  talk  about  other  people,  only  about  ourselves.  Let 
us  begin  with  the  oldest.  Is  Walery  happy  ?  Is  everything  with  him 
going  on  as  he  wishes?  At  first  it  would  seem  we  could  say  yes. 
It  is  but  enough  to  look  at  the  health  of  his  wife  and  his  children, 
particularly  in  their  first  years,  in  order  to  have  an  idea  of  his  success. 

'  We  have  here  an  instance  of  a  very  general  belief  that  the  good  or  bad  omen 
is  a  real  factor  causing  the  foretold  phenomenon  to  appear.  This  belief  is  the 
background  of  the  magical  hygiene  of  the  peasants.  There  is  a  whole  code  of 
prescriptions — as  to  what  and  how  omens  are  to  be  avoided. 

'  The  laziness  of  which  he  complains  is  certainly  a  result  of  heredity.  The 
children  have  inherited  a  weak  organism  from  their  consumptive  mother.  But 
this  interpretation  is  never  very  clearly  realized  by  a  peasant.  The  attitude 
toward  hereditary  physical  weakness  is  usually  one  of  moral  condemnation,  unless 
there  is  a  definite  defect  which  puts  the  given  person  a  priori  outside  of  any  social 
competition. 


WROBLEWSKI  series  375 

Further,  was  Marysia,  in  the  flower  of  her  age,  happy  ?  Certainly 
not.  About  Feliks  I  don't  know  much.  But  if  somebody  ordered 
me  to  be  in  his  skin,  a  scapegoat,  then  I  should  be  glad  if  there  were 
ten  Americas.  You  think  probably  that  I  make  suppositions — true 
or  not — about  his  wife.  Then  come  you,  I  and  Konstanty.  We  know 
about  you.  As  to  me,  we  can  shrug  our  shoulders.  To  live  alone 
seemed  to  me  no  business.  I  considered  marriage  a  difficult  duty, 
but  nobody  who  has  not  experienced  it  can  have  any  idea  about  it. 
It  is  not  because  I  have  made  a  bad  choice,  but  because  with  marriage 
are  connected  the  most  painful  and  irritating  questions.  I  don't 
say  that  my  condition  is  the  worst,  but  it  is  far  from  being  good, 
and  the  skies,  instead  of  brightening,  get  clouded.  Let  us  mention 
only  one,  the  least  important  question.  Every  beast  has  its  lair, 
the  dog  has  his  kennel,  while  we  must  wander  about  strange 
corners  and  depend  upon  the  landlord's  caprice,  and  we  cannot 
even  dream  about  our  own  kennel.  And  it  is  useless  to  speak  about 
the  rest.  There  remains  Konstanty.  I  don't  know  how  he  succeeds. 
You  write  that  he  does  very  well,  but  I  cannot  believe  that  a  man 
condemned  to  live  far  away  from  his  native  country  could  feel  really 
happy.' 

I  was  astonished  in  reading  in  your  last  letter  the  question, 
whether  I  had  not  forgotten  you.  In  my  opinion  to  forget  for  a 
long  time  one's  brothers  and  sisters  would  be  equal  to  forgetting  for  a 
long  time  to  eat.  Particularly  now,  when  our  father  has  disowned  us, 
when  our  own  father  tries  to  harm  us  in  every  possible  way — as  you 
know  probably  from  our  brother's  letters — we  ought  to  be,  all  of  us, 
near  one  another,  "one  for  all  and  all  for  one."  And  if  we  cannot 
unify  ourselves  materially,  then  at  least  let  us  be  united  spiritually 
as  closely  as  possible,  and  then  it  will  be  easier  to  bear  the  burden  of 
life,  and  our  Lord  God  will  help  us.^ 

[JOZEF   WrOBLEWSKI] 

'  The  letter  is  full  of  meaning  as  showing  the  nature  of  the  peasant's  pessimism. 
Whenever  theoretical  reflection  takes  the  place  of  action  the  practical  optimism  of 
the  peasant  changes  into  a  theoretical  pessimism;  the  less  of  active  energy  wc 
find  in  an  individual  or  a  group,  the  more  pessimism  prevails.  (Cf.  Osinski  scries, 
No.  78,  note.)  But  religion,  where  the  practical  rather  than  the  theoretical  alti- 
tudes are  expressed,  is  optimistic,  as  far  as  uninfluenced  by  the  Christian  terrors 
of  God's  wrath. 

^  A  good  expression  of  the  peasant's  own  conception  of  familial  solidarity. 


376  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

56  [No  date,  probaljly  190S] 

Dear  Brothers:  I  wrote  in  my  preceding  letter  that  I  would 
wrile  another  soon,  and  I  am  doing  it  now.  It  does  not  cost  me  mucl^, 
and  to  you  it  is  probably  the  same,  for  if  you  pay  for  a  box  yearly 
a  smaller  or  larger  number  of  letters  makes  no  difference.  I  promise 
mv  wife  that  if  I  go  to  America,  I  shall  write  her  letters  regularly 
every  week,  but  I  don't  know  myself  whether  it  will  be  true,  for 
sometimes  something  may  change  or  some  impediment  may  come. 
Is  it  not  true?  .... 

Jan  Laba,  from  our  village,  is  going  to  America  for  the  second  time. 
He  says  it  is  the  best  to  go  there  for  wdnter,  because  it  is  not  hot  and 
is  easier  to  work.  Last  Wednesday  we  had  the  autumnal  odpusl 
[parish-festival]'  in  Plonka,  on  St.  Michael's  day.  During  the  day 
the  weather  was  nice,  but  in  the  morning  it  rained  and  therefore 
people  from  farther  districts  did  not  come.  I,  Franciszek  and  Ignacy 
came  together — for  now  we  seldom  come  together — and  we  talked  of 
course  about  "old  times."  Franciszek  related  how,  about  12  years 
ago,  he  came  back  from  the  same  parish-festival  when  the  people 
were  driving  the  cattle  into  the  fields.  Evidently,  there  can  be  no 
question  of  that  now,  for  his  dear  wife  would  arrange  for  him  upon 
earth,  or  even  simply  in  their  home,  a  "Dante's  hell,"  and  he  would 
merit  it  in  fact.^  And  thus  having  talked  and  complained  about  bad 
luck,  after  the  end  of  the  divine  service  we  w^ent  back  at  once,  each 
his  own  way. 

In  general  now  it  is  sad  in  Plonka,  for  nobody  comes  there  from 
Lapy,  because  they  have  their  own  chapel  and  soon  they  will  begin 
to  build  a  church.  But  we  shall  have  time  enough  to  talk  about  it 
when  I  come  to  you.  And  now  I  renew  my  request  to  Kostus.  If 
he  can  and  if  both  of  you  believe  that  it  is  worth  while,  let  him  send 

'"Odpust"  means  literally  "indulgence,"  that  is,  partial  or  total  remission 
of  punishment  for  sins  to  be  suffered  on  earth  or  in  purgator3^  During  the  parish 
festival  full  indulgence  is  granted  to  those  who  confess  and  commune  and  perform 
certain  good  deeds.     Hence  the  identification  of  "indulgence"  and  "festival." 

'  The  peasant  conscience  excludes  conjugal  infidelity  absolutely.  (Cf .  the 
last  letters  of  Stasia  in  the  Piotrowski  series.)  Besides  murder  and  wronging  of 
the  helpless,  it  is  the  only  sin  which  he  never  excuses.  Even  in  the  tales,  in  which 
almost  all  sins  occasionally  find  pardon,  there  is  no  remission  of  infidelity.  In  this 
respect  the  conscience  of  townspeople,  particularly  of  handworkers,  is  much  more 
lax.  The  relation  of  the  master's  wife  with  the  journeyman  is  not  always  con- 
demned. 


WROBLEWSKI  series  377 

me  a  ship-ticket,  for  here  people  say  that  if  one  goes  without  a  ship- 
ticket,  he  must  have  200  roubles,  for  if  he  does  not  show  50  roubles 
when  leaving  the  ship  he  will  be  sent  back.  And  if  it  is  true,  I  could 
hardly  gather  200  roubles,  unless  by  selling  all  my  household  effects 
at  auction,  and  I  should  not  like  that  at  all.  And  then,  I  should 
leave  a  few  roubles  for  my  wife  and  my  son.  But  first  I  ask  you  for 
advice,  whether  it  is  woith  going,  for  if  I  don't  earn  $1^  a  day,'  it 

would  not  be  worth  thinking  about  America It  is  a  pity  that 

Kostus  is  no  longer  in  the  mines,  for  I  should  like  to  have  piece-work, 
for  work  is  never  too  hard 

JOZEF  WrOBLEWSKI 


57  December  13,  1909 

Dear  Brothers  :  The  man  was  not  stupid  who  made  the  proverb : 
"Man  shoots  and  aims,  but  the  Lord  God  directs  the  bullets."  The 
same  proved  true  with  me.  At  the  moment  when  I  had  a  real  inten- 
tion of  going  to  you,  and  when  I  received  your  letter,  then  a  "  some- 
thing," as  we  call  it  usually,  got  me,  but  such  a  "something"  that 
while  I  could  still  think  of  America  it  was  only  of  the  America  from 
which  nobody  ever  comes  back.  I  was  not  actually  laid  up,  but  worse 
still,  for  with  a  man  who  is  lying  in  bed  things  are  soon  decided  in  one 
way  or  another.     As  to  me,  I  am  sick  in  my  lungs,  coughing,  catarrh, 

sore  throat,  headache.     In  a  word,  like  a  broken  pot Now 

I  am  better  than  in  the  beginning,  but  far  from  being  fully  recovered. 
....  I  don't  know  now  myself  when  I  shall  be  able  to  visit  you, 
and  whether  I  shall  be  able  at  all,  for  to  feel  something  bad  about 
one's  self  and  to  go  beyond  the  sea  in  search  of  bread  would  be  very 

silly To  tell  the  truth,  day-work  does  not  attract  me  much, 

for  during  10  years  I  have  become  unaccustomed  to  anybody's 
controlling  my  work.  Even  if  I  worked  the  best  possible,  I  should 
always  have  the  impression  that  the  boss  considered  it  insufficient. 
Piece-work  is  quite  another  matter.  I  want  it  still  and  always. 
Perhaps  I  could  find  it.' 

As  to  the  news,  there  is  a  sad  piece.  Wincenty  K.  (from  whom 
our  father  bought  the  mill-wheel),  became  half-insane  because  of 
money  troubles  and  a  few  days  ago  cut  his  throat  with  a  razor.  He 
walked  after  this  about  a  verst,  and  died  under  a  fence  near  his  home. 

»  On  piece-work  see  Introduction:  "Economic  Attitudes." 


^-jS  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

And  it  is  a  pity,  for  he  was  such  an  honest  man.     There  is  also  gay 

news.     Stcfka  G.  married  a  boy  from  Szolajdy The  wedding 

was  on  the  last  Sunday  before  Advent.  But  God  pity  us!  What 
marriage-festivals  there  are  now!  It  began  at  lo  o'clock  in  the 
morning,  and  at  lo  in  the  evening  there  was  not  a  strange  soul  left, 
except  of  course  the  groom,  who  was  not  so  stupid  as  to  leave  his 
beloved.  Thus  the  whole  festival  did  not  last  even  12  hours.'  There 
were  only  5  bottles  of  brandy  for  60  persons.  To  tell  the  truth,  it 
would  be  better  in  general  if  there  had  been  none.  There  was  more 
beer,  but  people  got  sick,  for  even  without  beer  it  was  cold  enough. 

JOZEF  WrOBLEWSKI 

'  We  find  in  many  letters  the  statement  that  the  marriage-festivals  are  becom- 
ing shorter  and  less  ceremonial.  It  is  an  immediate  sign  that  marriage  is  losing 
more  and  more  its  social  character;  mediately  it  shows  the  progressive  individuali- 
zation of  peasant  life  in  general. 


STELMACH  SERIES 

Jan  Stelmach,  the  old  man  who  writes  these  letters,  is  a 
perfect  type  of  Galician  peasant  farmer,  with  some  instruc- 
tion, indeed,  but  without  any  climbing  tendencies  and  with 
a  definite  class-consciousness.  Except  for  the  usual  troubles 
of  country  life,  he  seems  to  be  perfectly  satisfied  with  his 
position.  In  this  respect  the  GaHcian  peasant  differs  from 
the  peasants  in  Russian  and  German  Poland.  Perhaps 
owing  to  greater  national  freedom  and  because  of  the 
relatively  insignificant  industrial  progress  of  Galicia,  the 
peasant  there  developed  a  particular  pride  and  a  strong 
class-feeling.  Even  when  he  gets  a  higher  instruction,  be- 
comes a  priest,  a  teacher,  an  official,  he  is  seldom  ashamed 
of  his  origin,  remains  and  wants  to  remain  a  peasant.  From 
the  advice  which  old  Stelmach  gives  to  his  son  and  daughter- 
in-law  it  is  evident  that  he  considers,  consciously  and  after 
reflection,  the  peasant  form  of  life  the  most  normal  and 
sound,  physically  and  morally. 

There  is  also  an  interesting  variety  of  the  family  problem. 
We  see  that  the  Stelmach  family,  except  for  some  slight 
misunderstandings,  remains  harmonious — much  more  so 
than  the  Wroblewskis  or  even  the  Osinskis.  But  this  does 
not  mean  that  the  old  solidarity  and  community  are  pre- 
served. On  the  contrary,  there  is  already  a  far-going 
individualization,  as  shown,  for  example,  in  the  question  of 
marriage  and  in  economic  matters  (real  division  of  the 
property;  independence  of  the  son  in  America).  But  the 
individualization  goes  on  without  any  struggle.  The  old 
man,  for  instance,  voluntarily  resigns  any  active  control 
of  his  son,  and  limits  himself  to  giving  advice.  He  welcomes 
with  joy  his  unknown  daughter-in-law,  although  the  way 

379 


^So  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

in  wliich  the  marriage  was  performed  was  contrary  to  all 
I  tic  traditions.  He  never  asks  his  son  for  money,  although 
he  knows  that  the  latter  is  well  off;  he  has  a  sufficient  under- 
standing of  the  desire  of  the  other  children  to  get  better 
individual  positions  in  America,  and  not  only  does  not 
[protest  against  their  plan  of  emigration,  but  asks  the  oldest 
son  to  help  them.  In  short,  in  this  matter  there  seems  to  be 
also  a  more  rational  and  self-conscious  attitude  in  the 
Stelmach  family  than  in  many  others.  Instead  of  a  stub- 
born holding  to  tradition,  we  find  an  acknowledgment  of  the 
inevitable  limitation  of  its  power.  Perhaps  familiarity 
with  the  phenomena  of  emigration  (of  which  we  find  a  proof 
in  Stelmach 's  knowledge  of  the  American  conditions)  has 
helped  to  develop  this  attitude. 

THE  FAMILY  STELMACH 

Jan  Stelmach,  a  farmer 

Ewa,  his  wife 

Jozef 

J§drzej 

Michal  I-  his  sons 

Piotr 

Wojtek  (Wojciech) 

Kaska    1  ,  .     ,       , 

,    ,    .      >  nis  daughters 

Jadwiga  J 

Sobek,  the  husband  of  Kaska 

JuHanna  (Julcia,  Julka,  UUs),  the  wife  of  Jozcf 

Juhanna's  parents 

Makar,  Juhanna's  brother 

Magdusia  ]  -r  ,.         , 

„  >  J  uhanna  s  sisters 

Krzysztof  Zak,  uncle  of  Ewa  Stelmach 
Rozia  Stefanska  1 

Jagusia  Sasielska  (Wojtkowa)  [  his  daughters 
Zoska  (Zosia) 


STELMACH  SERIES  381 

58  PoR^BY  WoLSKiE,  March  i,  1909 

Praised  be  Jesus  Christus  and  the  HoUest  Virgm  Mary,  His 
Mother! 

Dearest  Children:  ....  I  wanted  to  send  wishes  for  the 
name-day  of  Julianna,  and  I  saw  in  the  yearly  almanac  that  St. 
Julianna  is  on  March  20,  so  I  intended  to  send  my  wishes  to  you  both. 
But  I  did  not  succeed,  because  I  ascertained  finally  that  St.  Julianna 
is  on  February  16,  and  so  I  have  erred  through  this  yearly  almanac. 
So  now  I  will  send  my  wishes  only  to  you,  dear  son.  To  you,  dear 
daughter-in-law,  I  will  send  wishes  for  your  name-day  next  year,  if 
I  live  so  long,  because  now  I  know  already  that  the  day  of  your 
patron  is  February  16. 

Well,  dear  son,  a  year  has  passed  away,  and  the  day  of  March  19, 
your  name-day,  approaches.  Your  mother  and  I  want  to  offer  you 
various  wishes,  dear  child.  We  wish  you  health,  happiness,  good 
success,  an  honored  name,  every  good  luck,  indissoluble  love  in  your 
marriage.  May  you  love  each  other  and  never  know  any  sorrow, 
may  you  never  know  misery,  may  you  have  bread  and  money  enough ! 
May  our  Lord  God  illuminate  you  with  his  mercy,  that  you  may 
always  know  what  to  do  and  what  to  avoid.  May  our  Lord  God  send 
you  happiness  and  blessing,  that  you  may  have  everything,  want 
nothing,  live  happily  and  praise  God.  May  our  Lord  God  grant 
you  every  sweet  thing!  This  wish  you  your  father  and  mother. 
Vivat  our  son  Jozef!  May  he  live  a  hundred  years,  may  our  Lord 
God  weave  health  and  happiness,  health  and  fortune  into  his  life!!' 

Now  I  describe  to  you  our  condition.  Your  aunt  wrote  to  us 
and  sent  us  a  dollar  in  the  letter.  We  received  the  letter  but  the 
dollar  was  not  there,  because  somebody  had  stolen  it.  I  wrote  to 
the  aunt  never  to  send  money  again  in  a  letter,  not  even  in  a  registered 
one,  because  many  dollars  have  already  been  lost  from  letters.  Poor 
aunt,  she  has  so  little  herself  and  she  wants  to  help  us!  May  our 
Lord  God  give  her  whatever  is  the  best,  because  she  wants  to  help  us 

as  she  can,  but  some  wicked  man  has  swallowed  $6  already 

And  don't  you  send  money  in  a  letter  either,  because  a  letter  can  ])c 
opened  easily.     You  have  only  to  moisten  it  with  spittle  where  it  is 

'  The  whole  paragraph  (half  in  verse)  is  a  typical  speech,  such  as  would  l)e  said 
during  a  family  festival.  The  function  of  ceremonial  wishes  is  here  made  as  plain 
as  possible.     (See  Forms  and  Functions  of  the  Peasant  Letter.) 


382  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

t^lucd  and  put  it  under  your  arm.  When  it  becomes  warm,  the  glue 
loosens  up  and  it  is  easy  to  open  it  with  a  needle,  to  read  it,  then  to 
moisten  and  to  glue  it  up,  adjusting  carefully  the  borders  of  the  seal. 
If  it  won't  hold,  you  need  only  rub  it  with  a  potato  and  it  will  stick  up, 

and  nobody  will  know  it So  don't  dare  to  send  it  in  a  letter, 

because  it  is  nowhere  difficult  to  find  a  thief.* 

We  are  all  in  good  health,  but  our  condition  is  meanwhile  a  little 
sad  because,  as  you  know,  when  there  is  one  thing  another  thing  is 
lacking.  So  we  lacked  milk  during  the  carnival,  and  our  cow  was  to 
calve  at  the  end  of  February,  and  we  were  watching  whether  she 
would  not  calve.  On  the  night  of  February  26  to  27  I  went  to  the 
stable  to  see  whether  the  cow  was  not  calving,  and  I  found  the  cow 

strangled The  other  young  cow  had  torn  herself  loose  and  had 

pushed  her  with  her  horns.  The  cow  had  pulled  the  chain,  but  the 
chain  was  strong  and  could  not  be  broken,  and  the  cow  was  strangled. 
So  we  had  a  sorrow  in  those  days,  but  God  gave  it,  God  took  it  away, 
may  He  have  honor  and  glory;  he  aflBicted  us,  but  he  will  also  comfort 
us ^ 

Aunt  Walkowa  Stelmaszka  [wife  of  the  paternal  uncle,  Walek 
Stelmach]  intends  to  send  her  daughter  Agnieszka  to  America  to 
Borek  [probably  her  brother].  You  write  that  Borek  did  not  answer 
you.  It  was  because  many  fellow-countrymen  tumbled  upon  him 
there,  and  he  was  afraid  that  you  had  no  work  and  he  thought  that 
if  you  came  to  him,  he  would  be  obliged  to  support  you.^     But  if  you 

'  The  old  man  has  evidently  used  this  means  of  opening  and  reading  letters, 
but  it  must  be  remembered  that  there  is  no  strong  feeling  of  privacy  about  letters 
among  peasants.  The  letter  is  always  at  least  family-property,  and  all  the  members 
of  the  family  have  the  right  to  read  it  independently  of  the  will  of  the  person  by 
whom  it  is  written  or  to  whom  addressed.  To  some,  often  to  a  very  large,  extent 
the  whole  village  claims  the  right  to  read  a  private  letter,  particularly  if  there  are 
greetings  for  many  neighbors,  or  if  the  news  interests  the  community.  This  was 
e.g.,  the  case  with  letters  from  Brazil  during  the  craze  for  emigration  to  that  region. 
The  refusal  to  give  a  letter  to  read  is  considered  almost  an  offense.  The  more 
isolated  the  community  from  the  external  world,  the  rarer  the  news,  the  less  the 
feeling  of  privacy  is  developed. 

'  The  formula  is  exactly  the  same  after  the  death  of  a  chUd. 

3  According  to  the  principle  of  solidarity  Borek  should  have  received  his 
relative.  But  there  are  too  many  claims,  and  the  situation  is  abnormal.  Nor- 
mally the  relation  of  solidarity  exists  first  of  all  between  the  individual  and  the 
group,  and  only  secondarily  among  individual  members  of  the  group.  The 
individual  has  duties  toward  the  group  as  a  whole  and  the  group  as  a  whole  has 
duties  toward  every  individual;    but  an  individual  has  duties  toward  another 


STELMACH  SERIES  383 

don't  wish  to  go  to  a  farm  you  don't  need  to  write  to  him.  We  won't 
write  you  more,  only  we  greet  you  very  warmly.  May  our  Lord  God 
make  you  happy  and  bless  you,  our  dear  children! 

Your  parents, 

Jan  and  Ewa  Stelmach 

And  we  also,  your  brothers  and  sisters,  greet  you,  brother  and 
sister-in-law,  very  warmly. 

I,  your  aunt  Wojtkowa  [wife  of  Wojtek]  Sasielska,  greet  you,  my 
nephew  Jozwa  [Joseph]  and  my  niece  Julka  [Julianna].  As  I  hap- 
pened to  be  here  when  your  letter  came  and  as  they  answer  you  while 
I  am  here,  so  I  greet  you  and  wish  you  health  and  happiness  for  your 
new  household. 

59  September  27,  1909 

....  Dear  Son:  We  wrote  before  to  you  and  to  your  aunt,  and 
now  we  write  again  to  you  and  to  your  aunt.  We  wrote  before  to 
your  aunt  that  her  sisters  are  to  pay  her  50  crowns  each,  and  now  I 
have  written  her  that  the  sisters  calculate  that  either  Rozia  will  give 
them  [this  money],  or  it  will  be  lost  [to  her],  because  she  won't  come 
here  to  our  country  for  these  100  crowns.  And  I  wrote  to  your  aunt 
that  if  she  wants  to  collect  these  100  crowns  herself,  let  her  do  it,  but 
if  she  were  to  give  [this  money]  to  them,  let  her  not  give  it  to  them,  but 
let  her  rather  give  it  to  us,  i.e.,  to  your  mother.  If  your  aunt  gives 
it  to  us,  let  her  send  us  a  power  of  attorney  certified  by  the  consul. 
But  the  consul  won't  certify  it  without  money,  so  we  beg  you  very 
nicely,  beg  your  aunt  in  our  name  to  do  it,  and  pay  whatever  it  costs. 
If  your  aunt  will  collect  [this  money]  for  herself,  let  her  collect  it,  but 
instead  of  giving  it  to  her  sisters  and  your  aunts,  let  her  rather  give 
it  to  us.     So  when  you  receive  the  letter,  do  your  best,  because  we 


individual  only  because  and  as  far  as  both  are  members  of  the  same  group,  not 
because  they  are  immediately  connected  with  each  other.  Therefore,  when  the 
individuals  are  isolated  from  their  groups,  as  happens  on  emigration,  their  reciprocal 
duties  cease  to  be  real,  just  in  the  measure  in  which  they  are  cut  oiT  from  the 
common  basis.  A  personal,  variable,  voluntary,  relation  takes  the  place  of  the 
social  norm.  Claims  on  help  are,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  much  less  exacting  at  home 
than  abroad.  At  home  a  single  individual  who  needs  help  finds  many  who  can 
help  him,  each  one  a  little;  abroad  a  single  individual  who  is  able  to  help  has  often 
to  bear  the  burden  of  supporting  many  who  are  in  a  difficult  condition.  (Cf. 
Raczkowski  series,  the  situation  of  Adam  after  his  marriage.) 


3S4  PRIiMARY-GROUr  ORGANIZATION 

send  a  letter  to  you  and  another  to  your  aunt.     We  beg  you,  do  your 

best,  that  your  aunt  may  give  this  money  to  us,  and  not  to  Jagusia 

and  Zosia ' 

[Jan  and  Ewa  Stelmach] 


60  November  5,  1909 

....  Dear  Children:  ....  We  gathered  from  the  field 
what  our  Lord  God  gave  us.  He  did  not  take  it  away  in  our  village, 
but  on  other  sides  of  the  country  hail  has  beaten  [the  crops].  Wola 
was  left  free  from  [God's]  punishment,  but  we  have  gathered  less  than 
last  year ^ 

We  are  very  glad  that  you  are  in  good  health  and  that  you  speak 
\  to  us.  May  God  make  you  happy  and  bless  you  and  save  you  from 
any  evil.  Here  Urbanowa  [wife  of  Urban]  Chudzicka,  our  relative,  is 
dead  and  Urban  married  at  once  in  the  house  of  Lukaszek  Maruta 
[the  daughter  of  L.  M.],  that  Rozia  who  worked  in  Wola,  and  now 
he  has  a  young  wife.  Krzysztof  2ak  is  also  dead.  Aunt  Stefanska 
wrote  to  us  asking  who  will  pay  her  part  of  the  inheritance  [who  is  the 
main  heir,  taking  the  land  and  paying  the  other  heirs  in  cash].  But 
I  did  not  answer  her  directly,  because  the  government  ordered  this 
money  of  the  heirs  to  be  put  in  the  bank,  and  I  thought  that  they 
would  put  it  there.  But  the  other  aunts  won't  put  it,  because  your 
grandfather  had  at  first  left  the  field  near  the  forest  to  Rozia  [Stefan- 
ska],  but  finally  he  willed  it  to  Jagusia  and  Zoska  [other  sisters],  and 
they  are  to  pay  to  Rozia  25  gulden  each.  They  will  give  together 
50  gulden,  i.e.,  100  crowns.  They  would  be  glad  if  Stefanska  gave 
them  these  100  cro\\Tis  as  a  gift,  and  your  mother  intended  also  to 
write  Rozia  asking  her  to  give  these  100  crowns  to  your  mother,  but 
she  did  not  dare,  because  Aunt  Rozia  received  too  small  a  part  of  the 

'  The  grandfather  evidently  thought  that  Aunt  R6zia,  being  in  America, 
needed  no  money.  He  wanted,  in  fact,  to  relieve  the  heirs  who  took  the  land  from 
a  heavy  payment.  A  hundred  crowns  is  a  trifle  in  comparison  with  the  probable 
value  of  the  land,  and  leaving  the  sum  to  her  at  all  was  certainly  nothing  but  a 
formality;  the  grandfather  did  not  wish  to  omit  her  completely  in  the  will,  as  this 
would  mean  a  disavowal  of  the  daughter.  That  it  was  a  formality  is  proved  by  the 
request  of  the  sisters  to  give  this  money  to  them.  And  this  explains  old  Stel- 
mach's  similar  request.  He  would  hardly  have  asked  his  sister-in-law  to  cede  her 
rights  to  his  wife  if  her  inheritance  were  real,  e.g.,  a  piece  of  land. 

'  The  aleatory  element  in  economic  life.  For  the  consequences  of  this  element, 
see  Introduction:   "Economic  Life";    "Religious  and  Magical  Attitudes." 


STELMACH  SERIES  385 

inheritance.'  You  will  ask  perhaps  what  she  will  do,  whether  she 
will  let  them  [the  two  other  aunts]  send  her  these  100  crowns,  or  will 
give  them  to  one  of  them.  But  they  ....  [illegible  word;  perhaps 
"have  slandered"  or  "have  wronged"]  the  aunt,  so  she  ought  not  give 
this  money  to  them. 

Michal  [son]  wrote  to  us  that  you  had  answered  him.  If  you 
think  it  good,  you  could  let  him  come  there,  but  not  until  spring. 
....  You  say  that  [workmen]  are  striking;  well,  that  is  funny! 
Not  long  ago  they  had  no  work,  and  now  already  they  don't  want  to 
work,  but  require  a  higher  pay!  We  have  now  repaired  the  stable; 
we  made  two  stables,  one  for  the  horses,  another  for  the  cows.  People 
say  that  in  that  town  where  you  are  there  is  a  big  stench,  the  whole 
town  is  covered  with  smoke  as  with  clouds 

Jan  and  Ewa  Stelmach 

[The  first  paragraph  of  the  following  letter  is  of  the  ceremonial  tjT^e 
(similar  to  the  first  part  of  No.  58)  and  is  printed  as  No.  4  among  the  speci- 
mens of  peasant  letters.] 


61  January  30,  19 10 

....  In  the  last  letter  I  asked  you  to  advise  me  whether  I  should 
send  Michal  and  Wojtek  to  Prussia  or  to  America.  You  did  not  even 
answer  me.  If  you  think  that  it  is  good  there  and  if  you  have  a  little 
money,  you  may  send  a  ship-ticket  at  least  to  one  of  them,  so  at  least 
one  shall  go.  You  never  say  to  them  any  word  of  praise,  that  it  is 
well  there,  so  they  are  afraid  to  go  to  America,  and  here  at  home  you 
know  yourself  how  it  has  been.  They  quarrel  with  each  other. 
Sometimes  one  succeeds  in  Prussia  and  sometimes  not,  and  then  the 
summer  is  passed  in  vain.  If  he  came  there  to  you  he  could  work  back 
for  the  ship-ticket,  in  the  same  way  as  you  worked  back  for  the  ticket 
which  your  aunt  sent  you.     It  would  be  well  if  you  sent  [tickets]  for 

both  of  them So  now  you  understand  it  to  be  better,  on  that 

side  praise  it  [praise,  in  writing  to  them,  the  course  which  you  consider 
the  best],  because  people  think  it  strange,  that  you  don't  take  either 

'  The  situation  has  an  additional  interest  from  the  fact,  that  Jagusia  and 
Zosia  are  the  own  sisters  of  Aunt  Rozia,  while  the  writer's  wife  Ewa  is  only  her 
cousin.  The  Stelmachs'  claim  is  therefore  based  not  upon  family-relalionsliip,  hut 
upon  the  nearness  of  personal  relations. 


386  TRl. MARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

of  them.'  If  you  had  taken  Kaska  also,  it  would  have  been  easier 
for  us.  and  perhaps  better  for  her,  because  we  contracted  debts  for 
her  sake  and  she  does  not  get  on  well.  The  sister  and  brother  of 
Sobek  [son-in-law,  husband  of  Kaska]  require  the  debt  to  be  paid,  and 
if  not,  then  interest  to  be  paid,  and  the  interest  on  twelve  hundred  is 
72  f^ulden.  Think  how  it  is  necessary  to  work  in  our  country  in  order 
to  live  and  to  put  72  gulden  aside.  This  makes  her  sad.  But  you 
never  wrote  her  "Sister,  come  here,  you  will  earn,  and  you  will  get 
on  well."  But  this  is  past.  Now  you  can  only  advise  your  brothers 
so  that  ever>-thing  may  be  well.     [Greetings  from  the  whole  family.] 

Jan  and  Ewa  Stelmach 

Gud  Baj  [goodbye;  probably  imitates  the  son  who  adds  this  in 
his  letters]. 


62  November  31,  19 10 

....  Dear  Children:  ....  We  wrote  to  you  in  August  but 
you  did  not  answer,  and  so  now  we  risk  writing  to  you,  because  we 
think  that  you  have  moved  somewhere  and  our  letter  did  not  reach 

you Our  condition  is  not  pleasant,  because  winter  tumbled 

upon  us,  snows  have  been  falling  since  November  22,  and  it  is  difficult 
to  go  out  anywhere.  The  boys  did  not  come  from  Prussia,  they 
wrote  that  they  will  come  only  for  Christmas.  The  cold  annoys 
them,  because  they  must  rise  at  dawn  to  work  and  labor  long  in  the 
evening.  Dear  children,  we  send  you  consecrated  wafers.  Although 
there  are  also  wafers  [there],  yet  you  are  entered  in  the  registers  of 
this  parish,  so  we  send  you  them  from  here,  because  you  are 
Christians.^    Many  people  forget  there  that  they  are  Christians,  but 

'  It  is  explicitly  stated  here  that  the  sending  of  ship-tickets  to  one's  relatives  is 
not  a  mere  act  of  kindness,  but  a  familial  duty — more  so  than  the  sending  of  money 
home,  for  that  question  is  never  raised  in  this  series.  A  certain  individualization 
of  familial  relations  seems  to  be  manifested  by  this  distinction.  Indeed,  bj'  sending 
money  home  the  emigrant  helps  his  family  immediately  as  a  whole,  while  by  taking 
one  family-member  to  America  he  evidently  helps  this  member  immediately  and 
the  rest  of  the  family  only  mediately. 

'  This  connection  between  religious  valuation  and  local  patriotism  is  very 
frequent.  Not  only  the  wafer  from  one's  own  parish  has  more  value  than  one  from 
any^vhere  else,  but  the  same  is  true  of  any  other  object  of  religious  or  magical 
significance.  A  particular  importance  in  this  respect  was  attached  to  earth.  It 
was  an  old  custom  of  emigrants  and  wanderers  to  carry  a  little  earth  of  their 


STELMACH  SERIES  387 

don't  you  forget  that  you  are  Christians  and  that  you  believe  in  one 
God.  As  long  as  you  speak  to  your  parents,  it  is  evident  that  you 
believe  in  our  Lord  God,  but  when  you  disown  your  parents,  it  is 
evident  from  this  that  you  don't  believe  in  our  Lord  God.'  I  asked 
you  to  answer  us  and  to  give  the  address  of  the  Stefanskis  ....  and 
your  mother  wanted  you  absolutely  to  answer  at  once  and  to  write 
why  you  wanted  to  go  to  the  mines,  whether  you  had  no  work  where 
you  are.  People  say  that  there  in  Pittsburgh  it  would  need  a  dragon 
to  hold  out.  They  say  that  even  in  fine  weather  no  sun  is  to  be  seen. 
....  If  it  is  true,  move  rather  to  another  city 

Jan  and  Ewa  Stelmach 

63  March  28,  19 11 

....  Dear  Children:  ....  When  you  did  not  write  for  so 
long  a  time  we  thought  different  things  about  you.  I  asked  a  peasant 
from  Wolka  how  Wojciech  Maksyn  was  getting  on.  He  said  that  he 
[Maksyn]  was  selling  his  horse  and  asked  me  how  I  knew  about  him. 
I  said  that  my  son  married  his  daughter.  And  this  peasant  said, 
"One  son-in-law  ran  away  from  his  daughter."  Then  I  thought  that 
you  had  run  away  and  therefore  don't  write  to  us,  and  I  intended  to 
write  to  Maksyn  in  Wolka  [to  learn]  which  of  his  sons-in-law  had  run 


ancestors'  land  with  them  which  played  the  role  of  a  talisman  and  was  to  be  put 
under  their  heads  in  the  grave  in  case  they  died  and  were  buried  far  from  llicir 
native  village. 

I  The  very  real  psychological  unity  of  the  traditional  set  of  attitudes  is  licre 
evidently  exaggerated,  since  various  attitudes  may  be  dropped  or  changed 
separately.  But  this  exaggeration  itself  is  significant,  for  it  must  exert  a  real 
influence  upon  the  evolution  of  the  subject  himself  and  upon  the  attitude  of  the 
environment  toward  him.  A  man  who  has  dropped  one  traditional  attitude  will 
drop  the  others  more  easily,  because  in  his  own  conscious  reasoning  they  seem  more 
connected  than  they  are  in  reality.  This  will  happen  particularly  if,  as  is  often  tin; 
case,  intellectual  factors  in  general  tend  to  influence  strongly  individual  life  while 
the  level  of  instruction  is  rather  low.  Thus,  among  the  socialists  of  the  hnvcr  classes 
many  traditions  are  rejected  without  any  rei  ]  necessity  and  against  the  man's  own 
feeling,  simply  because  they  are  believed  connected  with  others  which  were  logically 
rejected  as  incompatible  with  the  socialistic  ideals.  On  the  other  hand,  tiic 
I)ehavior  of  the  social  environment  toward  an  individual  who  has  dropped  some 
traditions  is  usually  determined  by  the  prepossession  that  he  must  have  drop|ied  all 
traditional  attitudes-prccisely  as  Stelmach  explicitly  states  here.  Sometimes  a 
very  trifling  change  is  suflicient  to  arouse  this  prepossession,  e.g.,  a  change  <.f  dress, 
of  the  old  way  of  farming,  the  dropping  of  magical  beliefs,  etc. 


388  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

away  and  from  which  of  his  daughters.  But  now  you  have  written 
to  us  and  wo  already  know  that  it  is  not  you  who  left  your  wife.  We 
pity  you  very  much  that  you  have  no  health  there  now,  and  I  wrote 

you  already  to  move  away  from  that  Pittsburgh I  would 

advise  you  to  move  w^ith  your  wife  to  Trenton,  N.J.  There  in 
Trenton  are  people  from  our  neighborhood,  and  they  are  in  good  health 
and  they  earn  well  enough.  Kuba  Chudzik  from  Brzyski  is  now  there 
and  intends  to  come  home.  If  he  does  not  leave  before  this  letter 
reaches  you,  you  could  write  to  him;  so  you  might  succeed  him  in 
his  work  when  he  comes  home.  He  works  in  an  iron-factory  and  has 
good  wages.  [Gives  addresses  of  other  people  in  Trenton.]  But  you 
must  try  to  get  information,  so  as  not  to  lose  the  work  which  you  have 

....  before  you  find   anything  in   Trenton Even   if  you 

wanted  to  come  back  to  our  country  there  is  no  goodness  here,  because, 
as  you  know,  those  who  were  with  you  returned  to  our  country  and 
then  w^ent  to  America  again,  because  it  is  strait  here. 

And  you,  Julka,  don't  grieve,  for  you  are  sick  from  grief;  you  will 
get  a  nervous  illness,  when  you  are  so  you  are  neither  healthy  nor 
sick,  and  no  doctor  can  help  against  a  nervous  illness.  So  don't 
worry.  Commend  yourself  to  the  will  of  God  and  work  as  much  as 
you  can;  then  you  will  have  no  time  to  grieve.  And  don't  lace  too 
tightly,  for  there  the  women  lace  their  corsets  so  much  that  they  look 
squeezed  up  like  wasps,  and  when  they  bind  themselves  up  so  tightly, 
the  blood  is  checked  and  the  body  is  ill.  And  don't  grieve  either  that 
your  little  son  is  dead.  The  Lord  gave,  the  Lord  took  away,  praised 
be  His  name 

There  in  Pittsburgh,  people  say,  the  dear  sun  never  shines  brightly, 
the  air  is  saturated  with  stench  and  gas.  The  most  healthy  life  is  on 
farms,  but  if  you  have  no  intention  of  going  on  a  farm,  then  at  least 

move  where  the  air  is  better 

Jan  and  Ewa  Stelmacii 

64  [May,  191 1] 

....  Dear  Children:  [Thanks  for  the  wishes  which  were  sent 
for  his  name-day.]     We  had  a  little  sorrow  because  in  one  week  three 

lay  sick  with  measles,  Jadwisia,  Marcin  and  Wojtek Wojtek 

was  to  go  to  Prussia,  but  he  remained,  and  therefore  he  was  more  sick 
than  the  smaller  ones,  and  so  the  summer  will  pass.     But  he  could 


STELMACH  SERIES  389 

be  useful  even  at  home,  because  our  stable  is  ruined  and  it  is  necessary 

to  repair  it  and  to  build  another  for  the  horse We  had  another 

sorrow,  because  a  mare  of  Kaska  died.  She  was  worth  100  gulden. 
This  has  pained  us  also,  because,  dear  children,  if  anything  pains  you, 
it  pains  us  also,  because  we  love  you  all  as  ourselves.  If  you  write 
that  you  are  getting  on  well  and  your  Httle  wife,  our  daughter-in-law, 
also,  then  we  are  glad,  even  if  misery  oppresses  ourselves,  because 
we  see  that  although  we  have  misery,  yet  at  least  our  children  have 
good  success. 

This  year  seems  not  to  be  bad  here,  but  from  the  past  one  every- 
body is  thin,  because  the  winter  was  big.  The  cattle  are  standing  at 
home  up  to  the  middle  of  May,  and  we  were  obliged  to  mix  the  chopped 
straw  with  flour  and  potatoes,  and  now  men  are  lacking  food.  The 
prices  are  as  high  as  in  America 

You  write  that  you  have  a  small  lodging.     Have  you  then  nobody 

to  live  with  you  and  to  help  you  pay  the  rent  ?     Julka  does  not  go  to 

work  now,  so  if  she  has  no  occupation  whatever  in  her  hands  she  is 

tired.     If  you  had  people  boarding,  she  would  have  distraction  and 

she  would  even  be  more  healthy,  because  when  a  man  works,  he  is 

healthy,  but  when  he  loafs  around  in  vain  he  gets  weaker  and  weaker. 

It  is  said  that  therefore  many  people  have  no  good  health  in  America. 

As  long  as  a  girl  goes  to  work  she  is  healthy,  but  when  she  gets  married 

she  does  not  go  to  work  and  she  stretches  herself  [lies  idle]  so  that 

blood  cannot  run  in  her  veins,  fresh  air  does  not  reach  her  because 

she  sits  continually  in  her  lodgings.     Even  if  she  goes  out  into  the 

world  petticoats  drag  behind  her  and  air  does  not  reach  her  [because 

she  is  too  heavily  dressed],  and  she  has  no  health.     And  she  goes  to 

her  country,  and  then  from  her  country  again  to  America,  and  so 

they  lose  money  on  ship-tickets.     Let  them  dress  as  easily  as  at  home. 

Don't  sit  in  vain  [idle]  don't  eat  much  meat,  and  th-us  you  will  all  be 

healthy 

Jan  and  Ewa  Stelmach 

You  write  that  Michal  wrote  to  you  that  he  wanted  to  go  to 
America,  but  he  is  too  weak  for  America.  He  got  thin  in  serving, 
particularly  with  Pelka.  You  were  there  and  you  saw  how  it  was. 
Wojtek  is  younger,  but  stronger  than  Michal.  J?drzcj  would  fmd 
his  way  in  America,  but  he  is  afraid  of  America,  he  cannot  be  per- 
suaded  


3c)o  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

65  February  23,  1913 

....  Dear  Children:  ....  We  are  very  glad  that  you  keep 
so  much  poultry  and  a  jMg;  it  is  as  if  you  had  a  farm.  When  you 
loani  to  keep  poultry  and  pigs,  and  when  your  children  grow  up,  then 
you  will  go  to  a  farm ' 

I  thought  that  only  in  our  country  people  talk  about  war,  but 
I  see  that  even  in  America  they  write  about  war  and  insurrection. 
But  there  they  speak  about  war  lightly,  and  here  among  us  they 
are  so  afraid  of  war  that  they  weep.  The  reservists  called  in 
autumn  have  been  kept  up  to  the  present.  In  the  beginning  of 
March  there  is  to  be  a  military  call;  206,065  soldiers  are  to  be 
taken  to  the  army.  The  Sokols  are  waiting  for  war  even  in  our 
country,  but  the  people  in  villages  are  so  afraid  that  they  tremble 
from  fear.* 

From  your  aunt  Stefanska  also  we  received  a  letter  and  a  photo- 
graph of  her  two  daughters.  She  wrote  that  formerly  you  called 
upon  them  often  but  now  you  do  not  come  to  them,  and  her  children 
ask,  "When  will  Jozef  come  to  us  ?"  She  said  that  she  sends  her  two 
boys  to  work,  and  she  said  that  they  are  getting  on  well.  You  write 
that  [it  would  be  well]  if  one  [of  your  brothers]  went  to  America. 
Well,  I  want  absolutely  to  send  one  of  them,  or  later  even  two;  then 
you  would  not  be  homesick.  Here  it  may  be  better  perhaps  only  after 
the  war.  But  who  knows  who  will  be  left  after  the  war  ?  ....  If  I 
were  stronger  and  if  my  leg  did  not  pain  me  so  much  I  would  go  to 
Wolka  to  your  brother-in-law,  and  I  would  send  you  as  a  gift  at 
least  a  few  cheeses  through  him.  But  who  knows  whether  he  will 
go,  and  I  cannot  walk  far.  I  asked  about  Julcia's  father.  I  was 
told  that  he  is  getting  on  pretty  well  and  has  one  daughter 
[married]  rich,  and  the  dowry  cost  him  little.  One  man  told  me 
that  he  farms  at  home  with  his  son,  another  said  that  he  farms 

'  The  people  at  home  like  to  have  their  relatives  in  America  become  farmers. 
It  is  perhaps  because  of  the  analogy  of  interests.  And  this  in  spite  of  the  fact  that 
an  emigrant  who  becomes  a  farmer  in  America  will  never  return.  (Cf.  in  this 
respect  Wr6blewski  series.) 

'  The  fear  of  war,  so  general  among  the  peasants,  is  based  upon  old,  only  half- 
reasoned  tradition  rather  than  upon  experience.  Particularly  the  Galician  peasants 
had  had  no  experience  of  war  since  1866,  and  then  not  a  trying  one.  War  is 
enumerated  among  the  calamities  which  the  peasants  pray  God  every  Sunday  to 
avert,  and  there  is  an  undetermined  but  on  that  account  more  awe-inspiring 
tradition  of  the  horrors  of  war. 


STELMACH  SERIES  391 

alone,  and  that  he  intends  to  have  one  daughter  come  from  America, 
but  he  did  not  know  which  one 

[Jan  and  Ewa  Stelmach] 

[Letter  of  May  3,  19 13,  regrets  that  his  sons  in  America  do  not  make 
greater  efforts  to  meet  in  America  certain  reLatives  and  acquaintances  from 
Poland.     Describes  efforts  to  build  new  church.] 


66  April  I,  1914 

....  Dear  Children:  ....  I  received  the  papers  from  you, 
four  copies,  I  shall  have  an  amusement  for  the  holidays.  Piotr  and 
Wojtek  went  to  [season-work  in]  Prussia  on  March  19;  I  wrote  it  to 
you,  but  I  don't  know  whether  you  received  my  letter.  I  wrote  you 
to  send  a  ship-ticket  for  Piotr,  but  in  leaving  he  said  that  he  won't  go 
from  Prussia  [to  America],  but  later  on  from  home.  His  address  is: 
....  Write  to  them,  don't  begrudge  the  five  cents,  and  they  would 
answer  you,  and  you  would  speak  with  one  another,  like  brothers.  I 
wrote  you  to  send  me  "zmijecznik,"  a  medicine  which  is  called 
"zmijecznik,"  if  anybody  from  Wolka  or  from  Turza  comes  home 
....  because  your  mother  has  no  good  health,  now  as  before.'  I 
have  been  healthy,  but  now  my  leg  aches,  and  people  say  that  it 
won't  be  healed,  and  if  it  is  healed,  they  say  that  I  shall  be  sick. 
.  .  .  .^    [Weather.] 

Dear  son,  your  mother  would  be  glad  to  see  you  before  she  dies, 
but  it  is  difl&cult,  because  here  in  our  country  it  gets  worse  and  worse. 
Now  many  people  get  separated,  although  they  have  land.  Many 
husbands  leave  their  wives  and  go  in  search  of  work,  some  of  them  go 
to  America,  others  to  Prussia.  The  wife  of  Wawrzek  Sidor  fled  to 
Prussia,  and  many  others  did  so,  because  misery  creeps  into  the  houses 
and  drives  people  away  into  the  world.^     [Complains  about  cost  of 

'  "Zmijecznik"  is  a  magical  remedy. 

'It  is  a  very  frequent  belief  that  if  some  particular  disease,  painful  l)ul  uol 
dangerous,  is  healed,  the  patient  will  become  seriously  sick,  or  will  die  witiiin  a 
certain  time.  The  background  of  this  belief  is  evidently  magical.  If  the  "evil 
principle"  manifests  itself  through  one  of  those  diseases,  it  means  that  it  has  taken 
possession  of  the  patient  and  that  it  cannot  be  driven  out  of  him.  If  hindered  in 
doing  the  smaller  harm  it  will  express  itself  in  a  greater  harm. 

3  This  is  the  only  case  in  our  materials  where  we  find  bad  economic  conditions 
expressly  stated  as  the  cause  of  a  wife's  running  away  from  home.  Other  cases 
have  been  recorded  by  the  Emigrants'  Protective  Association  in  Warsaw,  but  it 


3()2  PRBIARY-GROUr  ORGANIZATION 

li\ing.]  Dear  children,  work  and  economize  as  much  as  you  can,  that 
vou  ma\-  ha\"e  some  help  for  tlie  black  hour  [for  any  misfortune], 
because  man  is  imperfect  in  this  world  and  always  lacks  something. 
If  man  insisted  on  always  having  what  he  needs  to  be  satisfied  he 
would  waste  millions.  It  is  best  to  live  modestly,  in  order  that  it  may 
suffice,  because  even  counts  have  wasted  their  manors  when  they 
wanted  to  satisfy  all  their  wishes.  So  live  as  you  can.  May  our 
Lord  God  grant  you  health  and  happiness,  the  best  possible 

Jan  and  Ewa  Stelmach 

67 

[Begmning  lacking.]  You  ask  whether  Jgdrzej  married  in  the 
house  of  that  Ludwik  who  had  the  [son]  Kuba  who  called  upon  Dawik 
[visited  the  Dawik  girls].  Yes,  he  married  in  the  house  of  that  Lud- 
wik, but  both  the  Ludwiks  died,  and  Kuba  married  that  Jadwiga 
who  is  the  ablest  among  all  the  girls  of  Dawik.  The  others  are  like 
grandmothers.  That  Zoska  who  was  in  America  got  married  to 
[a  man  from]  Korowiska,  and  she  is  always  sick.  She  has  two  children, 
but  she  did  nothing  more  than  bear  them;  she  does  not  nurse  them, 
only  she  had  to  buy  a  kind  of  a  bottle  and  milks  a  cow  and  wath  this 
she  feeds  her  children.  The  man  who  married  her  got  little  comfort 
from  her.  Dawik  gave  her  only  the  money  which  she  earned  in 
America,  and  keeps  until  his  death  the  field  which  she  had  after  her 
mother;  only  when  he  dies,  Zoska  will  have  the  field. 

When  Jgdrzej  got  married,  we  had  to  make  a  will.  We  had  to 
make  a  will  because  I  am  so  as  if  I  were  ill,  and  your  mother  has  also 
weak  health.  So  your  mother  willed  him  that  field  near  Pelka's 
[farm],  and  this  one  where  we  sit,  and  two  morgs  in  Zrq.bki,  and  these 
small  buildings  [contemptuously],  and  he  is  to  keep  us  to  the  end  and 
pay  1,000  crowns  to  you,  1,000  crowns  to  Piotr  and  1,000  crowns  to 
Michal.  To  Jadwiga  we  willed  the  field  behind  Urban's  [farm],  to 
Wojtek  3  morgs  in  Zr^bki.  If  we  are  not  well  [do  not  get  along  well] 
remaining  with  J^drzej,  then  we  have  the  right  to  harvest  |  of  the 
field  and  to  have  a  place  in  the  buildings.  There  are  still  600  crowns 
of  debt,  so  we  are  to  work  together  and  to  pay  this  debt.     Perhaps  you 


always  proved  that  the  husband  was  a  drunkard  or  a  good-for-nothing.  If  external 
conditions  are  the  cause  of  hard  times  husbands  and  wives  may  separate  provision- 
ally but  in  good  understanding. 


SfELMACH  SERIES  393 

think,  the  sum  which  is  to  be  paid  to  you  is  too  small;  but  he  [J§drzej] 

even  complained  that  he  won't  be  able  to  pay  so  much.     So,  dear  son, 

don't  be  angry  with  us,  because  what  can  we  do,  when  it  is  difficult  to 

throw  the  misery  away;  very  seldom  food  is  on  hand,  always  we  must 

buy  more The  prices  are  as  high  here  as  in  America,  or 

perhaps  even  worse,  because  meat  is  brought  from  South  America  to 

our  country,  i.e.,  from  Argentine.     You  write  that  you  have  killed  the 

pig  for  yourself,  and  we  did  not  kill,  but  we  buy  bacon  for  seasoning 

food.'     [Enumerates  prices.]     So,  dear  children,  work  and  economize 

as  much  as  you  can  for  your  old  age,  because  old  people  suffer  misery. 

May  our  Lord  God  make  you  happy  and  bless  you  with  your  children; 

and  don't  forget  us,  but  speak  to  us  as  long  as  we  are  alive.^     Even  so 

Walek  Maryla  and  his  wife  envy  us,  because  they  have  two  sons  in 

America,  and  they  don't  know  whether  they  are  even  alive;  they  never 

write  to  them I  won't  write  you  more  until  the  next  time, 

because  here  nothing  is  changed,  nobody  among  the  family  died, 

everybody  is  alive  but  got  older [Greetings  from  the  whole 

family.] 

Jan  and  Ewa  Stelmach 

'  This  complaint  of  high  prices  from  a  relatively  rich  peasant,  the  fact  of 
buying  food  and  the  division  of  land,  are  signs  of  the  growing  dilliculty  of  con- 
tinuing the  old  forms  of  economic  life,  particularly  in  Galicia.  Until  industrial 
development  restores  the  equilibrium  emigration  seems  a  necessity. 

'  This  phrase  and  the  whole  form  of  the  letter  disclose  the  profound  importance 
which  giving  up  the  farm  to  the  children  has  for  the  old  peasants.  The  phrase 
could  be  used  by  one  entering  a  cloister;  it  expresses  a  feeling  of  having  broken 
all  the  real  connections  with  other  people,  so  that  nothing  but  a  sentimental 
connection  remains.  The  old  man  ceases  to  be  an  active  member  of  the  real 
family-group,  and  becomes  an  individual  whose  only  relations  with  the  family  arc 
sentimental  and  blood  relations.  The  obligations  toward  him,  as  well  as  his  obliga- 
tions toward  the  rest  of  the  family,  cease  to  be  social,  and  become  only  moral. 


OSINSKI  SERIES 

In  the  present  scries  we  find  a  very  full  and  typical  image 
of  the  life  of  an  average  modern  peasant  family — one 
neither  above  nor  below  the  normal  level,  and  whose  sphere 
of  interests  contains  nothing  particular.  The  life  of  the 
peasant  woman  is  particularly  well  represented  because 
most  of  the  letters  are  written  or  dictated  by  women.  The 
letters  of  the  men  are  not  without  interest,  but  less  complete. 

Of  course  this  is  not  a  primitive  peasant  family,  and  we 
should  not  expect  to  find  the  old  forms  of  familial  and  com- 
munal life  untouched  by  modern  life.  The  family  lives 
near  the  German  frontier,  some  thirty  or  forty  miles  from 
Thorn,  in  a  locality  in  which  season-emigration  to  Germany 
and  emigration  to  America  have  existed  for  many  years, 
and,  naturally  the  disintegrating  and  modifying  influence 
of  this  is  strongly  felt.  But  this  is  precisely  the  normal 
situation.  Communities,  families,  and  individuals  pre- 
serving perfectly  the  old  forms  of  life  today  are  exceptions. 
Where  emigration  has  not  reached,  the  influence  of  Polish 
industrial  and  cultural  centers  is  manifest,  and,  taking 
everything  into  account,  this  influence  is  incomparably  more 
powerful  and  profound  than  that  of  emigration. 

The  most  important  personality  is  the  mother  Wiktorya 
Osinska.  The  first  forty  letters  are  dictated  by  her,  in  her 
o\\Ti  and  her  husband's  name.  She  is  the  real  proprietor 
of  the  farm,  which  was  probably  left  to  her  by  her  parents, 
who  died  when  she  was  four  years  old.  But,  of  course, 
under  the  system  of  famihal  community,  this  question  is 
never  raised;  probably  her  present  husband  brought  also 
some  land  or  money,  but  in  any  case  the  property  is  now 
simply  common.     Wiktorya  married  first  Baranowski  and, 

394 


OSINSKI  SERIES  395 

after  his  death,  her  present  husband,  Osmski.  She  is 
a  woman  of  the  old  type,  very  laborious,  very  religious,  with 
a  strong  affection  for  her  children — stronger  probably  than 
for  her  husband.  Her  son  from  the  first  marriage  seems 
to  be  the  one  preferred,  though  this  preference  does  not 
hinder  her  from  occupying  the  standpoint  of  general  familial 
solidarity  and  from  agreeing  with  her  husband  in  economic 
matters.  She  mediates  between  her  sons,  her  daughter, 
her  husband,  trying  to  avoid  any  quarrels  and  to  keep 
harmony  within  the  family  (see  particularly  No.  103). 
She  has  not  been  taught  how  to  write,  but  she  is  interested 
in  intellectual  matters  and  appreciates  instruction  highly. 

Her  husband  Antoni  seems  to  be  just  an  average  peasant, 
with  a  strong  famihal,  rather  patriarchal,  attitude;  with  a 
tendency  to  despotism  but  without  sufficient  power  of  will 
to  be  really  despotic ;  much  less  egotistic  than  his  sons  or 
than  some  other  fathers  (cf.  for  example,  Markiewicz 
series) . 

His  two  sons  show  egotism  in  a  very  high  degree.  Per- 
haps it  is  a  result  of  the  partial  dissolution  of  the  traditional 
solidarity.  Michal  is  really  interested  in  nothing  except 
his  personal  life;  he  is  an  egotist  in  a  passive  way;  he  does 
not  claim  much  (cf.  Wiktorya's  letter,  No.  103)  but  neither 
does  he  give  much;  he  barely  writes  home.  He  has  real 
friendship  for  Jan,  but  no  familial  feelings.  He  has  departed 
further  from  the  traditional  peasant  attitudes  than  anyone 
else  in  the  family — probably  under  the  influence  of  his  earl\- 
life  as  groom  in  a  manor  house,  and  his  early  emigration. 
Aleksander  has  preserved  much  more  of  the  old  attitudes^ 
love  for  land  and  farming,  attachment  to  his  countr\', 
traditional  conception  of  marriage,  interest  in  the  familw 
But  the  real  feeling  of  solidarity  and  community  of  familial 
life  is  weakened,  and  all  these  traditional  attitudes  take  a 
new  form,  are  directed  in  practice  toward  egotistic  ends. 


3q6  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

This  is  a  very  frequent  type  of  partial  disintegration  of 
solidarity;  the  individual  is  still  attached  to  the  group  and 
wants  to  live  within  it,  but  he  develops  purely  personal 
tendencies  and  refuses  to  make  any  sacrifice  for  the  group. 
Jan  Baranowski  seems  to  be  a  rather  unequilibrated  man. 
He  certainly  gives  proofs  of  true  generosity,  not  only  with 
regard  to  his  own  family — his  mother  praises  his  good  heart 
— but  also  toward  the  family  of  his  wife.  (He  married  the 
daughter  of  P^anciszka  Kozlowska.  See  that  series.)  It 
seems  that  his  friends  have  even  exploited  his  generosity 
(cf.  No.  72).  On  the  other  hand,  he  shows  occasionally  a 
lack  of  consideration,  as,  for  instance,  in  his  attitude  toward 
Frania's  marriage,  and  some  avarice,  as  in  his  haste  to  get 
his  part  of  the  inheritance,  his  dissatisfaction  with  his  share, 
and  his  effort  to  get  as  much  money  as  possible  from  us  for 
his  letters.  Although  this  avarice  in  matters  of  inheritance 
has  nothing  very  prejudicial  from  the  individualistic 
point  of  view,  it  is  contrary  to  the  familial  spirit.  His 
attitude  toward  Frania,  on  the  other  hand,  is  to  be  under- 
stood only  from  the  familial  standpoint.  It  seems  in 
general  that  in  Jan  contradictory  elements  coexist — a  broad 
basis  of  familial  attitudes,  and  some  individualistic  tend- 
encies, acquired  during  his  solitary  struggle  for  existence, 
but  not  interacting  with  the  first;  at  different  moments 
different  sets  of  attitudes  prevail  in  his  behavior.  This  is,  of 
course,  one  of  the  typical  forms  which  a  partial  disintegration 
of  the  old  psychology  assumes. 

Frania,  the  daughter,  is,  on  the  contrary,  a  rather 
harmonious  character.  Her  psychology  is  determined  in 
its  main  outlines  by  her  familial  functions,  first  as  daughter, 
then  as  wife.  But  the  (still  rather  low)  degree  of  instruction 
which  she  received,  and  the  individualistic  tendencies  which 
influenced  her,  as  well  as  every  other  member  of  the  com- 
munity, make  her  perform  her  functions  more  consciously, 


OSIl^SKI  SERIES 


397 


without  the  passivity  which  a  peasant  girl  would  have 
shown  fifty  years  ago  and  sometimes  still  shows  in  more 
isolated  groups.  She  is  in  particularly  good  relations  with 
her  mother,  whose  situation  and  feelings  she  understands 
better  than  anyone  else.  If  she  sides  with  her  parents 
against  her  brothers  in  all  the  misunderstandings  between 
them,  it  is  not  because  of  a  mere  subjection  to  authority,  but 
out  of  real  familial  feelings.  Even  in  writing  letters  under 
her  mother's  dictation  she  shows  an  effort  to  express  exactly 
what  her  mother  wants  her  to  express,  contrasting  with  the 
negligence  of  Aleksander.  For  the  sake  of  economic  and 
familial  considerations  she  has  to  make  a  sacrifice  and 
makes  it,  even  postponing  her  marriage  for  three  years. 
She  finally  marries  from  real  love  the  man  who  waited  for 
her,  refusing  another  brilliant  match.  Later  she  is  a  loving 
wife  and  mother  while  keeping  always  the  same  attitude 
toward  her  parents. 

We  know  Httle  about  the  other  members  of  the  family. 
Adam,  Frania's  husband,  is  evidently  a  nice  and  relatively 
cultivated  peasant,  as  is  shown  by  his  attitude  toward 
Frania  and  by  the  fact  that  he  has  been  elected  to  a  post 
of  confidence  in  a  peasant  association.  The  wives  of  Jan 
and  Aleksander  seem  to  be  rather  insignificant;  there  is  not 
a  trace  of  their  influence  upon  the  family  life.  The  other 
branch  of  the  family,  the  Smentkowskis,  is  also  very  little 
characterized.  Their  situation  is  more  or  less  the  same  as 
that  of  the  Osinskis. 

Now,  the  Osinski  situation  is  very  typical  for  the  present 
moment.  The  whole  of  the  old  organization  of  life  is 
proving  unadapted  to  the  solution  of  new  problems,  and 
the  result  is  a  tragedy  for  the  individuals  who  are  unable  to 
change  their  attitudes.  Thirty  or  forty  years  ago  the 
course  of  life  of  the  family  would  have  been  very  different. 
Each  son  would  have  lived  at  home  until  his  call  to  military 


3q8  primary-group  ORGANIZATION 

scr\ice;  he  would  have  helped  the  parents,  perhaps  worked 
in  addition  as  a  hired  laborer  in  the  neighborhood.  Having 
served  his  term,  he  would  have  returned  and  married,  in 
the  same  village  or  in  the  neighborhood;  he  would  have 
received  money  or  land  from  his  parents,  taken  some  dowry 
w  ith  his  wife,  and  settled  upon  a  farm.  One  of  them  would 
have  taken  the  parents'  farm,  as  Aleksander  did,  others 
would  have  bought  land.  Of  course,  in  spite  of  the  dowries, 
each  of  them  would  have  been  poorer  than  the  parents  were, 
and  only  perhaps  after  many  years,  much  work,  and  great 
parsimony  would  have  attained  almost  the  same  level.  But 
this  problem  was  not  particularly  important  as  long  as  the 
fundamental  economic  idea  was  that  of  living,  not  of 
advance.  If  only  each  member  of  the  family  had  enough 
to  live  on  his  own  farm,  the  situation  was  all  right. 

But  now  comes  the  new  tendency — that  of  advance.  It 
is  e\-ident  that  the  old  organization  gave  no  opportunity  to 
advance.  At  best  the  next  generation  could  attain  the 
level  of  the  preceding  generation,  and  even  this  was  more 
and  more  difficult.  .\nd  it  is  also  evident  that  a  new 
organization  is  required  to  meet  the  new  problem  based  no 
longer  upon  mere  familial  arrangements  but  upon  the  idea 
of  improvement  of  personal  economic  aptitudes.  Actually, 
a  spirit  of  enterprise  and  a  higher  technical  instruction  in 
various  lines  should  be  developed  in  the  young  genera- 
tion, enabling  each  member  to  rise  independently,  without 
further  help  from  the  group.  But  instead  of  this  we  find 
only  partial  and  insufficient  changes  brought  into  the  old 
organization.  Jan,  having  spent  his  time  unproductively 
until  his  twenty-sixth  year,  first  at  home,  then  in  the  army, 
has  to  increase  his  fortune  instead  of  marrying  and  settling, 
according  to  the  tradition.  But  no  way  other  than  emigra- 
tion is  left  to  him.  Michai  is  sent  to  serve,  in  order  to 
spare  the  cost  of  his  hving;    in  the  manor  he  develops  a 


OSIISrSKI  SERIES  399 

different  psychology,  but  acquires  no  useful  technical 
knowledge,  and  so  his  only  recourse  is  also  America.  But 
he  calculates  rationally  that  since  he  is  to  emigrate  he  may 
as  well  do  it  before  his  mihtary  service  and  not  waste 
his  time  unproductively.  Later,  the  Russo-Japanese  war 
breaks  out,  and  after  this  neither  he  nor  Jan,  classed  as 
deserters,  can  return.  When  they  finally  get  their  shares 
of  the  familial  property  these  shares  are  certainly  of  very 
little  productive  utility  to  them  in  America.  On  the  other 
hand,  Frania  gets  a  little  technical  instruction,  but  not 
enough  to  be  of  any  real  use,  and  she  must  be  provided  for 
in  the  old  way,  by  a  dowry.  Thus  the  result  of  these 
inconsistent  and  partial  changes  of  the  old  organization  is 
that  the  family,  whose  task  is  really  to  provide  for  its 
mem.bers  and  which  it  would  do  more  or  less  for  all  the 
members  under  the  old  system,  is  able  to  provide  for  only 
two — Frania  and  Aleksander.  The  two  others  get  no 
serious  help  from  the  group,  or  get  it  too  late.  They 
become  and  have  to  remain  isolated  from  the  group  and 
from  their  country.  The  parents  are  separated  once  and 
forever  from  two  of  their  children;  even  if  they  went  to 
America  to  live,  against  all  their  habits  and  traditions,  the 
situation  would  not  be  better.  In  this  way,  through  mis- 
adaptation  the  family  loses  all  its  real  functions,  and  until 
a  new  and  more  perfect  adaptation  is  elaborated  its  dis- 
integration is  a  social  necessity. 

THE  FAMILY  OSINSKI 

Antoni  Osiiiski,  a  farmer 

Wiktorya  Osinska  (by  first  marriage  Baranowska)  his  wife 

Jan  (Janek)  Baranowski,  Wiktorya's  son  by  her  firsl  husband 

Michal  (Michalek)l  ^^^^  ^j  ^^^^^j  ^^^  Wiktorya 

Aleksander  (Alos)  J 

Frania  (Franciszka),  daughter  of  Antoni  and  Wiktorya 

Adam  (Adas)  B.,  Frania's  husband 

Marysia  Kozlowska,  Jan's  wife 


400  TRIM ARV-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

Julka  (Julcia),  Aleksander's  wife 

Uncle  and  Aunt  Smentkowski,  probably  cousins  of  Antoni  or 

Wiktorya 

Antoni,  their  son 

Anneczka  (Anna,  Anusia)!  ,,    •    j       i.,. 

'  >  their  daughters 

Frania  J 

[6S-13S.  Xos.  6S-69  are  to  the  authors  from  Jan  Baranowski,  in 
America,  to  whom  most  of  the  letters  of  the  series  are  addressed.  Nos. 
70-106  are  from  Wiktorya  Osiriska  in  Poland  to  her  sons  in  America.  They 
are  dictated  to  her  daughter  Frania,  except  as  indicated  in  the  notes.  The 
name  of  the  husband  is  associated  with  the  mother's  in  signing,  and  he 
occasionally  dictated  a  passage.  Nos.  107-24  are  from  Frania.  Their 
brevity  and  informality  are  due  to  her  youth  and  to  the  fact  that  until  her 
marriage  she  inclosed  them  with  the  letters  dictated  to  her  by  her  mother. 
Nos.  125-28  are  from  Michal;   Nos.  129-38  from  Aleksander.] 

68  November  23,  1914 

Respected  Sir:  I,  signed  below,  found  in  the  Dziennik  Zwiqz- 
kowy  your  advertisement  that  whoever  has  letters  from  the  old 
country  should  send  them  to  your  address  to  demonstrate  the  nature 
of  the  Polish  people.  I  have  more  than  100  letters  from  my  parents 
and  my  wife's  parents  and  from  my  dear  brother  who  has  perhaps 
already  given  his  spirit  to  God  or  lies  wounded  in  some  hospital  or  is 
a  prisoner.  But  I  ask  you  whether  it  is  true  that,  as  your  advertise- 
ment says,  I  shall  receive  10  to  20  cents  for  each  letter  and  that  these 
letters  w^ill  be  returned.  For  they  have  a  value  for  myself  to  keep, 
because  when  this  unhappy  war  is  over,  I  have  money  to  get  or  this 

farm  to  take So  I  beg  you  for  a  written  answer  and  for  better 

information:  (i)  Shall  I  receive  the  rew^ard  as  advertised  and  how 
much?  (2)  Shall  I  get  the  letters  back?  I  beg  you  to  send  me  a 
guaranty,  for  should  I  lose  these  letters,  I  should  prefer  not  to  have 

this  reward  at  20  cents  each 

Jan  Baraxowski 

69  December  7,  1914 

Respected  Sir:  I  received  your  letter,  ....  and  after  reading 

it  I  commit  myself  to  your  generosity I  send  you  the  letters 

which  I  have These  letters  from  my  parents  are  very  good 

and  detailed  with  regard  to  your  demand.  Most  of  them  are  from 
the  time  of  the  Japanese  war  and  during  the  bloody  troubles  until  two 


OSINSKl  SERIES  401 

years  before  the  actual  bloody  tragedy  which  no  pen  can  describe  and 

no  reason  embrace.    What  my  dear  fatherland,  and  my  parents  and 

sister  and  brother  are  suffering!    My  brother  is  perhaps  already 

murdered,  and  even  perhaps  my  dear  parents  who  longed  so  much  for 

me  and  wanted  to  see  me  once  more.     When  I  prepared  these  letters 

to  be  sent  to  you,  I  read  a  few  of  them  and  I  wept  bitter  tears  and 

thought  thus:  "Perhaps  they  are  the  last."     So  I  beg  you  very  much 

to  send  them  back  to  me  in  totality,  for  I  want  to  keep  them  in 

remembrance.     And  also,  as  I  wrote  you  in  my  preceding  letter,  I 

have  an  inheritance  [in  cash]  or  a  farm  to  get,  if  this  accursed  war  is 

calmed * 

Jan  Baranowski 

70  September  9,  1901 

"Praised  be  Jesus  Christus." 

Dear  Son  :  I  received  your  letter  ....  and  I  am  glad  that  you 
are  healthy  and  that  you  got  happily  through.  As  to  Antoni,  we 
learned  two  weeks  ago  that  he  was  stopped  in  Otloczyn  [as  having 
trachoma].  First  his  mother  learned  it  and  came  to  me  crying  anc^ 
said  that  they  would  surely  spoil  his  eyes  [in  trying  to  cure  them]  or  he 
would  die.^  But  I  persuaded  her  that  there  are  surely  more  [patients], 
and  their  eyes  don't  get  spoiled,  so  his  won't  be  either. 

Now  I  inform  you,  dear  son,  about  our  health.  Your  father  was 
ill,  he  had  some  pains  inside,  and  I  had  to  manage  the  harvesting 
alone.  I  hired  3  men  to  reap  and  4  women  to  rake,  and  3  more  men 
to  build.     As  to  the  building,  dear  son,  it  was  so:  When  you  left,  the 

'  The  letters  are  to  be  used  as  evidence  of  his  chiims.  The  connection  of 
sentiment  and  business  is  not  felt  to  be  improper  and  does  not  hinder  the  reality 
of  the  sentiment.  In  the  same  way,  death  of  a  member  of  the  family  hardly  inter- 
rupts the  usual  home  occupations  of  the  other  members.  The  material  side  of  life 
has  originally  nothing  of  the  "low"  character  which  it  acquires  later  by  antithesis 
to  the  higher  moral,  religious,  intellectual,  aesthetic,  interests.  For  the  peasant 
it  is  a  part  of  the  essential  human  task  to  support  life  and  to  fight  against  death. 
The  most  trifling  practical  affairs  may  assume  in  this  light  a  character  of  solemnity, 
ahnost  sanctity.     Cf.  IntroducUon:   "Religious  and  Magical  Attitudes." 

'The  peasant  occupies  the  habitudinal  standpoint,  and  everything  seems 
possible  to  him  outside  of  his  normal  conditions  and  known  environment.  The 
lack  of  continuity  and  proportion  between  cause  and  effect  in  general  docs  not 
permit  the  prevision  and  limitation  of  the  effects  of  a  given  cause.  This  altitude 
is  particularly  strong  with  regard  to  the  governmenL  Cf.  Introduction:  "Social 
Environment";   "Religious  and  Magical  Attitudes." 


402  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

building  stopped  for  2  weeks.  I  could  not  sit  in  this  [new]  house  at 
all  from  sorrow,'  as  if  half  of  the  people  in  the  village  were  dead  and 
you  were  dead  also.     In  the  3d  week  the  carpenter  worked  alone  with 

your  father  for  2  days And  in  the  fourth  week  the  carpenter 

worked  3  days  with  Adam.  And  in  the  fifth  and  sixth  weeks  the 
carpenter,  the  mason  and  4  men  worked.  Your  father's  work  was 
such  [of  as  little  worth]  as  when  you  were  here.  I  finished  the  work 
with  these  men  on  the  last  day  of  August.  This  whole  work,  harvest 
and  building,  cost  us  25  roubles,  besides  the  carpenters  and  yourself, 

dear  son And  all  this  building,  as  we  calculated,  will  cost  us 

about  700,  and  still  it  won't  be  finished  before  next  year,  for  we  don't 
wish  to  make  big  debts.  We  sold  the  horse  for  34  roubles,  and  father 
sold  the  pigs  for  50  roubles  and  now  we  must  also  sell  the  cow  and  the 
calf.'  Now,  dear  son,  I  don't  know  what  to  do  with  your  clothes, 
whether  I  shall  keep  them  or  give  them  to  your  father  to  wear.^  You 
wrote  me,  dear  son,  to  hire  somebody  to  dig  the  potatoes,  and  you 
would  pay  for  it.  May  God  reward  you  for  your  promise!  I  can- 
not thank  you  [reward  you]  in  any  other  way,  except  by  these 
words.  Michalek  gave  me  also  a  rouble  for  my  dress.  May  our  Lord 
Jesus  grant  you  health  and  pay  you  with  Heaven  for  your  good 

[WlKTORYA  OsmSKA] 

71  November  12,  1901 

....  Dear  Son:  ....  The  carpenter  finished  his  work  on  the 
day  before  St.  ]\Iichael,  and  your  father  drove  him  to  the  town  and 
we  moved  into  the  house  with  our  beds  and  our  cooking.     The 

remaining  furniture  is  still  left  in  the  barn All  is  now  finished 

except  the  white- washing  and   the   stairs It  cost  us   1,000 

roubles  in  all.     [Weather;  acquaintances.] 

'  Because  the  son  had  worked  at  the  building  of  the  house. 

'  It  would  seem  quite  simple  to  give  a  mortgage  and  in  this  way  cover  the  cost 
of  the  house.  But  for  the  peasant  this  is  logically  impossible.  The  house  belongs 
to  the  class  of  movable  property,  like  the  horse,  the  pig,  or  the  cow,  as  against 
land  property.  It  is  an  inferior  kind  of  property.  And  mortgage  would  destroy 
the  social  value  of  land,  the  highest  class  of  property.  To  give  a  mortgage  in  order 
to  build  a  house  would  be,  in  the  peasant's  eyes,  an  action  like  that  of  selling  a 
valuable  horse  or  cow  in  order  to  have  good  time  on  the  money. 

3  Clothes  do  not  constitute  property  in  the  proper  sense,  but,  like  food,  belorg 
to  the  objects  of  consumption  owned  primarily  by  the  family,  only  secondarily  by 
the  individual.     Cf.  Introduction:   "Economic  Attitudes." 


OSIl^SKI  SERIES  403 

Now  I  thank  you  heartily  for  the  shoes  which  you  bought  me 
[before  going  away].  They  are  so  comfortable  that  I  can  walk  as  far 
as  I  need  without  feeling  that  I  have  anything  on  my  feet.     Whenever 

I  put  them  on  I  always  remember  you  with  tears M  am  very 

glad  that  everybody  acknowledges  that  you  are  very  good.  May 
our  Lord  God  grant  you  not  to  be  spoiled  in  America!  May  you 
always  be  good,  first  toward  God  and  toward  God's  Mother,  then 
toward  us,  your  parents,  and  toward  all  men,  as  you  have  been  up  to 
the  present.     Amen.^ 

WlKTORYA  OSINSKA 

72  December  22,  1901 

....  Dear,  Beloved  Son:  ....  We  were  glad  on  receiving 
your  letter,  but  we  were  not  glad  that,  although  you  know  how  to 
write,  you  describe  very  little  of  your  condition.  You  did  not  even 
write  why  you  could  not  come  back  to  our  country  if  you  married 
her.  But  probably  they  considered  you  a  good  man  [appreciated  you] 
only  as  long  as  they  did  not  profit  from  your  work.^  So  I  thought 
myself,  and  when  Michal  came  and  read  this  letter,  he  said  the  same, 
that  you  would  have  a  good  Christmas-gift  [in  the  woman] !  We  said 
to  each  other,  I  and  Michal,  that  you  were  in  the  army  and  you  did 
not  write  us  the  truth  even  then  [how  ill  he  felt],  but  although  you 
did  not  write  us  the  truth,  still  we  guessed  it.  Certainly  now  you  don't 
write  us  the  truth  either.  It  would  be  much  better  if  you  earned  a 
little  money,  came  back  to  our  country  and  got  married  here.  We 
[Michal  and  I]  spoke  so  before  parting.  And  moreover,  we  advise 
you,  we  your  parents,  if  you  have  any  money  earned,  send  it  to  us,  for 
here  it  won't  be  lost;  we  will  put  it  in  the  savings-bank.     But  if  you 

'  She  is  probably  not  accustomed  to  wearing  shoes  regularly.  The  habit  of 
going  barefoot  is  very  persistent,  mainly  for  economy.  Shoes  are  in  many  localities 
worn  only  on  Sunday.  And  often  when  going  to  church  or  to  a  fair  the  peasants 
(particularly  women)  carry  their  shoes  and  put  them  on  only  when  approaching 
the  church  or  town. 

'The  original  obligatory  familial  and  communal  solidarity  is  here  already 
treated  as  moral  goodness  and  put  into  relation  with  the  religious  idea.  This  is 
the  state  of  things  which  we  have  studied  in  the  Introduction:  "Religious  and 
Magical  Attitudes." 

3  The  girl's  parents  probably  first  agreed  to  give  her  to  him  unconditionally 
because  they  wanted  to  borrow  money  from  him.  When  they  got  it,  they  made 
the  condition  that  he  should  not  take  her  from  America.  Wiklorya  sui)p()ses  that 
in  general  they  have  changed  their  behavior  toward  him  after  having  got  money. 


404  rRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

ki'i'p  it  with  you  yi)U  will  always  find  friends  who  will  want  to  borrow 
it  from  you  and  will  want  to  get  you  married.  Moreover,  they  could 
steal  it  from  you,  as  [was  done]  in  the  army.  [Greetings  and  New- Year 
wishes.] 

WlKTORYA   OSINSKA 


"7^  January  3,  1902 

Dear  Son:  ....  We  thank  you  nicely  for  the  10  roubles.  You 
wrote  us,  dear  son,  that  we  might  make  [from  this  money]  a  better 
Christmas  tree  [instead  of  the  word  "tree"  a  tree  is  roughly  drawn  by 
the  sister  who  writes  this  letter]  and  make  ourselves  merry  during 

the  holidays.     I  should  be  much  merrier  if  you  came  here 

This  money  has  been  of  use  to  us,  for  we  were  owing  8  roubles  to  the 
carpenter,  so  your  father  gave  them  back  at  once.  He  brought  2 
roubles  home.  Of  these  two  we  gave  8  zloty  [i  rouble,  20  copecks] 
for  a  holy  mass,  and  the  rest  we  took  for  our  Christmas  festival. 
Father  says  so  [to  you]:  "Economize  as  much  as  you  can  so  that  no 
one  [of  your  creditors]  may  drum  at  your  windows  when  you  come 
back."  If  our  Lord  Jesus  allows  us  to  get  rid  of  our  debts,  we  shall 
remember  you,  for  our  debts  amount  to  70  roubles.  If  God  grants 
us  health  in  this  New  Year  we  hope  to  pay  them  back,  for  last  year 
there  were  only  expenses,  and  no  income  at  all. 

Now  inform  us  whether  you  are  near  a  church,  and  whether  you 
have  already  been  in  it  a  few  times,  and  how  is  the  divine  service 
celebrated,  whether  there  are  sermons  and  teachings  like  those  in  our 
country.  And  inform  me  how  do  you  like  America,  whether  you  like 
it  as  much  as  our  country.  Describe  everything,  for  it  is  difficult  for 
me  [to  write  you  long  letters],  since  I  cannot  write  myself  to  you. 
[Wishes  for  the  New  Year.]  Now  I  admonish  you,  dear  son,  live  in 
this  New  Year  honestly  and  religiously,  for  I  pray  our  Lord  Jesus 
for  you  every  day,  when  going  to  bed  and  rising ' 

WlKTORYA   OSINSKA 

The  candle  burned  down,  the  ink  is  out,  the  pen  broke,  the  letter 
is  ended.     [Pleasantry  by  Frania.] 

'  The  mother's  prayers  are  a  reason  for  the  son's  living  honestly  and  religiously, 
because  by  those  prayers  she  helps  him  to  become  a  member  of  the  divine  commu- 
nity and  he  ought  not  to  break  the  harmony  which  she  has  established  between  him 
and  God.     Cf.  Introduction:   "Religious  and  Magical  Attitudes." 


OSllSfSKI  SERIES  405 

74  March  18,  1902 

Dear  Son:  ....  Your  last  letter  grieved  us  very  much,  when 
we  learned  that  you  were  sick.  Particularly  I,  as  your  mother,  wept, 
thinking  who  cared  for  you  in  this  illness,  you  orphan!  When  we  are 
ill,  we  nurse  one  another,  while  you  are  always  alone  in  the  wide  world. 
But  I  remembered  and  I  sighed  at  once  [in  prayer],  that  you  had  still 
a  Father  in  Heaven  and  a  Mother  who  guards  orphans. 

Now  I  inform  you,  dear  son,  that  I  was  also  sick  with  colic  for  two 
weeks.  For  the  first  week  I  could  do  nothing,  so  that  your  father  had 
the  organist  come  and  he  applied  12  cupping-glasses.  Then  I  felt 
somewhat  better,  but  still  for  a  week  I  could  not  work.  And  during 
my  sickness  Legoski  came  for  money,  for  he  was  going  to  America. 
....  But  not  only  we  had  no  money,  there  was  not  even  anyone 
to  prepare  a  good  dinner  for  him,  a  suitable  one.  We  had  10  roubles, 
for  we  got  30  for  the  cow  and  we  paid  Radomski  20  back.  So  we  gave 
him  these  10  roubles.  Your  father  would  have  gone  and  borrowed 
more,  but  he  did  not  wish  it  ...  .  and  he  said  that  perhaps  you 
would  send  some  for  Easter,  then  your  father  would  give  it  back  to 

his  wife Then  we  sold  the  calf  and  got  12^  which  we  paid  to 

your  aunt  Smentkowska.  Then  we  sold  the  pig  and  gave  Skunieczny 
10  and  Szymanska  5.  We  left  5  for  the  tax  and  for  Easter.  We  are 
still  owing  12  to  your  uncle,  6  to  Pazik,  6  to  Mr.  Krajewski;  these  are 
the  debts  which  we  still  have.  And  then  we  lack  many  things  for 
the  house,  which  we  reckon  as  about  30  roubles.  And  you  know,  dear 
son,  that  this  year  is  bad,  you  have  seen  yourself  that  the  crops  were 
not  abundant,  so  we  can  sell  no  grain. 

Here  your  father  speaks  to  you:  "If  our  Lord  God  grants  you 
health,  economize  as  much  as  you  can  and  send  [your  debt]  back,  that 
they  [your  creditors]  may  not  come  to  us  so  often.  Were  it  not  for 
the  building  and  for  our  own  debts  we  should  have  paid  this  debt 
for  you." 

You  asked  who  died In  Trombin  the  organist's  wife  [or 

widow?]  whom  you  knew,  is  dead There  are  8  children  left 

and  the  ninth  [girl]  is  in  America.  When  these  orphans  began  to 
weep  at  the  churchyard  during  the  funeral,  all  the  people  began  to 
weep  and  even  the  priest  wept  and  could  not  make  the  speech. 
[Information  about  marriages,  weather.] 

You  ask  about  MichaJ.  He  has  a  strong  wish  to  go  to  America, 
but  father  won't  let  him  go  before  the  military  service,  for  he  has 


4o6  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

iMily  2  years  to  wait  and  he  will  be  called  during  the  third  [and  if  he 
does  not  go  when   called,   he  will  never  be  able   to  return  to  his 

country] 

And  now  I  beg  you,  dear  son,  if  you  intend  to  enter  into  such  a 
state  as  Antoni  did  [get  married],  don't  look  at  her  dresses,  but  esteem 
only  whether  she  loves  our  Lord  Jesus.     Then  she  will  respect  you 

also 'On  the  same  day  when  I  received  this  letter  from  you 

the  parents  of  Antoni's  girl  came  to  his  parents  ....  and  there  was 
joy  such  as  if  all  of  you  came  back  from  America.  But  they  visited 
us  also  and  are  very  agreeable  people,  particularly  her  mother.  They 
invited  his  parents  and  they  invited  us  for  the  holidays,  so  on  Sunday 
after  Easter  they  [the  uncle  and  aunt,  Antoni's  parents]  will  go,  and 
your  father  is  to  go  with  them,  but  I  probably  shan't  go,  for  there  is 
nobody  to  take  my  place  at  home  in  my  household * 

WlKTORYA   OSINSKA 

75  May  25,  1902 

Dear  Son:  ....  You  asked  me  to  send  you  one  gomdlka  [small 
home-made  cheese].  When  they  read  it  to  me,  I  laughed.  It  is  true 
that  I  had  none  when  she  left  [a  cousin  going  to  America],  but  if  she 
would  have  taken  it,  I  would  have  found  one.  So  instead  of  cheese 
I  send  you  a  godly  image — you  will  have  a  token — and  from  every 
member  of  the  family  I  send  you  a  small  medal.  When  you  receive 
this  image,  kiss  it,  that  it  may  bless  you  in  your  work  and  your 

health  and  guard  you  against  a  mortal  sin ^  Michal  sends  you 

a  package  of  tobacco  and  Aleksander  a  package  of  cigarettes 

You  wrote  to  your  father  asking,  what  he  would  send  you.  Well, 
he  sends  you  these  words:   "Remember  always  the  presence  of  God, 

'  The  expression  of  the  norm  of  respect  instead  of  love  as  fundamental  in 
marriage-relations,  and  at  the  same  time  the  connection  between  religious  life  and 
family  life. 

*  The  invitation  for  the  holidays  is  a  proof  that  the  relation  between  the  writer 
and  her  husband  on  one  side,  the  parents  of  their  nephew's  wife  on  the  other,  is  a 
familial  relation,  although  it  is  a  mixed  blood-  and  law-relation  of  the  fourth  and 
fifth  degree. 

3  Both  the  image  and  the  medals  are  consecreted;  if  therefore  the  first  has  a 
particular  magical  value,  while  the  medals  are  treated  merely  as  family-tokens,  it 
is  evidently  because  of  the  particular  intention  and  desire  of  the  mother  to  let  the 
image  have  a  magical  influence.  Cf.  Introduction:  "Religious  and  Magical 
Attitudes." 


OSINSKI  SERIES  407 

and  when  we  shall  stand  before  the  last  judgment  you  will  calmly  wait 
for  the  holiest  sentence."  Now  I  send  you  other  words:  "Work  and 
economize  as  much  as  you  can;  I  won't  take  [the  fortune]  into  the 
grave  with  me.  When  you  are  not  able  to  work  longer  [in  America], 
then  I  will  divide  [the  fortune]  among  you.  And  God  guard  us 
against  a  sudden  death.     Amen."^ 

1  can  send  you  nothing  more,  dear  son  except  my  heart.  If  I 
could  take  it  away  from  my  breast  and  divide  it  into  four  parts,  as 
you  are  four  whom  our  Lord  Jesus  keeps  for  me  still  [besides  those  who 

are  dead],  I  would  give  a  part  to  every  one,  from  love [Wishes 

and  greetings.] 

[WiKTORYA  and  Antoni  Osinski] 

76  July  29,  1902 

Dear  Son:  ....  I  inform  you  now  that  on  July  i,  there  was  a 
terrible  storm.  The  lightning  struck  in  3  places  in  our  village,  but, 
thanks  to  God,  without  damage,  for  only  in  trees  and  in  the  stream. 
But  do  you  know  Betlejeski  in  Lasoty  ?  Well,  lightning  struck  him 
dead  and  burned  his  house,  and  beyond  Rypin  a  man  was  killed. 
This  storm  lasted  for  3  hours;  it  lightened  continually. 

The  crops  are  good  this  year,  but  it  is  difficult  to  harvest  them,  for 

it  rains  often We  ask  you  now,  dear  son,  to  inform  us  how 

long  do  you  intend  to  be  in  America,  for  about  America  bad  rumors 
are  spreading,  that  it  is  to  sink  in,  and  even  priests  order  us  to 
pray  for  those  who  are  in  America.  [Referring  to  the  eruption  in 
Martinique.]  Now  I  inform  you,  dear  son,  what  accidents  happen 
in  our  country.  Two  men  were  going  away  to  America;  one  of 
them  had  money  and  was  to  pay  for  the  other  and  for  himself, 
but  the  one  who  had  no  money  killed  him.  They  were  even 
brothers-in-law  and  kums.  And  in  Ostrowite  also  a  man  killed 
another.^*  May  this  be  a  lesson  for  you,  my  dear  son,  not  to 
believe  too  much  and  not  to  be  overconfident  in  friendship 

[WiKTORYA] 

'  Perfectly  typical  father's  harangue.  Cf.  the  address  of  tlic  niollu-r  imme- 
diately following.  As  to  the  familial  standpoint  of  the  father  and  tiie  more  personal 
standpoint  of  the  mother,  cf.  Introduction:  "The  Family." 

2  The  spirit  of  the  letter  is  like  that  of  the  mediaeval  chronicles.  Tlic  news  is 
evidently  derived  from  verbal  rumors. 


4oS  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

77  October  27,  1902 

Dear  Son:  ....  As  to  your  wish,  we  agree  with  it,  if  you  think 
that  your  lot  will  be  better.  You  cannot  always  live  so  lonely,  so 
we,  as  your  parents,  permit  you  [to  marry]  and  give  you  our  parental 
blessing.  May  our  Lord  God,  God's  Mother  and  all  the  Saints  bless 
you!  We  beg  Him  most  heartily  that  He  will  grant  you,  your  dear 
wife,  her  parents  and  all  of  us  health  and  His  blessing.^  This  we  wish 
you  with  our  parental  heart. 

And  we  inform  the  parents  of  your  wife  that  they  can  be  willing, 
for  you  have  been  always  very  good  to  us,  obedient  in  everything  that 
can  be  expected  from  a  child,  so  we  guarantee  that  it  will  be  so  later 
on.  And  not  only  we,  but  all  the  people  of  the  whole  village,  can 
gladly  testify  that  you  are  from  a  good  house^  and  of  good  conduct. 

WiKTORYA  and  Antoni  Osinski 

78  July  29,  1903 

....  Dear  Son:  ....  We  are  late  with  the  answer  but  on 
Sunday  I  was  with  Aleksander  at  the  parish  festival  in  Obory,  for  he 
joined  the  Scapulary  Fraternity ,3  and  on  week-days  we  had  no  time, 
for  we  harvested.  We  received  the  money  in  June  and  at  once  father 
paid  the  debts You  wrote  us,  dear  son,  to  take  a  maid-servant, 

'  The  future  wife  and  her  parents  are  thus  taken  at  once  into  the  family -group 
by  making  them  share  the  expected  effects  of  the  blessing,  whose  object  is  the 
family. 

^  The  presupposition  that  the  origin  of  a  man  is  a  guaranty  of  his  character. 
The  same  presupposition  which  allows  a  man  in  America  to  bring  over  a  girl  whom 
he  does  not  know  but  whose  family  he  knows. 

3  Religious  fraternities  are  a  very  old  institution;  we  find  them  in  the  earliest 
mediaeval  traditions.  They  are  of  two  types — with  and  without  a  social  end. 
The  first  exists  mainly  in  towns,  and  develops  mutual  insurance  (sickness,  burial 
expenses,  dowry,  widowhood)  and  philanthropic  activity  (help  to  the  poor,  nursing 
in  hospitals).  In  the  country  the  merely  religious  form  prevails,  as  there  is  less 
occasion  for  mutual  insurance,  and  philanthropic  activity  remains  familial  or 
individual.  The  members  gather  periodically  for  common  prayers  and  adoration 
and  perform  determined  functions  during  solemn  divine  services.  .A.t  a  solemn 
mass  they  kneel  in  the  middle  of  the  church  with  burning  candles;  at  a  procession 
they  carry  feretories  [moving  altars],  standards,  candles;  they  do  the  same 
during  the  funeral  of  a  member.  Most  of  them  develop  choral  singing.  They 
are  named  according  to  their  particular  religious  purpose,  object,  and  means  of 
their  adoration—fraternities  of  the  Holiest  Sacrament,  Rosary  fraternities,  Scapu- 
lar\'  fraternities,  and  those  of  particular  saints. 


OSINSKI  SERIES  409^ 

but  the  worst  is  that  there  is  none  to  be  found;  they  all  go  to  America, 
Probably  we  shall  manage  alone  until  you  come  back.  Aleksander 
can  already  help  me  in  the  heaviest  work,  he  can  already  reach  the 
sheaves  to  the  cart  and  then  pull  them  back  [into  the  barn],  and 
Frania  also  works  as  she  can.  So  instead  of  sending  money  for  the 
servant,  if  you  have  any,  send  them  a  Httle  for  okr^zne.^  Then  they 
will  be  still  more  willing  to  work,  and  when  you  come  back  we  shall 

give  you  whatever  we  can Father  was  ill  for  a  week;  now  he 

has  already  recovered I  was  so  grieved,  for  father  lay  ill,  and 

Michalek  was  on  the  journey — such  is  my  luck,  that  I  am  always  at 
work  and  in  grief.  Such  my  life  has  been  and  such  it  will  probably 
be  up  to  the  end.^ 

As  to  Michal,  we  tried  by  all  means  to  persuade  him  not  to  go, 
particularly  I  told  him  about  his  journey,  how  it  would  be,  and  that 
he  would  be  obliged  to  work  heavily.  But  he  always  answered  that 
he  is  ready  to  work,  but  he  wants  to  get  to  America  and  to  be  with 
you.  Now  I  beg  you,  dear  son,  if  he  is  in  grief  [homesick],  comfort  him 
as  much  as  you  can  and  care  for  him.  You  wrote  me,  dear  son,  not 
to  grieve  about  you,  but  my  heart  is  always  in  pain  that  we  are  not 
all  together  or  at  least  all  in  our  country,  that  we  might  visit  one 
another You  asked  us  how  many  years  there  are  since  we 

'  Festival  after  the  harvest.  In  some  localities  called  "dozynki."  It  is  one 
of  the  oldest  pagan  traditions.  The  word  is  used  sometimes,  as  here,  for  the  extra 
ward  which  the  proprietor  gives  after  a  successful  harvest. 

"  The  pessimistic  view  expressed  here  and  in  many  other  letters,  is  particularly 
frequent  whenever  the  peasant  begins  to  reflect  upon  his  life.  On  the  contrary,  in 
practice  he  is  usually  very  optimistic,  he  expects  that  in  some  undetermined  way 
his  action  will  have  the  desired  effect  even  if  rationally  there  seem  to  be  no  sufficient 
natural  causes  to  produce  this  effect.  Both  the  pessimism  of  reflection  and  the 
optimism  of  practice  are  rooted  in  the  same  attitude  as  the  magical  beliefs;  the 
peasant  does  not  give  sufficient  attention  to  the  continuity  between  cause  and  effect. 
In  his  opinion  a  determined  fact  may  produce  another  fact  even  if  he  does  not  see 
in  what  way  this  is  possible,  provided  only  those  facts  seem  in  some  way  connected 
with  each  other.  So  long  as  he  is  acting,  he  is  inclined  to  hope  against  all  probabil- 
ity; when  he  begins  to  reflect,  the  same  insufficient  analysis  of  the  process  of 
causation  makes  him  fear  also  against  all  probability.  (Cf.  Introduction:  "Reli- 
gious and  Magical  Attitudes,"  and  note  to  No.  70.)  There  is  also  another  reason 
why  the  old-type  peasants  tend  to  emphasize  unconsciously  in  their  rcflcclion  the 
evil  as  against  the  good;  it  is  the  lack  of  any  idea  of  advance.  The  modern  type 
of  peasant,  with  his  strong  tendency  to  climbing,  is  much  more  optimistic.  Finally, 
as  we  shall  see  later,  the  peasant  often  complains  insincerely.  But  here  the 
attitude  is  evidently  sincere. 


410  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

were  married.     Well,  only  the  24th  year  is  going,  since  Jar.u 
[Greetings.]    And  care  for  Michalek. 

[WlKTORYA 

79  November  20,  1903 

Dear  Son:  ....  We  received  your  letter  ....  but  we  were 
not  very  glad,  first  because  you  wrote  that  Michal  had  been  ill  without 
saying  with  what,  and  second,  because  you  wrote  that  we  don't  care 

for  you  at  all.     You  err  much  in  saying  so We  could  not  send 

you  the  photograph  for  your  name-day,  because  father  was  ill.  We 
promised  to  send  it  on  St.  Michael's  day,  but  we  had  no  time,  for  the 
harvest  lasted  up  to  autumn,  for  first  the  weather  was  bad,  and  then 
in  autumn  it  was  fair;  then  we  dug  the  potatoes.  Afterward  father 
brought  fuel  and  plowed  what  was  necessary  for  winter,  and  Alek- 
sander  went  to  earn  for  his  winter  suit  and  boots,  and  we  both  [mother 
and  daughter]  worked  industriously,  and  kept  the  stock.  [Stock 
sold;  debts  paid;  no  money  left.]  It  is  easy  for  you  to  say  that  we 
don't  care  for  you  or  begrudge  a  few  zloty  for  this  photograph!  In 
America  nobody  comes  to  you  and  calls:  "Lend  me  money,  for  I 
have  nothing  to  live,"  or,  "Give  me  my  money  back."  You  wrote 
that  you  did  not  work  for  7  weeks.  But  we  must  always  work,  like 
worms.     [Greetings,  Christmas  wishes.] 

WlKTORYA  OsmSKA 

[Inclosed  with  the  preceding  letter.]  ....  Now  I,  your  sister, 
did  not  forget  you  yet.  I  send  you  this  flower  as  a  token  for  these 
solemn  holidays  of  Christmas,  and  I  divide  the  wafer  with  you. 
[Wishes].  As  to  mother,  don't  write  it  ever  again,  that  mother  does 
not  care  about  you  for  we  can  never  reward  mother  for  all  these  tears 

which  she  sheds More  than  once  I  have  tried  to  comfort  her, 

when  mother  weeps  that  you  are  not  in  this  country 

[Frania] 

80  May  17,  1904 

Dear  Children:  ....  We  received  your  letter  ....  together 
with  the  photograph.  We  were  very  glad,  so  that  we  even  wept  from 
joy.  You  wrote,  dear  son,  that  you  had  a  sad  Easter,  for  you  did 
not  see  your  parents.     I  had  also  [sad  holidays].'     When  I  arranged 

»  Holidays  are  always  occasions  on  which  there  is  a  revival  of  familial  feelings, 
and  traditionally  the  whole  family  ought  to  meet. 


OSINSKI  SERIES  411 

the  Swi^cone,^  I  sat  at  the  stove,  and  thought  that  there  was  nobody 
to  make  a  swiqcone  for  you,  and  I  wept.  You  wondered,  dear  children, 
why  I  look  so  sickly  [in  the  photograph].  But  you  also  look  sickly 
and  sad.  Not  only  we  say  so,  but  all  those  who  have  seen  you.  Every- 
body wonders  particularly  about  Janek,  who  looked  fatter  and  merrier 
on  the  other  photograph.  Some  people  envy  us  that  you  write  so 
often  and  that  on  every  holiday  you  send  something,  either  money 

or  a  photograph — that  you  don't  forget  about  your  parents 

Now  we  inform  you  about  our  farming.  We  had  4  horses;  we 
sold  one  of  them  and  got  50  roubles,  for  they  were  sick.  We  have 
2  cows,  2  calves  and  a  young  cow,  one  year  old,  and  more  than  20 
bee-hives.  Father  has  sowed  rape  for  them,  and  now  it  blossoms; 
and  there  is  such  a  humming  as  if  somebody  were  playing  an  accor- 
deon.  Now  I  inform  you  about  the  crops.  Rye  is  nice  up  to  the 
present;  summer  grains  are  nice  above,  but  it  has  been  too  wet 
below,  for  it  rains  often.  This  year  is  like  the  last  one;  up  to  the 
present  some  people  have  not  planted  the  potatoes,  for  they  cannot 
plow,  but  we  planted  and  sowed  everything,  thanks  to  God  and  to 

God's  Mother.  .... 

[Wiktorya] 

81  June  26,  1904 

....  Now  I  inform  you  about  the  misfortune  which  befell  your 
aunt  and  uncle  Smentkowski.  On  June  25  lightning  struck  Anneczka 
[their  daughter]  and  killed  her  and  the  Zwolehski  child.  At  4  o'clock 
in  the  afternoon  she  was  sitting  near  the  kitchen  stove  and  your  aunt 
was  standing  near  holding  the  child.  The  lightning  came  in  through 
the  chimney  and  went  out  through  both  windows,  but  thanks  to  God, 
it  did  not  burn  the  house.  So  we  beg  you,  and  they  also,  for  the  love 
of  God  inform  their  whole  family  [the  children  in  America]  about  it, 
and  ask  them,  that  someone  among  the  four  of  them  come.  They 
are  old  and  cannot  work.     Moreover,  your  aunt  is  often  sick,  and 

'  On  Easter  all  kinds  of  food  which  the  peasant  uses  during  the  year  are  con- 
secrated by  the  priest.  The  consecration,  by  a  magical  symbolism,  is  supposed 
to  sanctify  and  purify  any  food  of  the  same  kind  which  the  family  will  eat 
till  the  following  Easter.  The  custom  is  connected  with  the  old  pagan  spring 
festival.  Easter  eggs  are  also  consecrated  and  form  an  indispensable  part  of  the 
swi§cone.  At  the  same  time,  there  is  a  connection  with  fasting:  Lent  ends  on 
Easter,  and  the  first  meat,  dairy,  and  alcoholic  drink  after  the  fasting  must  be 
consecrated  before  being  consumed. 


412  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

what  will  now  happen  after  such  a  misfortune!  ....  Your  aunt  could 
not  write  from  grief,  and  we  can  write  no  more,  for  tears  drown  cur 
eves 

[OSINSKIS] 

If  I  wrote  you  badly,  excuse  me,  for  my  hands  trembled  from  all 

this. 

[Frania] 

82  July  21,  1904 

Dear  Children:  ....  Now  we  inform  you  in  what  w^ay  the 
Zwolenski  child  was  killed.  It  was  so.  The  Smenkowskis  came  from 
the  field  and  the  uncle  remained  in  the  garden,  while  the  aunt  and 
Andzia  [Anneczka]  came  back  home  and  brought  firewood.  The 
aunt  took  Zwolenska's  child  for  it  wanted  to  go  to  her.  Zwolenska 
wished  later  to  take  it,  but  it  did  not  want  to  go  to  her,  so  your  aunt 
took  it  and  they  went  into  their  house,  and  Zwolenska  into  her  house. 
Your  aunt  sat  down  near  the  table  with  the  child,  and  Anneczka  sat 
down  near  the  stove,  and  when  the  lightning  struck,  it  killed  both 
Anneczka  and  the  child.  Your  aunt  alone  remained  alive  and  called 
to  Anneczka,  telling  her  to  go  away,  or  she  would  be  burned.  Imme- 
diately your  uncle  ran  into  the  room  and  people  gathered.  They  took 
Anneczka  and  the  child  and  dug  them  into  the  earth,  but  they  did  not 
awaken.  And  now  I  explain  to  you  in  what  a  manner  the  Zwolenskis 
were  there  [the  Z's  were  manor-servants,  and  had  to  five  in  manorial 
buildings] .  They  lived  first  in  the  osmioraki  [long  house  for  8  families] ; 
there  they  could  not  come  to  an  understanding  with  their  neighbors, 
and  got  a  lodging  in  the  czworaki  [house  for  4  families].  They  had 
lived  there  hardly  a  week  when  the  czworaki  burned  down;  but  they 

did  not  lose  many  things,  for  people  came  and  saved  them 

Thence  they  moved  to  the  same  house  where  the  Smenkow^skis  live. 
And  I  inform  you  about  the  burial,  how  uncle  had  her  buried.  It  cost 
him  20  roubles  [to  the  priest].  The  priest  went  to  meet  the  procession, 
boys  brought  her  to  the  church,  and  there  she  stood  upon  a  catafalque 
during  the  whole  holy  mass.  Thence  the  priest  led  and  church- 
servants  brought  her  to  the  cemetery.  There  were  many  peoples 
for  she  was  in  a  [religious]  fraternity  and  bore  the  flag  [during 
processions].  Everybody  wept,  for  she  w^as  liked  and  respected. 
But  your  uncle  did  not  regret  any  expenses,  saying  that  this  was  her 
dowry 


OSIISISKI  SERIES  413 

You  asked  whether  Antoni  would  be  exempted  from  military 
service  as  a  guardian  [of  his  old  parents].  Now,  during  the  war,  no 
exemption  is  valid.  Your  uncle  would  be  glad  to  see  them  [Antoni 
and  wife]  if  they  came  to  work,  for  he  is  ahready  weak;  but  should 
Antoni  come  back  and  go  again  to  another  country  [to  the  Japanese 
war],  they  would  be  still  more  grieved. 

Whoever  of  them  is  to  come  let  him  come  the  soonest  possible,  for 
now  there  is  continuous  work.  And  perhaps  the  aunt  would  sooner 
forget  Anusia  [if  she  had  another  child  with  her] 

[OsiNSKis] 

[Letter  of  July  21  contains  further  details  about  the  death  and  funeral 
of  Anneczka  and  the  child.] 


83  September  24,  1904 

....  Dear  Son:  ...  .  We  are  very  glad  that  you  are  in  good 
health  and  that  you  succeed  well,  so  that  you  even  want  to  take  us  to 
America.  But  for  us,  your  parents,  it  seems  that  there  is  no  better 
America  than  in  this  country.  Your  father  says  that  he  is  too  weak 
and  sickens  too  often.  I  should  be  glad  to  see  you,  but  it  is  impossible 
to  separate  ourselves  in  our  old  age.  I  have  also  no  health;  particu- 
larly my  arms  are  bad  ....  and  you  wrote  that  in  America  one 
must  work  hard,  and  often  cannot  get  work  even  if  he  wants  it,  while 
here  we  have  always  work  and  we  can  hire  somebody  to  do  the  heavy 
labor.  You  wrote  me,  dear  son,  that  you  will  send  me  a  gift.  I  was 
very  glad,  not  so  much  because  of  the  gift  as  because  of  your  good 
heart 

Dear  son,  when  I  learned  from  your  letter  and  from  Frania 
[Smentkowska]  that  you  love  reading,  I  was  gladder  than  if  you  had 
sent  me  a  hundred  roubles.''  May  our  Lord  God  bless  you  further, 
may  God's  Mother  of  Czgstochowa  cover  you  with  her  mantle  from 
every  evil  and  every  misfortune. 

Now,  dear  sons,  I  inform  you  that  I  want  to  let  Frania  learn  dress- 
making, for  she  respects  her  parents  and  is  obedient,  and  secondly, 

'  Interesting  appreciation  for  seemingly  devoid  of  any  idea  of  the  practical 
application  of  learning  which  is  so  emphasized  in  the  movement  for  instruc- 
tion carried  on  by  the  newspapers.  Back  of  this  appreciation  is  probably  the 
idea  that  reading  keeps  one  away  from  mischief  and  denotes  a  seriousness  of 
character. 


414  TRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

because  she  is  too  weak  for  heavy  work.    Although  it  will  cost  us,  yet 

if  \\c  li\c,  \vc  must  leave  her  at  least  such  a  token ' 

Your  aunt  and  uncle  and  Frania  [Smentkowska's  cousin]  greet 
you,  and  they  greet  their  own  children.  Auntie  says  that  Antosia 
ought  to  remember  her  mother's  old  age  and  send  her  [money]  for  a 
warm  dress  for  winter ..,  ^    , 

WlKTORYA   OSINSKA 

84  November  8,  1904 

....  Dear  Son:  ....  You  wrote  about  a  church-certificate, 
but  we  don't  know  which  one  you  wanted.  Father  got  your  birth- 
certificate.  Is  it  good  or  not  ?  And  as  to  my  family,  about  which  you 
wanted  to  learn,  our  priest  says  that  in  his  records  there  is  nothing, 
but  we  must  go  to  the  mayor  of  the  commune.  Your  father  will  do 
it  when  he  finds  time.  Dear  son,  you  say  that  it  is  well  if  everybody 
knows  about  his  family  for  many  years  [past].  But  only  those  people 
can  know  whose  parents  live  long,  while  I  was  4  years  old  when  my 
parents  died.  How  can  I  know  anything  about  my  family?^  I 
asked  your  aunt,  but  she  does  not  know  either.  She  says  only  that 
some  years  ago  a  paper  from  Prussia  came,  that  some  money  there 
was  owed  to  us,  some  family-inheritance.  But  there  was  nobody  to 
go  for  it,  and  your  uncle  did  not  wish  to  go,  for  he  said  that  perhaps 
it  was  not  worth  going  for. 

You  wrote,  dear  son,  that  probably  we  shall  not  see  one  another 
any  more.     We  were  very  grieved,  and  particularly  I  was.     But  we 

'  This  desire  to  give  the  girl  technical  instruction  already  involves  a  modifica- 
tion of  the  primitive  economic  attitudes;  the  individual  is  no  longer  conceived  as 
exclusively  dependent  upon  the  family,  familial  property  ceases  to  be  the  only  basis 
of  individual  existence,  and  there  is  a  tendency  to  advance  along  the  line  of  an 
improvement  of  work  and  income,  not  merely  of  an  increase  of  property.  (Cf. 
Introduction:  "Economic  Attitudes.")  But  the  whole  attitude  is  still  evidently 
new,  for  the  technical  instruction  is  conceived  as  a  gift,  justified  by  exceptional 
circumstances. 

'  We  have  here  a  good  proof  that  the  peasant  family  is  essentially  only  an 
actual  social  group,  and  does  not  depend  upon  the  remembrance  of  the  preceding 
generations,  as  does  the  noble  European  family  (heraldic  continuity)  or  the  ancient 
Roman  family  (cult  of  the  spirits  of  the  ancestors).  The  ancestry  is  traced  only  as 
far  as  the  actual,  real  connection  between  the  living  members  requires.  (Cf .  Intro- 
duction: "The  Family.")  In  the  present  case  the  son's  demand  is  clearly  felt 
as  strange;  he  is  influenced  either  by  the  idea  of  the  noble  family  (probably  drawn 
from  his  reading),  or  by  economic  considerations — the  hope  of  getting  some 
unexpected  inheritance. 


OSINSKI  SERIES  415 

should  grieve  still  worse  if  you  had  to  go  to  this  bloodshedding.  And 
perhaps  we  shall  see  one  another  yet,  if  they  annoy  us  further  [for 
we  shall  go  to  America].  Already  they  have  raised  the  taxes,  and  now 
it  is  said  that  they  will  take  the  cows;  whoever  has  four  will  have  only 

one  left '  You  wrote,  dear  son,  that  you  and  Michal  Utten 

much  to  each  other.  I  am  very  glad.  Nothing  could  make  me  so 
glad  as  this 

[OSINSKIS] 

As  to  Michalek,  we  don't  write  to  him,  for  he  does  not  write  to  us 
either,  as  if  he  had  forgotten  us. 

85  December  18,  1905 
....  Dear  Son  :   .  .  .  .  You  ask  about  Frania,  how  much  her 

learning  and  living  will  cost.  When  we  sent  her  there,  we  agreed 
upon  55  roubles,  but  now  she  only  dines  there,  and  buys  breakfast  and 
supper  herself,  so  we  don't  know  how  much  we  shall  pay.  She  learns 
with  the  daughter  of  Brunkowski,  who  was  manager  of  the  estate  of 
Gulbiny  30  years  ago  and  lives  now  in  Dobrzyii 

And  Frania,  how  clever  and  cunning  she  is!  When  I  persuaded 
her  that  [her  learning]  would  cost  us  much,  and  that  I  did  not  learn, 
she  said  that  I  had  no  parents,  while  she  has  and  she  wants  to  have 
some  token  from  them. 

Now  I  advise  you  to  marry,  so  perhaps  you  will  be  happier,  as 

Antoni  and  other  people  are ^  r...  ,     . 

^    ^  [Wiktorya] 

86  February  6,  1906 

....  Dear  Son  [Michal] :  .  .  .  .  We  received  the  money  today 
....  and  we  thank  you  kindly  and  heartily  for  this  money,  wc  your 
parents,  your  brother,  and  also  I  your  sister,  for  most  of  it  is  destined 
for  me  [Frania] 

I  came  to  our  parents  on  February  2,  and  I  learned  that  many 
young  men  come,  but  the  girls  don't  seem  to  want  them,  and  probably 
there  will  be  no  marriage  this  year.3     Cousin  Frania  [Smentkowska] 

'  Anything  may  be  expected  of  the  government.  Cf.  note  to  No.  70,  and 
Introduction:   "Social  Environment." 

^  He  evidently  did  not  marry  the  girl  mentioned  in  No.  77. 

3  Marrying  assumes  often  an  epidemical  character  in  a  village  or  parish. 
There  comes  a  year  when,  witliout  any  apparent  reason,  the  number  of  weddings 
assumes  an  astonishingly  high  proportion;   then  again,  as  in  the  present  case,  the 


4i6  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

says  that  she  won't  marry  until  you  come  back.  And  I  mform  you, 
dear  brother,  that  I  am  learning  embroidery,  and  it  goes  on  pretty 
well.  Now  I  have  no  time  to  write  more  for  I  must  go  back  to 
Dobrzyn [Frania] 

87  February  18,  igo6 
....  Dear  Children:  ....  You  write  us  to  sell  [our  property] 

and  to  go  to  you.  We  should  be  very  glad  to  see  you,  if  even  only  a 
few  days  before  our  death,  but  perhaps  you  heard  yourself  how  difficult 
it  is  now  to  be  admitted,  particularly  for  old  people.  It  is  true  that 
here  we  must  work  heavily,  and  [get  cash]  only  for  taxes  and  fuel,  and 
even  this  is  difficult  to  get.  But  your  father  persuades  us  that  if  we 
sold  it  and  then  were  not  admitted  [to  America],  we  should  then  have 
no  place  to  go.  Then  we  say  that,  if  even  only  two  of  us  went  [one 
of  the  parents  with  one  child],  the  two  remaining  would  not  be  able 
to  do  all  the  work  and  the  longing  would  be  still  greater 

[OSINSKIS] 

[Letter  of  one  page,  March  6,  requests  the  children  "not  to  travel  so 
much  about  America,  as  it  is  a  spending  of  money  and  some  accident  might 
happen."  Also  that  they  receive  the  newspaper  Gazeta  Swi^teczna  at  home 
and  preserve  the  copies.] 

88  May  24,  1906 
....  Dear  Son:   You  wrote  us  that  you  intend  to  marry  and 

you  asked  us  for  our  blessing.  We  send  it  to  you.  May  our  Lord 
God  help  you,  and  God's  Mother  of  Cz§stochowa,  and  all  the  saints. 
It  is  very  sad  for  us  that  we  cannot  be  at  your  wxdding,  but  let  God's 
will  be  done.  But  we  are  anxious  whether  you  have  met  a  good  girl, 
for  it  happened  already  that  one  man  from  Gulbiny  wrote  how  he 
got  married  [in  America].  He  lived  for  only  a  year  with  her,  for  she 
stole  his  whole  fortune  and  went,  nobody  knows  where.  I  thank  you 
for  your  flowers;  we  adorned  half  the  house  with  them,  and  when  I 
come  into  the  room  and  look  at  them,  I  shed  tears. 

[Wiktorya] 

Now,  dear  brother,  I  send  you  a  little  tobacco.  I  had  no  time 
to  send  it  to  your  wedding,  so  at  least  I  want  it  to  come  to  your  name- 


marriage  season  (December-February)  passes  without  a  single  wedding.  The 
reason  seems  to  be  imitation,  or  rather  a  certain  common  attitude  developed  among 
the  boys  or  girls  during  a  given  period — a  kind  of  fashion. 


OSmSKI  SERIES  417 

day.    And  I  beg  you,  send  me  the  watch,  for  you  don't  need  it  now 
any  more. 

[Aleksander] 

89  October  29,  1906 

....  Dear  Son  [Michal]:  ....  We  received  your  letter. 
....  We  are  glad  that  you  are  in  good  health  for  we  thought  that 
you  all  were  dead  [allusion  to  their  not  writing].  You  had  written, 
dear  son,  that  you  would  write  us  something  curious,  so  we  waited 
impatiently  thinking  that  perhaps  you  were  already  journeying  home. 
....  So  now  when  we  read  this  letter  of  yours  we  were  very  much 
grieved,  for  we  remember  you  ten  times  a  day  and  it  is  very  painful 
to  us  that  you  evidently  forget  us.  Dear  son,  since  you  did  not  come, 
surely  we  shan't  see  one  another  in  this  world,  for  this  year  a  penalty 
was  established,  that  if  anybody  who  belongs  to  the  army  [who  is  of 
the  age  to  be  called]  went  away,  his  father  must  pay  big  money  for 
him,  and  when  he  comes  back  after  some  years,  he  must  serve  his 
whole  time  in  the  disciplinary  battalion.  This  is  a  still  greater 
penalty  than  for  these  reservists  who  went  away  before  the  war,  for 
these  have  only  2  months  of  prison  or  300  roubles  to  pay.  The 
punishment  is  not  so  severe,  for  Cieszeiiski  [a  reservist  who  did  not 
come  from  America  until  after  the  war]  has  even  earned  7  roubles 
during  this  time  [of  prison].' 

Dear  son,  you  write  that  you  are  getting  on  well  enough.  Thanks 
to  God  for  this,  but  we  beg  you,  we  your  parents,  not  to  forget  about 
God,  then  God  won't  forget  about  you.  It  is  very  hard  for  us  that 
we  cannot  see  you.     More  than  once  we  shed  bitter  tears  that  we 

have  brought  you  up  and  now  we  cannot  be  with  you May  we 

at  least  merit  to  be  in  heaven  together 

[OSINSKIS] 

'  Prison  for  offenses  against  the  state,  for  violation  of  police  ordinances,  and 
in  general  for  offenses  which  do  not  imply  the  condemnation  of  social  opinion  is  not 
considered  a  serious  punishment  except  for  the  loss  of  time.  Prison  for  slight 
administrative  offenses  can  usually  be  converted  into  fine,  but  the  peasant  always 
chooses  prison.  A  curious  incident  characterizing  the  peasant's  attitude  toward 
the  Russian  state  occurred  four  years  ago  in  a  commune  of  the  province  of  Piotrk6w. 
When  the  district  chief  of  that  commune  proposed  to  the  peasants  to  contribute  a 
certain  sum  toward  the  expenses  involved  in  the  celebration  of  the  jubilee  of  the 
imperial  family,  there  was  some  hesitation.  Finally  an  old  peasant,  after  some 
talk  with  the  others,  stepped  forward  and  said,  "Could  we  not  sit  instead  ? " 


4i8  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

90  April  26,  1908 

Dear  Children:  ....  We  received  your  letter  and  the  post- 
notification  on  Good  Friday  evening  when  we  came  back  from  the 
passion  [service  commemorating  the  sufferings  of  Jesus].  So  we  read 
only  about  your  health,  for  we  were  very  tired  for  it  rained  the  whole 
week,  even  on  Sunday  morning.  So  we  read  your  letter  only  on  the 
first  day  of  Easter,  after  the  divine  service,  and  only  then  we  learned 
the  rest.'  At  once  Aleksander  went  on  the  third  day  for  the  tokens 
[holy  images,  etc.]  and  got  them.  We  thank  you  heartily.  May  our 
Lord  God  reward  you.  We  are  glad,  dear  children,  that  you  remember 
about  God.  Thank  you  once  more  for  these  tokens  and  for  your  letter 
so  nicely  written. 

Dear  children,  you  write  that  you  think  about  taking  Aleksander 
to  America.  But  we  and  our  work,  for  whom  would  it  be  left  ?  You 
would  all  be  there  and  we  here.  While  if  he  goes  to  the  army  for 
3  years  and  God  keeps  him  and  brings  him  happily  back,  he  would 
help  us  as  he  does  now.  Well,  perhaps  Frania  could  remain  upon  this 
[the  farm] ;  but  even  so  we  could  see  him  no  more  [forever,  if  he  escaped 
military  service].  Moreover,  now  whole  throngs  of  people  are  coming 
back  from  America  ....  and  the  papers  write  that  it  won't  be 
better,  but  worse.  And  about  this  army  [service]  we  don't  know  yet 
how  it  will  be,  for  it  is  intended  to  have  a  communal  decision — when 
the  chief  of  the  district  asks.  So  if  the  Gulbinaks  answer  that 
Michalek  is  not  there  and  does  not  wTite,  he  [Aleksander]  could 
perhaps  be  exempted.  But  if  people  say  that  sometimes  he  [Micha- 
lek] sends  news  of  himself,  then  nothing  can  be  done,  for  though  he 
does  not  write  himself,  Ulecka  wrote  to  your  uncle  that  he  was  there, 
and  your  uncle  does  not  give  the  letters  to  us  at  home  to  read  but 

goes  to  Lisiecki,  so  that  everybody  learns  at  once * 

[OsmsKis] 

'  The  fact  shows  how  difficult  and  important  a  matter  are  the  reading  and 
writing  of  letters  with  the  peasant.  This  must  be  kept  in  mind  if  we  are  to  appre- 
ciate how  much  familial  attachment  is  implied  in  frequent  letter-writing,  and  how 
the  peasants  themselves  consider  the  frequency  and  length  of  letters  a  sign  of  this 
attachment. 

^  As  in  Russia  the  number  of  recruits  needed  is  less  than  the  number  of  young 
men  of  eligible  age,  there  are  different  kinds  of  exemption.  A  man  is  exempted 
when  he  is  an  only  son,  or  when  he  is  the  oldest  son  and  his  father  is  at  an  age  when 
he  is  supposed  not  to  be  able  to  support  his  family.  A  certain  number  is  also 
exempted  because  of  defective  health,  and  out  of  the  remainder  a  number,  fixed  for 


OSIlsrSKI  SERIES  419 

91  November  15,  1908 

Dear  Children:  ....  We  are  late  with  our  answer,  for  we 
have  waited  [to  see]  what  will  become  of  Aleksander.  Now  it  is 
decided  that  he  must  serve.  On  December  i,  they  will  go  away. 
Father  could  do  nothing,  for  the  officials  with  whom  he  tried  to  settle 
the  matter  went  away  and  others  came,  and  now  there  is  another 
mayor,  and  when  the  decision  was  made  at  the  communal  meeting 
the  Gulbinaks  [inhabitants  of  Gulbiny]  said  that  Michalek  is  alive 
and  writes.  Particularly  your  uncle  Smentkowski  said  it.  Then  no 
exemption  was  possible ;  it  would  cost  big  money  and  even  so  it  would 
not  be  certain.  It  will  be  very  hard  for  us  without  him,  for  you  know, 
dear  children,  that  we  are  no  longer  young.  It  will  be  very  painful 
for  us  to  be  alone,  but  we  cannot  help  it.  At  least  we  are  glad  that 
you  succeed  well  enough,  as  you  inform  us.  We  beg  you  heartily, 
don't  forget  about  us,  but  write  as  often  as  you  can,  for  it  is  particu- 
larly painful  for  me  and  I  shed  tears  more  than  once.  I  have  had  so 
many  troubles  with  you,  I  bred  you,  and  now  in  my  old  age,  when  I 

can  work  no  more,  you  left  me,  all  of  you 

[Wiktorya] 

Q2  March  9,  1909 

....  Dear  Children:  You  write  us  that  you  are  very  much 
pained  at  our  being  alone,  and  that  Janek  intends  to  come  to  us.  We 
should  be  very  glad,  but  we  don't  wish  you  to  have  any  losses  through 
us,  and  we  should  grieve  still  more  about  Michalek  if  he  remained 
there  alone.  Now  you  are  two,  so  if— God  forbid!— some  sickness 
or  accident  happens,  you  can  help  each  other.  During  this  year  we 
shall  still  manage  alone,  if  our  Lord  God  grants  us  health  and  life,  for 
Frania  will  leave  her  sewing  and  will  help,  and  Stanislaw  Ochocki,  for 
whom  your  father  carried  bricks  when  he  built  his  house,  will  help  us 
also.  As  to  the  rest,  we  shall  hire  somebody  from  time  to  time,  for 
a  servant  must  now  be  paid  much,  and  even  so  it  is  difficult  to  get 

each  community  beforehand,  is  selected  by  drawing  lots.  Thus  in  the  place  of 
each  man  exempted  because  of  the  family  situation  or  health  some  other  member 
of  the  commune  must  serve.  And  as  the  commune  must  certify  that  a  young  man 
ought  to  be  exempted  because  of  his  family  situation,  evidently  the  members  of 
the  commune  are  not  eager  to  exempt  anyone  without  real  reasons.  Therefore 
the  efforts  to  exempt  Aleksander  fail,  for  the  commune  knows  that  the  old  man  has 
another  son. 


420  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

any,  for  everybody  goes  either  to  America,  or  to  Prussia  for  season- 
work.  And  so  we  shall  live  this  year  alone,  for  we  don't  wish  to  get 
Frania  married  this  year,  although  some  [boys]  have  called  on  her 
already  and  begged  [to  be  allowed  to  court  her].  We  are  too  sad  now 
after  Aleksander  left  us.  Perhaps  next  year,  if  some  good  party 
appears,  we  won't  oppose  her  marrying,  lest  she  might  complain  about 
us  later  on.  Then,  if  we  cannot  get  on  alone,  and  if  it  is  impossible 
to  find  a  good  servant,  we  hope  that  you  will  help  us  [and  come]. 
But  now,  if  the  work  is  better,  earn  for  yourselves,  and  may  our  Lord 
God  help  you  and  bless  you,  and  God's  Mother  of  Cz^stochowa, 
our  dear  children ! 

Dear  son  Michalek,  we  are  very  glad  that  you  have  begun  to 
occupy  yourself  with  farming  [literally:  country-housekeeping]  and 
that  you  succeed  pretty  well,  since  you  keep  so  many  young  ones 
[poultry  ?  rabbits  ?].  Frania  envied  your  having  so  many  and  she  had 
none.  I  was  obliged  to  find  some,  and  she  will  receive  them  as  a  gift 
from  a  man  from  Rypin [OsinskisI 

93  August  23,  1909 

....  Dear  Children:  ....  When  we  read  your  letters,  we 
were  very  much  grieved,  but  nothing  can  be  done.  We  must  submit 
to  fortune.  If  you  cannot  come  back  to  us  we  must  find  another  way. 
Although  it  is  painful,  we  must  be  pained  for  some  time,  if  our  Lord 
God  allows  us  to  live  longer.  We  should  not  like  to  scatter  our  old 
bones  about  the  world.  Here  we  have  worked  for  so  many  years,  so 
we  should  be  glad  to  rest  here,  on  our  fathers'  soil.'  And  you  work 
and  find  your  own  way  as  well  as  you  can.  May  our  Lord  God  help 
you,  since,  alas!  we  cannot  be  together,  dear  children.  [Crops; 
weather.]  You  wrote  us  to  send  you  tobacco  and  honey  through 
Bendykowski.  If  he  goes  and  if  he  will  take  it,  we  will  send  you  some. 
Zygmunt  K.  from  Tr^bin  took  your  address,  but  now  it  is  impossible 
to  believe  everybody.     Perhaps  he  will  do  as  Zieleniak  did. 

[OSINSKIS] 

'  Typical  arguments  of  old  people  against  emigration.  This  attitude,  how- 
ever, gave  way  completely  during  the  emigration  fever  to  Brazil.  People  of  seventy 
were  seen  going  with  their  children  and  even  inciting  them  to  go.  Two  reasons 
may  explain  this  difference.  The  emigrants  were  to  settle  in  Brazil  upon  land,  and, 
as  it  seems,  almost  all  of  these  old  emigrants  to  Brazil  were  manor-servants  or 
parents  of  manor-servants,  not  farmers.  In  the  same  way  the  old  S^kowskis  (see 
that  series)  do  not  hesitate  to  go  to  America. 


OSIIsrSKI  SERIES  421 

94  September  28,  1909 

....  Dear  Children:  We  wrote  to  you,  but  you  would  not 
come,  so  father  is  trying  to  get  Aleksander  back.  It  is  hard  for  us 
to  work,  but  we  shall  be  obliged  to  get  on  as  well  as  we  can.  But  this 
is  worse,  that  if  he  ends  his  military  service,  afterward  he  will  be  often 
called  to  the  commune,  and  still  further  [to  drill].  And  there  are 
rumors  about  a  possible  war,  and  Aleksander  begs  us  to  get  him  back, 
if  we  can.  So  father  went  to  that  ofl&cial  and  told  him  that  there  is  no 
news  of  Michal  at  all  for  some  years.  He  told  father  to  get  a  cer- 
tificate, confirmed  by  the  consul,  that  Michal  was  lost  somewhere. 
So  I,  your  father,  wanted  to  ask  your  advice,  dear  children,  and 
particularly  yours,  dear  son  Janek,  for  you  have  been  more  in  the 
world.  Advise  me,  whether  you  could  not  get  there  such  a  certificate, 
for  it  would  be  very  useful,  for  without  any  big  cost  he  would  be  set 
free.  I  beg  you  very  much,  dear  children,  try  to  get  it,  if  you  can. 
And  Michalek,  if  he  wants  to  come  back  some  day,  could  take  a 

passport  as  an  American 

[OsiNSKis] 

95  December  9,  1909 
....  Dear  Son:  You  write  us  that  it  is  dangerous  [the  arrange- 
ment to  get  Aleksander  out  of  the  army].  When  we  reflected  about 
the  matter,  we  acknowledge  that  you  are  right  and  we  thank  you  for 
your  advice.  Nothing  can  be  done,  such  is  evidently  the  will  of  God, 
for  we  can  by  no  means  have  him  exempted.  Probably  he  must  suffer 
his  whole  appointed  time.  If  only  Lord  Jesus  grants  health  to  us  and 
to  him,  perhaps  we  shall  still  live  up  to  his  return  and  he  will  help  us. 
Could  we  only  get  a  servant  now!  It  is  really  hard  for  us  to  work 
alone.  When  your  father  walks  a  few  steps  he  complains  of  his  legs, 
and  I  have  also  pain  in  my  arms  and  legs,  and  we  must  always  work 
in  the  soil.     [Crops;  weather.] 

Now,  dear  children,  come  the  solemn  holidays  of  Christmas.  We 
are  here,  three  of  us,  while  you  are  there  in  distant  foreign  countries. 
But  there  is  the  same  God,  our  best  Father.  So  we  commit  you,  dear 
children,  and  ourselves  to  His  care,  we  are  confident  in  his  holiest  will, 
and  we  hope  that  this  Jesus  born  [on  this  day]  will  not  desert  you  and 
will  bless  you,  if  you  only  love  him.  And  we,  on  the  occasion  of  this 
solemn  commemoration,  send  you  this  wafer  and  we  divide  it  with 
you,  wishing  you  every  good,  and  health.     Dear  children,  spend 


422  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

merrily  these  holidays  and  during  this  solemnity  remember  kind!)- 
your  parents  and  your  sister  who  longs  for  you.  Oh,  if  we  could  sec 
one  another  once  more!  May  God  grant  it,  Amen.  [Typical  Christ- 
mas wishes;  less  formal  than  usual.] 

[OSENSKIS] 


96  January  10,  1910 

....  Dear  Children:  I,  your  father,  write  to  you  these  few 
words.  First,  I  inform  you  that  Frania  intends  to  marry  after  Easter, 
and  on  this  occasion  I  ask  you,  whether  you  will  also  require  your 
parts  or  any  money.  I  suppose  that  you  are  somewhat  better  ofif,  for 
you  economized,  i.e.,  earned  some  money,  so  perhaps  you  will  bequeath 
it  [your  parts  of  the  inheritance]  to  them,  i.e.,  to  Frania  and  Alos 
[Aleksander].  For  if  it  came  to  sending  this  to  you,  it  would  not  be 
worth  while,  for  in  American  money  it  would  be  only  a  half.  So  I  beg 
you  very  much,  dear  children,  reflect  and  answer  me,  for  I  should  like 
to  have  peace  with  you  all  before  I  die,  that  you  might  not  disturb 
me  [my  will]  later  on,  as  it  often  happens.  I  am  now  weaker  and 
weaker,  I  often  fall  sick,  so  I  should  like  to  die  in  peace,  when  this 
last  hour  comes.  Now  I  inform  you  that  I  still  try  to  get  Aleksander 
free,  but  I  don't  know  whether  our  Lord  God  will  allow  me  to  succeed 
in  getting  him  out  of  this  jaw.  Now,  dear  children,  we  beg  you  once 
more,  we  your  parents,  inform  us  as  soon  as  possible  how  you  decide 
there.  Then  we  would  also  know  how  do  you  advise  Frania  to  do,  for 
she  had  already  some  opportunities  [to  marry],  rather  good  ones,  but 
she  knows  how  we  despair  about  you,  dear  children,  that  we  educated 
you  and  now  we  have  none  with  us,  so  she  lingered,  wishing  to  be 
longer  with  us ^ 

[OSLNSKIS] 

'  The  letter  is  important  for  the  understanding  of  the  relation  of  family-life 
and  the  economic  situation.  The  dominant  factor  in  the  father's  attitude  is  the 
wish  to  assure  the  integrity  of  the  farm  after  his  death.  In  this  wish  a  complex  of 
various  feelings  is  involved — the  love  of  the  farm  as  the  object  of  his  work;  the 
complicated,  not  exclusively  economic,  but  partly  social  idea  of  property;  the  idea 
of  family  as  a  continuity  of  generations,  and  the  wish  that  his  family  may  have  in 
the  future  a  standing  in  the  village  and  community.  (Cf.  Cugowski  series.) 
The  situation  is  complicated  by  the  fact  that  the  farm  is  really  the  wife's  property 
and  that  one  son  (Jan)  is  the  old  man's  stepson,  having  therefore  a  particular  moral 
right  to  the  inheritance. 


OSINSKI  SERIES  423 

97  February  28,  1910 

....  Dear  Children:  ....  You  ask  us  whether  we  could 
not  send  you  about  2,000  roubles.'  But  it  is  true,  dear  children,  that 
we  have  not  so  much  money  of  our  own,  for  you  know  yourselves  that 
it  is  not  so  long  ago  since  we  built  the  house,  and  then  we  spent  all  our 
money  and  even  made  some  debts.  Later  we  economized  [earned] 
some  money  but  we  built  a  barn,  as  we  wrote  you,  and  this  cost  also 
enough.  Why,  from  12  morgs  there  is  not  such  a  big  income,  and  the 
expenses  are  different  and  many — taxes  and  fuel  and  various  others. 
This  year  a  priest's  house  and  two  schools  will  be  built  in  our  commune, 
so  money  will  be  continually  required.  We  have  still  some  money,  but 
we  are  trying  to  get  Aleksander  free,  and  this  year  we  have  hired  a 
servant,  whom  we  must  pay  30  roubles  [a  year].  He  is  17  years  old, 
but  nevertheless  it  will  be  much  easier  for  us.  So  we  can  send  you 
nothing  from  our  own  money.  We  could  perhaps  get  some  money 
by  borrowing,  but  at  interest,  and  then  if  we  could  not  pay  it  back 
they  would  sell  our  farm,  as  often  happens.  Moreover,  you  would 
receive  only,  so  to  speak,  half  the  sum  [in  dollars],  so  it  is  not  worth 
while.  Therefore  you  must  find  your  own  way,  dear  children,  as  you 
can,  for  if  you  were  here  in  our  country,  we  would  share  our  last 
copeck  with  you."  We  thought,  dear  children,  that  you  had  paid 
everything,  and  we  are  very  much  pained  that  you  still  have  trouble 
with  your  debts.  And  we  cannot  help  you  at  all.  You  must  forgive 
us  this  time,  for  it  is  already  too  difficult  for  us,  old  people.  [Acquaint- 
ances; weather.] 

Now  we  inform  you  that  in  our  country  a  greater  and  greater 
movement  spreads  out.     Everywhere  shops  [consumers'  associations] 

'  The  sum  is  the  probable  share  of  inheritance  which  the  sons  in  America, 
both  together,  would  have  if  the  property  were  equally  divided,  as  a  good  farm  of 
twelve  morgs  is  worth  about  4,000  roubles. 

» All  the  excuses  are  trifling.  The  expenses  enumerated  except  the  house, 
which  was  built  nine  years  before,  are  really  small.  Borrowing  money  by  mortgage 
is  easy,  on  a  very  long  term,  and  the  difficulty  of  paying  the  interest  is  hardly  real 
in  peasant  life.  The  old  man  wishes  to  preserve  the  familial  property  intact,  and 
feels  that  in  separating  themselves  from  the  family  interests  they  have  separated 
themselves  from  the  right  of  participation  in  its  property  also.  This  shows  that 
the  mere  sentimental  connection  between  individuals,  without  an  active  group- 
organization,  could  never  explain  the  family  in  its  whole  social  reality.  On  the 
contrary,  this  sentimental  connection  is  only  a  secondary  effect  of  the  group- 
solidarity,  and  remains  after  the  group  has  disintegrated. 


4.^4  PRIM ARV-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

are  set  up.  and  aj^ricultural  circles.  Well,  and  if  somebody  comes  in  a 
few  years  into  our  village  he  won't  be  able  to  recognize  it.  There 
is  this  brick-factory,  so  in  one  place  they  dig  holes,  in  another  again 
they  cover  holes,  so  that  it  is  difficult  to  get  to  the  lake  where  the  mill 
was,  and  the  forge  is  falling  do\vn,  for  they  have  dug  under  it. 
Mr.  Piwnicki  [the  manor-owner]  has  now  such  a  beautiful  environ- 
ment near  his  palace!  The  factory  has  been  rented  by  the  dziedzic 
[heir;  estate-owner.  Half -honorific  title]  from  Trombin,  and  he 
established  a  telephone  from  Trombin  to  Gulbiny.  Now  a  common 
store  is  set  up,  and  they  intend  to  build  also  a  common  bakery.  Soon 
cvervthing  will  be  like  in  a  town.  Many  people  from  our  country 
intend  to  go  to  America.  And  another  bit  of  news:  a  star  with  a  tail, 
or  a  so-called  comet,  appeared  in  the  sky,  on  the  western  side.' 

Now  we  have  nothing  more  of  interest  to  write,  only  we  wish  you 

health  and  happiness Remember,   dear   children,   God  and 

our  holy  faith  and  our  beloved  fatherland,  then  our  Lord  God  will 

not  leave  you  and  will  help  you 

[OsmsKis] 

98  August  2,  1910 

....  Dear  Son  [Jan]  :  We  thank  you  for  having  written  us  so 
much  news.  It  is  a  pleasure  for  us  that  you  at  least  don't  forget  us 
and  inform  us  that  you  are  alive,  for  as  to  Michalek  [if  we  depended 
on  him],  we  should  never  know  anything  about  you.  It  is  very  painful 
for  us  that  a  year  has  passed  since  he  wrote  us  a  few  words  with  his 
own  hand.  Does  he  want  to  forget  about  us  altogether?  [Health, 
weather;  harvest.] 

And  so  everything  is  going  on  in  the  usual  way.  As  to  the  news 
of  the  world,  you  know  more  than  we  do,  dear  children,  though  we  also 
keep  a  paper  and  read  different  books.  You  write,  dear  son,  that 
you  long  for  your  fatherland  and  would  be  glad  to  see  it.  Why,  dear 
son,  you  can  come  back!  Michalek  cannot  any  more,  but  many  such 
as  you  came  back  and  nothing  bad  befel  them.  We  should  be  glad 
also,  dear  children,  to  see  you,  but  for  us  old  people  it  is  more  difficult 
to  drag  our  old  bones  about  the  world.  So  we  ask  you,  dear  children, 
if  you  intend  to  remain  in  America  for  many  years  still,  you  could 
visit  us  this  winter.     Many  people  come  here  for  some  time  and  then 

'  This  news  is  evidently  added  to  weaken  the  impression  of  the  refusal  to  send 
money. 


OSINSKI  SERIES  425 

go  back.  We  beg  you  heartily,  dear  children,  come  to  us  if  you  can, 
but  don't  wait  till  winter  for  now  it  is  nicer  here  than  in  winter,  and 
it  would  be  merry  for  us.     May  God  grant  it  to  be  accomplished! 

[OsmsKis] 

99  December  5,  igio 

....  Dear  Children:  We  inform  you  that  now  we  are  alone, 
father  and  I  [because  Frania  is  married],  and  I  am  very  sad  and 
I  don't  care  any  more  for  this  farm  and  household.  Were  it  not 
for  that  water  I  would  go  at  once  into  the  world  after  you.  I  did 
not  expect,  dear  children,  that  in  my  old  age  I  should  have  to  live 
alone  in  our  house.  I  look  at  the  walls  around,  I  see  you  [pictures] 
which  Frania  hung  there — but  what!  I  cannot  speak  with  you.  I 
could  still  see  Janek  at  any  time,  but  I  shan't  probably  see  Michal 
in  this  world 

Now,  dear  children,  we  inform  you  about  Frania.     It  is  very 

painful  for  us  to  be  without  her.     When  he  took  her  away,  we  all 

wept.     But  still  they  visit  us  and  come  to  us  often,  and  he  is  up  to  the 

present  very  polite  to  us.     They  -wonder,  for  they  sent  you  their 

photograph  and  have  no  answer  yet.     [Weather;    Christmas  wishes; 

greetings.] 

[Wiktorya] 

100  January  7,  191 1 

Dear  Children:  We  thank  you  for  your  letter  with  the  wafer. 
We  pray  to  God  that  he  may  keep  you  in  His  guardianship,  and  since 
by  His  holiest  will  we  must  be  separated  far  from  one  another,  may 
He  grant  us  to  be  again  together,  if  not  in  this  world,  then  to  be  hapjiy 
in  the  other  world. 

I  am  very  glad,  dear  children,  that  you  are  so  well-disposed  to  one 
another.  When  Janek  was  in  the  army  and  wrote  for  money,  INIicha- 
lek  always  spoke  for  him,  that  we  must  send  him  some,  and  now  Janek 
got  easy  work  for  him,  and  you  agree  also  with  one  another.  This 
rejoices  us  very  much.  And  we  beg  you,  inform  us  whether  you  have 
still  much  to  pay  for  your  house,  and  how  are  you  getting  on  with  your 
farming  [probably  only  gardening  and  poultry-keeping] 

Now  we  inform  you  that  together  with  your  letter  we  got  also  a 
letter  from  Alos.     He  comforts  us  [by  saying]  that  he  will  be  free  in 


420  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

(X(i>1ht.  May  God  grant  us  to  live  up  to  this  time.  [Weather.] 
We  have  spent  the  holidays  alone.  On  the  star-evening  [Christmas 
eve]  Frania  and  Adas  [the  son-in-law]  were  with  us,  and  then  your 
mother  went  with  them  to  the  pastoral  service  [night-service  on 
Christmas,  called  so  in  commemoration  of  the  legendary  shepherds]. 
When  we  are  at  church,  we  always  visit  them  and  they  also  visit  us 
on  Sunday  afternoon,  but  on  week-days  we  are  alone,  and  we  long  for 

you  and  we  remember  you  often 

Your  loving  parents, 

[OSINSKIS] 

[Letter  of  May  lo,  191 1,  explaining  again  why  they  cannot  go  to 
America.] 

101  June  17,  1911 

....  Dear  Children:  We  did  not  answer  you  at  once,  for  we 
waited  for  the  Radomski  boy  to  come  to  us  [from  America].  But 
we  have  not  seen  him  yet.  I  saw  only  Radomski,  his  father,  .who  said 
that  he  had  sore  feet.  But  I  learned  almost  nothing  from  his  father, 
and  it  is  difficult  for  me  to  be  there,  for  we  are  now  alone.  Even  our 
servant  went  to  America,  and  now  in  the  summer  it  is  diflficult  to  get 
another.  Only  Frania  and  Adas  visit  us  sometimes,  and  help  us  a 
little.  So  we  did  not  learn  anything,  only  Radomski  mentioned 
something  I  was  pained  at,  as  he  said  Janek  has  learned  to  swear 
and  does  not  respect  his  wife  much.  I  don't  know  whether  I  ought 
to  believe  it,  but  if  it  is  so,  then,  dear  son,  it  is  not  very  pleasant  for 

me,  your  mother 

[Wiktorya] 

102  February  17,  1912 

The  first  words  of  our  letter  to  you,  dear  children:  "Praised  be 
Jesus  Christus."  Then  we  inform  you  that  we  received  your  letter 
which  found  us  in  good  health  and  success,  and  from  which  we  learned 
about  your  dear  health.  This  rejoiced  us  the  most,  dear  children, 
when  our  Lord  God  gives  you  health.  And  it  rejoiced  us,  dear  son, 
that  you  wrote  at  such  length  in  your  letter  about  your  success.  May 
our  Lord  God  help  you  the  best  possible  and  bless  you  for  your  further 
life.  This  we  wish  you,  we  your  parents.  And  also  Frania  with  her 
husband  and  little  son  sends  you  greetings  and  good  wishes,  and  in 


OSlSrSKI  SERIES 


427 


general  all  your  relatives  and  acquaintances.     May  God  grant  it. 

Amen.'  r^    ,        i 

[OSINSKIS] 

103  February  6,  1913 

Dear  Son  [Jan]  and  Daughter-in-law:  ....  I  received  your 

letter  and  I  am  very  glad  that  you  are  in  good  health,  but  it  is  very 

disagreeable  to  me  that  you  wrote  such  a  complaining  letter.     My  dear 

son,  I  beg  you  don't  send  me  such  letters,  for  happily  I  learned  about 

this  letter,  got  it  myself  and  had  it  read,  and  I  did  not  show  this  one 

sheet  at  all  at  home,  for  if  they  had  received  this  letter,  I  should  have 

much  displeasure  to  bear  from  them,  for  your  father  and  Aleksander 

would  be  very  much  pained.     We  received  a  letter  also  from  Michalek, 

but  he  did  not  write  wrongly  and  did  not  quarrel  as  you  did,  only  he 

thanked  and  asked  father  to  send  him  this  money  when  he  was  able, 

and  did  not  require  more  than  that.     Dear  son,  you  say  so  [that  it  is 

too  little?],  and  you  count  so  dear  this  farm,  but  if  you  knew  what 

expenses  are  now,  larger  and  larger.     Formerly  it  was  possible  to 

save  much  more  money,  for  everything  was  not  so  expensive,  and 

such  large  taxes  were  not  collected.     Now  a  priest's  house,  then  a 

school  was  built,  and  for  all,  this  money  is  collected  from  us,  the 

farmers.     Dear  son,  Aleksander  must  give  us  living  and  covering 

[clothes]  and  fuel  costs  30  roubles  a  year  ....  and  with  his  wife 

he  did  not  get  any  big  money  either.     He  got  what  God  helped 

him  to,  so  now  he  must  also  spare  in  order  to  be  able  to  exist.     So 

don't  imagine  at  all,  dear  children,  that  you  have  too  small  payments, 

for  if  you  were  here,  dear  son,  you  would  know  how  great  the  expenses 

are,  and  you  would  not  envy  at  all,  for  there  is  nothing  to  envy. 

Now  I  beg  you,  don't  answer  this  letter  at  all,  for  I  wrote  it  only 

from  myself;  they  don't  even  know  it  at  all.     When  father  sends  you 

a  letter,  answer  only  then 

Your  mother, 

WlKTORYA  OSINSKA 

Don't  be  angry,  dear  children,  for  my  sending  you  this  letter 
without  stamp,  but  I  had  no  money  for  it. 

'  An  empty  and  perfunctory  letter  written  by  Aleksander  in  the  name  of 
his  parents.  The  greetings  at  the  beginning  and  end  are  ijreatly  abridged  in 
comparison  with  those  in  the  letters  written  by  Frania.  For  example,  the  latter 
always  enumerated  the  "relatives  and  acquaintances"  who  sent  greetings.  Tliis 
and  two  other  letters  written  by  the  son  and  here  omitted  show  how  the  form  and 
content  of  the  letter  depend  on  the  person  who  acts  as  secretary. 


4:S  TRIM ARV-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

104  March  12,  1913 

....  Dear  Children:  ....  We  inform  you  about  our  success. 
Wc  succeed  well  enough,  thanks  to  God.  The  weather  does  not  annoy 
us  too  much.  We  think  already  about  work  in  the  field.  When  our 
Lord  God  grants  the  soil  to  get  dry,  we  will  go  at  once  to  work,  for 
in  the  barn  we  have  threshed  everything.  This  only  is  bad,  that 
grain  is  exceedingly  cheap,  so  all  this  remains  in  the  barn.  Write 
us  what  is  the  news  there  about  our  country,  for  you  know  more  than 
we  do  [because  of  the  censure].  We  inform  you  only,  that  industry 
and  commerce  develop  more  and  more  in  our  country,  common 
[co-operative]  shops  are  set  up,  they  w'ish  to  kill  the  Jewish  trade,  but 
we  don't  know  whether  it  will  succeed.  Now,  as  to  your  inheritance, 
which  you  asked  us  to  send  you,  it  would  be  well,  but  the  money  is  in 
the  savings-bank,  and  when  I  wanted  to  take  it,  they  refused  to  give 
any  interest  until  the  money  has  remained  a  whole  year.  So  I 
reflect,  let  it  remain  till  the  end  of  the  year;  only  then  will  I  send  it  to 
you.  Why  should  w'e  give  them  these  roubles  for  nothing?'  I  ask 
you  moreover,  advise  me,  for  you  are  more  in  the  world.  I  intend  to 
go  to  you  after  the  sw-arming  of  the  bees,  so  write  me  whether  it  is 
better  to  go  with  a  [prepaid]  ship-ticket  or  for  ready  money,  and 
whether  I  can  yet  come  to  you.  Answer  me,  and  after  swarming  I 
will  prepare  myself  to  visit  you,  for  you  cannot  come,  and  I  would  be 
glad  to  see  you  before  my  death 

After  reading  this  letter  give  it  to  Janek,  for  it  does  not  pay  to 
write  separate  letters  to  you  both,  so  I  wrote  it  upon  a  single 
sheet. 

[Your  father, 

Antoni  Osinski] 

105  September  3,  1913 

....  Dear  Children:  ....  We  wait  for  your  letter,  but  we 
hear  nothing.  We  don't  know  what  happened  to  you.  Perhaps  you 
are  angry  with  us  for  not  having  sent  the  money  to  you  ? 

Now  we  inform  you  that  here  is  a  farm  to  sell  after  Szczepan  B. 
['s  death].  Janek  remembers  it  certainly.  We  write  it  because  Janek 
promised  to  come  back  to  our  country.  So  if  he  wanted  to  settle 
upon  a  farm  we  could  buy  it  with  your  money  and  Janek  could  pay 

'  This  is  only  a  pretext.     The  real  reason  is  given  in  the  following  letter. 


OSll^SKI  SERIES  429 

his  part  to  Michalek  there,  and  here  he  would  have  this  farm.  There 
are  9  morgs  of  land,  good  buildings.  The  proprietor  wants  2,000 
roubles  for  it.  So  speak  with  one  another.  If  Janek  wants  to  come 
back  upon  a  piece  of  land,  answer  us.^  He  [the  proprietor]  asks  you  to 
answer  in  any  case,  whether  so  or  not.  And  inform  us  how  you 
succeed.  Then  we  shall  write  you  more  news  in  another  letter.  Now 
we  end  our  few  words  and  wish  you  health  and  every  good. 

Yoiur  loving  parents 

Also  Adam,  Frania,  Zygmus  and  Walcia  greet  you.  Also  Alos 
and  Julka  wish  you  every  good. 

Now  I,  your  mother,  must  also  send  you  a  few  words.     You  have 

always  spoken  in  favor  of  Alos,  that  he  might  remain  with  us,  and 

your  father  also  wanted  him  [to  take  the  farm].     But  he  does  not 

know  now  how  to  be  grateful  to  us.     He  is  not  very  good  to  us,  and 

our  daughter-in-law  sees  how  he  does  and  does  not  respect  us  either. 

She  told  me  to  go  to  my  half  of  the  house.     Now  it  is  still  worse  for 

me  than  it  was  while  I  was  alone.     Then  I  knew  that  I  had  nobody, 

but  now  I  have  a  son  and  a  daughter-in-law,  and  it  is  not  good  enough 

for  them  to  speak  to  us.     And  I  am  so  sad  now.     It  is  difficult  for  me 

to  go  to  Frania,  and  she  has  children  and  cannot  visit  me  often  either. 

Dear  children,  if  you  don't  intend  to  come  back  to  our  country  forever, 

could  you  perhaps  visit  us  for  some  time  ?     Please  inform  Janek  also 

about  it,  and  when  you  answer  me,  I  beg  you,  dear  children,  send  the 

letter  to  Frania's  address 

Your  loving  mother, 

[Wiktorya] 

106  November  4,  1913 

....  Dear  Children:  ....  This  year  we  shall  still  remain 
with  Aleksander,  as  we  have  lived  up  to  the  present,  but  next  year 
we  shall  probably  live  and  board  separately,  for  we  don't  wish  to 
importune  [burden]  them  too  much. 

'  Then,  dear  son,  as  to  this  money,  I  write  you  from  myself,  that 
I  have  spoken  to  father  for  your  sake,  asking  him  to  send  you  the 

'  As  soon  as  the  possibility  of  the  son's  returning  and  settling  in  his  native 
village  appears  all  the  reasons  quoted  by  the  father  for  not  paying  at  once  his  part 
of  the  inheritance  disappear;  the  father  is  ready  to  spend  all  the  money  immediately 
in  buying  land  for  him.  Of  course  the  reason  is  that  tlie  son  by  returning  would 
become  again  a  member  of  the  family-group. 


430  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

money  now,  but  fallior  told  me,  that  we  don't  know  how  long  we  have 
still  to  live,  and  he  is  afraid  to  remain  without  money  at  all,  for  there 
is  no  money  stipulated  from  Aleksander  [only  natural  products]. 
l-"ather  counted  that  you  are  rather  well  off  there  and  that  you  won't 
require  your  dues  at  once,  and  for  a  few  years  still  we  shall  be  able 
to  get  Uie  interest  from  this  sum.  So  I  beg  you,  my  dear  children, 
don't  be  angry  and  don't  grieve.  That  which  is  yours  won't  be  lost 
to  you;  even  if  we  don't  add  anything,  nothing  will  be  missing.  I 
will  look  after  it  myself  [literally:  I  shall  be  in  it].  And  now  manage 
as  you  can,  my  dear  children.  It  is  very  painful  for  me,  not  to  be  able 
to  help  you,  but  really  at  present  I  can  do  nothing. 

Now,  dear  children,  remember  me  at  least,  your  mother,  who  have 
bred  you !  God  alone  knows  how  many  tears  I  have  shed  that,  for  all 
my  suffering  and  troubles  about  you  when  you  were  small  children, 
I  have  now  nobody  to  comfort  me,  nobody  to  speak  merrily  with.  If 
I  could,  I  would  fly  to  you,  but  surely  I  shan't  have  now  any  opportu- 
nity to  see  you  in  this  world,  for  I  feel  by  my  bones  that  every- 
thing is  more  or  less  diseased.  So  I  beg  you  once  more,  speak  to 
us  at  least  through  paper.     May  I  not  have  this  disappointment,  at 

least 

[Wiktorya] 


107  [GuLBiNY,  September  9,  1901] 

I,  your  sister  Franciszka,  write  to  you  also  that  I  am  in  good 

health Don't  be  angry  with  me  for  not  having  written  to  you 

nicely  or  much  [in  letter  for  mother  of  same  date] I  beg  you, 

dear  brothers,  inform  me  what  is  the  news  in  your  country,  for  in  our 
country  there  are  frequent  misfortunes  and  accidents.  Karpinski 
was  nearly  killed  by  his  horses.     He  lies  as  if  he  were  without  a  soul. 

In  Upielsk  half  the  village  is  burned  down In  Bozomin  the 

miller  mounted  upon  the  windmill  to  cover  it.     He  fell  down  and 

was  killed,  and  so  on,  continually ^ 

[FraniaI 

'  The  first  of  Frania's  letters  show  a  characteristic  interest  in  any  extraordinary 
happenings  in  the  community  and  neighborhood.  With  this  anecdotic  interest  in 
the  neighbors'  life  the  peasant  child  gets  its  first  introduction  into  the  life  of  the 
community.  The  town  child  lacks  in  general  this  interest  in  the  doings  of  grown-up 
people,  except  those  of  its  parents  and  teachers.     Cf.  also  Borek  series. 


OSmSKI  SERIES  431 

lOo  November  12,  1901 

I,  Franciszka,  your  sister,  greet  you  and  inform  you  about  my 
success,  that  I  was  digging  [potatoes]  for  4  days— and  I  earned  4 
zloty  [60  copecks].  I  hoped  that  I  should  earn  at  least  for  a  second 
skirt  for  myself  and  for  mother/  But  it  rains  and  there  are  cold 
winds,  and  they  [the  parents]  have  still  potatoes  to  dig,  for  a  week  at 
least  [so  I  cannot  go  to  work  elsewhere,  where  I  am  paid].  Now  I 
inform  you  who  was  taken  to  the  army.     [Enumeration.] 

[Frania] 

109  December  3,  1901 

I,  your  sister,  dear  brother  Jan,  thank  you  heartily  for  your  gift 
and  for  your  noble  heart.  You  sent  me  a  token  which,  keeping  it 
with  care,  I  can  have  for  my  whole  life.  But,  dear  brother,  Alek- 
sander  [younger  brother]  when  he  learned,  that  there  was  nothing  for 
him,  began  to  cry.  He  was  grieved,  that  Michatek  promised  him  a 
watch  and  sent  him  none. 

I  inform  you,  dear  Janek,  that  I  was  with  a  procession  in  Plonne 
at  a  parish  festival.  The  festival  was  very  beautiful.  I  was  at 
confession.     When  the  priest  began  to  preach  people  wept  as  if  they 

were  going  to  death ^  Now  I  inform  you  about  Michal  that 

he  remained  in  Dtugie  [as  the  Count  P.'s  groom]  for  a  year  more. 
Michal  was  here  on  the  day  when  I  wrote  you  this  letter,  and  mother 
wept  that  while  Michal  sometimes  comes,  and  will  be  here  at  Christ- 
mas, youcannot [Christmas  wishes.]     Amen. 

F[rania] 

'  The  money  earned  at  hired  work,  as  additional  income,  has  always  some 
particular  destination.     See  Introduction:   "Economic  Attitudes." 

'  The  children  are  taken  very  early  to  the  church;  it  depends  only  upon  their 
having  holiday-clothes.  The  powerful  influence  of  church-ceremonies  upon  the 
peasant  begins  thus  in  childhood.  And  the  child  is  not  excluded  from  any  mani- 
festation of  religious  life,  except  sacraments;  there  is  a  gradually  growing  under- 
standing of  the  ceremonies,  but  no  particular  initiation.  The  only  process  which 
has  some  character  of  initiation  is  the  preparation  for  the  first  communion,  but,  as 
the  child  has  taken  a  part  in  the  religious  life  of  the  community  before  this,  the 
first  communion  has  not  the  same  importance  for  the  peasant  children  as  for  the 
children  of  intelligent  classes,  who,  even  if  admitted  to  ceremonies,  are  not  initiated 
into  the  personal  religious  life  of  grown-up  peoi)le.  Here,  as  well  as  in  other 
spheres  of  social  life,  the  peasant  child  shares  much  earlier  the  interests  of  the 
community  than  a  child  of  a  higher  class. 


432  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

no  May  25,  1902 

Now  I,  Franciszka,  your  sister,  speak  to  you I  inform  you 

that  1  send  you  a  small  cross  through  [our  cousin],  for  you  wrote,  dear 
brother,  that  I  would  be  the  first  [to  send  you  a  token].  I  should  be 
glad  to  give  you  something  more,  with  my  whole  heart,  but  I  have 
nothing  except  this  divine  sign.  May  it  help  you  in  everything. 
I  have  a  small  bottle  of  honey  but  our  cousin  did  not  wish  to  take  it. 
....  Now  I  inform  you  about  Aleksander's  stock,  for  he  has  no 
time  to  write.     He  has  3  rabbits   and  4  pigeons.     [Greetings  and 

wishes.] 

[Frania] 

111  July  29,  1903 

Dear  Brother  [Jan]:  You  say  that  I  don't  write  well;  but  it 
only  seems  to  you  so.  I  write  characterfully.  But  you,  dear  brother, 
try  also  to  write  better.     I  remain  with  respect. 

F. 

Appreciate  my  writing! 

Dear  brother  Michal,  I,  your  sister,  inform  you  that  Stefka 
Jablonianka  gave  me  no  peace,  but  asked  always  for  your  address,  and 
I  had  to  give  it  to  her.  She  always  says  that  she  will  be  my  sister- 
in-law,  but  God  forbid! 

If  I  wrote  anything  bad[ly]  pardon  me. 

[Frania] 

112  September  24,  1904 

....  Now  I  inform  you,  dear  brother,  that  in  our  country  fires 
continually  break  out.  Not  long  ago  Strzygi  was  on  fire;  half  the 
village  was  burned.  In  Guiisk  the  whole  village  and  the  chapel  are 
burned;  only  5  houses  are  left.  In  Bozomin,  a  few  days  ago  the 
whole  courtyard  [all  the  farm-buildings]  burned  down,  and  there  is  no 

village  where  something  has  not  been  burned And  I  inform 

you,  dear  brother,  about  the  air.  It  is  very  dry,  and  our  parents  say 
they  don't  remember  such  a  year  in  their  whole  life 

You  asked  me,  dear  brother,  about  Frania's  [Smentkowska] 
journey.     We  sent  you  a  letter,  but  evidently  you  did  not  receive  it. 

....  Her  health  was  good She  was  sent  to  Aleksandrowo, 

so  before  she  got  to  the  commune  it  cost  her  14  roubles  [bribing  Rus- 
sian police,  for  she  had  no  passport] When  she  came,  we  did 


OSINSKI  SERIES 


433 


not  know  what  to  give  her  and  where  to  seat  her  [we  were  so  glad  and 
honored  her  so].  But  still  we  cannot  forget  the  other  one  [the  one 
killed,  whose  place  this  cousin  came  to  fill]. 

Now,  dear  brothers,  I  thank  you  kindly  and  heartily  for  your  gift. 
I  have  nothing  to  send  you,  except  these  words:  "God  reward."  I 
shall  be  thankful  to  you  during  my  whole  life.  I  will  pray  God  and 
God's  Mother  to  give  you  happiness  and  blessing  and  that  we  may  see 
one  another,  if  not  here,  then  in  heaven 

Now,  dear  brothers,  I  inform  you  about  Aleksander.  When  I 
read  him  this  letter  of  yours,  he  said  so:  "Let  them  not  jest  about 
me,  I  will  write  them  a  letter  yet.  But  I  don't  mind  it  at  all,  and 
may  they  only  come.  I  will  give  them  a  dinner  of  my  pigeons  and  a 
supper  of  my  I'abbits,  buy  a  keg  of  beer  for  them,  and  bake  wheat- 
bread."  .... 

[Frania] 

113  May  17,  1904 

....  Now  I,  your  sister,  write  to  you,  dear  Michalek,  a  few 

words.     I  inform  you  that  the  strawberries  passed  the  winter  well. 

I  weeded  them  and  I  hope  that  they  will  bring  fruit.     If  our  Lord  God 

grants  you  life  and  health,  you  will  also  try  them Before  the 

house  I  made  small  round  flower-beds  and  sowed  the  flower-seeds 

which  you  brought  me  from  Dlugie Only  I  need  a  fence,  for 

the  poultry  spoil  my  work.     But  our  parents  say  that  before  this  we 

shall  build  a  new  barn,  for  the  old  one  wants  to  fall  down.     So  this 

year  we  shall  bring  material,  and  next  year  we  shall  build.     Then,  if 

some  money  is  left,  we  shall  make  the  hedge.     Now  I  inform  you  that 

in  Dlugie  [where  M.  was  a  groom]  they  are  already  selling  the  small 

things,  and  the  Count  will  go  away  in  July.     Mr.  Bozewski's  brother 

will  live  there 

[Frania] 

114  January  18,  1905 

....  Dear  Brother:  ....  We  received  two  letters  from  you, 
which  found  us  in  good  health  ....  but  we  could  not  understand 
much  of  them,  for  they  were  written  upon  such  dark  paper  that  it  was 
difficult  for  me  to  see  what  was  written.  And  as  to  what  you  wrote 
in  your  first  letter,  that  mother  should  inform  you  about  her  parents 
and  family,  mother  tells  you,  don't  turn  her  head  [worry  her]  for  the 


4J4  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

mayor  is  not  in  the  village,  and  mother  walked  enough  when  you  were 
in  the  army.     Now  she  hardly  walks  about  the  house. 

Now  I  inform  you,  dear  brother,  that  I  write  this  letter  myself, 
from  myself,  even  our  parents  don't  know  about  it.  Father  told  me 
not  to  write,  for  Michal  Zieleniak  went  to  America  and  took  the 

address  of  Michalek.     He  will  inform  you  about  everything I 

and  brother  sent  you  small  gifts,  brother  lo  cigarettes,  5  for  each  of 
you,  and  I  a  handkerchief  for  each  of  you.     You  won't  be  perhaps 

satisfied  with  this  token,  but  I  can  send  you  nothing  more 

In  our  village  nobody  is  dead  and  nobody  married,  for  all  went  to 
the  army. 

Pardon  me  for  sending  you  such  a  letter  [without  stamp],  but  I 

have  no  money  at  all 

F[rania] 

On  the  same  day  when  I  wrote  this  letter,  the  priest  went  through 
our  village  on  a  visitation  [kolenda].^ 

115  February  18,  1906 

....  Now  I,  your  sister,  thank  you  heartily  for  your  gift,  dear 

brother Dear  brother  and  sister-in-law,  I  would  gladly  go 

to  you  in  a  single  hour  [at  once],  but  when  I  say  to  mother  that  I  will 
go,  mother  weeps  directly,  that  she  bred  us  up  and  now,  when  she  is 
old,  we  all  want  to  leave  her.  And  I  could  not  earn  for  my  living  in 
that  country,  for  now,  although  I  have  much  work  and  must  sit  the 

whole  day,  in  the  evening  I  get  scarcely  30  copecks 

[Frania] 

116  January  24,  1907 

Dear  Brother  [Jan]  :  .  .  .  .  Pardon  me  for  not  having  answered 
at  once,  but  I  was  in  a  hurry  with  wedding-dresses  for  Stanislawa 

Czechoska  ....  and  then  I  had  to  be  at  the  wedding Here, 

thanks  to  God,  is  no  news  except  weddings.     On  one  Sunday  there 

were  13  banns  in  our  parish ^     I  was  asked  to  every  wedding 

but  I  was  only  at  that  of  Czechoska,  for  if  I  went  everv^where,  I 

^  Kolenda:  (i)  Christmas  wish,  song,  gift;  many  Christmas  songs  have  this 
word  as  refrain;  (2)  visitation  of  the  priest  after  Christmas  (originalh-  probably 
during  or  before  Christmas),  during  which  the  priest  inspects  the  parish,  examines 
the  parishioners  on  religious  matters,  and  gets  gifts  from  them. 

^  There  were  no  weddings  at  all  the  preceding  year.     Cf .  No.  86,  note. 


OSINSKI  SERIES 


435 


should  have  no  money  left  for  clothes,  for  now  at  weddings  everybody 
pays  largely  [to  the  bride's  collection].  I  have  indeed  work  enough, 
but  in  the  country  the  prices  of  living  are  very  low,  so  that  my  work 
is  very  ill  paid.  Dear  brother  Michal,  your  betrothed  pleases  me 
very  much,  but  I  should  like  to  be  at  your  wedding.  Dear  brother, 
if  I  see  that  it  is  not  worth  working  here  and  if  Aleksander  gets 
married,  so  that  mother  has  help,  I  would  go  to  you,  but  I  don't 

know  when 

[Frania] 

117  April  25,  1909 

Dear  Brother:  You  write  me  not  to  marry  until  Michalek 
comes  here  with  his  fiddle.  But  so  it  could  easily  happen  that  I 
should  remain  an  old  girl.  But  never  mind,  if  at  least  one  of  you  were 
with  me.  As  it  is,  I  live  as  in  a  prison.  I  must  weep  almost  every 
day.  If  it  lasts  longer,  I  shall  consume  myself  with  grief,  so  I  think. 
I  have  nobody  even  to  speak  with.  Our  parents  are  old  and  go  to 
sleep  early,  and  I  think  often  that  my  head  will  burst,  I  must  weep 
so,  and  I  long  for  you,  for  I  am  alone  like  an  orphan.  If  I  did  not 
pity  our  parents,  I  should  go  at  once  to  you,  for  with  this  needle  I  can 
earn  little,  and  money  is  needed  for  everything.  Now  I  won't  even 
sew,  for  there  will  be  work  enough  at  the  farm.  But  is  it  possible  to 
leave  our  parents  to  the  mercy  of  fortune,  while  they  have  raised  us  ? 
Well,  I  will  bear  it  as  I  can  and  pray  to  God  that  he  will  bring  here  at 
least  one  of  you,  for  I  long  terribly.  Goodbye,  and  don't  be  angry 
with  me  for  writing  this,  for  I  have  nobody  to  whom  I  can  complain. 

Your  sister, 

Franciszka 

118  February  28,  1910 

Now,  dear  brothers,  I  also  pen  a  few  words  to  you I 

intended  to  marry,  but  you  write  that  it  would  be  better  if  Alos 
remained  on  the  farm,  so  I  shall  probably  come  now  ....  to  you, 
for  I  won't  marry  a  man  who  has  to  pass  from  one  manor  to  another 
[as  manor-servant].     Even  if  he  were  a  craftsman,'  and  if  he  wanted  to 

I  Marrying  a  manor-servant  would  be  a  step  down  ward -for  a  farmer's  dauglitcr. 
But  the  wandering  life  of  the  servant,  not  his  dependence,  is  put  forward  by  the 
girl  in  a  contemptuous  way.  And  it  is  not  an  economic  matter,  for  a  craftsman  in  a 
manor  (blacksmith  or  carpenter)  usually  lives  better  than  a  small  farmer.     Two 


436  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

settle  upon  a  good  farm,  at  least  2,000  are  needed.  But,  as  I  wrote 
you,  there  is  not  so  much  money  now;  our  parents  have  only  enough 
for  their  expenses.  So  perhaps  when  brother  Alos  comes  back, 
with  God's  help,  he  will  pay  us  what  will  be  the  suitable  part  to  every- 
body. If  he  gets  more  dowry  with  his  wife,  he  will  be  able  to  pay 
more  to  us.'  Meanwhile  I  shall  probably  leave  our  parents  as  you 
did'  and  will  go  to  earn  a  little  for  myself,  for  here  I  have  a  bad 
income,  for  when  I  am  at  home  I  must  always  do  something  else. 
Moreover,  mother  complains  often  now,  for  she  is  no  longer  young,  so 
I  must  busy  myself  with  the  household.  And  father  also  would  not 
like  to  pay  me  anything,  for  he  pays  the  servant,  while  I  always  need 
a  little  money  besides  everything  else.  Now,  if  you  have  no  money 
you  cannot  show  yourself  anywhere,  particularly  a  young  person. 
Lastly  I  am  always  so  alone,  you  are  all  scattered  about  the  world, 
so  it  is  very  sad  for  me.    Therefore  I  must  find  some  other  way 

[Frania] 

119  August  2,  1910 

Dear  Brother  and  Sister-in-law:  I  beg  you  also,  be  so  kind 
and  visit  us.  Perhaps  you  will  come  just  for  my  wedding.  You 
would  cause  me  a  great  joy,  for  to  have  3  brothers  and  to  have  none 
at  the  wedding,  this  is  something  very  painful.  My  wedding  was 
to  be  in  August,  but  the  father  of  my  betrothed  died,  so  our  affairs 
got  crossed,  but  we  hope  that  our  intentions  will  be  fulfilled  and  the 
wedding  will  be  in  autumn.  I  must  inform  you  who  is  my  future 
husband.  He  is  the  miller  from  Tr^bin,  schoolmate  of  Michalek. 
Michalek  knows  him  for  he  went  to  school  with  him.     I  invite  him. 


factors  determine  this  appreciation  of  the  stable  life  of  a  farmer  as  against  the 
wandering  life  of  a  servant:  (i)  The  social  factor;  the  farmer  is  a  member  of  a 
community,  with  a  determined  social  standing;  and  (2)  the  love  of  land  and  farm- 
work. 

'  For  this  reason  the  brothers  want  Aleksander  to  take  the  farm.  Frania's 
husband,  whoever  he  may  be,  will  have  no  cash  ready  to  pay  her  brothers  off,  for 
cash  is  first  of  all  reserved  for  girls  as  dowry,  while  Aleksander  will  get  a  dowry  in 
cash  and  will  be  able  to  pay.  Of  course  the  family  of  Frania's  future  husband  may 
mortgage  its  farm  and  give  him  the  necessary  cash;  but  we  know  the  peasant's  hate 
of  debts. 

*  There  is  bitterness  in  this  phrase  and  in  the  whole  letter,  although  no 
reproaches  are  made.  The  letter  contrasts  with  the  preceding  one  (No.  117), 
which  is  only  sorrowful. 


OSIlsrSKI  SERIES  437 

i.e.,  Michalek,  also  heartily,  for  he  promised  me  to  play  at  my  wedding- 
festival,  so  I  remind  him  and  I  invite  you  all  together  to  my  wedding. 

[Frania] 

120  September  12,  1910 

....  Dear  Brother  [Michal]:  You  wrote  that  I  could  wait 

still  a  year  with  my  wedding.     Evidently,  as  to  my  years  it  would  not 

be  anything  important,  but  my  betrothed  is  almost  obliged  to  marry, 

for  his  mother  cannot  work  heavily  any  more,  and  his  sister  does  not 

want  to,  but  intends  to  go  away  as  an  apprentice.     And  then,  to  say 

the  truth,  he  has  been  calling  upon  us  for  3  years;  it  is  long  enough. 

I  inform  you  that  the  first  banns  were  on  September  11,  but  the 

wedding  won't  be  at  once,  perhaps  not  until  middle  October,  for  we 

are  waiting  for  Alos.     He  wrote  that  he  would  come.     If  they  don't 

set  him  free  once  and  forever,  he  would  come  at  least  for  a  leave. 

....  As  to  the  wedding,  it  will  probably  be  sad,  without  music,  for 

even  if  it  were  with  music  it  would  be  also  sad  for  us,  because  he  has 

no  father.     I  probably  shan't  have  any  brother,  so  indeed  it  will  be 

painful  and  sad.     But,  dear  brothers  and  dear  sister-in-law,  I  invite 

you  to  my  wedding.     If  you  cannot  be  there  personally,  then  be  at 

least  with  thought  and  spirit,  for  I  will  always  think  that  I  have  dear 

brothers  and  a  dear  sister-in-law,  but  there  somewhere,  far  away  in  the 

world.     But  nothing  can  be  done.     Such  is  the  will  of  God.     I  will 

inform  you  later  when  my  marriage  will  be  with  certainty,  for  now  I 

don't  know  at  all 

[Frania] 

121  November  4,  1910 

Dear  Brothers:   We  thank  you  for  the  wishes  which  you  sent, 

for  we  received  them  the  day  before  our  wedding Now  we 

inform  you  about  our  wedding.  We  amused  ourselves  well  enough, 
only  it  was  painful  for  us  that  we  could  not  rejoice  together  with  you. 
Then  we  inform  you  that  the  wedding  was  with  music,  as  you  wished 
it.  The  marriage-ceremony  was  performed  in  the  evening  after  the 
Rosary,  and  afterward  the  priest-vicar  went  ahead  in  order  to  receive 
us  with  bread  and  salt,  after  the  old  habit,  and  gave  us  at  the  same 
time  his  blessing.  Our  professor  [village-teacher]  Paprocki  came  also 
to  our  wedding  and  received  us,  together  with  the  priest-vicar,  with 


438  rRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

bread  and  salt '     And  our  professor  wished  us  progeny,  and 

as  a  token  brought  before  us  a  child,  enveloped  with  big  kerchiefs, 
upon  his  arm,  and  the  child  was  very  small,  for  it  has  finished  7  years 
already!  This  was  a  scene!  If  you  had  been  there  you  would  have 
seen ! 

Then  we  inform  you  that  the  festival  lasted  for  a  night  and  a  day, 
without  any  collection.^  After  the  wedding  we  went  to  the  photog- 
rapher in  order  to  send  you  the  token  in  remembrance,  which  we  send 

\ou  now,  wishing  you  every  good.       _.  ,     . 

'  '='  •'  -^  Yours,  lovmg, 

Adam  and  Franciszka 

122  March  27,  1911 

....  Dear  Brothers  and  Sister-in-law:  ....  We  received 

your  letter  ....  and  your  [wedding]  gift We  thank  you 

heartily  for  this  money,  dear  brothers  and  sister-in-law We 

cannot  prove  to  you  our  gratitude  even  now  for  your  good  heart, 
except  by  thanking  you  once  more.  And  we  inform  you  at  the  same 
time  that  we  gave  [money]  for  a  holy  mass,  at  which  we  will  beg  God 
to  reward  you  a  hundred  fold. 

[Weather;  crops.]  There  is  nothing  interesting  in  our  country. 
There  are  rumors  again  that  there  is  to  be  war.  May  God  the 
Merciful  give  peace,  for  it  would  be  the  worst  misery  to  our  Alos. 
He  rejoices  that  he  has  only  7  months  more  to  serve.  If  there  were 
only  peace,  we  should  live  perhaps  till  he  comes.  We  inform  you 
also  about  the  trouble  which  we  have  with  our  farm.  We  have  8 
morgs  of  land  and  a  windmill.  We  keep  some  stock,  for  the  income 
from  the  mill  is  not  large,  because  steam  mills  have  been  constructed 
in  the  country  and  these  took  much  bread  away  from  the  millers.  As 
to  the  buildings,  we  have  a  new  barn,  a  stable  which  is  not  bad;  only 
the  dwelling-house  is  not  very  good — old  fashioned.  Moreover,  we 
have  250  roubles  of  debt  which  we  took  over  from  his  parents  when 
they  willed  us  the  farm.  But  if  only  our  Lord  God  grants  us  health 
and  life,  in  a  few  years  we  hope  to  make  everything  all  right,  with 

'  This,  as  well  as  the  whole  description,  shows  that  the  wedding  was  first  rate 
from  the  peasant  point  of  view.  Evidently  both  bride  and  bridegroom  had  a  high 
standing  in  the  community. 

'  This  is  not  in  accordance  with  the  tradition  and  shows  a  somewhat  advanced 
attitude.  A  collection  would  probably  have  been  felt  as  a  humiliation,  but  this 
proves  that  the  real  meaning  of  communal  solidarity  is  already  obliterated. 


OSII^SKI  SERIES  439 

God's  help.     Our  life  flows  pleasantly,  for  we  love  and  respect  each 
other,  so  whatever  happens,  grief  or  joy,  we  share  it  together  in 

concord 

[Greetings  and  wishes.] 

A[dam]  and  F[rania]  Brzezinscy 

123  July  7,  1913 

Dear  Brother  and  Sister  [-in-law]  :  ....  We  did  not  answer 
you  at  once  for  we  had  some  trouble  with  our  farming.  It  was  going 
pretty  well,  we  had  paid  a  part  of  our  debt  back,  and  then  suddenly 
in  autumn  a  fine  colt  died,  and  then  in  May  a  horse  died,  and  this 
always  befalls  the  best  ones.  But  what  can  we  do  ?  It  won't  come 
back.  When  our  Lord  God  sends  a  misfortune  the  man  can  do 
nothing.  If  only  God  grants  us  health  and  life,  we  shall  manage  in 
some  way.  Our  children,  up  to  the  present,  get  on  well  enough. 
Zygmunt  already  explains  himself  well  enough.  They  are  our  whole 
joy.     [Weather  and  crops;  greetings  and  wishes.] 

A[dam]  and  F[rania]  B. 

124  Trombin,  November  4,  1913 

Dear  Brother  and  Sister  [-in-law]:  ....  We  had  this  year 
some  misfortune  with  the  horses,  as  I  wrote  you  already,  and  then  the 
wings  of  our  windmill  fell  down.  We  both  had  trouble  enough,  but 
nothing  could  be  done.  We  have  talked  with  each  other,  that  our 
Lord  God  is  trying  us,  and  we  commended  everything  to  His  will. 
This  alone  makes  our  life  sweeter,  that  we  live  in  good  harmony  and 
respect  each  other,"^  and  that  up  to  the  present  our  Lord  God  has  kept 
our  children  well.  They  are  lively  and  grow  well.  Little  Walcia 
already  stands  alone.  If  we  could  get  some  more  money,  we  would 
send  you  their  photograph. 

As  to  the  windmill,  probably  it  won't  be  worth  repairing  any  more, 
for  now  steam  mills  are  built  in  the  towns  and  everybody  prefers  to 
take  [the  grain]  there,  for  they  have  it  at  once  and  more  fmely  ground. 
Now  we  inform  you  that  we  have  a  co-operative  milkshop  in  our 

'  Again  the  attitude  of  "respect"  as  a  basis  of  conjugal  life.  And  it  is  sig- 
nificant tliat  in  the  first  letter  "love"  is  mentioned,  while  in  the  second,  two  years 
later,  there  is  no  such  mention.  It  does  not  mean  that  the  relation  has  grown 
colder,  only  that  the  first  sexual  novelty  has  disappeared  and  the  sexual  relation  is 
subordinated  to  the  respect  norm. 


440  rRlMARV-OROLT  ORGANIZATION 

villaijf.  Adam  was  oven  elected  treasurer,  to  pay  for  the  milk. 
[Weather.  1  We  won't  inform  you  about  political  questions,  for  you 
know  more  there  from  your  papers  than  we  know  from  ours.  Now  I 
beg  you  in  my  own  name,  dear  brother  and  sister,  remember  our 
parents,  and  particularly  mother.  Write  often  and  comfort  her  as 
you  can,  for  mother  despairs  much  about  you.'  When  she  comes  to 
me,  she  only  pets  Zygmus  and  Walcia  a  little  and  leaves  at  once,  and 
there  at  home  she  weeps  again  and  there  is  nobody  who  knows  how- 
to  comfort  her,  for  Alos  is  somewhat  indifferent 

Adam  and  Frania 

If  anything  is  bad[ly  written]  forgive  me,  for  now  I  don't  write 
often,  so  it  does  not  go  well. 

125  Dlugie,  April  27,  1902 

....  Dear  Brother:    I  received  your  letter I  had  at 

the  moment  urgent  work  which  hindered  me  from  reading  it.  When- 
ever I  took  it  in  my  hand  and  began  to  read,  I  w^as  called  away.  I 
looked  always  for  the  words  "Prepare  to  come  to  America,"  or,  ''The 
ship-ticket  is  on  the  way,"  but  I  read  instead  that  you  were  sick. 
WTien  I  read  this  I  did  not  wish  to  read  any  further,  for  my  companion 
is  going  now,  in  April,  and  I  thought  that  I  would  go  with  him,  but 
I  did  not  succeed.     I  don't  know  whether  my  wish  is  right  or  wrong. 

Now,  dear  brother,  I  inform  you  that  in  the  holidays  I  w-as  at 
home  with  our  parents.  I  went  there  on  the  last  Sunday  [before 
Easter].  I  arrived  just  after  the  priest  [who  consecrated  the  Easter- 
food]  left.  They  have  their  [new]  house  in  order;  the  priest  conse- 
crated it,  together  with  the  swi^cone  [Easter-food]  and  my  favorite 
sausage,  which  I  settled  [ate]  in  2  days.  But  I  was  not  very  glad 
[I  did  not  amuse  myself  well],  for  both  holidays  were  cold  and  rainy. 
They  remembered  you  continually,  particularly  mother.  I  told  them 
always  that  I  would  go  to  America  after  the  holidays,  that  I  had 
received  a  letter  [from  you]  and  a  ship-ticket.     Only  when  I  was  about 

to  leave,  I  told  the  truth Now  inform  me,  where  do  you  like 

the  most  [to  live]  among  all  the  places  you  have  been,  in  our  country 

and  abroad I  don't  know  whether  anybody  got  married  in 

Gulbiny ;  I  know  only  that  the  girl  who  expected  you  in  vain  to  marry 

'  The  mother  has  lost  her  practical  interest  in  life  since  the  farm  was  given  to 
Aleksander.  From  this  probably,  more  than  from  Aleksander's  coldness,  cc.;u-a 
the  growing  longing  for  her  other  boys. 


OSIlSrSKI  SERIES 


441 


her  [or  "  whom  you  expected  in  vain  to  marry"]  took  some  clay-dabber 

[brick-maker] 

MiCHAL  O. 


126  May  10,  1902 

....  Dear  Brother:  ....  I  wish  you  good  health  and 
happiness,  that  you  may  as  soon  as  possible  get  out  of  this  trouble,  in 
which  you  cannot  even  "trinkejn  glass  Bir."  ....  As  to  my  watch, 
I  have  it  indeed,  but  I  am  not  much  pleased  with  it,  for  it  has  been 
already  treated  by  a  doctor,  and  now  it  wants  to  stop  again,  .... 
but  when  I  frighten  it  perhaps  it  will  know  better. 

Now  I  inform  you,  dear  brother,  about  our  spring  in  our  country. 
Up  to  the  present  it  has  been  bad,  for  it  even  snows  sometimes,  and 
at  night  it  is  impossible  to  go  anywhere  for — well,  for  laughing  [love- 
making],  for  it  is  so  cold  that  the  potatoes  in  hot-beds  are  frozen. 
Now  I  inform  you  about  our  village  Dlugie.  It  is  so  spoiled  that 
nothing  can  be  done  to  improve  it — not  the  village  itself,  but  the  people 
in  the  village.  First,  card-playing  without  any  consideration. 
People  come  from  other  villages  to  ours  [to  play].  At  the  same  time 
drinking,  fighting — almost  every  boy  with  a  stick  in  his  hand,  a  knife 
in  his  pocket  and  a  revolver  in  his  bosom.  [It  assumes]  such  propor- 
tions that  a  man  who  returned  from  America  and  brought  with  him 
more  than  400  roubles  was  killed  and  the  money  taken.  I  don't 
suspect  exactly  that  these  robbers  were  from  Dlugie,  but  Ihey  were 
from  the  neighborhood,  at  any  rate.  It  is  not  yet  discovered  [who 
did  it].  People  began  to  talk  about  one  man,  that  he  was  the  one,  but 
he  went  and  hanged  himself.'     [Wishes  and  greetings.] 

Only  don't  do  as  Antoni  did  [don't  marry]  until  I  see  you 

Everybody  dissuades  me  from  going  to  America  [saying]  that  I  shall 
have  to  work  hard  and  still  to  die  from  hunger,  and  that  1  should  be 
killed,  for  there  are  so  many  robbers MirTTAf  O 

'  Suspicion,  just  or  unjust,  is  the  most  usual  cause  of  peasant  suicide.  (Cf. 
Introduction:  "Social  Environment.")  The  main  factor  here  is  the  fear  of  the 
dishonor  of  condemnation,  as  a  man  who  has  been  condemned,  or  even  tried,  for  a 
criminal  ofTense  loses  once  and  forever  all  social  standing.  He  can  never  try  to 
exert  any  influence  in  his  community,  for  he  is  always  reminded  of  his  condemna- 
tion, and  it  is  difficult  for  him  to  settle  in  any  other  community  without  his  past 
becoming  known;  the  system  of  "legitimation  papers"  prevents  it.  The  peasant's 
suicide  seems  to  indicate  that  social  opinion  can  become  the  most  powerful  element 
in  the  peasant  farmer-village  life. 


442  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

127  August  I,  1902 

....  Dear  Brother:  ....  I  was  rejoiced  that  you  were  in 
good  health,  until  I  read  that  you  had  no  work,  and  this  grieved  me. 
But  T  hope  in  God  that  presently  you  will  get  better.  I  am  also  very 
satl  that  I  shan't  see  you,  dear  brother,  and  also  that  I  must  now  sit  at 
home.  Therefore  I  asked  father  to  give  me  a  few  roubles  in  order  to 
go  to  Warsaw,  but  father  said  that  he  wanted  to  ask  you  to  lend  him 
50  roubles,  and  father  and  mother  say  that  I  could  go  to  Warsaw,  that 
they  prefer  it  to  my  going  to  America,  for  it  would  not  pay  to  go 
before  the  military  service.  But  what  can  I  do  in  my  misery  ?  If  you 
could,  dear  brother  (I  don't  dare  to  beg  you,  for  you  complain  that 
you  have  no  work,  but  I  dare  only  to  say,  if  you  could),  help  me  I  will 
give  it  back  to  you  with  thanks,  for  I  hope  in  God  and  God's  Mother 
that  I  shan't  always  be  so  badly  off.  And  I  add,  dear  and  beloved 
brother,  that  I  should  gladly  remain  at  home,  but  father  always  says 
that  I  ought  to  earn  for  myself,  that  he  has  already  fed  me  long 
enough.'  In  some  respects  he  is  right,  but  if  I  get  into  the  world,  I 
shall  perhaps  find  some  way  if  our  Lord  God  grants  me  health.  I 
have  a  few  grosz,  but  I  cannot  go  as  I  am.  I  must  buy  clothes  and 
shirts,  or  stuff  for  shirts  and  have  them  sewed.  There  are  also  many 
other  trifles,  and  some  sort  of  a  valise.  Now,  dear  brother,  don't 
reject  my  prayer,  and  don't  delay,  if  you  only  can.  You  know,  when 
you  needed  [money]  one  time  or  another,  although  I  could  give  you 
nothing^ — yet  if  I  could,  I  would  have  shared  with  you  everything, 
even  the  blood  from  my  finger. ^  And  so,  dear  brother,  when  we  see 
each  other,  I  will  give  you  everything  back  with  thanks 

Now  I  have  nothing  more  to  write,  only  I  beg  you  once  more,  be 
so  kind  and  don't  wait  for  anything,  only  help  me.  If  you  cannot,  as 
I  wrote  you  [lend  money],  to  the  parents,  then  help  me  at  least  with 
a  few  roubles.     I  don't  require  you  to  send  me  your  money  and  to 

'  The  idea  that  every  member  of  the  family  who  is  not  absolutely  indispensable 
at  home  ought  to  earn  his  living  outside  by  hired  work  is  relatively  new.  Of 
course,  when  the  farm  is  insufficient  to  feed  the  whole  family  additional  work  of  its 
members  is  a  necessity;  but  here  this  is  not  the  case.  It  is  the  substitution  of 
economic  advance  for  mere  living  as  an  aim,  which  leads  to  the  desire  to  give  the 
most  productive  use  to  the  work  of  each  member  of  the  famil}',  in  the  interest  of 
the  family  as  a  whole. 

'  Alludes  to  the  fact  that  he  tried  to  persuade  his  parents  to  send  money  to 
his  brother  when  the  latter  was  in  the  army. 

3  Half  proverbial,  probably  originating  in  the  form  of  blood  brotherhood. 


OSINSKI  SERIES 


443 


live  there  in  misery  yourself,  for  I  am  not  dying  with  hunger,  but  I 
have  no  luxury  either.  For  you  know,  dear  brother,  that  I  like  to 
work,  but  only  if  I  know  what  I  am  working  for.  But  I  cannot  dress 
myself  any  more  now  for  30  roubles  [a  year] 

Pardon  me,  dear  brother,  for  having  written  so  badly,  but  I  wrote 
and  thought  about  something  else.  [Wishes.]  And  now  I  bow  low 
to  my  beloved  Frania  [probably  cousin,  who  went  recently  to  America]. 
Please  beg  her,  if  you  see  her,  to  pardon  me  what  I  said  to  her  on  her 
departure,  and  to  write  me  something 

I  embrace  you  and  kiss  you  kindly  and  heartily,  as  well  and  per- 
haps even  better  than  my  sweetheart. 

MiCHAL  0. 


128  February  21,  1903 

....  Dear  Brother:   ....  I  have  waited  for  your  letter  for 

days,  and  weeks,  and  months I  don't  know  what  is  going  on 

with  you,  whether  you  are  ill,  or  whether  you  got  so  proud  after  your 
marriage.  I  make  different  suppositions.  Forgive  me  my  joke,  dear 
brother  [about  the  marriage;  Jan  was  ultimately  refused  by  the  girl], 
for  perhaps  my  Zosia  S.  will  also  despise  [reject]  me.  I  don't  mention 
her  name,  for  she  is  in  America,  and  you  are  still  a  bachelor,  so  you 
would  be  ready  perhaps  to  take  her  for  yourself 

Now  I  inform  you,  dear  brother,  that  my  companions  and  mates 
leave  me  and  go  to  America,  and  I  should  also  prefer  to  work  if  I 
could  only  follow  them.  Those  who  went  write  well  enough.  They 
have  no  hard  work,  and  even  if  it  were  hard,  I  ought  to  be  able 
to  hold  out  as  others  do,  for  I  shall  soon  be  twenty.  I  should  be  glad 
to  earn  a  little  before  the  military  service,  or  if  not,  then  at  least  to 
look  a  little  about  the  world,  for  if  I  keep  this  groom-work  longer  in 

my  hands  it  will  go  out  by  the  top  of  my  head  [upset  me] 

Father  allows  me  to  go.  Mother  says  it  would  be  better  if  I  did  not 
go,  but  if  you  send  me  a  ship-ticket  and  if  I  beg  her,  she  will  allow  me 
to  go 

MiCHAt  O. 

120  March  6,  1906 

And  now  I  beg  you,  dear  brothers,  help  mc  in  some  way  to  get 
there  to  you,  for  here  I  work  at  home  and  as  a  hired  laborer,  and  even 


4.14  I'Kl  MARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

so  I  hardly  cam  enough  for  my  clothes.'  Moreover,  all  my  compan- 
ions are  going,  so  I  want  also  to  visit  America.  Dear  brothers,  send 
me  money  or  a  ship-ticket.     When  I  come  there,  I  will  work  it  back 

with  thanks 

Aleksander  Osinski 

130  November  15,  1908 

Now  I,  dear  brothers,  bid  you  farewell  [on  going  to  the  army]  and 
greet  you  kindly  and  heartily,  for  I  don't  know  whether  our  Lord  God 
will  allow  us  to  see  one  another  any  more.^  I  beg  you,  don't  forget 
about  our  parents  and  about  me,  for  you  know  that  there  is  hardly  a 
day  when  our  mother  does  not  shed  tears,  either  about  me,  what  will 
happen  to  me,  or  about  you,  whether  you  are  healthy  and  alive,  and 

there  will  be  nobody  to  comfort  our  mother 

[Aleksander] 

131  Town  Kansk  [Siberia],  May  17,  1909 

....  Dear  Brothers:  ....  I  learned  from  your  letter  that 
you  sent  me  20  roubles.  This  rejoiced  me,  for  they  will  be  very  useful 
to  me.  I  don't  wait  with  answering  until  they  come,  but  I  answer  you 
at  once  and  thank  you,  dear  brothers  and  sister-in-law.  Perhaps  our 
Lord  God  will  allow  me  to  show  you  my  gratitude 

Now  I  inform  you  ....  about  my  service.  On  May  21,  our 
oath  will  be  taken  ....  and  we  hope  that  it  will  be  somewhat 

'  The  dissatisfaction  with  working  on  his  parents'  account  is  a  typical  sign  of 
the  beginning  disintegration  of  the  family  as  a  unit.  Cf.  letters  of  Stanislaw  in  the 
Markiewicz  series. 

^  We  find  this  farewell  also  in  other  letters  of  peasants  going  to  serve  in  the 
Russian  army.  The  separation  is  felt  as  more  absolute  than  any  other,  certainly 
not  only  on  account  of  any  possible  war  (no  war  was  expected  in  1908)  and  not  only 
on  account  of  the  length  of  the  separation,  or  of  the  distance,  since  the  emigration 
to  America  goes  on  without  such  tragic  farewells.  It  seems  to  be  a  social  custom, 
and  its  source  is  easily  traced  back  to  that  period  in  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  where  a  peasant  taken  to  the  arm}'  was  to  serve  seven  to  fifteen  years  or 
more  (because  every  disciplinary  punishment  brought  a  prolongation  of  the  term), 
when  communication  by  letters  was  above  the  means  of  a  soldier,  who,  moreover, 
usually  did  not  know  how  to  write,  and  when  the  discipline  of  the  Russian  army  was 
the  most  severe  and  unreasonable  possible.  At  that  time  going  to  the  army  meant 
often  really  a  separation  for  life  even  if  there  was  no  war,  and  the  fact  had  still 
more  meaning  because  of  its  relative  rareness,  as  the  number  of  recruits  which  a 
community  was  to  furnish  was  much  smaller  than  now. 


OSINSKI  SERIES  445 

better,  at  least  for  our  legs,  for  now  there  is  no  day  without  our 

running  like  wet  dogs Now  I  inform  you  about  the  life  of  the 

people  here,  how  they  live  and  with  what  they  occupy  themselves  here 
in  this  Siberia.  In  villages  they  occupy  themselves  mainly  with 
agriculture,  for  there  is  no  lack  of  land,  but  they  do  badly  in  it,  for 
they  are  lazy.  On  Good  Friday  we  went  to  the  town;  there  they 
occupy  themselves  mainly  with  trade,  and  there  are  many  who  only 
loaf  about  and  look  out  whom  they  can  rob,  and  get  drunk.  The  soil 
in  this  country  is  fertile  and  everything  would  grow,  but  the  winter 
lasts  too  long  and  not  everything  can  ripen.  There  are  no  fruit  trees 
at  all,  the  fruits  are  brought  from  other  countries.  Now  I  inform  you 
that  in  our  country  beyond  Plock  the  water  [Vistula]  did  much  dam- 
age, submerged  many  villages,  tore  away  the  railway-bridge  in  Modlin, 
and  many  people  remained  without  living  [work]  and  without  a  bit 

of  bread Dear  brother,  inform  Janek  Sz.,  if  he  does  not  long 

for  our  country,  let  him  remain  in  America,  for  if  he  gets  here  [to  the 

army]  he  will  remember  it,  but  it  will  be  too  late 

Aleksander  0. 

132  Kansk,  September  6,  1909 

....  Dear  Brothers:  ....  I  was  very  sad,  for  I  learned 
that  you  received  none  of  my  letters.  I  wrote  you  two  and  I  paid 
for  both,  and  I  don't  know  whether  they  did  not  reach  you  because 
they  were  paid  or  because  of  something  else.  I  send  you  the  third 
unpaid,  perhaps  this  one  will  reach  you  sooner ' 

I  was  very  grieved  on  learning  that  Michalek  won't  return  home 
any  more.  I  did  not  expect  it  at  all.  I  thought  that  when  our  Lord 
God  grants  me  to  finish  my  service  and  to  go  back  home,  he  would 
come  at  least  on  a  visit  and  we  should  rejoice  all  together  under  the 
native  roof.  For  now  we  are  scattered  about  the  world,  and  whenever 
I  remember  it,  I  can  hardly  refrain  from  weeping.  Our  father  must 
work  alone,  and  I  am  living  here  worse  than  a  beast.  It  will  be  soon 
a  year  since  I  have  seen  a  church  or  a  priest.^*    And  all  the  people  live 

•The  argument  seems  strange,  but  it  corresponds  with  the  facts.  The 
Russian  post  is  very  negligent,  and  many  ordinary  letters  are  lost,  but  for  a  letter 
without  a  stamp  the  receiver  has  to  pay  double,  and  on  this  account  there  are  some 
formalities  connected  with  its  forwarding  and  delivery. 

^  Example  of  the  importance  of  religion  as  the  main  idealistic  factor  in  peasant 
life,  even  for  a  young  boy,  who  is  usually  the  least  religious  person  in  a  peasant 
family. 


446  rRliMARV-GROUr  ORGANIZATION 

liorc  in  the  same  way.  In  the  evening  all  the  shutters  are  closed,  and 
if  anvl)i)(lv  shows  himself  on  the  street  he  won't  return  home  ahve; 
he  will  be  either  shot  or  butchered  with  knives.  Many  have  been 
killed  so.  Once  we  stood  on  guard  near  the  prison  and  we  were 
attacked  by  day.     They  wanted  to  set  the  convicts  free,  but  they  did 

not  succeed.     We  killed  one  with  a  bayonet,  and  the  other  fled 

Now  I  inform  you  that  the  harvest  is  finished  here  only  now, 
and  the  air  is  cold  already.  And  I  beg  you,  advise  me,  whether  I  may 
go  on  leave,  for  they  wrote  to  me  twice  already  from  home  to  come; 
but  it  would  cost  very  much,  30  roubles  for  the  journey  alone,  wnthout 
the  hving.     And  they  would  give  me  leave  for  3  months 

Aleksander  0. 

133  Siberia,  March  28,  19 10 

Dear  Brothers:  ....  On  Easter-Sunday  after  the  evening 
roll-call  I  had  already  gone  to  sleep  when  a  letter  from  home  was 
brought  to  me.  WTien  I  read  it,  I  learned  first  that  father  had  already 
sent  to  the  governor  the  decision  of  the  commune  that  you  []Michal] 
had  not  been  [in  the  country]  for  so  long  a  time,  dear  brother,  and  in  3 

weeks  the  decision  will  be  in  the  ofiice  of  the  military  chief So 

perhaps  our  Lord  God  will  grant  us  to  see  one  another  soon  under  the 
native  roof.'     If  you  knew,  dear  brothers,  how  sad  my  holidays  were 

until  I  got  the  letter,  you  would  not  believe  me Now,  dear 

brothers,  I  learned  ....  that  Janek  intends  to  go  [home]  to  the 
wedding  [of  Frania].  Perhaps  our  Lord  God  will  grant  me  to  be 
there  also,  for  our  sister  will  certainly  marry  Adam  Brz.  from  Trombin, 
who  went  with  us  to  school.  I  think  that  Michalek  knows  him;  he 
is  the  son  of  the  miller.  On  New  Year  there  was  also  a  man  from 
Obory,  but  she  did  not  want  him,  although  he  is  rich;  he  has  more 
than  40  morgs  of  land.     She  did  not  want  him,  for  it  is  too  far  away 

from  home,  and  he  is  as  old  as  the  Bible As  to  the  farm,  I 

think  that  you  advised  father  well  [to  give  it  to  me],  for  Michalek 
won't  come  back  any  more  and  won't  wish  to  work  in  the  earth,  while 
I  have  worked  from  my  young  years,  so  I  am  very  accustomed  to  the 
earth  and  I  know  how  to  manage  it.     Just  for  that  I  am  so  awfully 

'  That  is,  Aleksander  will  be  released  from  the  army  as  the  sole  support  of  his 
parents. 


OSIIsrSKI  SERIES 


447 


homesick  in  the  army,  for  I  am  away  from  the  soil,  I  cannot  work  in  it. 
[Moving-pictures  shown  the  regiment.] 

Now,  dear  brothers,  you  wrote  that  you  can  help  me,  so  I  beg  you, 
when  you  receive  this  letter,  send  me  a  few  roubles.  Perhaps  they 
will  be  useful  for  my  journey,  or  if  not,  then  in  the  autumn  I  will  go 

on  leave I  beg  you,  dear  brothers,  don't   forget   me  ...  . 

particularly  you,  dear  Janek,  who  have  served.  You  know  how 
bad  it  smells  here;  particularly  during  their  Lent  one  almost 
dies. 

Aleksander  0. 

[Letter  of  March  17,  191 1  shows  that  the  plan  to  have  him  released 
from  the  army  did  not  succeed.  Letter  of  January,  191 2,  announces 
arrival  home.l 


134  GuLBiNY,  February  17,  191 2 

....  Dear  Brother:  First  I  greet  you,  and  also  your  wife,  and 
I  inform  you  that  I  got  free  from  this  slavery  and  came  to  my  dear 
parents.  What  was  my  joy,  dear  brother,  I  won't  describe  it  to  you, 
for  I  know  that  you  know  it  well,  because  you  have  also  eaten  of  this 
Moscovite  bread  and  you  know  how  good  it  is.  Only  I  inform  you 
that  I  am  treated  without  end,  everybody  invites  me,  and  Frania  does 
not  want  to  let  me  go  from  her  house,  she  wants  me  to  rem.ain  there 
day  and  night  and  to  relate  about  this  Siberia,  while  I  need  to  go 
somewhere  farther  in  order  to  find  some  girl  for  myself.  You  all,  dear 
brothers,  are  married,  only  I  am  still  alone.  Perhaps  you  have  there 
in  America  some  pretty  and  rich  girl,  so  when  you  come  here,  bring 
her  to  me,  for  here  it  is  difficult  to  find  such.  All  the  prettiest  girls 
are  gone  to  America.  So  I  beg  you,  dear  brother,  don't  forget  this. 
[The  request  is  half  a  jest.] 

Now  I  inform  you  what  is  the  news  here.  As  to  the  old  people 
about  whom  you  wrote,  only  the  old  Jablonska  from  the  end  of  the 
village  is  dead,  and  Uncle  Sm.  is  lying  very  sick.  For  a  whole  year 
he  has  not  been  able  to  eat  and  to  rise  ....  and  we  don't  know,  but 
probably  he  will  soon  end  his  Ufe.  And  our  Mr.  Piwnicki  [manor- 
owner]  lives  so  that  you  would  not  know  him  and  his  estate.  I  was 
away  for  only  3  years  and  even  so  I  could  not  recognize  it.  What  a 
factory  they  built  near  the  farm-yard!     And  the  mill  and  that  forge 


448  rKIMARV-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

which  stood  near  the  mill  have  been  pulled  down,  and  they  take  clay 
from  that  spot.'     [Weather.] 

Now  I  have  nothing  more  of  interest  to  write.  If  you  can, 
inform  me  when  you  will  come  back  and  how  much  money  you  can 
bring  with  you,  I  shall  perhaps  find   you   somewhere  a  nice  piece 

of  land 

Your  well-wishing  brother, 

A.  O. 

135  July  12,  1912 

....  Dear  Brother:  I  will  pen  to  you  a  few  words,  not  much 
at  present,  for  I  am  not  yet  married.  As  soon  as  I  marry,  I  will  write 
you  more.  Do  you  know,  dear  brother,  that  up  to  the  present  I  have 
ridden  in  search  of  a  girl,  but  now  I  must  walk  on  foot,  for  I  have 
already  worn  the  horses  out!     After  so  many  troubles  I  found  two, 

one  named  Bronislawa  C and  the  other  also  Bronislawa,  but 

excuse  me,  for  I  forget  her  name.     Probably  one  of  these  two  will  be 
mine  ....  and  I  hope  that  in  my  next  letter  I  shall  invite  you  to 

my  wedding 

Your  w^U-wishing  brother, 

Aleksakder  O. 

'  Rather  an  expression  of  commiseration  (cf.  corresponding  letter  of  the 
parents)  than  of  approval.  The  peasants  are  ready  to  appreciate  any  aesthetic 
improvement  of  the  manor,  as  well  as  any  progress  in  the  purelj'  agricultural  line, 
but  every  industrial  undertaking  of  the  manor-owmer,  particularly  the  building  of  a 
factory,  provokes  a  mixed  feeling  of  satisfaction,  because  of  the  new  opportunity  of 
work,  of  admiration  for  the  man's  cleverness,  and  at  the  same  time  a  half  aesthetic, 
half  moral  disapproval.  The  man  is  slightly  despised  because  for  the  sake  of  a 
greater  income  he  deprives  himself  of  an  aesthetic  environment  and  from  a  tradi- 
tional country  lord  becomes  an  entrepreneur.  The  same  feeling  of  commiseration 
accompanies  any  endeavor  to  diminish  the  household  expenses,  the  number  of 
servants,  of  carriage  horses,  etc.,  and  in  general  any  conversion  of  an  aesthetic 
value  into  a  productive  v^alue.  The  country  lord,  in  the  peasant's  opinion,  ought 
to  live  according  to  his  social  standing,  to  afford  unproductive  expenses,  to  main- 
tain the  same  standard  of  life  as  his  father  and  grandfather  before  him.  He  may 
and  should  improve  his  farming  but  it  is  not  suitable  for  him  to  be  too  eager  to 
make  money,  "like  a  Jew."  The  argument  is  always  "Is  he  not  rich  enough  to 
afford  this  or  that  ?  "  This  attitude  is  particularly  marked  when  a  new  proprietor 
comes  and  begms  to  turn  into  money  values  which  his  predecessor  used  to  maintain 
his  standard  of  life.  Such  a  man,  if  not  known  in  the  country,  is  immediately 
classed  as  a  parvenu. 


OSINSKI  SERIES 


449 


136  September  24,  191 2 

....  Dear  Sister  [-in-law]  and  Beloved  Brother:  You 
wrote  that  you  had  sent  two  letters  and  in  one  of  these  [our  parents 
say]  you  asked  for  money.  We  were  much  grieved  that  you,  having 
been  so  long  in  such  a  free  and  rich  country,  cannot  get  your  living, 
though  you  are  young,  but  write  to  us,  old  people  [speaking  in  the 
name  of  the  parents]  for  help. 

You  know,  dear  brother,  that  I  came  just  now  from  this  prison 
[the  army],  I  had  even  no  time  to  look  around  well  among  the  people, 
and  I  needed  some  clothes  to  be  made  for  me  in  order  not  to  be  the 
last  among  other  boys,  and  all  this  costs  very  much  in  our  country. 
I  even  expected  now  a  few  grosz  from  you,  as  first  help,  and  you 
write  in  quite  another  manner.  We  don't  even  know  whether  you 
are  in  earnest  or  making  jokes  at  us.  You  know,  dear  brother,  that 
you  will  receive  everything,  whatever  your  father  destined  for  you, 
but  not  sooner  than  I  get  married.  Perhaps  I  shall  even  come  soon  to 
you,  for  here  it  is  difficult  to  get  a  rich  and  good  wife,  and  instead  of 
taking  just  anything  I  would  rather  come  to  you  soon.  That  will  be 
quieter  [less  distracting].  And  if  you  wish  you  can  come  to  our 
country  and  farm,  for  now  I  cannot  act  in  a  different  way.  I  pity 
the  old  parents  who  will  be  left  alone,  but  what  can  I  do  ? 

I  inform  you  that  on  September  29,  is  the  50th  anniversary  [of 

the  priesthood]  of  the  old  priest  F who  was  for  so  many  years 

in  Trombin  and  is  now  in  Radomin.  A  company  [procession]  will  go 
from  here  to  Radomin.  [Weather;  farm- work.]  The  worst  of  it  is 
the  digging  of  the  potatoes.  It  rains  almost  every  day,  the  potatoes 
rot,  and  it  is  impossible  to  hire  anybody.  People  want  50  and  60 
copecks  a  day,  and  afternoon  luncheon,  and  a  bottle  [of  beer]  to  be  put 

out  for  them.    This  is  too  expensive  for  us.    We  must  dig  alone 

Your  well-wishing  brother, 

Aleksander  O. 


1^17  November  16,  191 2 

"Praised  be  Jesus  Christus!" 

Dear  Brother:  We  signed  under,  invite  you,  together  with  your 
wife,  to  our  marriage-ceremony  and  to  the  wedding-feast  which  will 
be  celebrated  on  Wednesday,  November  27,  191 2,  in  the  house  of 


450  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

Mr.  Jur.,  in  Bozomin.     I  shall  describe  to  you  our  life  more  in  detail 
in  another  letter.' 

We  remain,  with  respect  for  you, 

Aleksander  and  Julcia  0. 

[Greetings  from  the  parents  and  sister,  and  news  about  the 
weather  on  a  separate  sheet.] 

138  January  20,  1913 

....  Dear  Brother  and  Sister-in-law:  I  pen  to  you  a  few 
words,  together  with  my  wife.  First  I  inform  you  that  health  favors 
us  up  to  the  present.  We  live  merrily  on.  Only  now  I  have  got  full 
Uberty  after  such  a  long  waiting,  and  I  don't  think  of  moving  any- 
where, if  only  our  Lord  God  gives  us  health.  When  I  learned  from 
your  letter  [about  some  catastrophe]  I  felt  cold,  and  my  Julka  red- 
dened and  said  that  she  won't  let  me  go  anyivhere  alone.  As  to  the 
photograph,  we  beg  very  politely  your  pardon,  but  we  shall  send  it  to 
you  perhaps  in  another  letter,  for  now  we  have  no  opportunity  at  all. 
I  beg  you  also,  inform  us  about  Michatek,  for  he  wrote  us  that  he 
would  soon  work  together  with  his  wife  [after  being  married]  and  now 
he  does  not  write.  I  don't  know  whether  they  live  in  health;  per- 
haps the  stork  is  near.  Then  hurrah!  [Weather.]  We  bid  you 
goodbye  very  kindly  and  heartily.  My  wife  always  tells  me  that  she 
would  be  glad  to  see  you  and  talk  with  you  about  America.  Now  be 
healthy,  until  the  pleasure  of  seeing  you. 

Aleksander  and  Julila  O. 

'  The  invitation  is  evidently  purely  formal,  as  the  letter  will  hardly  arri\e 
before  the  date  of  the  wedding.  Nevertheless  not  to  invite  would  be  considered  a 
great  offense. 


GOSCIAK  SERIES 

The  writer  is  an  average  Galician  peasant.  The  relation 
of  the  father  and  the  son-in-law  is  more  cordial  than  that 
of  the  father  and  son.  The  son-in-law  has  evidently  at 
once  taken  the  standpoint  of  famihal  soHdarity  with  regard 
to  his  wife's  family,  while  the  son  has  become  more  or  less 
estranged  during  his  stay  in  America. 

139-41,    FROM  JAKOB   GOSCIAK,   IN  GALICIA  TO  HIS 
SON-IN-LAW   AND   SON,   IN   AMERICA 

139  [1913?] 

"Praised  be  Jesus  Christus. " 

Dear  Son-in-law  and  you,  dear  Daughter:  [Generalities 
about  health,  success,  crops.]  Now  I  inform  you,  dear  son-in-law  and 
dear  daughter,  that  I  tried  to  buy  [land]  from  those  old  women  in 
Czarnocin  ....  but  they  say  that  somebody  ....  gives  them  a 
whole  7,000  [crowns],  but  we  don't  know  whether  it  is  true  or  not 
because  now  they  have  very  beautiful  crops  and  therefore  they  are  so 
proud,  and  so  we  must  wait  what  will  be  further.  It  pleases  me  well 
enough  ....  but  it  does  not  please  your  father.  He  says  that  it  is 
possible  to  find  something  better  to  buy,  that  this  is  dear,  and  worth 
little. 

And  now  I  inform  you  that  a  young  man  from  America  came  here 
who  says  that  Wojtek  Wojtusiak  broke  an  arm  and  Wojtek  Lesny 
broke  a  leg.  And  here  people  say  that  it  is  true,  and  you  don't 
write  to  us  anything  about  it,  whether  it  is  true  or  not.  So  answer 
us.  And  people  say  that  in  America  are  wars,  and  you  don't  write 
us  anything  about  it.  And  now  I  inform  you  that  our  lawsuit  with 
Tomek  is  ended,  and  it  resulted  so  that  we  have  to  divide  the  pine 
grove  between  ourselves,  and  the  land  will  be  mine.  We  lost  much 
[on  the  lawsuit],  but  even  so  it  was  worth  it,  for  the  land  alone  is 
worth  something,  because  now  land  is  very  dear  there.  They  ask 
1,000  for  a  morg.  And  I  write  some  words.  How  docs  Jozck 
Patoniec  behave  there  ?    Answer  me  about  him. 

4SI 


45-' 


ruiMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 


Ami  now  1  sliall  write  you  some  words,  sincerest  Iruth.  Believe 
nu",  what  1  shall  write  is  the  very  truth,  because  your  mother  herself 
ordered  me  to  write  a  few  words  about  your  father,  how  he  is  farming 
here.  It  is  such  a  father.  When  he  began  to  call  upon  us  and  to  ask 
us  for  a  loan  of  some  money,  in  order  to  buy  a  calf,  we  lent  him 
25  gulden.  What  did  he  do  ?  When  he  seized  this  money  he  bought 
a  pig  for  it.  Because  when  he  seized  it  he  went  at  once  with  it  to 
Hcjmcjka,  and  drank  so  long  until  he  spent  it  all,  and  it  did  not  even 
suffice.  And  what  did  he  do  when  he  lacked  more  money?  He 
went  home,  took  a  cart  and  a  mare  and  drove  to  [  ?  ]  and  there  sold 
e\erything  to  Placiak,  Josek  and  Szymczyk,  saying  that  he  would 
spend  everything  in  drinking.  Your  mother  told  me  to  describe  all 
this  to  you,  and  she  asks  you  not  to  dare  to  send  any  money,  none  of 

you,  for  this  liquor 

Jakob  Gosciak 

140  March  10,  1914 

I  sit  down  to  the  table,  I  take  the  pen  and  I  greet  you,  dear  son-in- 
law,  and  you,  my  daughter.  [Generalities  about  health  and  success; 
letters  received  and  sent.]  Probably  my  letter  did  not  reach  you, 
since  you  say  that  I  don't  know  how  to  write  your  address;  but  I 
write  as  I  know,  and  so  don't  be  contrary  to  me  [angry].  And  now  I 
write  you  that  we  have  no  more  snow,  but  rain  pours  down  and  it  is 
wet  and  there  is  no  spring  yet.  And  now  you  write  us  that  we  did 
not  send  you  any  Christmas  token.  But  how  should  we  have  sent 
you  any  since  you  never  once  wrote  to  us  about  it.  And  now  you 
ask  whether  my  leg  is  healed.  It  is  healed,  thanks  to  God,  but  I 
cannot  walk  yet  in  a  small  shoe,  because  it  gnaws  me.  And  now  you 
ask  about  those  planks  whether  I  hid  them.  Well,  I  hid  them  in  the 
barn,  and  I  had  trouble  enough  with  them,  because  your  father  wanted 
to  take  them  and  to  drive  them  to  Hejmejka  because  here  [he  thinks] 
they  are  useless,  and  your  father  wants  money  for  liquor,  because 
vodka  got  dearer,  7  szostkas  [i  crown  40  heller]  for  a  liter.  I  was 
obliged  to  insure  my  buildings,  because  your  father  said  that  he 
would  burn  us.  And  now  I  wrote  you  in  that  other  letter  about  this 
money.  The  Bodziunys  and  Jasiek  paid  it  back  long  ago,  and  now 
what  shall  I  do  with  it  ?  Whether  I  have  to  put  it  into  a  savings- 
bank,  or  to  lend  it  to  anybody  in  the  village,  or  to  let  it  remain  at 
home  ?    Answer  me  at  once,  how  I  should  do  with  it.     And  now  you 


GOSCIAK  SERIES  453 

write  me,  dear  daughter,  about  our  son  Wojtek.  Don't  be  anxious 
about  him,  what  he  is  doing  there,  let  him  do  what  he  will.  As  he 
makes  his  bed,  so  he  will  sleep.  We  got  rich  enough  through  him, 
with  those  wages  of  his  which  he  sent  us!  And  now  here  people  ask 
us  always  whether  Wojciech  Wojtusiak  married  Kaska,  your  sister, 

so  write  us  about  it 

[Jakob  Gosciak] 


141  [April,  1914?] 

[Dear  Son  Wojtek]:  ....  And  now  you  say  that  we  don't 
write  to  you  and  that  we  are  angry  with  you.  But  we  are  not  angry, 
it  is  you  who  are  angry  with  us,  for  you  don't  remember  us,  you  have 
forgotten  that  you  have  here  parents  and  a  brother  and  sisters.  You 
say  so  [reproach  us],  that  we  wrote  you  to  work  and  to  send  money. 
So  I  will  tell  you  this:  "As  you  make  your  bed,  so  you  will  sleep." 
Now  you  have  a  better  reason  [wisdom]  already  than  you  had  formerly, 
[irony]  for  you  said  formerly  that  you  had  no  reason,  and  now  you 
ask  us  to  give  you  this  fortune,  which  is  first  God's,  then  ours.  All 
this  may  be.  But  now  we  must  speak,  how  to  do  it.  First  suppose, 
that  I  give  you  it.  But  you  know  that  you  have  here  a  brother 
Jasiek  and  sisters.  Perhaps  you  have  forgotten  them,  so  I  shall 
remind  you  who  they  are.  The  name  of  one  is  Maryna,  of  the  other 
Kundzia,  of  the  third  Ludwisia.  And  it  is  thus  here  [in  our  village]. 
Jozek  Blaszczyk  got  married  ....  so  his  father  willed  him  this  his 
farm.  But  he  has  another  son,  and  for  this  one  he  designated  5 
hundred-notes  to  be  paid  [by  the  older]  from  these  three  quarters 
[morgs  ?]  and  this  hut.  The  older  said  that  it  was  too  much,  but  the 
younger  said  thus:  "If  you  think  it  is  too  much,  then  [give  me  the 
farm  and]  I  will  give  you  8  hundred-notes."' 

And  now  people  say  here  that  you  want  to  marry.  But  how 
about  the  call  [to  military  service]  ?  A  constable  went  here  about 
[the  village]  and  wrote  down  all  of  you  who  went  to  America  without 
having  been  at  the  call.  They  say  that  you  will  be  driven  home  as 
prisoners  [from  the  frontier].  And  now  all  this  is  still  nothing.  But 
if  you  marry,  where  will  you  put  this  wife,  in  her  hat  ?  Since  here 
women  and  girls  walk  in  homespun  and  kerchiefs  [szmata]  and  eat 

'  This  means  that  the  son  cannot  get  the  farm  without  having  money  to  pay 
his  brother  and  sisters  because  land  is  expensive  and  it  is  no  longer  the  custom  to 
favor  too  much  the  son  who  takes  the  land. 


4S4  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

gruel  ami  potatoes  and  bread.  And  it  is  necessary  to  work,  while 
your  lady  won't  work,  for  where  will  she  put  her  umbrella  ?  But  all 
this  is  still  nothing.  But  how  much  money  have  you  sent  to  us? 
We  are  really  ashamed,  people  laugh  at  us  so.  The  wise  man  promises, 
the  stupid  man  rejoices.  If  I  had  nothing  but  this  which  you  help 
mo  with,  it  would  be  enough,  for  I  get  on  very  nicely  on  the  money 
which  you  have  sent!  So  I  thank  you  for  it.  And  it  will  be  also 
useful  to  you,  when  you  want  to  buy  farm-stock! 

But  enough  of  this.  And  now  I  shall  write  you,  dear  son,  a  few 
words.  You  went  to  America  for  money,  for  you  know  that  you  will 
need  it  if  I  want  to  give  you  a  lot  of  land. 

And  now  we  greet  you  nicely 

Jakob  Gosciak 


MARKIEWICZ  SERIES 

The  Markiewiczs  are  a  family  of  peasant  nobility  living 
in  the  province  of  Warsaw,  near  the  Vistula  and  on  the 
border  of  the  province  of  Plock,  but  not  like  the  Wrob- 
lewskis  in  their  ancient  family  nest.  This  part  of  the 
country  has  almost  no  industry,  but  the  neighborhood  in 
which  the  family  lives  is  not  isolated  from  cultural  influence, 
as  the  town  of  Plock,  lying  across  the  river,  is  the  seat  of  a 
rather  strong  intellectual  movement.  Life  is  much  faster 
in  their  social  environment  than  in  that  of  the  Wroblewskis, 
who  come  from  the  same  class,  and  this  may  explain  the 
difference  of  attitudes.  Unlike  Walery  Wroblewski,  the 
Markiewiczs  are  "climbers."  The  whole  familial  situation, 
the  difference  between  the  old  and  the  young  generation,  the 
individual  differences  of  character  and  aspirations  are  much 
better  understood  if  this  fundamental  feature  is  kept  in 
mind.  We  find  analogous  situations  in  other  familial 
series,  but  nowhere  so  universally  and  fully  presented  in  its 
most  interesting  stage,  i.e.,  at  the  moment  when  the  tend- 
ency to  rise  within  their  own  class  begins  to  change  into  a 
tendency  to  rise  above  their  own  class.  The  situation  of  the 
family  Markiewicz  is  thus  representative  of  the  general 
situation  of  the  middle  and  lower  classes  of  Polish  society. 
It  is  a  family  in  which  the  characters  of  the  old  society,  with 
its  fixed  classes  of  famihes,  and  the  new  society,  with  its 
fluid  classes  of  individuals,  are  mixed  together  in  various 
proportions.  Their  only  peculiarity  is  that,  thanks  to 
their  origin,  the  tendency  to  climb  within  their  class  can 
have  much  more  important  consequences  tlian  with  the 
ordinary  peasants  and  appears  therefore  as  especially 
justified.     For  it  happened  frequently  in  the  past  that  a 

45  s 


456  TRIM ARV-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

branch  of  a  family  of  peasant  nobility,  by  a  gradual  advance 
in  wealth  and  education,  rose  to  the  ranks  of  middle  nobil- 
it}-,  antl  e\en  two  or  three  of  the  highest  noble  families 
are  reputed  to  have  grown  in  this  way.  Even  now  if  the 
familv  Markiewicz  as  a  whole  made  a  fortune  and  acquired 
education,  it  would  gradually  identify  itself  with  middle  no- 
bility. But  this  climbing  within  the  old  famihal  hierarchy 
would  take  at  least  three  generations,  while  climbing  within 
the  new  individualistic  hierarchy  could  be  achieved  in  one 
generation  and  it  is  doubtful  w^hether  the  aim  of  getting  into 
the  middle  nobihty  is  consciously  realized  by  the  family. 
We  must  remember  that  the  isolation  of  the  peasant  nobihty 
as  a  class  is  four  centuries  old  and  that  the  traditional  social 
horizon  of  its  members  no  longer  reaches  beyond  their  class. 
Thus  the  two  older  brothers,  Jozef  and  Jan,  are  typical 
peasants  whose  sphere  of  interests  is  completely  inclosed 
within  the  old  social  group.  They  do  not  tend  to  rise 
above  their  class  and  they  do  not  understand  the  conscious 
or  unconscious  tendencies  of  their  children  in  this  direction. 
Each  of  them  wants  his  family  to  occupy  the  highest  possible 
place  within  the  community ^ — his  family  as  a  whole,  not 
one  or  another  individual  in  particular,  not  even  his  own 
personality,  which  he  does  not  dissociate  from  that  of  his 
family.  All  the  efforts  of  Jozef  and  Jan  are  concentrated 
upon  this  aim.  They  both  economize  as  much  as  possible, 
making  little  distinction  between  their  own  money  and  that 
of  their  children;  they  both  buy  land  wherever  there  is  any 
opportunity;  they  try  to  profit  from  every  source  of  income; 
they  neglect  any  showing-off  except  in  the  traditional  lines, 
giving  no  money  to  dress  their  children,  but  spending  large 
sums  on  wedding-festivals.  They  endow  their  children 
very  well,  but  want  them  to  make  good  matches.  They 
give  their  children  instruction,  but  only  as  far  as  instruction 
helps  to  attain  a  higher  standing  in  the  community  itself, 


MARKIEWICZ  SERIES  457 

and  provided  it  does  not  lead  to  ideas  contrary  to  the  tradi- 
tions. They  do  not  understand  at  first  how  their  sons  in 
America  can  have  any  other  aim  than  to  gather  as  much 
money  as  possible  in  order  to  come  back  and  buy  good 
farms  and  marry  rich  peasant  girls.  When  they  begin  to 
understand  that  their  sons'  sphere  of  interests  has  become 
different  from  their  own,  the  discovery  leads  either  to  a 
tragic  appeal  or  to  a  more  or  less  complete  estrangement 
between  father  and  son. 

The  two  mothers,  wives  of  Jozef  and  Jan,  have  no 
such  determined  tendency  and  seem  in  general  to  have 
no  conscious  and  far-going  life-plans.  Their  ideas  turn 
generally  in  the  traditional  circle,  but  their  familial  atti- 
tude is  not  pronounced  and  their  love  for  their  children 
individually  allows  them  to  understand  them  and  to  sym- 
pathize better  with  their  individual  needs  and  their  new 
tendencies. 

Each  of  the  children  has  a  somewhat  different  attitude. 
In  Jan's  family  the  three  sons,  Michal,  Wiktor,  and  Maks 
present  the  most  perfect  gradation  from  a  typical  peasant  to 
a  typical  middle-class  attitude.  (The  fourth  son,  Stanislaw, 
is  not  sufficiently  characterized  in  his  brothers'  letters;  he 
seems  to  be  more  or  less  like  Wiktor.)  Michal  is  nothing 
but  a  peasant,  without  even  his  father's  tendency  to  advance. 
Perhaps  he  is  too  young.  His  whole  sphere  of  interest  is 
that  of  a  farmer.  He  hates  the  army  with  a  truly  peasant 
hatred,  and  does  not  even  try,  as  members  of  the  lower- 
middle  class  usually  do,  to  become  a  sergeant.  He  has  so 
little  ambition  as  to  think  about  becoming  an  orderly.  At 
the  maneuvers  he  is  interested  only  in  Russian  farming; 
cities  have  no  interest  for  him.  And  his  highest  dream  is 
to  come  back  and  to  take  his  father's  farm.  He  has  particu- 
larly strong  familial  feelings,  not  only  of  love  but  also  of 
solidarity,  and  few  purely  personal  claims. 


4S8  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

Wiktor  is  also  a  peasant,  but  much  less  so  than  his 
father  or  his  brother.  The  career  which  he  desires  lies  in 
tlu'  Hue  of  peasant  life  in  the  sense  that  he  intends  to  remain 
a  farmer.  But  he  has  already  certain  points  which  dis- 
tinguish him  from  the  peasant.  These  are  (i)  much 
stronger  personal  claims,  which  become  a  source  of  antago- 
nism between  him  and  his  father;  (2)  a  tendency  to  general 
instruction,  not  limited  to  the  necessary  minimum;  (3)  a 
tendency  to  get  into  "better  society,"  to  boast  about  higher 
relationships  (even  if  they  be  those  with  a  Russian  official,  in 
spite  of  his  hatred  for  the  Russians),  and  to  assume  certain 
forms  and  manners  of  the  better  society.  But  this  will  cer- 
tainly be  dropped  when  after  his  marriage  he  settles  down 
upon  a  farm,  and  he  will  become  a  typical  well-to-do  farmer. 

Maks  has  little  of  the  peasant  even  in  the  beginning  of 
his  career  in  America,  and  almost  nothing  after  seven  years 
spent  in  this  country.  He  drops  all  the  peasant  ideals  one 
after  another — agriculture,  property,  communal  interests, 
familial  solidarity  (without  losing  attachment  to  individual 
members  of  the  family) — and  while  keeping  the  climbing 
tendencies  of  his  father,  develops  them  along  a  new  line,  in 
the  typical  middle-class  career. 

Still  more  variety  is  shown  among  the  children  of  Jozef. 
Two  of  them — Alfons  and  Polcia — have  not  the  smallest 
interest  in  anything  outside  of  the  peasant  life;  on  the 
contrary,  they  want  to  remain  peasants  in  full  consciousness 
of  the  fact.  But  since  at  the  same  time  they  show  no 
climbing  tendencies,  it  seems  that  the  father's  attitude 
toward  them  is  rather  contemptuous.  The  mother  shares 
the  contempt  toward  Alfons,  while  she  rather  favors  Polcia, 
who  helps  her,  although  she  is  not  proud  of  her. 

Stanislaw  and  Pecia  show  a  mixture  of  the  attitudes  of 
the  peasant  and  the  lower-middle  class,  which  results  in 
rather  negative  features,  as  only  the  superficial  characters 


MARKIEWICZ  SERIES  459 

of  the  lower-middle  class  have  been  assimilated,  and  many 
valuable  peasant  characters  lost.  Stanislaw  is  peculiarly 
undecided  in  his  hfe-plans.  He  hesitates  between  marrying 
and  remaining  a  peasant,  and  going  to  America.  Finally 
he  goes  to  America,  but  comes  back  after  a  year,  and  then 
regrets  it.  He  has  much  vanity  and  very  strong  personal 
claims;  a  superficial  tendency  to  instruction,  which  does 
not  develop  either  into  professional  agricultural  instruction, 
as  in  Alfons,  or  into  professional  instruction  along  the 
technical  line,  as  in  Maks,  or  even  into  a  serious  "sport," 
as  in  Waciaw.  As  to  Pecia,  she  seems  to  have  assimilated 
merely  the  external  distinctions  (dress  and  manners)  of 
the  lower-middle  class;  she  is  a  climber,  but  without  the 
strong  character  necessary  to  cHmb.  She  marries  a  man  a 
little  above  the  peasant  level  of  general  culture,  but  instead 
of  pushing  him  in  the  line  of  a  middle-class  career,  drops  with 
him  into  the  peasant  life  again,  and  has  not  even  the  qualities 
required  of  a  farmer's  wife.  Her  laziness  and  vanity  make  a 
peasant  career  impossible  for  her. 

Waciaw  and  Elzbieta  are  perhaps  psychologically  the 
most  interesting  types.  Intellectually  and  morally  they 
are  completely  outside  of  the  peasant  class.  Their  sphere 
of  interests  is  totally  different  from  that  of  their  parents  and 
environment  and  they  take  their  new  line  of  life  very 
seriously,  particularly  instruction  and — with  Waciaw — 
social  activity.  But  they  have  developed  no  new  economic 
basis  of  life;  they  have  not  the  energy  or  self-consciousness 
to  begin  a  regular  middle-class  career.  Waciaw  ought  to 
imitate  Maks;  Elzbieta  ought  to  become  a  teacher  or  a 
business  woman.  But  they  do  not  do  it,  and  thus  arises  an 
interior  conflict  which  is  perfectly  typical  at  the  present 
moment.  They  remain  in  the  old  class  by  their  familial 
connections  and  economic  interests,  while  intellectually  and 
morally  they  have  little  in  common  with  it. 


46o  PRIM ARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

The  letters  of  Michal  show  full}-  the  peasant's  attitude 
toward  military  service,  particularly  in  the  Russian  army. 
This  attitude  is  universal;  we  find  it,  a  Uttle  less  strong,  in 
Aleksander  Osinski's  letters,  and  stronger  still  in  the  letter 
of  J.  Wiater,  No.  664;  and  everyone  shares  or  is  supposed 
to  share  it.  That  the  military  service  is  a  great  annoyance 
to  the  peasant  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  so  many  peasants 
prefer  to  leave  their  country  forever  rather  than  to  serve — - 
for  example,  Maks  Markiewicz  and  Michal  Osinski.  No 
other  manifestation  of  the  authority  of  the  state  interferes 
so  much  with  the  peasant's  life. 

It  is  not  difficult  to  understand  the  peasant's  hatred  of 
the  army.  First  of  all,  in  Russia  he  is  completely  isolated 
from  his  family  and  community  and  finds  himself  among 
foreign  people  whose  language  he  does  not  well  understand 
(even  if  he  was  taught  it  in  the  school),  whose  faith  is 
difTerent,  whose  cultural  level  is  lower  than  his  own,  and 
who  dislike  him.  He  is  driven  far  into  the  east  of  Russia, 
often  to  Siberia,  for  it  is  a  policy  of  the  Russian  government 
to  scatter  the  Polish  soldiers  over  the  whole  empire,  for 
fear  of  a  revolution.  Further,  the  peasant  accustomed  to 
the  relative  liberty  of  country  life  finds  himself  in  the 
barracks,  under  a  harsh  and  continual  control;  all  his  acts 
are  prescribed;  there  are  innumerable  trifles  which  never 
permit  him  to  forget  his  dependence.  Instead  of  farm- 
work,  which  is  for  him  full  of  meaning,  which  has  a  great 
variety  and  requires  no  particular  precision,  he  finds  drill, 
with  its  efforts  to  attain  mechanical  precision,  not  only 
monotonous  but  absolutely  meaningless.  Not  only  are 
three  or  four  years  of  his  life  lost  without  any  benefit,  but 
there  is  nothing  to  compensate  for  this  evil — no  patriotism, 
since  the  cause  which  he  is  serving  is  the  cause  of  the  enemies 
and  oppressors  of  his  country,  no  idea  of  military  honor, 
since  in  Poland  this  idea  was  developed  only  among  the 


MARKIEWICZ  SERIES  461 

nobility,  no  expectation  of  a  material  benefit,  since  the 

military  service  does  not  prepare  him  for  any  future  position. 

In  Germany,  and  particularly  in  Austria,  the  hatred  of 

the  army  is  not  so  strong;  the  soldier  is  less  isolated,  he  can 

usually  go  home  on  leave  more  than  once;    the  cultural 

level  of  his  companions  is  higher;   the  military  authorities 

know  much  better  how  to  interest  the  soldier  in  his  work. 

In  Austria  there  is  still  another  reason  why  the  peasant 

looks  differently  upon  military  service — the  fidelity  of  the 

Austrian  Poles  to  the  Hapsburgs.     But,  even  there  a  strong 

antipathy  to  military  service  persists,  for  some  of  its  reasons 

remain  always  the  same. 

I 

THE  FAMILY  MARKIEWICZ 

J6zef  Markiewicz 

Anna,  his  wife 

Waclaw  (Wacio,  Wacek)  1 

Stanislaw  (Stas,  Stasiek,  Stasio)  [  his  sons 

Alfons  I 

Elzbieta  (Elzbietka,  Bicia) 

Pecia 

Polcia  (Apolonia) 

Zonia  (Zosia,  Zofia) 

Franus  (Franciszek) ,  Pecia's  husband 

Grandmother  (probably  Anna's  mother) 

J.  Przanowski,  probably  Anna's  brother 

Feliks  1  probably  Anna's  brothers;  perhaps 

AntoniJ      cousins  of  herself  or  husband 

Mackowa,  cousin  of  Jozef  or  Anna 

Teosia,  daughter  of  J.  Przanowski 

Wacek,  Teosia's  husband 

Maks,  son  of  J.  Przanowski 

Jan  Markiewicz,  Jozef's  brother 

His  wife 

Maks  (Maksymilian) 

Stas  (Stasio,  Stanislaw) 

Wiktor  (Wiktorek) 

Michal 

Ignac 


his  daughters 


his  sons 


462  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

Wcronika 

Julka         ■  his  daughters 
Mania 

Grandmother  (probably  mother  of  Jan's  wife) 
Zi6lek  (Zi6lkowski),  her  husband 
Jan  Ziolek,  the  latter's  son  by  his  first  marriage 
Ziolek's  sister 
Other  relatives  in  Poland,  in  America,  in  Prussia,  in  Petersburg. 

142-225,     FROM     MEMBERS     OF    THE     MARKIEWICZ  FAMILY, 

M-AINLY  TO  WACLAW  MARKIEWICZ,  IN  AMERICA.  I42-71 

ARE    FROM    THE    PARENTS,    JOZEF,    AND    ANNA;  1 7 2-7 7, 

FROM    STANISLAW;      1 78-84,   FROM  ELZBIETKA;  185-86, 

FROM  polcia;  187,  from  alfons;  188,  from  jan;  189- 
200,  FROM  wiktor;  20I-II,  frommaks;  212-225,  from 
michal. 

142  Zazdzierz,  January  7,  1907 

Dear  Son:  We  received  your  letter  ....  and  we  thank  God 
that  you  are  in  good  health,  because  I  [your  mother]  have  continually 
felt  and  even  dreamed  about  you  very  badly,  and  I  always  remem- 
bered that  dream,  and  we  both  were  anxious  for  you There  is 

news  that  Teosia  fled  to  America,  to  W.  Brzezoski,  but  it  is  not  certain 
whether  the  trick  will  succeed,  because  your  uncle  J.  P[rzanowski] 
went  in  pursuit  of  her  to  Bremen.  God  forbid,  what  a  meeting  it  will 
be.'  As  to  grinding,  there  is  much  of  it  this  year.  Thanks  to  God, 
we  shall  earn  enough  for  the  household  expenses.  You  asked  about 
the  horse.  We  sold  him  during  the  harvest  of  summer-grain.  We 
got  24  roubles  for  him.  I  bought  an  ass,  but  I  sold  it  at  once,  for  it 
was  a  dog's  worth  [proverbial].  Now  I  wTite  you  that  from  Wincen- 
towo  there  are  a  dozen  [men]  going  [to  America],  and  they  beg  for  your 
address.  Shall  we  give  it  to  them  or  not?  ....  We  have  in  our  farm- 
stock  3  nice  cows,  3  rather  good  hogs,  5  geese.  Before  winter  there 
will  be  some  young  ones,  and  so  we  push  forward  our  lot  and  our  age. 
And  Elzbietka  has  boys  from  time  to  time.  One  came  as  if  to  the 
mill.     His  name  is  Tokarski,  from  Rychlin.     His  sister  says  that  if  we 

'  Elopement  is  very  rare  among  the  peasants,  and,  in  view  of  the  familial 
character  of  marriage,  the  family  is  supposed  to  condemn  severely  such  an  attempt 
to  avoid  its  control. 


MARKIEWICZ  SERIES  463 

want  [him],  he  has  400  roubles  in  a  bank  and  he  can  show  them  for 
greater  certainty.  She  says  that  he  had  a  shop  in  Lodz.  But  we  are 
not  in  a  hurry,  we  only  said  to  him  that  he  can  call  upon  us.  Stas 
cannot  find  anything  favorable;  that  about  which  I  wrote  you  did 
not  please  us,  nor  him  either.  So  he  absolutely  wants  to  go  to  you. 
How  do  you  think  ?     Is  it  worth  while  or  not  ?  .  .  .  . 

[Anna  Markiewicz] 

Dear  Brother:  Send  soon  the  ship-ticket  or  money,  or  else  I  shall 
take  money  from  here  for  the  journey.  Why,  there  is  so  much  money 
with  us!  But  let  it  rather  remain;'  I  would  pay  you  back  later  on. 
Answer  at  once,  and  write  me,  what  I  shall  take  of  clothes,  linen,  and 
living  [food],  because  about  the  middle  of  March  I  am  going  to  you. 
Let  me  also  try  America!     I  would  not  spend  there  longer  than  2 

years.     In  our  windmill  there  is  big  grinding,  day  and  night 

Answer  at  once,  because  I  will  leave  about  the  middle  of  March. 

Be  healthy,  be  healthy  [goodbye],  dear  son  and  dear  brother.  As 
to  the  ship-ticket,  wait  a  little,  because  I  want  now  to  marry  [the 
daughter  of]  Gasztyka  in  Topolno.  If  I  succeed,  I  shan't  go  to 
America,  and  if  I  don't  succeed,  then  I  shall  go. 

[Stanislaw  M.] 

143  February  10,  1907 

Dear  Son:  ....  We  thank  you  for  not  having  forgotten  our 
need  which  it  was  absolutely  necessary  to  satisfy.  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Goszewski  moved  on  January  22.  We  gave  them  the  money  back; 
they  refused  to  accept  any  interest,  so  we  only  thanked  them.  We 
helped  them,  when  they  moved,  to  pack  up  their  baggage.  In 
bidding  them  farewell,  we  all  wept.  Tadek  did  not  want  to  go  to 
Ojcow;  he  mentioned  very  often  Mr.  W[aclaw]  who  wall  bring  him  a 
[wooden]  horse  from  America.  And  now,  when  [more]  money  comes 
from  you,  we  will  at  once  turn  it  over  to  Pecia,  and  so  we  shall  have 
peace  once  for  all  with  these  debts 

And  now  I  write  to  you  about  Teosia.  Your  uncle  sent  a  telegram 
to  Bremen  and  went  himself  to  Torun,  to  your  uncle  F.  F.,  and  they 

•  An  expression  of  the  old  qualification  of  economic  quantities  which  wc  have 
treated  in  the  Introduction:  "Pxonomic  Attitudes."  The  peasant  is  reluctant  to 
touch,  even  for  a  short  time,  money  which  has  been  put  aside.  But  in  this  ^-asc  it 
is  rather  the  reluctance  of  the  father  than  of  the  SQn. 


464  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

sojU  hor  photograph,  and  the  poHce  turned  the  girl  back  to  her  father 
in  Torun.  It  is  said  that  they  wrote  a  letter  to  Brzezoski  telling  him 
to  come,  for  they  give  the  permission  because  of  the  wish  of  their 
daughter  [and  of  her  behavior].     And  Stas  cannot  find  anyone  such 

ashe  would  like  to  marry.     Dear  son,  send  us  your  photograph 

[JozEF  and  Anna  Markiewicz] 

144  March  10,  1907 

Dear  Son:  ....  And  now  we  are  very  sad,  dear  son,  that  you 
are  longing  for  your  family.  But  I  don't  marvel,  because  although  I 
have  them  all  here,  I  weep  [for  you]  more  than  once  and  I  pray  our 
Lord  God  that  you  may  come  happily  back  to  your  family  home.  We 
will  now  write  letters  to  you  oftener,  because  it  won't  be  so  difficult 
[to  get]  to  Plock,  for  you  know  how  it  is  in  winter — always  snow  and 
cold.     We  go  there  seldom,  and  here  we  have  no  post-office. 

We  received  on  one  day  the  100  roubles  which  you  sent  and  on  the 
next  day  we  gave  them  to  Pecia  and  Franus,  and  8  roubles  of  interest.^ 
You  ordered  us  to  buy  for  the  children  [material]  for  dresses,  so  I 
bought  it  at  once,  and  you  made  them  very  glad.  They  thank  you. 
And  now,  dear  son,  when  you  earn  as  much  as  you  can  without 
damaging  your  health,  send  the  money  home,  and  we  shall  make  it 
safe.  Don't  think  that  perhaps  we  will  take  it  for  our  household 
needs;  what  you  send  now  will  be  made  safe  for  you  once  and  forever. 
....  You  ask  about  grandmother.  She  clucks  as  a  hen  when  all 
her  chickens  have  been  taken  away.  Walentowa  weeps  for  her  boys 
[who  are  in  America] ;  Antoniowa  does  not  regret  much  [her  man  who 
went  away]  because  she  has  another.  Everybody  whom  I  meet  asks 
about  you,  dear  son,  and  wishes  you  the  best  possible,  and  everybody 
says,  "  May  God  grant  us  to  see  him  happily  once  more."  We  bought 
a  good  overcoat  for  Pecia,  and  in  the  spring  we  will  also  give  her  a 
young  cow Stasio  often  looks  in  at  Dobrzykow Some- 
thing ties  him,  some  love,  nearer  to  the  Vistula May  our  Lord 

God  help  you  to  earn  some  hundred  roubles  that  you  may  find  your 
way  here.     Now  bee-keeping  is  again  considered  a  good  business. 

'  This  money  was  evidently  destined  originally  for  Pecia's  dower.  It  had 
apparently  been  advanced  to  the  brother  in  America,  and  as  Pecia  did  not  receive 
it  promptly  on  her  marriage,  interest  is  added.  The  giving  of  interest  here  indi- 
cates the  substitution  of  an  economic  for  a  purely  social  attitude.  Under  the  old 
system  the  delay  would  have  formed  no  reason  for  the  payment  of  interest. 


MARKIEWICZ  SERIES  465 

....  Elzbieta's  kum  [god-brother]  said  that  he  got  80  roubles  for 

the  honey  in  one  year So  when  our  Lord  God  brings  you  back 

we  shall  will  you  [some  land]  and  you  can  set  up  an  orchard  and  bee- 
hives  

[Anna  Markiewicz] 

145  July  4,  1907 

Dear  Son:  ....  We  heard  about  a  terrible  accident,  that 
Seweryniak  who  was  in  America  was  killed  by  a  train,  and  it  is  true, 
for  his  brother  Franciszek  buried  him.     Dear  son,  be  careful.     May 

God  keep  you  from  any  accident In   the  autumn  Alfons 

seriously  intends  going  to  you,  but  don't  think  that  it  is  not  a  fact.' 
So  answer  his  question.  You  know  his  strength.  We  say  that  his 
intention  is  of  no  use.  The  fathers  and  mothers  [of  the  young  men 
who  went  to  America]  and  the  wife  of  Mielczarek  send  you  their 
thanks  [for  having  received  and  helped  the  newcomers  in  America]. 

Dear  son,  you  write  us  not  to  be  surprised,  that  you  want  to 
marry.  But  we  don't  oppose  it  at  all  if  she  is  only  a  girl  with  a  good 
education.*  Consider  it  well,  because  the  state  of  marriage  is  subject 
to  great  [many]  conditions.  But  if  she  pleased  you,  then  very  well. 
May  our  Lord  God  bless  you,  and  we  wish  you  with  our  whole  heart 

everything  the  best In  fact  I  spoke  about  it  myself  [wishing] 

that  you  might  not  spend  your  young  years  on  nothing.  So  consider 
it  the  best  you  can  and  marry.     If  only  the  girl  is  orderly  and  good, 

we  can  only  rejoice If  she  is  from  Plock,  let  her  give  you  her 

address — if  she  has  parents  here,  and  where  they  live,  so  we  shall  get 
acquainted  with  them. 

If  you  don't  marry,  send  your  money  home,  but  if  you  have  the 

intention  [to  marry],  then  do  not. 

Be  healthy,  be  healthy,  dear  son, 

[Anna  Markiewicz] 

146  December  5,  1907 

Dear  Son:  ....  In  our  home  everybody  is  healthy  enough, 
only  in  Pecia's  home  her  youngest  daughter  died.     Stasio  and  Kocia 

'  This  phrase  is  ironical.  Alfons  is  not  treated  seriously  by  any  one  of  the 
family. 

2  Showing  how  relatively  advanced  the  writers  are.  In  no  other  series  is  this 
question  of  education  raised. 


400  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

Bialecka    were    the    god-parents.     She    lived   only  5  weeks 

You  ask  about  Teosia.  She  came  home  very  quietly  with  her  father 
and  she  is  at  home.  Perhaps  there  somebody  told  tales  like  a  gypsy, 
but  don't  believe  it  at  all,  because  all  that  is  untrue.'  [Weather; 
Christmas  wishes.]     And  your  father,  thanks  to  God,  is  not  at  all  the 

same  as  he  was  [his  character  has  improved] 

[Anna  Markiewicz] 

147  February  24,  1908 

Dear  Son:  We  received  your  letter We  wish  you  to  be 

healthy  in  body  and  soul,  because  this  is  the  excellence  of  man.  For 
the  second  year  is  passing  already,  and  you  don't  mention  anything 
about  religion  or  church.  Remember  the  admonition  of  your  parents. 
For  faith  is  the  first  thing,  and  everything  else  is  only  additional. 
Don't  step  aside  from  the  true  way.  Consider  it,  for  you  can  do  harm 
to  your  whole  family.^ 

And  now  I  inform  you  that  rye  is  7  roubles  [a  bushel].  Thanks 
to  God  there  is  work  in  the  windmill;  the  barri  brings  also  a  few 
bushels  [for  space  rented  ?]  and  so  we  try  as  best  we  can  that  there  may 
be  more  and  more  [property]  for  you  [children]. 

Dear  son,  reflect  well,  if  you  are  working  beyond  the  ocean  only 
for  the  sake  of  living  [without  saving],  leave  it  and  come  to  us.^     If 

'  Evidently,  such  an  exceptional  occurrence  as  Teosia's  flight  has  stirred  up 
much  gossip.  This  is  one  of  the  reasons  why  girls  and  boys  avoid  any  irregularities 
in  their  marriage.  Sometimes  the  smallest  irregularity  in  the  wedding  ceremony 
provokes  the  most  mischievous  gossip  and  most  wonderful  interpretations. 

'Probable  meaning:  "God  may  punish  the  whole  family  for  your  sins." 
Thus,  the  feeling  of  familial  unit}'  is  carried  so  far  as  to  acknowledge  a  common 
responsibility  before  God.  The  attitude  is  evidently  not  an  isolated  fact;  common 
religious  responsibility  is  still  more  or  less  admitted  not  only  for  families,  but  also 
for  other  social  units,  as  villages  and  parishes.  This  has  clearly  nothing  to  do  with 
the  biblical  heredity  of  sin  and  punishment:  it  is  merely  the  manifestation  of  the 
group-solidarity. 

J  The  new  tendency  to  advance  as  against  the  old  interest  in  mere  living  is  here 
expressed  as  clearly  as  possible.  Fifty  years  ago  it  was  all  right  if  a  young  member 
of  a  family,  which  was  too  poor  to  support  all  its  members,  earned  his  living 
by  servant-work  and  thus  spared  the  rest  of  the  family  his  living  expenses;  there 
was  not  even  the  idea  of  his  increasing  the  familial  fortune  for  he  had  no  wages 
in  cash.  Even  now,  in  the  Osiiiski  series,  we  find  this  attitude,  when  Michal  serves 
as  a  groom,  for  the  father  refuses  to  feed  hkn  (although  this  refusal,  in  the  good 
economic  condition  of  the  family,  is  already  something  new).     But  here,  with  re- 


MARKIEWICZ  SERIES  467 

you  have  a  few  hundred  roubles,  I  will  take  [add]  my  money,  and  I  will 
buy  a  farm  somewhere  for  you.  The  inn  in  Dobrzykow  is  now  for  sale, 
or  perhaps  something  else t'        at 

^  ^  6      ^"^ JOZEF  MarKIEWICZ 

148  March  29,  1908 

Dear  Son:  I  received  your  letter.  I  rejoiced  much  that  you  are 
in  good  health,  but  for  another  cause  you  make  us  sad,  for  you  don't 
intend  to  come  back  to  our  country.  At  this  moment  the  paper 
trembled  in  my  hand  or  my  hand  shook  in  recording  it.  Why,  even 
birds  who  fly  away  from  their  native  place  still  do  come  back !  How 
did  you  dare  to  pronounce  such  wretched  [mean]  words  ?  You  ought 
to  hold  to  the  parental  exhortations.  I  never  taught  you  to  criticize 
the  clergy.  You  know  that  Bonaparte  shook  the  whole  of  Europe 
until  he  broke  off  with  the  head  of  the  Church,  and  later — you  know 
what  became  of  him  later!  Well,  I  don't  mention  that  you  forgot 
about  religion,  i.e.,  about  the  greatest  jewel,  only  that  after  a  year  you 
[raise  yourself  ?]  above  us.  What  you  give  to  the  papers  is  bad,  and  it 
is  a  pity  that  you  use  your  learning  so,  for  learning  is  everywhere 
useful  to  man,  but  [your  ideas]  are  useful  to  you  there,  but  won't  be 
when  you  come  back.     [Whole  paragraph  obscure  and  translation 

conjectural.]     And  now  with  us  it  is  as  it  has  been As  to 

money,  we  don't  absolutely  require  you  to  send  any  when  you  cannot, 
because  I  try  always  to  have  a  few  hundred  roubles  on  hand.  Only 
don't  forget  about  yourself  for  your  later  years 

I  have  nothing  more  to  write,  only  I  tell  you  the  news.     Wiktor, 

son  of  Jan,  went  to  the  army  to  Petersburg  and  there  he  found  our 

family.     Three  sons  of  my  father's  brother  are  there.     One  of  them 

is  a  higher  railway-conductor,  the  other  a  physician,  the  third  a 

professor.     And  in  Prussia  our  family  also  got  honors.     Stasiek  up  to 

the  present  does  not  succeed  [in  marrying]  and  Elzbictka  also  sits  at 

home.     I  end  my  letter  with  these  words:  May  you  not  forget,  even 

as  swallows  don't  forget  their  native  nests. 

'^  J.  Markiicwicz 

Dear  son,  why  are  you  so  angry  and  why  do  you  answer  us  so 
severely?     The  girls  wept  after  reading  this  lei  Icr,  so  that  it  \vas<|uilc 


gard  to  Wadaw,  the  situation  of  the  family  is  almost  i^rilliant  when  measun-d 
by  peasant  standards,  and  still  Wactaw  should  increase  the  fortune.  If  lie  cannot 
do  it  by  working  in  America  he  ought  to  do  it  by  farmer's  work.  If  he  does  nolii- 
ing  but  live  on  his  income  he  is  regarded  as  losing  his  time. 


468  I'RIM  \R^-elROUP  ORGANIZATION 

gloonn-  in  tlic  house.    And  we,  the  parents,  what  are  we  to  say  ?    You 
don't  want  to  come  back  to  us,  but  I  don't  think  it  true.     I  believe 

in  you  that  you  love  your  parents  and  your  country ' 

[Your  Mother] 

l^g  September  7,  1909 

Dear  Son:  ....  And  as  to  the  letters  from  you,  we  had  none 
except  last  year  in  July  for  my  name-day.  Then  we  answered  at  once 
and  we  asked  you  for  an  answer,  but  we  received  no  letter  until  today, 
September  7.  Dear  son,  believe  us,  there  was  not  a  day  when  we  did 
not  complain  about  your  negligence,  and  you  complain  about  us! 
Neither  letter  nor  postcard,  nothing  up  to  the  present.  I  don't  know 
what  happened.  We  have  only  this  letter  which  you  tell  us  to  send 
to  the  editor  [of  some  paper].  As  for  me,  I  fall  asleep  with  the  thought 
about  you  and  I  awake  with  the  same  thought;  I  end  the  day  with 
tears  and  I  begin  it  with  tears.  I  did  not  understand  what  happened 
to  you.  Everybody  at  home  tried  to  comfort  me,  but  it  was  hard  to 
wait.  Your  father  went  to  Jan  M[arkiewicz]  in  order  that  he  might 
ask  JNIaks.  They  said  that  Maks  wrote  about  your  having  gone 
somewhere  without  giving  any  word  of  yourself,  but  they  did  not 
allow  us  to  read  the  letter. 

With  us  everything  is  as  it  has  been  from  old;  we  have  a  horse, 
worth  100  roubles,  a  new  wagon,  3  cow^s,  2  calves,  4  pigs  worth  also 
about  100  [roubles],  etc.  The  crops  are  the  average.  Franus  [son-in- 
law]  is  captain  [of  a  Vistula  boat].  They  bought  6  morgs  of  land. 
We  have  given  them  some  money  already,  but  we  will  add  some  more, 
for  we  must  give  them  at  least  500  roubles.  Teosia  and  Wacek  were 
with  us  for  a  week,  but  they  did  not  say  anything  about  any  loan,  so 
it  is  probably  a  lie.  We  heard  that  they  said  something  to  Franus. 
They  are  all  worth  the  same  [little].  Well,  God  be  with  them.  I 
don't  see  any  blessing  of  God  for  them.  They  had  only  her  [one 
daughter]  and  even  so  they  came  to  us  asking  us  for  a  hundred  [roubles] 
for  her  wedding ^ 

'  For  the  meaning  of  this  letter,  as  showing  the  contrast  between  the  old  and 
the  young  generation,  cf.  Introduction:    "Peasant  Family." 

'  We  see  how  success  may  assume  a  moral  value  by  being  conceiv^ed  as  the 
result  of  God's  blessing.  Formally  this  conception  was  introduced  by  the  church 
in  its  endeavor  to  ascribe  to  God  all  the  good.  But  the  content  is  really  older. 
Prosperity  was  a  sign  of  a  harmony  between  man  and  nature.  Cf.  Introduction: 
"Religious  and  Magical  Attitudes." 


MARKIEWICZ  SERIES  469 

Your  father  was  in  Wloclawek  ....  and  called  upon  Edek. 
Edek  said  that  he  saw  you  in  the  spring  and  that  you  intend  to  come 
back  to  our  country.  If  you  think  it  good,  then  come.  He  said  that 
you  are  some  sort  of  a  boss,  and  that  you  earn  about  $400.  Can  it  be  ? 
Or  perhaps  it  is  only  a  slander  of  your  enemies;  I  don't  know.  Your 
grandmother  began  to  reproach  us  for  your  education,  saying  that 
we  have  praised  you  so  much,  and  now  you  don't  write.  We  grieve 
ourselves  enough.  All  other  people  do  write,  and  we  don't  have  any 
news.    How  hard  and  painful  it  is  when  anybody  asks  us  [about  you]. 

We  were  quite  ashamed  at  last We  keep  the  shop  after  Pecia. 

It  brought  us  also  100  [roubles].     We  all  work  as  we  can.     Elzbieta 
is  in  Cz^stochowa  and  Polcia  in  the  shop.     Answer  us  the  soonest 

possible 

[Markiewiczs] 


150  March  12,  1910 

Dear  Son:  We  received  your  postcard.  On  the  one  hand  we  are 
glad  that  you  are  in  good  health,  on  the  other  we  are  pained  that  you 
spend  your  youth  in  vain,  doing  nothing.  Why,  you  have  your  own 
reason  [you  know]  that  it  is  necessary  to  provide  somewhat  in  youth 
for  old  age.  If  you  have  nothing  to  do  there,  move  to  Europe,  or,  if 
you  think  it  good,  come  home.  As  to  the  money,  if  you  have  not 
enough,  take  from  Mielczarek,  or  simply  write  home  and  I  will  send 
you  some  to  America.  And  if  you  borrow  from  Mielczarek,  we  will 
give  it  back  here  [to  his  parents],  for  some  hundred  roubles  are 
ready. 

What  more  shall  I  write  you?  I  can  only  write  you  that  the 
winter  is  here  very  severe  and  cold,  and  at  home  it  is  not  quite  well, 
because  everybody  was  more  or  less  unwell,  particularly  Elzbieta. 
....  Your  aunt,  Antoni's  wife,  is  dead.  And  except  for  this,  things 
are  not  bad  in  the  household,  for  we  have  threshed  and  now  we  are 
grinding.  And  I  must  tell  you  that  on  March  14  is  my  birthday.  I 
finish  60  years.  Perhaps  I  shall  not  be  able  to  work  for  a  great  while 
longer,  and  at  least  I  should  like  to  see  all  of  you  again.  Your  grand- 
mother sits  in  her  house  and  is  farming,  but  badly.  Uncle  Fclus  was 
with  us  for  a  few  days,  and  your  aunt  also;  they  enjoyed  our  hosj)!- 
tality  and  danced.     As  to  our  country,  you  know  probably  the  news. 

Your  father, 

TozEF  Markiewicz 


470  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 


Dear  son,  we  think  much  about  it,  for  you  grieve  there  perhaps 
very  much  that  you  have  no  work.  But  you  are  not  alone  [in  having 
no  work],  so  there  is  nothing  to  do.  Consider  it  and  don't  grieve. 
Our  Lord  God  has  more  [left]  than  He  has  spent.     Be  healthy,  be 

healthy,  dear  son 

[Your  Mother] 

151  May  5  [1910] 

De.\r  Son:  ....  You  keep  writing  always  about  those  100 
roubles.  Well,  I  will  send  them  back,  but  remember  that  you  don't 
do  harm  to  me,  but  to  yourself.  And  with  me  it  is  so:  I  thought  that 
I  should  increase  the  fortune,  but  nothing  thrives  with  my  children, 
neither  a  good  marriage  with  my  daughters  nor  [a  good  lot]  with  any 
boy.  But  I  return  to  you  once  more,  I  send  you  these  100  roubles. 
But  why  can  others  send  enough  money  home,  while  you  have  not 
enough  even  to  live  or  to  come  back?  My  w^hole  dream  is  vain. 
Come  here.  Why  should  you  sit  there  since  the  star  [of  fortune]  does 
not  shine  for  you  ?  It  is  very  bad,  dear  son.  If  you  have  not  enough 
for  your  journey,  take  from  Mielczarek.  We  will  give  it  back  here. 
Right  now  land  and  other  property  open  [for  sale],  but  if  you  have  no 
money  to  buy — ^well,  perhaps  God  will  give  it.^ 

Your  father, 

J.  Markiewicz 

152  June  20  [1910] 

Dear  Son:  In  our  home  everybody  is  in  good  health.  As  to 
Stas,  it  is  always  the  same,  ....  and  as  to  Elzbieta,  she  won't 
marr>'  Janek;  she  has  changed  her  views  aheady.  In  our  field  the 
rye  is  average,  the  peas  not  very  good,  the  wheat  nice,  the  potatoes 
nice.  Our  horse  is  nice,  our  cattle  as  nice  as  never  before,  we  have 
4  cows  big  with  calves  and  one  young  cow,  we  have  sold  one  cow  and 
got  60  roubles,  and  for  the  calf  4  roubles;  we  have  pigs,  ducks,  of  all 

'  Plainly  the  fundamental  life-interest  of  the  old  man  is  to  increase  the  fortune 
of  the  whole  family,  to  arrange  rich  marriages  for  his  children,  to  have  them  all  in 
the  neighborhood,  prosperous,  respected  by  the  community,  keeping  the  traditional 
attitudes  and  ideals  in  harmony  with  his  own,  solidarity  among  themselves,  suffi- 
ciently instructed  to  play  an  active  part  in  communal  life,  and  always  obeying  the 
father.  The  position  of  head  of  such  a  family  is  the  highest  one  of  which  an  old 
type  of  a  peasant  can  dream. 


MARKIEWICZ  SERIES  471 

poultry  we  have  more  than  100  pieces;  there  is  a  nice  amount  of 
work.  This  is  not  all.  We  must  often  help  Pecia,  because  they  are 
building  a  barn  and  have  made  a  shack  for  themselves  of  the  stable. 
Later  on  they  will  build  a  house,  and  Pecia  has  nice  rye,  potatoes,  peas, 
etc.  So  in  general  everything  is  succeeding  well  enough  with  us, 
only  we  have  the  worst  trouble  with  Stasiek,  although  I  did  not  want 
to  grieve  you.  When  he  came  from  the  army  he  seemed  to  be  healthy 
for  a  few  days,  but  then  came  a  continuous  cough,  and  pains  in  the 
breast,  belly,  hands,  feet,  etc. ^everything.  After  he  has  been  better 
for  a  few  days,  then  all  this  returns.  Always  nothing  but  the  doctor 
and  the  drug-store.  I  have  already  proposed  to  have  the  doctor  and 
the  drug-store  move  into  our  house.  What  can  I  do  ?  I  have  grieved 
and  wept  enough;  it  fell  upon  [settled  in]  my  eyes,  which  are  worse 
than  ever.  And  now,  dear  son,  don't  care  about  anybody,  only  mind 
about  yourself.     For  nowadays  people  are  even  too  clever  when  they 

want  to  get  other  people's  good,  but  they  keep  well  their  own ' 

I  did  not  write  you  for  so  long  a  time  because  I  had  hoped  to  write  you 
something  new  [Elzbieta's  marriage],  but  she  says  that  the  lot  which 

she  would  have  now  with  him  may  be  still  had  10  years  hence 

You  asked  what  scabs  the  children  had.     Very  dangerous  ones,  for  it 

was  scarlet  fever.     Now,  thanks  to  God,  they  are  recovered 

Many  different  people  are  visiting  us  now,  as  always  when  there  are 
girls  at  home.  Even  sometimes  the  chief  forester  [from  the  manorial 
forest]  of  Lack  comes  with  his  wife.  Well,  you  can  imagine  how 
it  must  be  [how  troublesome  and  expensive]  but  all  this  is  done  for  the 
children.  You  know,  dear  son,  often  when  they  amuse  themselves, 
father  comes  to  me  and  says:  "Ah,  if  Wacek  came  now,  what  a  joy 
it  would  be." 

[Anna  Markiewicz] 

153  August  8  [1910] 

Dear  Son:  ....  As  to  your  marriage  about  which  you  wrote, 
we  are  very  satisfied.  If  only  the  girl  is  as  you  want  her  to  be, 
let  our  Lord  God  bless  you.     We  all  wish  you  with  a  single  voice: 

'  The  complaints  of  old  people  about  the  avarice  and  unreliability  of  the 
present  generation,  which  we  find  in  many  letters,  seem  to  have  a  real  ground. 
With  the  dissolution  of  the  old  solidarity  the  old  norms  regulating  economic  rela- 
tions disappear,  while  the  new  norms,  correspontling  to  the  individualistic  stage  of 
economic  Hfe  (business-honesty)  have  not  yet  developed. 


47.>  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

"Whatever  is  the  best  in  the  world,  may  God  grant  it  to  you."  Hut 
consider  well  what  you  intend  to  do. 

[Crops.]  Your  father  went  just  now  with  Franek  to  put  the 
wings  on  the  windmill;  it  will  take  some  weeks.  Stasio  is  grinding 
flour,  Alfons  is  mowing  peas,  Elzbietka  is  sewing  a  dress,  we  all  push 

the  work   farther  on You   write   about   Broncia.     She   has 

already  got  married.     She  married  the  baker  about  whom  I  wrote 

you,  who  wanted  our  Elzbietka,  but  she  did  not  want  him 

Write  us,  W^acio,  what  is  your  betrothed  occupied  with  and  in  whose 
house  she  lives,  for  here  people  say  that  she  went  to  her  uncle ' 

[Anna  Markiewicz] 

154  [September  13,  1910] 

Dear  Son:  After  returning  from  that  miraculous  place  [Cz§- 
stochowa]  I  am  healthy  enough,  as  well  as  all  of  us  at  home,  but  we 

are  much  grieved  that  you  are  not  in  good  health I  begged 

God's  Mother  for  health  and  good  success  for  you  all.  And  now,  dear 
son,  don't  be  angry  with  us  about  this  loan  to  your  aunt  [for  not 
having  lent  her  your  money],  for  she  has  the  mouth  in  the  right  spot 
[talks  much  and  knows  what  to  say].     And  now  we  will  give  Pecia  400 

roubles,  because  they  will  buy  that  house  from  Jakubowski 

[Your  Mother] 

Dear  son,  mark  it  well,  if  your  health  does  not  favor  you,  return 
home,  for  why  should  you  do  penance  there  ?  Here  is  bread  enough 
in  my  house.  You  gave  me  the  order  to  lend  a  few  hundred  of  zloty 
to  ^lackowa,  but  surely  you  know  how  I  lent  50  roubles  to  her  brother 
and  could  not  get  them  back  for  10  years.  You  know  that  it  is  easy 
to  let  money  go  away  while  it  is  difficult  to  put  it  together.  An 
incident  like  this  happened  a  month  ago  with  Mr.  Mroczkowski  who 
lived  in  our  house  during  the  summer.  When  he  left  he  took  15 
roubles  from  us.     Stasiek  was  too  credulous,  and  now  I  don't  know 

'  The  letter  shows  how  the  control  of  the  family  over  the  individual  is  lost. 
There  is  no  mention  at  all  of  the  girl's  dowry,  in  spite  of  the  father's  formerly 
expressed  wishes,  and  only  a  discreet  attempt  (in  the  last  phrase)  to  learn  anything 
more  about  her  personality  and  family.  The  parents  agree  with  their  son's  wish, 
and  they  dare  only  to  advise  him  "to  consider  the  matter  well."  The  attitude  is 
totally  different  toward  the  other  son,  who  stays  at  home;  here  the  parents  show 
more  clearly  what  are  their  wishes,  and  the  son  could  hardly  marry  a  girl  who  did 
not  please  his  parents.     Compare  this  letter  with  No.  145. 


MARKIEWICZ  SERIES  473 

when  he  will  get  them.  I  beg  you,  don't  send  any  more  such  [orders]. 
If  you  need  money,  I  can  send  it  to  you.  Moreover,  I  did  not  forget 
what  Mrs.  [ironical]  Mackowa  said  last  year  when  she  met  Andzia. 
....  She  reproached  you  for  living  with  her  son,  saying  that  you 
settled  in  his  house  and  filled  your  belly  with  his  food — as  if  you  did 
not  pay  for  boarding!     [Crops  and  weather.] 

Y[our]  f[ather], 

J.  Markiewicz 

155  November  i  [1910] 

Dear  Son:  ....  Walenty  in  Dobrzykow  built  a  small  mill 
upon  his  water  [in  competition  with  us],  but  he  grinds  [only]  three 
quarters  of  once-ground  flour  a  day.  Well,  we  don't  know  how  it  will 
be  later.  As  to  Elzbietka,  she  has  a  boy,  a  butcher  from  Lubieii. 
I  don't  know  whether  she  will  marry  him  or  not,  but  she  says  that  this 
winter  she  will  surely  decide.  If  not  this  one,  then  another.  I  have 
trouble  enough  now  for  my  [sins].  Always  new  guests,  always  some 
new  fashions,  always  these  new  things,  so  that  my  income  does  not 
suffice. 

And  you  know  that  [your]  father  always  says  so:  "When  any- 
thing is  not  there,  we  can  do  without  it."  But  sometimes  it  must  be 
had,  even  if  it  must  be  cut  out  from  under  the  palm  of  the  hand!  So, 
dear  son,  I  beg  you  very  much,  if  you  can,  send  me  a  little  money,  but 
for  my  needs.  Bicia  [Elzbieta]  is  grown  up,  Polcia  is  bigger  still, 
Zonia  begins  to  overtake  them,  and  they  all  need  to  be  dressed,  while 
it  is  useless  to  speak  to  your  father  about  it.  If  you  can,  send  it  as 
soon  as  possible,  because  if  I  sell  some  cow,  or  hog,  or  grain,  it  must 
be  put  aside;  [your  father  says  that]  it  cannot  be  spent.  We  gave 
Pecia  100  and  200,  but  we  must  still  give  200.  Bicia  also  [must  have 
money],  so  we  must  put  money  aside.  Well,  we  have  nice  hogs,  nice 
cattle,  and  a  nice  horse,  but  I  must  work  conscientiously  for  all  this. 
Your  father  just  excuses  himself  with  his  years  and  I  may  work  with 
the  children  so  that  my  bones  crack.  He  says:  "Then  don't  keep 
[so  much  farm-stock],  don't  work.  Do  I  order  you  [to  do  all  this]  ?'' 
But  when  he  wants  anything,  he  requires  it.  As  to  the  crops,  every- 
thing is  not  bad  ....  only  we  must  work  so  much.  Bicia  is  con- 
tinually in  the  shop,  she  has  pupils  and  sews.  Zonia  will  help  her 
presently,  and  so  we  push  things  further  and  further.  You  write  us 
that  you  won't  be  the  best  man  [at  your  sisters'  weddings].     It  is  hard 


4  74  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

for  me  to  road  this  and  my  tears  flow.  Well,  let  God's  Mother  of 
unceasing  Help  not  forget  you ' 

Your  truly  loving  mother, 

[Anna  Markiewicz] 

156  February  6  [191 1] 

Dear  Son:   We  received  ....  50  roubles  for  which  we  thank 

you We  bought  a  fur  [sheep]  coat  for  Stas  for  34  roubles,  and 

for  the  rest  two  dresses,  one  for  Bicia  and  one  for  Polcia.  [Sickness  of 
the  children.]  As  to  Elzbieta,  there  is  to  be  a  wedding,  but  not  till 
after  Easter,  because  he  has  a  brother  in  America,  so  they  wait  until 
he  comes  and  stays  with  his  family  [parents],  for  it  is  impossible  for 
her  to  go  there  [to  her  husband's  parents].  Let  them  rather  set  up  a 
place  of  their  own,  when  the  matter  comes  to  that.^  And  Stasiek  is 
walking  and  walking  [in  search  of  a  wife]  but  I  don't  know  when  he 

will    ''walk   out"   anything   for   himself I   don't   remember 

whether  I  wrote  you  that  one  of  Pecia's  children  died,  a  nice  little  boy, 
half  a  year  old.  [Stock  sold  and  bought,  windmill,  shop,  money 
received  from  debtors,  farm-work.]  We  wish  you  good  health, 
happiness  and  good  success  in  the  new  year.     Get  married,  don't 

mind  A.  T.,3  because  it  is  of  no  use 

[Markiewiczs] 

157  June3[i9ii] 

Dear  Son:  We  received  your  letter  ....  and  once  200  roubles, 
and  again  50  roubles.  Thanks  be  to  God  that  He  allowed  you  to  earn 
them.  We  thank  you  for  this  money.  We  will  put  it  in  a  safe  place. 
If  you  can,  send  even  more,  it  won't  be  lost.     [Health,  weather, 

'  The  difference  in  the  economic  attitudes  of  the  man  and  the  woman  is  here 
most  typically  expressed.  The  man  is  exclusively  interested  in  the  welfare  and 
social  standing  of  the  family  as  a  whole;  he  seems  to  have  very  little  understanding 
of  the  particular,  actual  needs  of  any  member  of  the  family.  The  woman,  on  the 
contrary,  understands  the  latter  very  well  and  sjTnpathizes  uith  the  members  of  the 
family  whenever  they  lack  anything  actually  and  individually,  but  seems  to  have 
no  real  eagerness  to  contribute  to  the  fulfilment  of  her  husband's  general  plans. 

'  It  would  be  bad  form  if  a  girl  with  Elzbieta's  social  standing  went  to  live 
with  her  husband's  parents,  for  it  would  look  as  if  she  had  not  dowry  enough  and 
he  could  not  earn  enough  to  start  their  own  home,  even  if  in  this  case  the  real  cause 
were  that  the  boy's  parents  needed  the  help  of  one  son. 

'  Evidently  a  girl,  and  probably  one  whom  he  did  not  succeed  in  marrying. 


MARKIEWICZ  SERIES  475 

crops.]  We  have  i  horse,  4  cows,  i  young  cow,  a  young  bull  of  good 
breed  ....  pigs,  22  geese,  turkeys,  ducks,  chickens;  we  have  more 
than  100  pieces  of  poultry  in  general,  because  we  are  preparing  for  a 
wedding.  Elzbieta  will  now  at  last  marry  that  Janek  K.  She  did 
not  want  him,  but  evidently  it  is  God's  will  for  her,  for  she  despised 
him,  but  he  did  his  best  to  please  her  again.  But  the  wedding  won't 
be  sooner  than  September,  because  he  is  as  far  as  Sandomierz,  on  a 
government  ship.  He  has  not  the  worst  salary.  It  will  be  as  God 
grants.  We  must  buy  everything  for  her  and  give  her  away;  nothing 
can  be  done.  You  ask  about  Pecia  and  Franus.  They  were  sick  in 
the  winter,  first  F.,  then  P.,  then  the  children;  they  spent  a  nice  sum 
of  money!  But  now,  thanks  to  God,  they  are  in  good  health.  The 
children  loaf  about,  Pecia  rocks  the  boy  to  sleep  [calls  to  the  others:] 
"You,  don't  touch  that,"  "You,  put  that  down."  She  is  always 
shooing  them  off.  Franus,  since  he  mounted  the  boat  of  Mrs. 
Jaworska,  is  sailing  up  to  the  present  as  captain.  He  does  his  best. 
Perhaps  our  Lord  God  won't  refuse  happiness  also  to  that  other 
[son-in-law],  for  Elzbieta  is  a  good,  honest,  orderly  girl.  Nothing  is 
amiss  with  her.  We  hoped  something  else  for  her.  Well,  nothing 
can  be  done.  Polcia  is  also  a  good  girl,  but  surely  she  will  soon  become 
a  loafer.  They  sing  in  the  church  in  the  choir,  beautifully,  it  is  true, 
but  I  have  the  more  to  do.     Well,  let  them  know  that  they  have  a 

mother Stasiek  wants  to  marry,  but  only  if  we  will  him  [the 

farm].     What  do  you  say  to  this  ?     What  shall  we  do  ?  ...  . 

[Anna  Markiewicz] 


158  [August-September?]  15,  1911 

Dear  Son:  We  and  Elzbieta  received  your  letters As  to 

Elzbieta,  she  postponed  all  this  to  future  times.  Well,  you  have  no 
idea  how  great  a  regret  it  was  for  Janek,  but  she  did  not  care  much 
about  it.  Well,  nothing  can  be  done;  she  is  not  for  him.  She  won't 
despise  the  man  who  will  be  suited  to  her.  Perhaps  at  last  she  will 
choose.  We  had  some  expenses,  and  he  also,  but  nothing  can  be  done. 
A  girl  with  such  a  character  as  Elzbieta's  is  not  easily  found,  so  it  is  no 
wonder  if  she  prizes  herself  much.'     Even  now  she  was  in  Plock  taking 

'  The  case  of  Elzbieta  is  frequent  in  the  lower  classes.  In  a  family  which  rises 
above  its  class  the  condition  of  a  girl  is  much  worse  than  that  of  a  boy.  The  latter 
has  already  risen  when  he  has  a  higher  instruction  and  a  better  position,  and 


470  rRl.MARV-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

l)usincss  lessons,  so  she  i)rolUed  once  more  somewhat.  Thanks  to 
God,  Zosia  will  be  clever  also.  Well,  I  work  much  for  them,  but  what 
can  be  done  ?  As  to  our  grindinj^,  we  earn  poorly  now,  because  such 
an  executioner  [accursed  big  millj  is  built  in  Gi],bin  as  suffices  for 
everybody.  [Crops.]  Everywhere  only  work  and  work,  so  that  the 
bones  lap  one  over  another,  but  what  can  be  done  ?  But,  unhappily 
my  teeth  already  decline  absolutely  to  work,  so  I  must  have  some  put 
in.  but  I  have  not  money  enough  for  it^  for  I  have  enough  other  things 
to  spend  it  on.  So  if  it  would  not  be  a  great  detriment  to  you,  I 
would  beg  you  for  a  few  roubles  for  my  teeth,  but  if  not,  it  cannot  be 
helped.  Even  if  I  breed  anything  [and  sell],  either  some  clothes 
must  be  bought  for  one  child,  or  another  calls  for  something  else, 
or  the  boy  must  be  paid  who  tends  the  cattle.  And  your  father 
won't  know  anything  about  [have  anything  to  do  with]  all  this. 
[Greetings  from  the  whole  family  and  for  all  the  relatives  who  are 
in  America.] 

[Anna  Markiewicz] 

Maks  [Przanowski],  send  me  those  loo  roubles  back.     I  think  that 
I  have  waited  long  enough.     I  beg  you  very  much. 

[I.  M.] 

159  November  5,  191 1 

Dear  Son:  In  our  home  everybody  is  in  such  health  as  a  worm- 
eaten  nut,  but  everybody  pushes  slowly  his  lot It  is  not  well 

in  our  home.  Stasiek  would  be  glad  to  marry,  but  only  if  somebody 
gave  him  bread,  a  knife,  butter,  a  good  sofa  to  sit  upon,  etc.,  but  don't 
speak  to  him  about  working:  "I  am  tired,"  "I  don't  want  to,"  "I 
cannot,"  etc.     Don't  speak  to  him  about  this  or  that  to  be  done, 


marriage  is  for  him  in  this  respect  a  secondary  matter.  But  a  girl  cannot  rise 
socially,  unless  by  marriage;  instruction,  relative  refinement,  do  not  put  her  imme- 
diately above  the  level  of  her  class,  but  only  prepare  the  way  to  a  better  marriage, 
make  her  fit  to  rise  through  marriage.  But  in  a  milieu  in  which  the  conditions  of 
life  are  difficult  and  the  tendency  to  rise  is  strongly  developed  such  a  girl  will  with 
difficulty  find  an  opportunity  to  marry  above  her  class,  as  the  men  also  prefer  to 
marry  above  theirs.  But  a  refined  girl  is  not  easily  reconciled  to  marriage  with 
a  man  of  her  own  class,  and  thus  her  condition  is  not  enviable.  The  usual  result 
is  that,  after  waiting  for  a  good  match  which  does  not  come,  she  finally  resigns, 
fearing  to  remain  an  old  maid  more  than  to  marry  below  her  aspirations.  These 
aspirations  are  then  transferred  to  her  children. 


MARKIEWICZ  SERIES  477 

because  he  does  not  care  much  about  anything.  Let  him  be.*  I 
don't  wish  many  people  what  I  have  [of  trouble].  As  to  Elzbieta,  the 
heart  must  weep!  A  pretty,  graceful  girl,  skilful,  honest,  trained  as 
no  other  in  the  family — well,  and  there  is  nobody  whom  it  would  suit 
her  to  marry.  So  she  intends  to  go  to  a  school.  She  wants  to  learn 
to  be  a  teacher.  We  don't  know  how  she  will  succeed,  because  she  is 
only  just  now  going  to  make  inquiries.  I  will  write  you  in  another 
letter.  If  only  our  Lord  God  saves  us  from  any  accident  to  the 
[sick]  horse  ....  for  it  would  be  [a  loss  of]  120  roubles.  God 
forbid  it! 

You  ask  about  your  trees.  They  bore  cherries,  pears,  apples; 
there  were  a  few  olives,  and  nice  wild  pears.  We  sold  fruit  for  a  nice 
score  of  roubles,  as  never  before,  because  the  summer  was  very  dry  and 
hot.  In  Pecia's  home  everybody  is  in  good  health.  They  live  on 
their  own  land,  they  made  a  shack  of  that  stable  and  live  there  for 
the  present.  Next  year  they  will  perhaps  build  a  house.  Genia 
Jaworska  is  going  to  marry,  but  our  girls  don't  even  look  at  such 
young  men.  The  other  who  now  has  Bronka  wanted  to  come  to 
Elzbieta  but  she  refused.  Now  this  one  also  wanted  [to  marry 
her],  but  she  will  not  even  listen.  Well,  I  don't  know  who  will 
be  better  off. 

You  write  about  your  marrying.  Decide  as  you  please,  provided 
only  that  you  are  happy,  and  that  which  is  good  and  nice  for  you  will 
be  that  also  for  us.     May  our  Lord  God  bless  you 

Zosia  is  growing,  a  nice  little  girl.     Soon  she  will  be  as  big  as  her 

mother.     She  is  intelligent  enough,  she  sews  not  badly.     Polcia  is 

not  [intelligent],  she  is  only  a  housekeeper,  a  scrub-woman,  an  ironer, 

a  laundress — all  of  them. 

Your  sincerely  loving  parents, 

J.  [and]  Anna  M. 

Our  horse  just  died.  A  horse  and  3  pigs!  It  is  a  nice  comedown! 
We  shall  not  overtake  it  soon! 

'  Stasiek  is  probably  demoralized  by  his  military  service,  and  his  bad  health. 
But  it  is  very  probable  that  his  unwillingness  to  work  is  to  a  great  extent  due 
to  the  loss  of  family  interests  and  to  the  lack  of  personal  interests.  (Cf.  his 
letters.)  The  family  life  is  organized  Dy  the  father  upon  the  old  basis  of  familial 
unity;  each  child  has  to  work,  not  for  himself  personally,  but  for  the  benefit 
of  the  whole  group.  But  Stasiek  has  no  longer  this  attitude,  and  perhaps  his  long 
and  truitless  search  for  a  wife  is  caused  by  his  wish  to  become  independent. 


4 78  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

i()0  January  20,  1912 

Dkar  Son:  We  received  your  letter  ....  for  which  we  thank 
you  heartily,  but  ...  .  don't  be  such  a  cause  of  grief  to  your  family. 
Vou  know  (hat  we  all  grieve  about  you  [when  we  have  no  nev/s]; 
when  anything  bad  or  good  happens  to  you,  share  it  with  us,  as  we  do 

with  you In  our  home  everybody  is  healthy  enough.    There  is 

suflicient  grinding,  as  much  as  there  is  wind.  Our  farm-stock  is,  4 
cows  big  with  calves,  one  young  cow,  6  pigs  which  are  worth  about 

100  roubles,  geese,  ducks,  etc Our  crops  are  average 

Pccia's  children  are  somewhat  ill,  because  scabs  are  spread  out  in  our 
neighborhood.  In  Tokary,  Dobrzykow,  many  people  lie  sick  with 
scabs.  Walenty's  Witek  came  from  the  army  and  has  smallpox, 
Antoni's  IVIaks  has  smallpox.  Antoni  has  been  sick  for  more  than  a 
year.     He  lies  almost  continually.     She  lies  sick  also,  with  swelling  of 

the  liver Bulkoski's  wife  died  just  now.     In  our  home  up  to 

the  present  everybody  is  well  enough,  but  we  don't  know  how  it  will 
l)e  later.  Stasio  is  walking  here  and  there  [in  search  of  a  wife]. 
Well,  I  don't  know.  As  to  Elzbieta,  if  anybody  wants  her  she  does 
not  want  him,  so  I  don't  know  how  it  will  be,  whether  she  will  win  or 
lose.  Well,  it  will  be  as  God  grants.  She  cuts  and  sews,  she  sings 
religious  and  dancing  songs,  she  has  a  pupil  [in  sewing],  the  girl  of  Jan 
Seweryniak,  and  so  she  passes  her  moments.  When  Sunday  comes 
Andrzej  Kusio  calls  upon  them  and  plays,  they  dance  a  little.  One 
and  another  comes,  boys  from  the  manor-farm,  and  we  amuse  our- 
selves. Polcia  has  grown  bigger  than  Pecia  and  Elzbieta;  when  she 
comes  from  the  kitchen  to  the  room,  it  [the  door]  is  full  of  her  from  the 
top  to  the  bottom.  She  works  at  home  and  helps  Elzbieta.  Zonia 
goes  to  school  and  learns.     We  have  a  new  teacher,  but  an  orthodox 

[Russian],  so  we  don't  have  any  friendly  relations  with  her 

You  ask  who  got  married.  [Enumerates  7  marriages.]  We  had  200 
roubles  with  Fijolek,  he  paid  us  the  sum  and  the  interest;  and 
Matusiak  and  everybody  paid  us  back.     Write  us  whether  you  have 

any  cash Everybody  who  comes  to  us,  asks  what  you  wrote 

and  whether  you  are  in  good  health,  and  asks  us  to  greet  you:  "From 
me  also,"  "And  from  me."  .... 

Your  Parents  and  Family 

Dear  brother,  I  am  addressing  this  letter  in  the  home  of  my 
betrothed,  in  Gombin,  in  the  house  of  Pokorski  the  tile-maker.     Our 


MARKIEWICZ  SERIES  479 

father   and   mother  are   here   expressly  for   the  first   [preliminary] 

betrothal.     The  marriage  is  to  be  after  Easter,  so  don't  send  the 

ship-ticket.  r^  i 

^  [Stanislaw] 

161  March  17,  1912 

Dear  Son:  ....  I  beg  you,  write  letters  home  oftener,  for  why 
should  we  grieve  so  much  about  you  ?  In  our  house  everybody  is  in 
good  health,  but  in  Pecia's  house  Felus  has  spent  the  whole  winter  in 
getting  well,  for  he  caught  cold.  Well,  now  he  is  already  sailing  upon 
the  ship.  And  Pecia,  you  know  while  she  was  yet  [a  girl]  at  home  said : 
"  I  must  not  eat  the  breakfast,  for  I  shall  be  thick,"  or  "  I  must  squeeze 
myself  tightly  with  the  corset."     Well,  and  now  the  results  of  all  this 

show  themselves.     Now  that  she  is  married,  she  is  sickly '  Jan 

[Markiewicz]  boasts  that  Maks  has  already  sent  some  thousand 
roubles  home,  that  he  has  there  almost  10,000  roubles,  that  he  passed 
an  examination  as  engineer,  and  he  says:  "  Your  Waclaw  is  also  going 
to  this  school."  And  your  father  answers  him:  "  You  are  stupid,  say 
'yes'!"  If  you  intend  to  send  some  money,  send  it;  we  shall  place  it 
here.  Don't  be  afraid,  we  won't  do  as  your  grandparents  did. 
[Incomes  and  expenses ;  weather.]  And  beware  of  these  "  engineers  " 
and  locksmiths  and  cabinet-makers,  because  both  sides  [the  parents 
here  and  the  sons  there]  are  worth  the  same.  When  they  [Jan  M.] 
receive  a  letter,  and  your  father  is  there,  they  never  give  it  to  him  to 
read,  because  there  are  always  some  secrets  from  that  "engineer.".  .  .  .' 

[Anna  Markiewicz] 

162  October  20  [191 2] 

Dear  Son:  We  received  your  last  letter  ....  for  which  wc 
thank  you  heartily.     You  pained  us  [in  writing]  that  your  teeth  are 

'  Pecia  also  tried  to  rise  above  her  class.  The  purely  peasant  girl  does  not 
resort  to  lacing  and  keeping  down  her  weight  but  uses  external  ornamentation 
instead.  After  her  marriage  Pecia  falls  back  into  the  peasant  ideals  of  land- 
owning and  successful  farming.  Her  imitation  of  town-manners  is  purely  superfi- 
cial, while  Elzbieta  lends  to  acquire  an  interior  culture. 

^  There  is  evident  rivalry  between  the  two  brothers,  J6zef  and  Jan,  and  their 
lamilies  on  the  score  of  social  standing.  Jan's  family  is  more  successful,  and 
hence  the  envy  manifested  in  this  letter.  The  term  "engineer,"  properly  applied 
to  a  graduate  of  a  higher  polytechnical  school,  is  sometimes  used  by  courtesy  of 
graduates  of  lower  technical  schools,  and  hence  again  the  irony  and  incredulity  of 
the  old  man. 


4So  I'RI.MARV-C-.ROUP  ORGANIZATION 

aihinji,  but  that  is  nothing  new,  for  such  is  their  habit  at  present.     In 

our  home  now  it  is  somewhat  different,  for  it  was  very  bad,  because  I 

was  vcrv  sick.     I  got  sick  on  the  way  from  church  on  September  lo. 

I  was  so  terribly  sick  with  vomiting  and  headache  on  the  held  of 

Jankowski  that  I  could  not  come  home  alone.     Well,  they  helped 

me  with  whatever  was  possible,  but  I  was  in  such  danger  that  they 

had  to  bring  the  priest  at  once,  and  then  the  doctor.^     With  the  help 

of  a  medicine  I  got  a  little  better,  but  I  lay  for  two  weeks.     Now  I 

can  walk  and  I  work  a  little  but  my  head  pains  me  a  little  still.     The 

moncv  from  you  has  come  already;   we  will  get  it  and  put  it  in  the 

bank.     We  will  add  loo  roubles  and  put  200  together We 

lent  200  roubles  to  Fijolkowski  [Fijolek]."  ....  We  sold  a  horse, 

pigs,  a  cow  and  geese,  and  we  got  300  roubles,  and  these  from  you  will 

make  400  together.     If  your  health  favors  you,  earn  whatever  you  can 

and  send  us;  it  won't  be  lost  for  you  here.     [Crops.]     You  ask  about 

your  god-son.     He  is  growing,  a  nice  boy,  he  says  always  that  his 

god-father  will  bring  him  a  horse  from  America.     Pecia  bore  another 

child,  a  daughter.     We  sold  more  than  8  bushels  of  pears.     Old 

Seweryniak  died.     Be  healthy. 

[Anna  Markiewicz] 

Dear  son,  you  need  not  fear  [on  account  of  a  possible  war],  for 

everybody  here  is  very  calm.     The  only  thing  is  that  you  should  not 

return  with  your  hands  empty,  because,  you  know,  if  you  want  to  pay 

[your  brothers  and  sisters]  off,  you  must  have  some  hundreds  of 

roubles,  and  if  you  don't  wdsh  [to  take  my  farm],  then  another  farm 

will  be  bought,  for  Franus  has  also  400  roubles  of  cash  ....  [and 

could  take  my  farm]. 

JozEF  Markiewicz 

'  In  case  of  a  dangerous  sickness  it  is  the  habit  to  bring  first  a  priest,  and  only 
ifterward  the  doctor;  the  care  for  the  soul  is  considered  more  important  than  the 
care  for  the  body,  and  it  would  be  worse  to  neglect  the  opportunity  of  the  patient's 
making  peace  with  God  than  to  neglect  the  possibility  of  his  recovery  through 
immediate  help.  To  understand  this  better,  we  must  remember  that  the  old 
peasant  is  not  afraid  of  dying,  pro\ided  he  has  religious  help  and  time  enough  to 
make  his  dispositions. 

^  Note  the  change  in  the  name.  In  No.  160  the  man  is  called  "Fijolek." 
The  old  peasant  names  never  ended  in  "ski"  or  "cki,"  which,  dating  from  the 
fifteenth  century,  were  the  endings  of  the  names  of  the  nobility  (etymologically 
adjectives,  formed  from  the  names  of  the  estates).  Lately  the  peasants  (follow- 
ing the  bourgeoisie)  have  begun  to  imitate  the  form  by  adding  these  sufBxes  to 
their  names.     But  this  is  not  done  in  Galicia,  where  class-consciousness  is  stronger. 


MARKIEWICZ  SERIES  481 

163  March  26,  1913 
Dear  Sons:   We  thank  God  that  you  saw  one  another  healthy 

and  happy.  Love  one  another,  as  you  did  formerly  in  school,  for  we 
believe  that  you  love  one  another  sincerely  and  that  you  don't  wish 

one  another  evil,  but  good Our  whole  family  is  in  good  health, 

only  in  Jan's  house  one  of  the  girls  died,  but  perhaps  there  will  be 
added  one  more  instead,  because  Maks  intends  to  marry  Miss  Dob- 
rowolska.  [Farm-work,]  That  man  Buzanski  comes  often  to  Polcia, 
and  we  don't  know  what  to  do.  Advise  us  what  to  do.  Fijolkowski 
intends  to  sell  the  6  morgs  near  us.     Perhaps  we  shall  take  them. 

Dear  sons,  I  beg  you  very  much  to  send  me  a  few  roubles  for  my 
teeth,  because  I  must  have  new  ones  set  in,  and  I  hate  to  spend  money 
[which  is  put  aside].     Perhaps  you  have  more,  then  send  me 

And  now,  dear  Wacio,  care  for  Stas  as  you  cared  once  for  me  In 
my  sickness.     May  our  Lord  God  reward  you  for  it!  .  .  .  . 

Your  loving  mother, 

Anna  Markiewicz 

164  April  26  [1913] 

Dear  Sons:  ....  Alfons  sold  that  old  horse  and  bought  a 
young  one,  3  years  old,  good  for  eating  and  for  pulling  and  for  every- 
thing; but  his  hip  was  somewhat  injured.  It  was  so  difficult  to 
notice  that  at  the  fair  Prussian  Jews  bought  him  and  did  not  know  it. 
Even  so,  Alfons  made  a  profit  of  6  roubles,  and  the  horse's  work  was 
worth  10  roubles.     He  [the  horse]  remained  6  weeks  with  us. 

And  Andrzej  is  calling  upon  us  as  often  as  before  [courting  Polcia]. 

Surely  we  must  consider  it  and  finish  this  business Our  shop  is 

sold;  we  gathered  in  all  100  roubles  and  there  is  still  a  little  credited 

to  people,  but  there  will  be  always  those  who  won't  pay 

Jankowski  moved  beyond  the  Vistula.  He  had  borrowed  100  roubles 
more  and  owed  us  200,  but  when  he  was  to  move,  he  came  to  us  and 
calmed  us,'  paid  the  whole  200  roubles  back,  and  interest,  and  offered 
7  roubles  for  the  sake  of  good  feeling.  But  we  took  only  4  roubles  in 
order  that  there  might  always  be  good  feeling  between  us * 

'  To  "calm  the  creditors"  is  an  old  expression  for  paying  debts. 

^  Survival  of  the  old  custom  connected  with  the  lending  of  naluralia.  When 
a  natural  product  borrowed  for  productive  purposes  yielded  more  than  was 
expected,  a  return  was  made  greater  than  the  amount  agreed  upon.  This  custom 
survived  in  money  loans,  but  is  rare.    Cf.  Introduction:   "Economic  Attitudes. " 


482  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

I  am  aslDnishcil,  how  \n>u  can  write  such  things,  that  we  don't  care 
for  you.    Only  beyond  the  grave  father  and  mother  [part  with]  their 

^"•^iliJr»-'" [Anna  Markiewicz] 

165  July  3  [1913] 
Dear  Children:  ....  I  answer  only  now,  because  we  have 

such  different  circumstances.     Elzbietka's  betrothed  was  here  in  the 
end  of  June,  Edward  Topolski,  about  whom  you  know.     So  perhaps 

now  her  maidenhood  wdll  come  to  an  end As  to  Polcia,  she 

will  probably  marry  this  Andrzej,  because  she  won't  hear  to  anybody 

else,  and  he  waits  as  if  for  God's  mercy  [for  our  decision] 

We  have  a  great  sorrow,  my  children,  because  Alfons  bought  a 
mare  for  130  roubles  which  won't  pull  at  all,  particularly  when  going 
alone,  and  working  double  she  pulls  only  badly.  Alfons  has  now 
enough  to  listen  to.  But  he  is  worth  much,  for  he  is  clever  I  [Ironical]. 
[Farm-stock,  farm-work,  crops,  money  loaned.]  And  now  I  beg  you, 
my  children,  economize  in  order  to  bring  some  token  [money  from 
America],  because  my  strength  decreases.  My  eyes,  hands  and  feet 
begin  to  refuse  obedience [Anna  Markiewicz] 

166  November  27  [1913] 

Dear  Sons:  We  received  the  letter  and  the  money  from  you. 
Thanks  to  God  that  you  are  in  good  health,  because  in  our  house 
everybody  is  in  good  health  and  in  Pecia's  house  also.  Franus  is  still 
working  on  the  ship.  As  to  money,  you  [singular]  have  in  the  bank 
600  roubles  and  with  [loaned  to]  Pecia  50  roubles,  but  you  told  us  to 
give  her  10  roubles,  so  only  40  are  left  with  her.  I  told  her  that  you 
wrote  me  to  lend  her  the  whole  100  roubles,  but  on  her  note,  so  she 
was  very  much  offended  and  refused.  But  you  are  right,  quite  right, 
because  a  note  is  necessary.  Don't  think  that  I  am  not  good  to  her, 
but  she  demands  a  Uttle  too  much,  for  there  are  others  also  to  take, 
and  only  one  to  give,  and  it  is  right  to  remember  them  all  alike.  The 
news:  Wladzia,  Walenty's  daughter,  got  married.  We  were  at  the 
wedding.  She  married  Guzinski  of  Plock.  The  Swaeckis'  windmill 
is  burned.  Maks  [Przanowski]  has  not  yet  paid  us  the  money  back. 
We  have  3  stacks  of  seradella.  We  have  3  cows  big  with  calves,  one 
bull,  one  young  bull,  one  chestnut  horse,  one  pig  worth  about  50 
roubles,  12  turkeys,  etc.     The  children  have  gathered  [leaves  for] 


MARKIEWICZ  SERIES  483 

litter.     Now  they  will  bring  wood Wincenty  Przanowski  died. 

We  have  a  little  grinding,  but  not  much As  to  Polcia,  she 

won't  be  surely  glad  [married]  before  carnival.     We  wait  for  Elzbieta 
[to  be  married],  but  probably  it  will  be  necessary  to  give  [permission  ?] 
to  Polcia,  because  it  is  difficult  for  all  of  them  to  sit  at  home.^  .... 
Your  loving  parents  and  family, 

JozEF  and  Anna  Markiewicz 

167  December  15  [1913] 

Dear  Sons:  ....  We  received  your  letter  and  30  roubles,  for 
which  I  thank  you  heartily,  for  we  had  just  been  in  Radziwi  and  gave 
the  sheep-skins  to  line  the  coat  when  the  postman  gave  us  the  money. 
....  I  am  glad,  and  Alfons  also,  for  father  always  says:  "Don't 
make  big  expenses"  ....  and  now  we  can  buy  what  we  need  without 

touching  father's  money You  ask  me  how  much  money  there 

is  in  all.  In  the  bank  in  G^bin  there  are  600  roubles  of  Wacus 
[Waclaw]  and  600  of  ours  ....  and  Fijolkowski  has  [borrowed]  200 
[ours]  and  400  of  yours  [Stasio]  and  50  of  Pecia.     There  is  so  much  in 

all We  should  have  more  money  but  for  that  trading  of 

Alfons.  He  lost  100  roubles  on  the  mare,  and  then  we  had  to  give 
152  for  the  horse.  Well,  but  people  say  that  if  the  horses  are  so  dear 
in  the  summer,  he  will  be  worth  200.  Well,  perhaps  our  Lord  God 
will  comfort  us.  But  stealing  is  developed  beyond  measure.  From 
Andrzej's  brother-in-law  they  stole  horses  and  a  wagon.     They  did 

a  damage  of  500  roubles Well,  may  God  avert  them.     You 

ask  about  the  Americans.  They  earned  well  enough,  but  .... 
most  of  them  came  back.     Still,  if  they  had  had  no  work  they  would 

not  have  brought  such  nice  money But,  dear  children,  mind 

your  health  like  the  eye  in  your  head.  As  to  Elzbietka,  Topolski 
writes  letters.  Well,  at  carnival  we  shall  do  [something  about  it], 
either  to  the  left  or  to  the  right.  And  with  Polcia  we  will  soon  make 
an  end  [get  her  married].  [Anna  Markiewicz] 

'  According  to  a  custom  almost  universal  among  the  Polish  peasants,  the  older 
daughter  should  always  marry  before  the  younger  one.  The  parents  are  therefore 
very  unwilling  to  give  the  younger  daughter  away  before  the  older  is  married,  and 
if  such  a  case  happens,  they  often  refuse  to  give  her  any  dowry  before  the  older  has 
received  her  part.  And  the  younger  daughter  considers  it  a  family  duty  to  wait 
until  her  older  sister  is  married.  In  this  case  the  situation  is  difficult  because 
Elzbieta  is  too  particular  in  her  choice.  Therefore  Polcia  is  tired  of  waiting  and 
angry,  and  the  parents  are  half-decided  to  give  her  away  before  Elzbieta. 


4S4  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

168  January  23  [1914] 
Okar  Sons:   [Question  of  getting  a  passport  for  Stasio,  to  cross 

tlio  boundary  returning.]  Rosa's  son  sent  [from  America]  650 
roubles,  and  Seweryniak's  son  600,  etc.,  but  is  it  true?  I  did  not 
count  it.  And  you,  Stasio,  care  for  yourself.  Dear  children,  we 
have  also  wept  on  Christmas  and  we  thought  about  you  and  we 
talked  [wondered]  what  you  are  doing  there.  But  Alfons  said, 
"Thev  are  better  there  than  I  am  here,  because  these  3  girls  [sisters] 
beat  me  and  don't  even  let  me  cry."  Such  is  the  only  son  whom  I 
have  now.  At  least  when  I  had  you,  Stasio,  it  was  possible,  but  now — 
God  forbid!'  Andrzej  got  a  basket  [the  mitten],  and  there  is  some- 
body else  in  his  place Elzbietka  has  a  young  man  from  Plock, 

a  tailor,  and  his  parents  have  a  farm  near  Bodzanow.  He  claims  he 
has  1,000  roubles.  He  wished  [to  marry]  at  once  at  carnival,  but  we 
postponed  it  until  after  Easter,  in  order  not  to  burn  ourselves  [be 

too  hasty].     She  has  other  boys  still,  and  Polcia  also 

[Anna  Markiewicz] 

169  April  14  [1914] 

[Generalities  about  health  and  letter-writing.]  Here  in  our  papers 
is  [written],  that  in  America  there  has  been  a  very  great  storm  and 
terrible  rains.  We  are  very  anxious  what  is  the  news  with  you. 
Write  us  at  once  about  your  being  saved,  because  here  everyone 

speaks  differently 'Please  answer,  because  we  don't  believe 

these  gypsy  [cheating]  papers.  We  shall  probably  get  Polcia  married 
to  that  Andrzej.  What  do  you  say  to  it  ?  [Weather;  crops;  general 
news  about  friends.]  your  truly  loving 

[Markiewiczs] 

'  Alfons  evidently  loves  farming,  and  particularly  horses,  and  helps  at  home 
and  is  without  any  personal  claims.  There  is  almost  no  mention  of  him  in  the 
letters  written  before  Stanislaw  went  to  America.  After  this,  as  the  only  son  at 
home,  he  begins  to  play  some  part.  He  is  the  least  loved,  as  is  evident  from  the 
manner  in  which  the  mother  speaks  of  him.  He  is  not  at  all  stupid,  as  is  shown  by 
his  letter,  but  probably  is  rather  unpractical  and  diffident  outside  of  farming 
matters.  This  may  even  be  the  result  of  the  manner  in  which  he  is  treated  at  home. 
In  almost  every  numerous  family  there  is  a  child  worst  treated,  least  loved,  and 
most  e.xploited.  (Wladek  and  Bronis,in  the  autobiography  forming  Part  IV 
(volume  II),  are  cases  of  this  kind.)  Perhaps  the  source  of  it  is  some  pre- 
possession on  the  part  of  the  parents  against  the  child,  assumed  either  because  he  is 
not  standard  in  his  traits,  or  because  he  was  not  desired  in  an  already  too  numerous 

familv 


MARKIEWICZ  SERIES  485 

170  May  I  [1914] 

Dear  Sons:  ....  We  are  grieved  that  you  have  no  work,  but 
we  are  glad  that  you  are  in  good  health,  because  money  is  an  acquired 
thing,  while  health  is  an  important  thing.  You  wrote,  Stasio,  that 
you  would  come;  we  expected  you  from  day  to  day,  but  you  did  not 
come.  So  we  don't  know  whether  you  have  occupation  or  not.  We 
are  very  curious,  for  a  man  without  work  has  still  worse  thoughts 
[sic].  Well,  but  nothing  can  be  done.  There  is  something  for  you  to 
come  back  to,  [our]  poverty  is  not  yet  so  great.  You  can  have  bread 
and  more  than  bread,  so  don't  grieve.  [Description  of  the  farm-stock 
and  the  work.] 

[Markiewiczs] 


171  June  12,  [1914] 

Dear  Son:  We  received  your  2  letters  after  the  arrival  of  Stasio. 
When  he  arrived,  we  thought  that  you  would  come  also,  but  Stasio 
himself  regrets  [leaving]  those  wages.  He  says  that  it  is  a  golden  land 
as  long  as  there  is  work,  but  when  there  is  none,  then  it  is  worth 
nothing.  Earn,  dear  son,  some  hundreds  [and  come  back]  to  your 
fatherland.  [Conditions  bad;  dryness;  windmill  ruined.]  You  ask, 
dear  son,  what  your  father  said  about  the  goods  [probably  household- 
goods  or  clothing].  Well,  he  rejoiced.  He  said  that  Stasio  robbed 
you  too  much.  Still  he  is  satisfied.  You  ask  about  this  scoundrel 
[probably  Maks  Przanowski,  who  owed  them  100  roubles].  He  does 
not  even  show  himself;  we  must  take  a  complaint  [to  court].  As  to 
your  grandmother,  they  all  arrange  this.  Grandmother  does  not 
think;  they  write  [in  her  name  ?].  Well,  grandmother  wants  now  to 
move  to  us.  But  your  father  is  honey  and  sugar,  and  your  grand- 
mother gall  and  pepper.  Whoever  has  tried  it  knows  the  taste. 
Oh,  I  have  enjoyed  during  my  whole  life  this  honey  with  this  sugar; 
I  have  it  often  under  every  nail!  But  what  can  be  done  ?  It  is  the 
will  of  God. 

Elzbietka  is  sewing  beyond  Bodzanow,  for  she  is  bored  at  home. 
What  she  wants,  a  man  that  she  could  love,  cannot  be  found,  while 
she  does  not  want  those  whom  she  has  a  chance  to  marry.  Surely, 
Polcia  will  overtake  her  [marry  first].  Stasiek  is  weighing  [his  deci- 
sion] as  upon  a  scale.  If  he  had  a  ready  fortune,  he  would  risk  it. 
But  what  if  he  has  no  health  ?  .  .  .  . 


4S6  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

The  heat  is  terrible Everything  is  burned  upon  the  fields 

and  dwindles  away  while  we  look We  just  decided  today  that 

[Polcia's]  wcdiiing  will  be  at  the  end  of  August,  but  I  don't  know  how 

it  will  be  with  your  father,  because  he  always  says  so,  "If  anything  is 

not  there,  you  can  do  without  it."     We  cannot  do  without  it,  for  it 

must  be  [a  good  marriage-feast  and  bride's  outfit],  and  this  year  is  so 

hea\y  for  me,  and  so  dry.     The  last  was  with  water,  this  one  is  with 

heat And  I  must  buy  many  things,  since  I  promised  the 

wedding  for  the  end  of  August.     So  if  you  can,  send  me  a  few  dollars. 

But  if  you  have  none  to  spare,  don't  send  them,  for  we  are  at  home, 

and  you  are  outside 

Your  Loving  Mother 


172  February  10  [1907] 

Dear  Brother:  Those  50  roubles  which  you  sent  have  been 
received,  but  not  yet  the  100.  Dear  brother,  I  have  been  every- 
where [visited  all  the  girls  in  the  neighborhood],  but  I  don't  succeed  in 
finding  anyone  suitable.  Probably  I  shall  come  to  you  in  the  spring. 
....  Now  I  want  to  marry  Andzia,  ]Mtodziejewski's  daughter;  you 
know  her.  Just  today  I  sent  an  interceder  [match-maker]  to  him,  and 
in  a  few  days  I  will  go  myself.  She  pleased  me  very  much,  and  our 
mother  also,  only  our  whole  family  from  Dobrzykow  did  not  like  her 
at  all.  But  you  know  that  Miodziejewski  will  give  6  morgs  to  Zych 
and  12  to  Andzia.  Only  it  is  said  that  he  does  not  want  her  to  get 
married  before  he  builds  [new  farm-buildings].  So  I  will  now  speak 
with  him;  if  he  is  willing  to  get  her  married  in  autumn,  then  I  \vdll 
wait,  but  if  perhaps  only  in  2  years,  then  I  will  go  for  this  time  to  you. 
If  he  willed  her  these  1 2  morgs,  I  would  marry  her  and  I  would  wait 
even  till  autumn  or  even  till  carnival.     You  know  her  very  well,  so 

write  me  what  you  think  about  her  and  how  do  you  like  all  this 

I  was  in  the  last  week  of  the  carnival  at  a  wedding  in  the  house  of  the 
Bialeckis  in  Dobrzykow,  but  the  wedding  was  not  very  good.  She 
[B's  daughter]    married   Jozef    Klosihski.     I    got   acquainted   with 

Andzia  at  this  wedding,  for  I  did  not  know  her  before As  to 

the  grinding,  I  have  always  grain  to  grind,  sometimes  40  bushels  he 

in  reserve 

Y[our]  b[rother], 

Sta[nislaw]  Markiewicz 


MARKIEWICZ  SERIES  487 

^73  February  24,  1907 

Dear  Brother:  ....  An  awful  multitude  of  people  are  going 
from  here  to  America.  Uliczny  from  Wincentowo— you  know  him— 
wants  to  send  his  boy,  but  he  asks  you  how  it  is  there.  The  boy 
intended  to  go  right  now,  but  his  father  stopped  him  and  won't  allow 
him  to  go  until  the  letter  comes  from  you.  [Asks  about  the  new 
conditions  of  landing  in  United  States.] 

Dear  brother,  I  will  surely  marry,  but  not  until  the  autumn,  that 
•Andzia,  as  I  wrote  you  in  my  last  letter 

We  gave  Pecia  her  money  back,  but  we  have  not  yet  paid  the 
interest 

The  farmers  from  Zazdzierz  say  that  you  were  to  send  15  roubles 
for  a  feast  [for  them];  but  don't  do  it 

Stanislaw  Markiewicz 

174  [June  4,  1907] 
[Following  his  mother's  letter  of  the  same  date.] 

And  I  have  already  left  [the  girl  from]  Dobrzykow,  I  go  now  to 
Gostynno,  to  the  house  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Bukowski,  to  Mania.  You 
know  her  since  you  were  called  to  the  mobilization  with  Goszewski. 
They  speak  about  you,  and  even  now  you  have  a  greeting  from  them. 
They  are  all  very  favorable  to  me,  but  I  don't  know  how  it  will  turn 
out.  Our  wedding  is  not  to  be  celebrated  until  autumn.  As  you 
know  her,  write  me  anything  about  her.  I  was  pleased  very  much 
with  this  Maryanna  [Mania].  If  they  only  keep  their  word,  then  it 
will  be  at  last  the  end  with  my  marrying.  Write  such  a  letter  as  I 
could  read  to  them,  and  only  a  [separate]  bit  about  Mania  herself. 
Well,  you  know  yourself  how  to  do.     Our  crops  are  average. 

This  Mania  has  nationalist  ideas  like  myself,  and  through  this  she 
pleased  me  much.  And  how  beautifully  she  plays  the  accordeon! 
Every  second  Sunday  she  plays  to  me,  and  so  we  spend  our  time  gaily 

in  Gostynno Your  brother, 

STA[NistAw]  Markiewicz 

175  [September  13,  1910] 
Dear  Brother:  When  you  notice  that  the  conditions  [in  Amer- 
ica] improve,  inform  me  at  once;   then  I  shall  go  to  America.     Here 
nothing  succeeds.     I  have  begun  now  going  to  Radziwic  to  a  girl,  but 


4S8  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

1  iluu'i  know  anytliiivj;,  for  here,  as  you  know,  none  of  us  succeeds 
in  marryinj^  at  all,  and  what  can  be  done  ?  See  here,  Ignac  came 
from  the  armv  in  the  spring  and  he  marries  Andzia,  Mlodziejewski's 
daughter,  while  I  don't  succeed.  I  already  intended  to  write  you 
to  send  me  a  ship-ticket,  but  wait  still  a  little.  When  I  learn  that 
there  will  be  no  result  in  Radziwie,  then  I  will  write  you  at  once  to 
send  me  a  ship-ticket,  and  I  will  work  it  back. 

Sta[nislaw]  Mar[kiewicz] 

1176  October  23,  1910 

Dear  Brother:  ....  I  don't  know  what  to  do,  because  if  I 
were  as  healthy  as  formerly  I  would  have  asked  you  for  a  ship-ticket 
long  ago  and  I  should  be  there  already,  but  I  am  afraid  because  of  this 
rheumatism.  Just  now  I  have  lain  in  bed  for  3  weeks.  Now  I  am 
a  little  better.  I  went  to  the  doctor.  It  will  be  necessary  to  go  more 
than  once,  but  our  father  does  not  want  to  give  me  money.  He  nags 
me  still  worse  than  he  did  you,  but  not  the  other  children,  only  me. 
He  simply  drives  me  away.  Since  I  came  from  the  army  and  my 
clothes  and  overcoat  were  bought,  I  have  been  walking  in  them  up 
to  the  present.  Now  winter  is  coming  and  I  have  no  clothes  for 
winter  warm  enough,  on  account  of  my  rheumatism.  Father  said 
beforehand  that  he  wouldn't  buy  any,  and  he  drives  me  away  to  the 
factory  to  earn  for  a  sheep-skin  coat  while  I  am  still  sick.  And  so 
often  I  must  go  to  town  for  goods.  You  know  that  nominally  I  own 
the  small  shop  in  Wincentowo,  though  it  goes  lamely,  because  they 
take  everything  home  without  counting,  so  whatever  we  earn,  every- 
thing will  get  into  the  household.  Last  year  we  put  60  roubles  into 
the  business,  now  we  have  120  in  spite  of  such  a  big  expense.  But 
I  can  take  nothing  from  this.  When  I  bought  a  cap  once  father  told 
everywhere  that  I  would  spend  the  whole  shop-stock  for  my  needs. 
Every  week  I  sell  about  40  roubles  of  goods.  Mostly  Elzbietka  keeps 
the  shop  now.  As  soon  as  I  recover,  I  will  probably  throw  every- 
thing up.  I  will  draw  the  money  [from  the  shop],  pay  my  father  the 
debt  back  and  go  to  America,  because  I  am  tired  of  the  life  with 
father.'     If  you  only  send  me  a  ship-ticket  I  will  most  gladly  work 

'  The  letter  shows  a  total  lack  of  understanding  between  the  young  and  the  old 
generation.  The  father  is  not  an  egotist;  he  simply  does  not  acknowledge  the 
personal  interests  of  his  son  as  separated  from  the  interests  of  the  family.  And  the 
son  has  totally  lost  the  old  feeling  of  familial  solidarity.    Only,  the  father  goes  too 


MARKIEWICZ  SERIES  489 

back  whatever  I  shall  owe  you Why,  there  is  not  such  misery 

at  home.  There  are  about  600  roubles  of  cash,  we  bought  a  horse  for 
100  roubles,  a  cart  for  40,  we  gave  100  roubles  to  Franus.  Now, 
indeed,  we  must  give  him  more,  because  he  has  bought  6  morgs  in 
Tokary  ....  at  275  roubles  a  morg,  and  without  buildings.  She 
lives  as  she  did,  and  he  sails  as  captain  upon  the  ship  of  Mrs.  Jaworska. 
He  earns  40  roubles  a  month  in  summer,  and  we  don't  know  yet  how 

much  in  winter.     Elzbietka  has  a  suitor.     You  knew  Stasiek 

Well,  it  is  the  brother  of  his  wife  who  is  courting  Elzbietka.  He  is  a 
butcher  from  Lubien;  they  have  a  cured-meat  shop.  They  were  here 
on  Sunday.     Now  he  intends  to  come  to  us  next  week  to  buy  our  hogs. 

We  have  4  worth  120  roubles I  will  go  to  Lubien  and  learn 

what  reputation  he  enjoys.  He  has  two  sisters.  They  want  me  to 
take  one  of  them.  They  are  two  brothers;  one  of  them  is  in  America. 
Their  father  and  mother  are  dead.  Their  name  is  Topolski.  We 
know  one  another  already,  for  his  sisters  were  at  our  house.  The 
older  is  a  beautiful  woman,  only  there  is  nothing  [no  money].  When 
I  recover,  I  will  try,  but  today  I  shall  write  a  letter  to  Miss  Plebanek 
in  Jaroslaw,  asking  for  her  hand.  If  I  don't  succeed  there,  I  will 
surely  try  in  Lubien,  but  if  even  here  nothing  [results],  then  I  will 
write  you,  "Send  me  a  ticket  or  money."  .... 

Stanislaw  Markiewicz 

177  December  31,  1912 

Dear  Brother:  You  must  help  me  in  this,  because  I  must  now 
leave  the  home,  for  you  know  there  better  than  we  do  what  is  going 
on  here  in  our  country.  Your  answer  will  perhaps  find  me  at  home 
and  perhaps  not.  Father  won't  give  me  [money]  for  the  journey,  so 
I  must  borrow  from  somebody.  This  is  a  shame  indeed.  Our 
father,  though  there  are  600  roubles  cash  at  home  and  400  lent  to 
people,  says  that  he  won't  give  me  anything  for  the  journey.  So  I 
beg  you,  write  father  to  give  me  from  your  money,  then  I  will  pay  you 


far  in  his  group-attitude,  because  this  attitude  is  connected  in  his  character  with  a 
stronger  tendency  to  make  his. family  rise  than  that  found  in  an  ordinary  peasant. 
And  his  tyranny  is  particulary  unbearable  because  he  conceives  the  progress  of  the 
family's  social  standing  in  the  strictly  traditional  peasant  way  and  does  not  under- 
stand that  in  the  new  social  and  economic  conditions  in  which  his  ciiildren  have  to 
live  they  need  more  independence  than  they  would  have  needed  forty  years  ago, 
in  a  closed  and  isolated  farmers'  community. 


400  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

back  as  soon  as  I  get  to  you.     If  you  don't,  I  shall  be  obliged  to  borrow 

money  from  some  stranger,  but  I  must  go If  things  don't  get 

more  pressing  I  will  wait  for  your  letter,  and  if  not,  then  I  will  borrow 
from  anybody  and  go.  So  write  to  father  either  to  give  money  to  me, 
or  to  pay  my  debt As  to  my  marriage,  I  have  now  an  opportu- 
nity, but  because  of  all  this  I  don't  know  myself  what  to  do  and  prob- 
a    y     \\on    m  r  y Sta[nislaw]  Markiewicz 

178  May  4,  1908 

Dear  Wacio:  I  inform  you  that  you  wounded  my  heart  so  much 
with  the  word  which  you  wrote  in  that  letter,  that  I  did  not  know  how 
to  comfort  myself  [probably  about  his  intention  to  stay  in  America]. 
I  had  never  thought  that  you  would  write  us  such  a  sad  word.  So 
comfort  us  at  least  in  your  second  letter.     You  ask  us  how  we  spent 

the   carnival.     Merrily   enough,    only   we   grieved   for   you 

And  now  write  us  how  the  work  is  going  on,  and  when  will  you  come 

Your  loving  sister, 

E[lzbieta]  M. 

179  [November  4,  1909] 

Dear  Wacek:  We  received  your  photograph  and  we  are  very 
glad.  We  thank  you  for  it  and  we  rejoice  that  you  are  in  good  health 
and  look  nice  enough.  And  now  you  ask  about  the  rose.  It  grows 
nicely;  it  blossomed  twice  during  the  summer.  None  of  the  fruit 
trees  which  you  planted  bore  any  fruit.  You  asked  for  a  leaf  of  the 
rose;  I  send  you  it.  The  rose  put  out  a  wild  branch.  I  don't  know 
whether  I  shall  cut  it  or  leave  it  until  you  come;  write  me.  As  to  the 
plum  trees,  remind  me  once  more I  will  have  it  done.     The 

'The  boy's  search  for  a  wife  lasts  much  beyond  the  usual  time.  It  is  not 
because  he  cannot  find  a  suitable  girl,  but  the  girls'  parents  refuse  him.  The  reason 
is  perhaps  less  his  personality  than  economic  combinations.  Stanislaw,  acting  here 
in  harmony  with  his  father  (or  else  he  would  complain  about  the  latter)  evidently 
asks  too  much  dowry,  while  he  cannot  himself  have  a  corresponding  fortune. 
Even  if  his  father  gave  him  the  farm,  it  would  be  impossible  for  him  to  pay  the 
brothers'  and  sisters'  parts  without  mortgaging  the  farm,  unless  he  got  an  exception- 
ally large  dowry.  Therefore  he  would  prefer  to  settle  upon  his  future  wife's  farm. 
But  in  this  case  his  personality  begins  to  play  a  role.  If  a  farmer  agrees  to  give  his 
farm  to  his  son-in-law,  he  wants  the  latter  to  be  strong,  healthy,  laborious,  while 
Stanislaw  is  the  contrary  of  all  these. 


MARKIEWICZ  SERIES  491 

nut  tree  does  not  grow  very  well,  while  the  cherry  trees  grow  nicely.' 

I  thank  you  heartily  for  the  10  roubles As  to  Stasiek,  write 

him  as  [persuasively  as]  you  can,  not  to  leave  off  this  party  [girl]  in 
Gostynno,  because  they  are  favorable  to  him,  and  he  does  not  wish  it 
much,  but  would  like  rather  to  go  to  you.  So  write  him  as  you  can 
and  dissuade  him  from  going.  Only  let  him  marry;  I  think  it  is  time 
to  finish  it.  I  have  time  today  and  therefore  I  can  write  you,  while 
when  our  mother  wrote  the  last  letter,  I  was  with  Pecia,  and  I  was 
sad  that  I  could  not  write  a  few  words.  As  to  Teosia,  no  bad  news  is 
to  be  heard  here.  She  is  sitting  modestly  after  her  travels.  Grand- 
mother is  in  good  health.  Write  us  whether  the  president  has  been 
elected.  I  am  very  sad  in  thinking  that  we  cannot  see  one  another 
for  so  long  a  time,  but  if  you  are  longing  in  foreign  countries,  come 

soon  to  our  country 

Your  loving  sister, 

E[lzbieta]  Markiewicz 

180  [Date  undetermined] 

Dear  Wacio:    I  received  your  letter  for  which  I  thank  you 

heartily,  I  am  healthy  enough  and  I  wish  you  the  same.     I  am  still 

a  maiden  and  I  feel  very  happy  that  I  did  not  marry  him  [probably 

Topolski],  for  even  his  companions  and  my  acquaintances  approve  me 

for  not  having  married  him.     I  thank  you  also  heartily  for  these  few 

words  of  good  advice.     I  would  beg  you  very  much  to  write  me  who 

told  you  all  this  about  him.     Indeed  I  can  say  that  he  has  a  mean 

character;   just  on  that  account  I  did  not  marry  him.     In  short,  he 

was  not  for  me  and  I  did  not  marry  him.     And  now  I  don't  know;  if 

I  meet  somebody  according  to  my  mind,  I  will  get  married,  but  if  not, 

I  can  remain  a  maiden  for  some  time  still.     I  work  as  before,  I  have 

two  girls  [apprentices]  and  Zosia.     We  sew,  we  embroider,  and  so  the 

time  passes  away 

Elzbieta  Markiewicz 

181  March  26,  1913 

Dear  Wacio:  I  beg  you  very  much,  if  you  think  that  it  might 
be  better  for  me,  please  send  me  a  ship-ticket.  Instead  of  both 
paying  for  your  board,  you  would  have  me  as  housekeeper  if  I  went 
there,  and  I  could  earn  for  myself  during  the  free  hours.     So,  please 

'  All  planted  by  the  brother;   thence  their  interest  for  him. 


492 


rRl.MARV-GROUr  ORGANIZATION 


wrlto  mc  what  you  think  about  me,  because  in  May  some  of  my 

ai(iuaintanccs  are  to  go  from  here  to  America,  so  I  could  go  along 

with  them , 

Elzbieta  M. 

182  March  30,  1913 

Dear  Brothers:   I  received  your  letters I  wrote  you  a 

letter  and  now  I  am  writing  this  postcard I  beg  you  once 

more,  send  me  a  ship-ticket.  We  are  selling  the  shop  to  Kiszkowski, 
so  I  have  nothing  more  to  do  at  home,  to  tell  the  truth.  Why,  I 
have  spent  here  25  years!     I  hope  it  is  enough.     If  you  don't  send  me 

the  ticket,  I  will  go  for  money 

Elzbieta  Markiewicz 

183  [Exact  date  undetermined] 

Dear  Wacio:  You  write  us  to  lend  money  to  Pecia.  I  tell  you 
truly,  as  to  my  brother,  that  even  if  we  gave  her  the  whole  farm  and 
household,  it  would  be  not  enough  for  her;  even  if  we  worked  for  her 
from  dawn  to  night,  it  would  not  be  enough,  because  it  is  a  gulf  for 
everything.  We  told  her  that  you  ordered  us  to  lend  her  money,  but 
that  she  had  to  give  a  note.  She  is  so  unreasonable  that  she  got  badly 
offended  and  said  that  she  prefers  to  borrow  from  strangers.  It  is 
true  that  he  [Franus,  her  husband]  is  not  sure  at  all  [of  living  ?]  and 
in  the  case  of  his  death  you  know  what  she  would  say.  She  has 
become  now  quite  changed.  Well,  you  have  Stas  there.  Ask  him. 
Although  it  is  very  bad  when  on®  [member  of  the  family]  writes 
against  the  other,  I  must  do  it.  I  don't  write  lies;  you  are  my 
brother  as  much  as  she  is  my  sister,  but  she  is  a  woman  without 
character 

Dear  Stasio,  I  thank  you  also  for  having  sent  money  for  the 

overcoat  of  Alfons.     It  is  true  that  money  is  necessary  for  more  than 

one  thing,  while  mother  is  so  parsimonious.  ....  But  she  is  so  for 

the  sake  of  us  all ,,.,.. 

Your  lovmg  sister, 

Elzbieta 

[Wishes  and  greetings.]  And  Franus  has  got  his  salary  raised  by 
Mrs.  J[aworska],  but  all  this  is  not  enough.  When  you  throw  any- 
thing upon  this  flowing  water  [of  Pecia's  expenses],  it  floats  away  at 

[Your  Mother] 


MARKIEWICZ  SERIES  493 

184  January  14,  19 14 
Dear  Brother:    [Letters  and  money  received;    letters  sent; 

farm-work.]  We  have  now  grinding  enough,  because  the  windmill  of 
Swiecka  burned  down  not  long  ago.  We  could  have  more,  but  you 
know  how  our  father  grinds,  a  grain  in  two  parts,  and  now  everybody 

has  a  smooth  palate We  work  as  much  as  we  can,  and  for 

this  we  have  every  day  fresh  "choleras"  and  "thunders"  [swearing 
from  the  father],  as  you  know.  But  what  can  be  done  ?  We  must 
bear  it,  because  it  is  impossible  to  shorten  one's  own  life  or  to  go  a 
contrary  way  [sic.?].  You  ask  how  much  money  there  is  in  all. 
[Enumerates  the  sums  in  bank,  etc.]  Maksym.  Przanowski  has  not 
yet  given  the  money  back ;  he  says  that  it  was  to  be  for  [building]  the 
church.  Probably  we  shall  be  obliged  to  make  a  complaint  [to  the 
court].  Wincenty  Przanowski  hanged  himself.  Such  is  the  whole 
nice  species  [Przanowski].  Wladyslawa  Markiewicz  got  married. 
Polcia  wa^  to  marry  that  "cham"  [Ham,  the  biblical  person  = 
ruffian],  but  it  goes  on  lamely.     As  to  me,  I  have  nothing  to  write  you. 

The  whole  road  of  my  life  is  sown  with  thorns The  man 

[probably,  type  of  man]  whom  I  could  marry  and  even,  if  necessary, 
eat  my  bread  in  the  sweat  of  my  brow,  is  not  in  a  hurry  to  marry  me, 
while  the  kind  not  worth  looking  at  obtrudes  himself  on  me.  And  my 
character  is  such  that  instead  of  marrying  and  suffering  woe  I  prefer 
to  remain  a  maiden  further.  During  my  whole  life  I  have  been  the 
prey  of  bad  fortune,  and  so  my  life  is  being  spent.' 

Elzbieta  Markiewicz 

185  June  28,  1912 
Dear  Brother:  ....  Elzbietka  is  to  marry  in  the  autumn,  and 

I  expect  to  do  the  same  at  carnival,  for  though  I  have  still  time,  I  am 
tired  of  working,  for  I  have  worked  honestly.     And  now  I  beg  you, 

dear  Wacio,  don't  be  angry,  and  send  me  money  for  a  watch 

Apolonia  [Polcia]  Markiewicz 

'The  difference  between  Elzbieta  and  Polcia  (see  the  letters  immediately 
following)  is  largely  innate,  but  it  must  have  been  greatly  increased  by  instruction 
and  by  the  fact  that  Elzbieta  had  probably  had  better  company  by  working 
outside  of  her  home.  The  problem  is  important  in  a  general  way.  To  what 
extent  is  instruction  alone  able  to  produce  class-distinction  ?  And  it  may  be  noticed 
that  in  Poland  it  is  more  effective  in  this  respect  than  elsewhere,  incomparably  more 
than  in  the  United  States.  Independently  of  everylliing  else,  wherever  instruction 
is  appreciated  at  all,  it  creates  a  class-distinction  as  profound  as  birth,  and  more 
profound  than  money. 


494  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

1 86  [No  date] 

Dear  Wacio:  I  thank  you  heartily  for  the  postcard,  for  not 
having  forgotten  about  me.  You  ask  me  whether  I  have  a  betrothed 
or  not ;  yes,  indeed,  I  have  one  and  I  had  another.  The  one  I  wanted, 
they  did  not  allow  me,  and  the  one  I  don't  want,  they  order  me  to 
marry.  But  I  won't  marry  anybody  except  a  farmer  from  a  village,' 
and  now  in  fact  I  have  2  of  them  from  Wincentowo.  I  don't  know 
whether  Lhey  will  allow  me  to  marry  one  of  them,  but  if  they  don't 
allow  me  now  to  marry  the  one  I  intend  to,  I  won't  get  married  at  all, 

but  I  intend  to  go  to  America  in  a  year 

Apolonia  Markiewicz 

187  April  14  [1914] 

Dear  Brothers:  For  the  first  time  I  write  also  a  few  words  to 

you You  write,  Stasiek,  about  Elzbietka.     So  I  beg  you,  forget 

about   it I   joined   the   agricultural   circle.     Now   they   are 

arranging  a  trip  to  the  province  Kalisz,  to  visit  the  farms  in  the  village 
Zachowo.  This  village  is  the  first  in  all  the  kingdom  of  Poland, 
because  not  only  the  peasants  there  have  good  order  in  the  fields  and 
at  home,  but  they  have  in  the  village  even  telephones,  and  electric 
light  in  houses  and  stables.  So  I  want  also  to  go  and  see  it.  Ten 
years  ago  it  was  a  village  of  first-rate  thieves.     The  journey  will  cost 

10  roubles;  the  departure  at  the  end  of  May 

[Alfons  Markiewicz] 

188  [December  2,  191 2] 

I  think  I  never  yet  wrote  to  you,  my  Stas.  Now  before  the 
solemnity  of  Christmas  I  will  also  write  to  you,  for  God  alone  knows 
whether  we  shall  see  each  other  any  more.  Do  you  remember  what 
we  spoke  once  between  us  when  going  to  Gombin  about  the  mill  of 
Dobrzykow?  O  my  God!  I  always  keep  this  mill  in  mind,  for  it  is 
like  family  property.^     I  thought  that  Maks  would  think  about  it,  but 

'  This  single  phrase  shows  how  perfectly  and  consciously  Polcia  is  still  a 
peasant  girl  and  does  not  want  to  be  anything  else.  Her  mother  wrote  that  it  was 
she  who  kept  the  house.  Evidently,  she  loves  housework,  farm-work,  and  country 
life  and  would  not  sacrifice  these  to  any  career  which  would  bring  her  outside  of  the 
village.     The  t>'pe  is  frequent. 

'  Ojcowizna,  land-property  handed  down  from  father  to  son;  particularly  if 
kept  for  some  generations  in  the  same  family.     Considered  more  valuable  from 


MARKIEWICZ  SERIES  495 

I  cannot  rely  upon  him.  If  you  think  about  it,  put  money  aside  and 
send  it  here.  We  will  put  it  in  the  savings-bank,  and  perhaps  God  will 
help  us  to  buy  it.  There,  near  the  church,  it  is  a  place  the  like  of 
which  cannot  be  found  in  the  whole  province.  The  new  priest  had 
the  tavern  abolished.  Lis  of  Gorki  bought  it  from  Kowalska  for  a 
joint-stock  shop.  They  had  set  up  the  shop  in  the  stone  building 
of  Plebanek,  but  now  they  will  transfer  it  here,  where  the  tavern 
was.'  .... 

[Your  father], 

J[an]  M[arkie\vicz] 

Dear  Brother  :  I  inform  you  that  we  are  threshing.  Wlien  we 
finish  it  I  shall  go  to  school,  but  there  is  no  money.  Now  I  inform 
you  that  Maciek  J.  has  beaten  Ziolek  [the  grandmother's  husband]. 
It  is  not  bad,   but  he  must  pay  30  roubles  and  sit  2  weeks  in 

prison 

Ignacy  Markiewicz 

189  April  20,  1912 

Dear  Brothers  Maks  and  Stas:  [Letters  written  and  received.] 
Then  I  describe  to  you  the  state  of  grandmother's  health.  After 
Christmas  first  the  right  arm  and  leg  began  to  swell  ....  then  the 
left  arm  and  leg  ....  but  grandmother  still  walks.  She  has  grown 
so  quarrelsome  that  it  is  awful.  And  Ziolkowski  [her  husband] 
abuses  her  from  time  to  time:  "Why  does  she  groan?"  Well,  if  he 
does  not  come  to  reason,  and  if  his  mouth  gets  looser  we  will  shut  it 
up.^  (At  present  we  live  in  friendship  with  him.)  I  don't  know,  my 
dear  brothers,  but  this  swelling  of  grandmother  is  probably  nothing 
else  than  a  sign  of  death.  Ostrowski  the  carpenter  swelled  also  before 
his  death,  and  then  he  died  after  a  little  time.     And  Cichocki,  the 


the  moral  point  of  view  than  property  individually  earned  or  acquired  as  dowry. 
Here  the  appreciation  is  particularly  strong  because  some  of  the  traditions  of  the 
patriarchal  noble  family  are  preserved. 

'  This  letter  characterizes  the  old  man  perfectly  and  is  the  only  one  he  has  ever 
written  to  his  son. 

^  The  grandmother  married  Ziolkowski  at  an  age  when  she  was  no  lo'iger 
supposed  to  marry.  He  cannot  be  assimilated,  and  she  is  also  estranged  but  still 
a  member  of  the  family.  Properly  she  would  retire  and  leave  the  management  of 
her  property  to  the  family,  but  her  marriage  hinders  this  because  Zi61kovvski  has 
no  property  himself,  and  cannot  claim  a  support  from  his  wife's  children. 


4q6  PKIMARV-CIROUP  ORGANIZATION 

father  of  Tomasz,  also  swelled  before  his  death.     Do  you  know  that 

Swilkoszanka  died  8  weeks  after  her  marriage?  ....  Dear  Maks 

....  you  asked  me  to  get  the  address  of  Jadzia  L^czanka.     Well, 

evidently  I  could  not  get  it  otherwise  than  by  asking  her  good  man  of 

a  father  personally  and  he,  of  course,  granted  my  request.     Please, 

Maks,  tell  me  about  your  school,  whether  you  are  learning  in  it 

already  or  when  will  you  begin  to  learn.     Nejman  Felka's  [husband] 

was  in  our  house  on  Sunday  after  Easter.     He  praises  the  writing  of 

your  letters  highly.     He  says  that  it  is  evident  that  you  are  improving 

yourself.     It  is  something  very  diflferent  from  w^hat  it  was.     Send  us 

the  form  of  a  note,  and  the  conditions  on  which  you  wish  to  send  us 

those  I, GOO  roubles 

Your  brother, 

WlKTOR  MaRKIEWICZ 

Maks,  mother  begs  you,  guard  Stas  against  card-playing  and 
revelry 

190  August  2,  191 2 

Dear  Brother  Maks:  ....  Pardon  me,  please,  for  not  sending 
you  your  school-certificate  for  so  long,  for  I  see  from  your  last  postcard 
that  you  need  it  badly.  I  guess  that  you  want  it  to  show  it  in  the 
school  there,  do  you  not  ?  But  I  don't  know,  dear  brother,  how  you 
will  present  it,  because  it  is  awfully  dirty;  it  is  disagreeable  to  take  it 
into  the  hand.  Don't  think  that  is  the  way  I  took  care  of  it.  It  was 
already  in  that  state  when  I  got  it  from  that  Russian  hog.'  [Relates 
in  3  pages  how  he  invited  a  Russian  post-official  to  go  hunting,  how 
he  treated  him  and  got  him  drunk,  and  how  he  hoped  to  get  permission 
to  keep  a  gun  through  this  official's  influence,  because  these  per- 
missions were  very  difficult  to  get.] 

I  am  in  a  critical  position  this  year.  The  orchard  is  bad,  and  so 
I  cannot  earn  money.  The  reserve  which  I  had  from  last  year  was 
exhausted  on  diflferent  purchases,  such  as  clothes,  shoes,  etc.  O  my 
God!  how  unhappy  I  am  that  our  father  is  so  indiflferent  to  us  in 
matters  of  purchases,  and  particularly  when  he  smells  a  rouble  in  your 
pocket  then  he  won't  buy  anything,  and  in  that  way  he  draws  from 
you  the  last  grosz Dear  brothers  Maks  and  Stas,  I  don't 

'  Either  the  teacher  or  some  ofiicial,  to  whom  ilaks  may  have  applied  formerly 
for  a  position,  leaving  the  school-certificate  with  him. 


MARKIEWICZ  SERIES  497 

doubt  that  you  love  me  sincerely,  as  my  brothers,  and  that  after 
receiving  this  letter  you  will  send  me  [money]  for  a  nice  gun.  Well, 
excuse  me  and  don't  be  angry.     It  is  only  a  joke 

WlKTOR  MaRKIEWICZ 

191  [August  2,  1912] 

Dear  Stas:  I  received  the  papers  for  which  I  thank  you  heartily. 
Further,  to  your  continual  questions  about  horses  I  answer  that  we 
have  sold  all  the  horses  except  my  chestnut  mare,  and  instead  father 
bought  one  thoroughbred  mare,  of  black  color.  Father  is  very  well 
satisfied  with  this  newly  bought  mare,  and  he  intends  to  sell  my 
chestnut  mare  also,  because  they  do  not  fit  together;  the  chestnut 
is  much  smaller  and  slower.  Father  received  200  roubles  for  3  horses 
and  paid  220  for  one.  The  newly  bought  mare  is  2-3-  years  old.  Then 
I  mention,  dear  Stas,  that  you  sent  100  roubles  to  the  address  of  our 
father  and  you  believe  probably  that  the  matter  is  totally  settled. 
Far  from  this,  father  has  not  yet  given  the  money  back  to  grandmother 
and  does  not  even  think  of  giving  it.  When  I  asked  him,  why  he 
did  not  give  the  money  to  grandmother,  he  answered:  "Your  grand- 
mother does  not  need  it;  has  she  not  enough  already  ?  "^  Well,  what 
do  you  say  to  that  ?  Even  grandmother  said  once  to  me  that  it  is 
strange  you  do  not  send  the  money  back  for  so  long  a  time.  Probably 
grandmother  guesses  that  it  has  been  sent  back  but  there  is  nobody 
to  give  it  to  her.  And  as  to  the  money  which  Maks  intends  to  send,  it 
is  very  well  that  our  father  has  to  send  the  notes  first.  Excuse  me, 
dear  brother,  for  not  writing  carefully;  my  hand  is  still  awfully  tired 
from  mowing  barley  with  a  scythe.  I  will  finish  it  and  lie  down  to 
sleep,  because  tomorrow  the  same  work  awaits  me 

WlKTOR 

'  Stas  has  probably  borrowed  money  from  his  grandmother  for  his  journey  to 
America,  the  father  refusing  to  lend.  The  father's  unwillingness  to  give  the  grand- 
mother her  money  and  his  open  acknowledgment  that  he  wants  to  keep  it  makes  his 
familial  attitude  still  more  evident.  The  same  act  would  be  dishonest  if  performed 
by  any  of  his  sons;  it  would  be  simply  dishonest  of  Sta§  not  to  send  this  money  back, 
because  he  would  keep  it  for  his  personal  use.  But  the  father  does  not  consider  it 
dishonest;  he  does  not  want  it  personally  for  himself,  but  for  the  family-fortune. 
And  the  grandmother  is  still  so  much  a  member  of  the  family  that  her  interests 
could  be  subordinated  to  those  of  the  family  as  a  whole,  while  on  the  other  hand 
she  is,  through  her  second  marriage,  half  outside  of  the  family  and  thus  there  is  a 
greater  temptation  to  divert  a  part  of  her  money  to  familial  purposes. 


4QvS  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

IQ2  December  2,  1912 

Dkar  Brother  Sta^:  [Thanks  for  money  sent  him.]  Further, 
1  inform  you  that  grandmothor['s  afTair]  is  already  settled.  She 
thanks  you  also  most  heartily  and  wishes  you  every  good.  [A 
page  about  the  permission  to  keep  a  gun,  which  has  not  yet  come.] 
Then,  I  inform  you  tliat  mother  complains  about  pains  in  her  right 
arm,  so  that  she  cannot  sleep.     But  don't  grieve,  perhaps  God  will 

grant  her  to  recover  slowly Michal  serves  [in  the  army],  as 

before.  In  his  last  letter  he  writes  that  he  is  trying  to  become  an 
orderly  [assigned  to  the  personal  service  of  an  officer].  0  stupid 
wretch!  He  wants  to  be  appointed  to  keep  a  Moscovite's  backsides 
clean !  I  did  not  answer  anything  to  this.'  Further,,  he  writes  that 
if  he  is  not  appointed  an  orderly,  he  will  try  to  get  into  a  hospital 
[as  servant].  Well,  you  see,  he  does  not  try  at  all  to  return  home 
[by  being  pronounced  unfit].  My  advice  is  lost.  Cieslak's  son  came 
back  3  months  ago.  He  says  that  they  tormented  him  and  tried  to 
frighten  him,  but  he  did  not  change  his  behavior  until  they  let  him 
go.  [Probably  he  pretended  or  exaggerated  some  illness.]  You  see, 
that  is  a  man.  [Marriages;  weather,  crops,  farm- work;  wishes  for 
Christmas.] 

WlKTOR  MaRKIEWICZ 

I  thank  you  for  the  poetry  "At  the  Crossway"  [probably  copied 
from  some  book  or  paper],  and  I  beg  you  for  more  like  this  one. 

193  February  15,  19 13 

Dear  Brothers  Maks  and  Stas:  ....  Three  times  I  began  to 
write  letters  to  you,  but  I  did  not  send  you  any  of  these  letters, 
because  I  did  not  want  to  cause  you  pain  by  these  letters,  informing 
you  about  mother's  illness,  and  at  the  same  time  about  the  slight 
sickness  of  our  dear  little  sister  Weronika,  to  which  at  the  beginning  we 
paid  less  attention.  We  waited  for  mother's  health  to  improve,  and 
God  the  ]\Ierciful  granted  to  our  mother  better  health,  so  I  started  to 
write  you  a  letter.  But  alas!  from  the  slight  weakness  of  S.f  P. 
["SwiQtej  Pami§ci,"    "of   sainted    memory"]    our   dear   little   sister 

'  The  conception  that  personal  service  is  humiliating  is  never  found  among  the 
Russian  peasants  (the  position  of  orderly  is  much  desired  in  the  Russian  army)  and 
rarely  found  among  the  Polish  manor-servants.  Among  the  peasant  farmers  it  is 
frequent  and  among  the  peasant  nobility  almost  universal.  The  situation  is 
evidently  aggravated  in  this  case  because  the  man  whom  IMichal  would  serve  is  a 
Russian. 


MARKIEWICZ  SERIES  499 

Weronika,  some  ....  stronger  illness  developed.  We  called  Doctor 
Grzybowski.  He  said  that  inflammation  of  the  lungs  had  developed, 
and  that  there  was,  alas,  no  hope  of  recovery.  Nevertheless  he  did 
his  best  to  give  her  health  back  to  our  dear  sister  Weronika,  but  all 
this  was  useless,  for  the  deadly  illness  grew.  On  January  31,  in  the 
morning  we  asked  the  priest  from  Dobrzykow  [to  come]  with  our 
Lord  Jesus.  He  prepared  S.f  P.  Weronika,  who  was  conscious,  for 
death.  The  next  day,  on  February  i,  she  lost  her  consciousness.  O 
my  dear  God,  how  fortunate  it  was  that  the  priest,  with  our  Lord 
Jesus,  came  in  time!  From  February  i,  she  raved  in  fever  up  to 
February  3.  Then  she  recovered  full  consciousness,  she  ceased  to 
groan,  she  wanted  to  rise  from  her  bed,  saying  so:  "Mother,  I  will 
get  up,  dress  myself  and  walk  a  Httle,  for  I  am  so  tired  [of  lying]." 
Oh  my  God,  who  can  imagine  our  joy  in  seeing  such  an  improvement 
in  Weronika's  health !  But  our  joy  did  not  last  longer  than  until  about 
8  o'clock  in  the  evening.  Then  she  began  to  lose  consciousness  again. 
She  called  despairingly  "Maks!"  "Stas!"  "Indiana  Harbor" 
[where  both  brothers  were],  then  again  "Michalek!"  and  so  she  called 
every  one  of  her  relatives  and  acquaintances  more  than  once.  So, 
my  dear  brothers,  we  did  not  expect  that  before  her  death  Weronika 
would  want  to  see  all  of  us.'  About  eleven  in  the  evening  she  ceased 
to  call  us,  only  from  time  to  time  she  asked  for  the  medicine  to  drink 
which  the  doctor  had  prescribed.  About  i  o'clock  after  midnight,  on 
February  4,  19 13,  she  ended  her  life  as  calmly  as  if  someone  extin- 
guished a  light,  in  the  presence  of  us  all.  The  body  of  S.t  P.  our 
sister  Weronika  was  transferred  to  the  church  on  February  5,  at 
10  o'clock  in  the  morning,  and  buried  on  the  same  day,  after  the  holy 
mass.  I  mention  also,  dear  brothers,  that  at  the  funeral  there  was 
an  extraordinary  gathering  of  people.  Then  I  ask  you,  did  you 
receive  the  mourning  letters,  informing  about  Weronika's  death? 
And  I  beg  you  very  much,  tell  me,  did  you  have  any  signs  or  fore- 
bodings ?  For  we  heard  a  terrible  roar,  but  it  was  as  long  ago  as  June. 
I  wrote  you  about  it  at  that  time ^ 

WlKTOR  MaRKIEWICZ 

'  The  familial  feeling  is  always  manifested  by  the  peasant  at  the  moment  of 
death.  Death  is  no  more  a  purely  individual  matter  than  marriage  or  birth.  In 
this  case  we  do  not  know  the  age  of  the  child,  and  have  a  suspicion  that  the  brother 
reported  what  should  have  happened  and  what  would  be  agreeable  to  the  feelings 
of  the  absent  relatives. 

^  The  expectation  of  signs  foretelling  death  is  a  remnant  of  the  old  naturalistic 
religion.     Cf.  Introduction:    "Religious  and  Magical  Attitudes." 


500 


rRIMARV-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 


Dear  Slas,  I  (luink  vou  for  those  few  roubles  which  I  received  after 
Christmas,  and  1  l)cjj;  you,  care  for  yourself,  don't  play  cards,  don't 
waste  the  money  which  you  earn  by  work.  I  beg  you  heartily  in  God's 
name.     I  am  in  a  terrible  sorrow  after  our  beloved  Weronika.  .      .  . 

Your  Mother 

194  April  8,  19 13 

De.-vr  Brother  Sta-;:  [Rumors  of  war;  family  has  purchased 
American  wheat  drill;  farming  conditions.]  You  ask  me,  dear  Stas, 
about  this  permission  to  keep  a  gun.  First  I  mention  to  you,  may 
cholera  strangle  the  Moscovites  with  their  laws  and  their  whole  shop. 
As  you  know,  this  cholera  of  a  "stupajka"  [nickname  for  a  Russian 
functionary,  from  the  Russian  words,  " stupai-ka ,''  "go  at  once," 
symbolizing  the  passive  obedience  of  a  subordinate]  wrote  bad 
information  about  me,  that  in  1905-6  I  was  interested  in  political 
questions.  But  they  have  no  proofs  at  all.  Opas  is  angry  with  us 
for  not  being  a  mayor,  and  he  gave  such  an  opinion  of  me  to  the 
constable,  and  the  latter  wrote  it  down.  But  I  have  proofs  that  it  is 
not  true.  .      .  .  Now  the  whole  affair  is  sent  to  the  minister  of  the 

interior  ....  and  then  the  senate  will  judge  it If  not,  we 

shall  write  a  complaint  to  the  emperor,  and  I  will  beg  Maks  to  be  so 
kind  as  to  send  it  in  my  name  from  America.' 

Grandmother  groans,  but  walks With  Ziolek  we  live  in 

good  understanding.  Ziolek's  sister  came  to  grandmother,  to  sta\' 
with  her.  Grandmother  is  angry,  for  up  to  the  present  she  has  been 
groaning  alone,  and  now  they  will  both  groan.  She  is  very  brittle 
already,  that  Ziolek's  sister. 

I  went  to  Gostynin  on  a  business  matter,  and  I  got  acquainted 
Vvith  the  girls  of  Gostynin.  They  are  nice  and  rich.  If  it  doesn't  end 
well  with  the  Kowalczyks  I  will  try  to  get  the  favor  of  one  of  them. 

[Wiktor] 

In  order  to  get  any  governmental  permission  (to  keep  a  gun  as  well  as  to  get 
a  passport,  to  open  a  business,  to  teach,  to  pass  an  examination,  to  go  to  any 
superior  school,  etc.)  it  is  always  indispensable  in  Russia  to  be  politically  "well- 
thinking  and  reliable,"  and  to  present  a  corresponding  certificate  based  upon  the 
opinion  of  the  police  and  gendarmerie.  The  certificate  may  be  refused  even 
without  stated  reasons,  on  mere  suspicion  that  the  individual  has  ideas  which  are 
unfavorable  to  the  "existing  order  of  things,"  although  he  may  never  have  acted 
against  the  government  or  even  talked  against  it. 


MARKIEWICZ  SERIES  -  501 

195  April  25  [1913] 

Stas!  We  are  very  glad  that  you  have  such  a  lively  interest  in 
everything.  [News  about  friends,  farm-stock,  crops,  weather.] 
Frybra  built  a  windmill,  but  he  has  nothing  to  grind.  In  our  mill 
there  is  more  to  grind.     Frybra  is  almost  raging;  he  loafs  around  and 

invites    the    farmers.'     Opas    became    a    commune-assessor 

Mi^ckowski  is  a  good  mayor  up  to  the  present The  parish  of 

Dobrzykow  got  another  priest,  a  young  and  active  one.  He  dislikes 
liquor  immensely,  or  rather  drunkards;  he  hates  them.  So  Mrs. 
Kowalska  is  glad  that  she  has  sold  the  tavern,  and  the  new  purchaser 
is  tearing  the  hair  from  his  head.  The  peasants  keep  far  away  from 
the  tavern,  and  whoever  draws  nearer  looks  toward  the  church,  and 
most  often  turns  back,  because  evidently  in  his  ears  rings  the  powerful 
voice  of  the  priest  saying  from  the  chancel:  "  If  I  see  you — God  forbid! 
— in  the  tavern,  a  great  displeasure  will  befall  you."  And  when  a 
peasant  passes  by  the  tavern,  he  only  turns  and  looks  at  it. 

Michat  is  in  Smolensk.  I  don't  know  whether  he  will  get  off 
[from  the  army],  because  the  physician  is  evidently  a  scoundrel,  and 
Michal  does  not  know  very  well  how  to  look  out  for  himself.  Well, 
but  it  pains  him  always  just  the  same,  and  they  cannot  cure  him. 
Perhaps  they  will  let  him  go.  May  God  help  him!  Michat  regrets 
that  he  did  not  fly  to  America,  but  it  is  silly.  [Because  then  he  could 
never  come  back.]  (Write  your  letters  to  Michal  carefully,  so  as  not 
to  betray  him,  God  forbid !)  I  think  so,  that  if  Michal  perseveres  they 
will  let  him  go  sooner  or  later.  [Sends  photograph;  describes  farm- 
work.]  With  Miss  Kowalik,  or  rather  with  the  Kowaliks,  nothing  is 
sure  as  yet,  but  now  within  a  short  time  some  result  will  follow.  I 
will  inform  you  at  once.  Miss  Swat  is  now  trying  to  be  very  pleasing. 
After  Kowalik,  I  put  Miss  Swat  in  the  first  line 

WlKTOR  MaRKIEWICZ 

196  May  24,  1913 
Dear  Brother  Stas:   ....  In  your  last  letter  you  expressed 

the  wish  to  send  to  my  address  700  roubles  which  you  earned  and  put 
aside.  I  am  very  glad  that  you  economized  such  a  nice  bit  of  money, 
and  as  these  American  banks  are  not  so  secure  as  the  communal 
savings-bank  here,  you  had  really  better  send  it  home,  and  I  will  give 
•  Inviting  customers  is  considered  worthy  only  of  a  Jew. 


502 


PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 


it  to  the  communal  bank '  I  must  add,  that  here  in  our  country 

rumors  arc  heard  that  American  money  is  to  be  equaled  with  the 
Russian  money  [$i  is  to  be  worth  i  rouble].  Well,  if  this  happened 
more  than  one  would  lose  the  half  of  the  money  he  has  saved.*  In 
view  of  all  this  I  advise  you,  dear  Stas,  sincerely  and  truly,  send  your 
money  home.  I  assure  you  on  my  conscience  that  I  won't  lose  it  and 
won't  neglect  it,  i.e.,  I  will  put  it  into  the  bank.  In  case  I  needed  it, 
I  would  give  you  a  written  evidence,  for  if  I  am  successful  with  the 
Kowalczyks  in  Czyzew,  this  money  will  be  a  great' help  to  me.  It 
would  be  necessary  to  show  at  least  2,000  there,  so  if  you  sent  your 
money,  I  would  be  that  much  bolder,  because  no  stranger  would  know 
that  it  is  borrowed  money.  I  say  at  least  2,000.  It  would  be  well 
to  show  even  more,  for  although  they  don't  need  money  themselves, 
there  are  [competitors]  who  have  5,000  cash  of  their  own.^  I  don't 
know,  dear  Stas,  whether  my  efforts  will  bring  me  happiness  or  an 
irretrievable  loss.  Oh  my  great  God!  I  implore  you  to  help  me. 
[News  about  orchards,  crops,  farm- work;   marriages  of  friends.] 

[Wiktor] 

197  [No  date] 

My  dear  Stas:  You  ask  me  for  my  opinion  about  marriage,  and 
you  ask  about  Swatowna  [daughter  of  Swat].  My  brother,  my  Stas, 
I  don't  know  what  lot  awaits  me.     About  this  Swatowna,  as  you 

'  The  distrust  in  American  banks  is  justified,  as  many  bankers,  most  of  them 
Jewish,  operating  among  the  Polish  immigrants  have  proved  dishonest,  while  the 
communal  savings-bank  is  under  the  immediate  control  of  the  commune. 

'  Rumors  of  this  kind  come  from  various  sources.  Sometimes  they  may  come 
from  a  misunderstood  newspaper  article;  sometimes  from  the  story  of  a  returning 
emigrant  who,  not  understanding  the  conditions  abroad  and  having  no  standard 
for  distinguishing  the  possible  from  the  impossible,  conceives  and  believes  anything; 
sometimes  the  agents  or  Jewish  merchants  spread  such  news  intentionally  in  order 
to  profit  by  it.     Often  it  is  impossible  even  to  guess  their  source. 

^  This  shows  that  the  question  of  dowry  brought  by  the  man  or  the  girl  is  not 
exclusively  economic.  The  girl  Kowalczyk  is  rich  enough  to  take  a  husband  with- 
out money,  or  at  least  not  to  care  for  the  amount  of  money  which  he  may  bring. 
And  it  would  not  be  considered  humiliating  for  a  man  without  fortune  to  marrj^ 
such  a  girl  so  far  as  he  is  personally  concerned,  because  he  would  give  his  n'ork. 
Nor  would  it  be  a  humiliation  for  the  girl  to  marry  a  man  without  money,  provided 
he  were  her  equal  in  education.  But  since  in  marriage  the  man  is  not  an  isolated 
individual  but  a  member  of  a  family,  and  since  fortune  has  more  importance  for 
the  social  standing  of  the  family  than  for  the  social  standing  of  the  individual,  the 
man  ought  to  have  money,  as  it  is  a  proof  that  he  comes  from  a  rich  family. 


MARKIEWICZ  SERIES  5o3 

know,  I  tried  so  hard  to  gain  her  favor;  I  took  so  many  hard  steps, 
and  all  this  brought  me  nothing.  I  should  have  come  out  all  right 
there,  for  as  this  Miss  Swatowna  told  me,  she  "gave  a  basket"  [the 
mitten]  to  Rudkowski  because  she  loved  me.  But,  finally,  when  I 
expected  to  end  the  business,  then  they  [my  family]  began  to  find 
fault  with  it,  particularly  mother.  Well,  I  gave  up  the  game,  I 
stopped  calling  on  her.  How  they  must  talk  about  me  there  now! 
Swatowna  is  still  a  girl.  I  don't  know  what  will  be  the  end  of  the 
hopes  with  which  I  still  deceive  myself  about  the  Kowalczyks  in 
Czyzew.  If  God  helped  me,  it  would  be  the  best  there.  All  this  is 
in  the  hands  of  God.  But  it  is  a  hard  nut  to  bite,  for  there  is  a  crowd 
of  various  men  around,  and  the  Kowalczyks  themselves  look  upon  this 
business  from  several  sides.  I  hear  that  they  prefer  me,  but  there 
was  a  time  when  things  were  so  bad  that  I  said  to  myself  that  I 
wouldn't  go  there  again.  I  was  there  a  few  times  and  I  never  found 
her.  Evidently  she  hid  herself  and  she  hid  herself  not  because  she 
hated  [disliked]  me,  but  because  different  [marriage]  brokers  laughed 
at  her  [for  receiving  attention  from  me].'  Worse  still,  I  noticed  that 
the  Kowalczyks  began  to  treat  me  indifferently,  particularly  Mrs.  K. 
This  observation  pained  me  greatly;  but  what  could  I  do?  I  gave 
up  my  efforts,  though  I  was  sorry.  But  evidently  Kowalczyk  did 
not  want  to  part  with  me  in  this  way,  for  he  understood  my  wishes, 
found  some  occasion  and  came  to  us  with  his  brother  Piotr.^  He 
pretended  to  come  for  quite  a  different  business,  but  we  guess  that 
he  wanted  also  to  look  at  our  situation.  Well,  we  tried  to  treat  them 
as  well  as  we  could,  and  it  seems  that  it  pleased  them  well  enough,  and 

'  As  the  peasant  is  particularly  susceptible  to  ridicule,  this  is  often  sufficient  to 
hinder  a  marriage.  A  girl  will  hardly  ever  marry  a  man  if  she  suspects  that  for  any 
reason  her  choice  may  be  ridiculed.  The  reasons  are  various.  The  most  frequent 
is  the  inferiority  of  social  position,  as  in  Wiktor's  case.  The  occupation  is  also 
very  important.  There  are  occupations  which  make  a  good  marriage  impossible 
for  the  man.  Among  these  are  catching  stray  dogs  in  the  streets,  sterilizing  horses 
and  cattle,  serving  m  Jewish  houses,  and  in  general  occupations  having  a  con- 
nection with  a  Jewish  business.  (This  last  prejudice  tends  to  disappear  except  in 
connection  with  personal  service.)  There  arc  other  occupations  to  wliicli  only  a 
slight  ridicule  is  attached,  such  as  shocmaking,  tailoring,  peddling.  Another 
source  of  ridicule  is  a  physical  defect,  however  slight.  Similar  prepossessions  are 
found  against  girls,  but  the  lack  of  variety  in  woman's  occupations  makes  them  less 
pronounced  except  as  against  servants  in  Jewish  houses. 

*  It  is  a  bad  policy  to  dismiss  an  unacceptable  suitor  too  hastily,  for  the  more 
suitors  a  girl  has  the  greater  her  value  for  each  of  them,  and  tliis  inilucnces  the  social 
standing  of  the  family.     Cf.  Introduction:   "Marriage." 


S04 


PRIMARV-GROl  r  ORGANIZATION 


when  I  meet  them  they  treat  me  quite  differently.  Well,  now  I  went 
also  to  them  in  the  evening,  on  April  2,  and  called  upon  them  as  if 
passing  bv.  They  received  me  well  enough,  and  Miss  Mania  with 
such  a  bashfulness  came  to  the  room  where  I  was  and  we  greeted  each 
other  very  heartily.  However,  we  spoke  little  together  for  her  uncle 
was  in  a  very  good  humor  and  tried  to  treat  me  well,  and  moreover  it 
was  rather  late.  So  I  have  described  to  you  briefly  my  whole  passage. 
....  Now  I  mention  that  I  met  Bankowna.  She  asked  me  about 
you,  when  you  will  come.  I  fibbed  and  said  that  you  will  come  after 
Pentecost.  She  told  me  to  greet  you  politely  and  begs  you  to  write 
her  a  letter.  If  you  want  to,  write,  but  fib  cleverly.  [News  about 
marriages  and  deaths.] 

About  Jan  Ziolek  [probably  the  son  of  their  grandmother's  second 
husband]  we  don't  know  anything.  He  has  not  come  yet.  And 
perhaps  he  went  farther  inside  of  America  with  a  whore 

WlKTOR  MaRKIEWICZ 

198  August  24,  1913 

My  dear  Brother  Maks:  ....  In  August  14, 1  was  in  Warsaw 
and  I  asked  the  editors  of  Lud  Polski  to  send  you  a  few  copies  of  the 
paper.  They  sent  it  to  the  College  in  Cambridge  Springs,  Pa.  You 
had  asked  for  Pan  Tadeusz  of  Mickiewicz:   I  bought  you  the  w^hole 

collection  of  his  poems You  wrote  a  letter  to  the  Kowalczyks 

[in  my  favor].     Waste  of  time  and  paper 

WlKTOR  MarKIEWICZ 

199  PoPLACiERZ,  April  13,  1914 

Dear  Brother  Stas:  ^\Tlen  I  was  in  Grabie  father  got  a  letter 
just  then  from  you  in  which  you  complain  that  you  have  no  news 
from  me.  In  my  last  letter  I  told  about  my  wedding  which  was  to  be, 
and  it  was  performed  on  February  18  at  12  o'clock,  at  noon.'  A  few 
days  later  ....  I  sent  a  letter  to  our  dear  brother  ]\Iaks  ....  and 

I  expected  that  you  would  meet  him Still,  I  don't  consider 

myself  excused,  but  I  beg  you,  my  dear  brother,  understand  my  situa- 
tion, how  many  different  indispensable  affairs  are  to  be  settled,  and 

'  He  married  neither  of  the  girls  mentioned  before,  but  a  new  acquaintance,  an 
orphan  girl  living  at  some  distance.  The  girl's  dowry  is  very  large,  as  30  morgs  of 
land  are  worth  at  least  6,000  roubles. 


MARKIEWICZ  SERIES  505 

they  absorb  all  the  time  and  cause  trouble,  until  one  comes  to  the  steps 
of  the  altar  and  gets  married.  And  do  you  believe  that  all  this  trouble 
and  turning  around  and  hurrying  are  over  when  one  has  performed 
the  wedding-ceremony?  Oh  no,  my  dear  brother,  it  was  only  a 
beginning  of  all  this.  Now  I  have  whole  series  of  these  affairs  and 
troubles  before  me.  I  won't  mention  to  you  my  important  affairs 
before  the  wedding,  because  I  am  sure  that  you  imagine  them;  I 
describe  only  part  of  my  actual  troubles.  On  March  28,  the  family- 
council  turned  over  to  me  the  whole  farm,  and  I  received  it  in  the 
communal  court  of  Gombin.  I  received  only  30  morgs  of  land  with 
the  winter  grain  sown,  well,  and  15  korcy  of  potatoes  and  a  part  of 
the  barn  filled  with  straw.  Well,  how  is  one  to  begin  farming  now, 
when  he  has  nothing  to  take  into  his  hand,  neither  cow  nor  horse, 
neither  cart  nor  rope,  nothing  at  all  ?  The  roofs  upon  the  building, 
dear  Stas,  are  so  to  speak,  in  a  deplorable  state;  when  rain  comes,  it 
rains  in  the  courtyard  and  it  rains  in  the  barn,  it  rains  in  the  stable 
and  it  rains  in  the  cellar — it  rains  everywhere.  The  fences  near  the 
house  are  ruined,  for  there  are  none  except  near  the  house.  Wherever 
you  look  and  whatever  you  look  at,  you  must  repair.  In  short,  it  is 
as  tenants  usually  leave  it.  And  here  even  the  smallest  thing,  whether 
for  household  or  for  cultivating  the  soil,  must  be  bought.  Is  my 
father  able  to  buy  me  everything,  from  A  to  Z,  in  spite  of  his  sincerest 
wishes  ?  Already  my  father  has  given  me  in  all  this  more  than  once 
the  proofs  [of  his  good  wishes],  and  I  am  and  will  be  grateful  to  him  up 
to  my  death.'  My  small  savings  were  exhausted  for  my  wedding,  and 
only  now  I  understand  what  it  is  to  begin  farming  when  you  have 

nothing  ready So,  please,  don't  be  angry  with  me  for  not 

writing. 

As  to  the  wedding,  I  mention  first,  that  the  weather  was  splendid 

on  this  day The  ceremony  was  very  nice,  the  church  was 

beautifully  adorned  with  green  and  lights;  as  many  people  came  to 
look  as  on  Sunday.  In  short,  it  was  imposing.  The  priest  from 
Radziwie  demanded  25  roubles  for  the  wedding,  to  be  paid  beforehand, 
but  he  did  it  splendidly,  and  I  am  very  much  satisfied.     We  did  not 

'  The  father's  change  of  attitude  toward  the  son  is  perfectly  clear.  The  son's 
marriage  is  a  familial  matter,  and  thus  there  is  no  place  for  parsimony.  The 
wedding  must  be  splendid,  because  of  the  family's  standing;  the  son  must  be  helped 
in  establishing  himself  upon  his  wife's  farm,  because  it  is  to  the  family's  interest 
that  he  should  become  a  prosperous  farmer.  This  investment  of  money  is  pro- 
ductive from  the  familial  standpoint. 


5o6  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

make  a  big  feast;  my  father  paid  for  the  whole  festival,  because  it 
was  so  aijrced.  [Enumerates  the  guests,  "only  the  nearest  friends 
and  relatives,"  about  50  persons.]  The  guests  were  richly  entertained 
and  alnmdanlly  feasted,  so  the  satisfaction  was  general.  We  did  not 
collect  for  a  caul ' 

Now  I  describe  to  you,  what  I  have  already  upon  my  farm.  A 
harrow,  a  plow,  a  cart,  everything  new,  one  cow  which  my  father  gave 
me.  Anlosia's  [the  wife's]  grandmother  gave  her  one  young  cow  big 
with  calf,  and  10  hens.  My  little  old  grandmother  has  given  me 
nothing  up  to  the  present  except  one  small  cheese  for  the  holidays  and 
half  a  pint  of  butter.  Well,  may  God  reward  little  grandmother  even 
for  this.^  But  my  father  and  mother  help  me  the  best  they  can  and 
in  whatever  they  can.  Perhaps  our  Lord  God  will  help  me  in  the 
future  also,  then  I  will  always  remember  this.  Meanwhile  I  pray  to 
Him  for  health  and  long  life  for  them.  I  mention  further  that  with 
the  help  of  God  we  shall  be  able  to  live  here  pretty  well.  I  have 
many  plum  and  cherry  slips,  so  it  will  be  possible  to  enlarge  the 

orchard,  which  is  one  of  the  sources  of  the  welfare  of  a  farmer 

My  father  and  mother  are  very  much  satisfied  with  their  daughter- 
in-law  and  with  all  this  marriage  in  general 

I  come  to  the  end  of  this  letter  as  speedily  as  I  can,  because  as  soon 
as  I  put  the  pen  aside  I  must  prepare  myself  to  catch  the  steamer  in 
order  to  go  to  Grabie,  to  my  dear  parents,  to  look  once  more  at  the 

old  corners 

WlKTOR  M. 

200  Grabie  Polskie,  July  5  [1914] 

My  very  dear  Stasieczek  [Stas]:   ....  I  came  today  to  our 

parents  for  business,  and  on  this  occasion  I  write  to  you 

They  complain  here  at  home  that  it  is  hard  for  them  to  provide  for  all 
the  work,  and  there  is  nobody  to  help  them.  We  learn  that  you  also 
have  to  work  very  hard  there,  and  that  moreover  you  have  lost  your 
health.  They  ask  you  therefore  to  come  back.  Evidently,  if  you  are 
getting  on  badly,  come  at  once;   if  well,  remain  still  for  some  time. 

'  Old  habit  of  collecting  money  among  the  guests  for  the  bride's  dresses.  Cf. 
Introduction:   "Marriage." 

^  The  grandmother,  by  her  second  marriage,  has  lost  the  familial  feeling  and 
feels  no  obligation  to  help  Wiktor. 


MARKIEWICZ  SERIES  507 

We  are  about  to  have  a  terrible  lawsuit  with  the  priest  of  Dobrzykow 
and  those  Hams  [ruffians]  beyond  the  range.  Oh,  thieves,  thieves! 
Those  Hams  and  the  priest  and  the  judge  are  going  hand  in  hand.  My 
brother,  what  things  are  going  on  here! 

Your  brother, 

WlKTOR  MaRKIEWICZ 


201  South  Chicago,  August  7,  1906 

Dear  Brother  Waceaw  [really  cousin]:  Fortune  arranged  it  so 
that  unexpectedly  we  both  became  pilgrims  in  America.  So  I  feel 
my  brotherly  attachment  to  you,  and  that  it  is  so,  let  it  be  proved  by 
my  letter  addressed  to  you,  whose  address  I  got  from  home.'  I  dare 
say  that  perhaps  you  care  less  to  establish  a  regular  correspondence 
with  me  here  in  America,  but  it  is  only  a  supposition.  How  it  is  in 
reality  the  future  will  show. 

So  I  inform  you  that  I  came  to  America,  i.e.,  to  New  York,  on 

February  13,  and  then  I  went  to  my  friends  in  New  Kensington 

There  I  worked  up  to  May  26.  I  worked  in  a  glass  factory  8  hours  a 
day.  The  work  was  not  heavy,  but  hot.  I  earned  $12 .  50  to  $14 .  00 
a  week;  it  depended  on  how  much  glass  was  made. 

I  left  because   the  factory  closed I   went   to   Chicago. 

There  I  found  my  acquaintances  and  my  cousin  Leonard  Krol,  my 
mother's  uncle's  son,  with  whom  I  am  living  up  to  the  present.  Since 
I  came  to  South  Chicago,  I  am  working  with  Polish  carpenters  8  hours 
a  day.  I  am  paid  35  c.  an  hour.  And  naturally,  while  it  is  summer,  I 
am  very  busy  with  this  work,  but  in  winter  it  will  surely  stop.  Then 
I  hope  to  get  into  a  factory  ....  or  carshop  for  the  same  work.  On 
the  2d  of  this  month  I  received  a  letter  from  home,  favorable  enough, 
and  at  the  same  time  your  address.  So  I  want  to  learn  about  you, 
what  you  are  doing,  where  and  with  whom  you  live.  And  in  general 
inform  me  about  your  success.     Whatever  you  ask  me,  I  will  gladly 

inform  you  about I  send  you  hearty  wishes  of  happiness, 

health  and  good  success,  I  embrace  you  and  kiss  you. 
Your  brother, 

Maksymilian  [Maks  MarkievviczJ 

'  Typical,  disinterested  revival  of  family  feelings.  It  is  not  the  mere  result  of 
loneliness,  for  Maks  lives  with  another  cousin. 


5oS  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

202  March  27,  1907 

Dkar  Brother:  Your  letter  satisfied  me  very  much,  for  you  have 
•jochI  work.  I  remember  the  letter  which  you  wrote  to  me  last 
summer;  I  pitied  you  then,  when  you  described  how  you  worked  in  a 
glass  factory  for  Si .  50  a  day.  My  hearty  advice  to  you  would  be  to 
hold  steadily  to  carpenter's  work,  particularly  in  carshops,  for  though 
they  pay  better  in  other  works,  it  is  not  so  steady  as  in  a  carshop. 
Moreover,  if  you  know  how  to  work  about  cars  you  can  find  this  work 
in  the  whole  of  America.  I  intend  also  in  the  future  to  get  into  a 
passenger  carshop,  for  not  far  from  me  there  is  a  big  carshop  in  which 
thousands  of  carpenters  are  working.  It  is,  I  have  heard,  the  main 
carshop  for  whole  America,  called  "Pullman."  From  there  come  the 
most  splendid  cars  for  all  lines.  Look  carefully,  then  you  will  surely 
see  these  cars  with  the  inscription,  "Pullman." 

When  Stasio  comes,  if  there  is  nothing  favorable  for  him  where  you 

are,  let  him  come  to  me,  then  I  will  help  him  as  much  as  I  can.     But 

you  know  that  a  man  who  comes  fresh  from  our  country  can  with 

difficulty,  find  good  work,  for  he  is  not  acquainted  with  the  American 

habits  and  does  not  understand  the  language.     Therefore  I  warn  you, 

let  Stasio  not  be  very  capricious  in  the  beginning.     I  wish  [advise]  him 

also  to  try  carpenter's  work ^  ,, 

^       ^  Maksymilian 

•  The  problem  of  work,  predominant  in  this  letter  and  important  in  all  the 
letters  of  American  Poles  plays  no  such  role  in  the  life  of  the  Polish  peasant-farmer. 
With  him  work,  that  is  work  for  others,  is  only  an  additional  means  of  existence,  and 
property  is  his  main  interest.  There  is  in  the  old  country  no  hope  of  advance 
through  work.  It  is  undertaken  only  as  a  means  of  supplementing  an  otherwise 
impossible  existence,  and  is  miserably  paid.  In  this  respect  American  emigration, 
with  its  many  possibilities  and  its  relatively  vast  range  of  good  and  bad  chances, 
effects  a  profound  revolution  in  the  psychology  of  the  peasant,  and  the  problem 
of  work  becomes  at  once  the  central  problem.  Interests  of  the  city-workman  are 
added  to  those  of  the  peasant,  without  supplanting  them,  and  the  result  is  that  the 
workman  of  peasant  origin  differs  from  the  hereditary  city- workman  in  two  respects: 
(i)  He  has  no  interest  in  the  work  itself  but  considers  it  exclusively  with  regard  to 
the  wage;  (2)  he  looks  upon  his  labor,  not  as  a  means  of  organizing  his  life  once  and 
forever,  but  as  upon  a  provisional  state,  a  means  of  attaining  property,  which  is 
for  him  the  only  possible  basis  of  a  steady  life-organization.  The  good  job,  particu- 
larly in  America,  is  for  the  peasant  nothing  but  a  good  chance  from  which  he  must 
get  as  much  as  possible,  while  for  a  man  with  a  workman's  psychology  and  with  the 
same  tendency  to  rise,  the  good  job  will  be  either  an  end  in  itself  or  a  means  of 
getting  a  still  better  job.  From  this  results  also  the  apparent  stinginess  and  low 
standard  of  life  with  which  the  American  workman  reproaches  the  Polish  immigrant. 


MARKIEWICZ  SERIES  509 

203  September  5,  1907 

Dear  Brother:  ....  I  see  that  you  did  not  receive  my  last 
letter  ....  and  you  probably  think  that  I  have  forgotten  you. 
But  in  this  respect  you  are  mistaken,  dear  brother,  for  I  don't  intend 
ever  to  forget  anybody,  and  particularly  you.  As  to  your  supposition 
that  some  woman  turned  my  head,  you  almost  guessed  it.  But  I 
know  also  how  to  turn  women's  heads.  Only  I  keep  always  in  mind 
the  severe  American  laws  in  this  regard.'  [Was  slightly  hurt  in  his 
left  hand;  expects  to  get  insurance  money.] 

Maksymilian 


204  Indiana  Harbor,  April  30,  1908 

Dear  Brother  Waceaw:    ....  I  inform  you  that  I  moved 
from  South  Chicago  to  Indiana  Harbor,  nearer  my  work,  so  that  now 


The  man  with  a  workman's  psychology,  considering  hired  work  as  his  more  or  less 
permanent  condition,  will  try  to  live  as  comfortably  and  pleasantly  as  his  means 
permits,  for  this  life  is  normal  for  him.  The  man  with  the  peasant  psychology, 
considering  hired  work  as  a  temporary  chance,  will  reduce  his  actual  needs  to  a 
minimum,  postponing  every  pleasure  of  life  until  the  end  of  his  work,  for  this  life 
is  for  him  provisional  and  abnormal. 

The  letters  of  Maks  give  us  a  good  example  of  the  evolution  of  this  attitude. 
In  the  beginning  Maks  is  an  instructed  peasant,  economizing,  putting  money  aside, 
thinking  of  returning  and  probably  of  acquiring  some  property  at  home.  Then 
he  hesitates,  and  is  half-decided  not  to  return;  he  is  not  yet  decided  to  remain  a 
workman,  but  he  already  makes  expenses  which  only  a  workman,  never  a  peasant, 
would  make,  such  as  buying  a  watch  for  $60.  He  nevertheless  still  thinks  of  prop- 
erty and  writes  about  buying  a  house.  And  finally,  he  docs  something  which  is 
absolutely  contrary  to  peasant  psychology;  he  decides  to  spend  all  his  money  on 
instruction,  and  goes  to  a  college.  This  proves,  that  no  longer  property,  but  hired 
work  has  become  his  life-business,  and  that  his  peasant  attitude  in  economic 
matters  has  changed  into  a  typical  workman's  attitude.  Cf.  Introduction: 
"Economic  Life." 

'  The  attitude  of  Maks  toward  the  problem  of  love  is  already  to  some  extent 
that  of  the  middle  class.  In  the  peasant  class  love  is  always  related  to  marriage, 
even  if  there  is  much  flirting  before  making  the  definite  choice;  in  the  middle  class 
it  becomes  an  end  in  itself,  a  kind  of  a  sport,  of  which  marriage  in  each  given  case 
may  be  the  result,  but  is  not  necessarily  the  acknowledged  aim.  Of  course,  as 
sexual  intercourse  between  unmarried  people  is  normally  excluded  in  the  middle 
class,  there  must  be  a  sufficient  degree  of  culture  in  order  to  make  the  relation 
interesting  in  spite  of  this  limitation  and  in  spite  of  the  lack  of  an  immediate  refer- 
ence to  marriage,  and  it  is  also  usually  possible  only  when  the  individual  is  no 
longer  dependent  upon  the  family.     Cf.  Introduction:    "Marriage." 


510  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

I  can  go  on  foot  to  the  factory  and  I  don't  need  to  pay  15  c.  a  day  for 
t  he  ra  i  hvay-passage . ' 

I  was  much  jileascd  with  your  intention  to  learn  English,  and  even 
higher  [subjects],  for  if  you  have  some  instruction,  you  will  have  an 
assured  existence  in  this  country.  I  guess  that  you  regret  that  you 
did  not  come  to  America  a  few  years  sooner  [before  his  military 
service],  and  did  not  learn  English  instead  of  learning  Russian  [in  the 
army],  you  could  say  today  boldly  that  your  existence  is  secure.^ 

I  got  a  letter  also  from  our  country,  from  father,  mother,  and 
brother  Wiktor.  When  Wiktor  was  still  in  Petersburg  I  wrote  him 
that  I  intended  to  marry  in  America,  and  that  I  would  therefore  never 
come  back  to  our  country.  I  asked  him  to  repeat  to  my  parents  my 
decision  wholly  [as  I  wrote  it],  but,  instead  of  sending  it  by  letter,  he 
told  it  himself  to  my  parents  when  he  came  back  home.  This  is 
what  he  wrote  me,  that  he  was  able  to  notice:  My  mother  was  very 
much  troubled  about  it  and  began  to  cry,  longing  for  me,  w^hile  my 
father  cared  about  it  very  little,  and  Wiktor  noticed  that  father  cared 
little  about  it.  Then,  my  mother  begs  me  much,  in  her  first  letter  to 
me,  to  remove  these  thoughts  from  my  head,  to  come  back  to  our 
country,  while  my  father  does  not  mention  a  word  about  my  returning 
home,  only  informs  me  with  joy,  that  Wiktor  came  back  healthy  from 
the  army.  And  w-hen  Wiktor  was  to  draw  the  lot,  my  father,  as  I 
heard,  exerted  himself  [to  get  him  free],  and  even  gave  to  some  ofl&cial 
200  roubles  to  this  effect,  so  that  if  the  commission  in  Gostynin 
exempted  Wiktor  from  the  military  service,  it  would  cost  my  father 
200  roubles,  but  if  not,  then  the  ofl&cial  would  pay  the  money  back. 
Well,  the  commission  did  not  exempt  him,  and  my  father  got  the 
money  back.  Therefore  he  writes  me  now  [when  W^iktor,  because  of 
bad  health,  has  been  sent  back  from  the  army],  that  Wiktor  is  there 
and  the  money  is  there.  From  [in  spite  of]  his  joy,  as  my  brother 
writes  me,  father  would  not  even  buy  him  clothes  for  Easter.  In  a 
word,  dear  brother,  I  don't  see  in  my  father  any  heart  for  me,  now  no 
more  than  formerly .^    At  the  same  time  I  got  a  letter  from  my 

'  He  had  lived  for  a  year  as  described  in  order  to  be  with  a  remote  cousin. 

'  We  find  here  already  a  standpoint  very  different  from  that  of  the  peasant 
tradition.  The  question  of  "existence"  is  put  upon  a  purely  individual  basis. 
But  this  standpoint  is  not  yet  definitely  accepted,  as  the  following  paragraph  shows. 

^  Maks  evidently  had  his  father  sounded  with  reference  to  determining  what 
were  his  chances  of  receiving  the  farm  or  of  being  established  on  another  if  he 
retiuned,  and  the  uncordial  attitude  of  his  father  perhaps  had  an  effect  in  determin- 
ing the  individualistic  sentiments  in  the  earlier  part  of  the  letter. 


MARKIEWICZ  SERIES  511 

mother,  written  with  her  own  hand.  She  weeps  for  me  and  she  asks 
me  with  tears  to  come  back  to  our  country.  My  heart  grieves  at 
the  words  of  my  beloved  mother,  and  I  am  ready  to  satisfy  her  wish 
in  the  future. 

As  to  the  question  how  I  look  upon  religion  and  socialism,  dear 
brother,  I  don't  bother  myself  profoundly  with  either  the  first  or  the 
second.  Not  with  the  former,  because  I  know  this  much,  that  I  am 
a  Catholic,  and  I  perform  the  duties  of  a  Catholic  as  far  as  I  can.  I 
am  not  devout,  for  I  have  no  time  to  pray,  because  every  Sunday  I 
must  work,  and — I  confess  it  to  you  alone — I  worked  even  on  Easter 

from  7  until  2 But  nevertheless  I  desire  to  remain  a  Catholic 

up  to  my  death. 

As  to  politics,  I  am  very  little  interested  in  any  questions  or 
parties;  when  I  have  a  little  time,  I  buy  a  paper  for  i  c,  I  read  it,  and 
there  it  all  ends ^  ^^  Markiewicz 

205  September  22,  1908 

Dear  Brother:   ....  After  waiting  for  6  months  I  received  at 

last  a  letter  from  my  father,  with  rather  favorable  news They 

are  succeeding  pretty  well,  for  my  father  intends  to  buy  in  Dobrzykow 
the  "murowanka"  [farm  with  stone  buildings]  from  Mr.  Plebanek  for 
3,300  roubles,  but  he  has  not  this  whole  sum,  so  he  addressed  himself 
to  me  for  some  help.  I  did  not  refuse  him  help  in  this  affair,  but  it 
seems  to  me  now  that  perhaps  I  acted  impolitely.  I  asked  my  father 
to  send  me  first  notes  for  1,000  roubles  or  more,  and  promised  to  send 
money  at  once  after  receiving  these.  (Tell  me  your  opinion  about 
this  question  of  notes  and  sending  money  in  general.)  I  add  that  if  I 
asked  for  notes  it  was  because  my  confidence  in  my  father  has  been 
ruined  during  my  stay  in  America.  If  you  wish,  I  can  tell  you  about 
't M.  Markiewicz 

'  In  comparison  with  Maks,  Waclaw  remains  more  of  a  peasant,  in  spite  of  his 
socialism.  Instruction  is  not  for  him  a  means  of  getting  a  position  on  a  higher  social 
level.  He  is  enough  above  the  peasant  to  appreciate  instruction  in  itself  inde- 
pendently of  its  immediate  practical  application,  but  not  enough  to  make  of  it  a 
new  basis  of  life.  Economically  he  is  satisfied  to  belong  to  the  lower  class,  and 
wants  to  rise  only  socially,  like  Klzbieta,  his  sister.  Maks,  on  the  contrary,  is  not 
interested  in  instruction  and  theoretical  problems  as  a  matter  of  distincticm,  but 
he  gets  further  from  the  peasant  ideology  than  Waclaw,  and  is  able  to  make  instruc- 
tion a  new  life-basis  which  will  allow  him  to  get  totally  outside  of  the  peasant  class, 
economically  as  well  as  socially.  Waclaw  expresses  his  desire  to  do  the  same  as 
Maks,  but  it  does  not  seem  that  he  fulfilled  it. 


5 1  2  TRl  MARV-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

206  December  14,  190S 

l);:  \R  Hrotiier:  I  am  very  much  grieved  that  you  are  in  so  bad 
a  position.  I  can  well  imagine  your  painful  situation,  and  I  should 
be  glail  to  help  you,  dear  brother,  and  at  the  same  time  I  would  reach 
the  object  of  my  wishes  to  live  together,  or  near  each  other  in  this 
foreign  land.  But  now  it  is  simply  impossible.  In  the  factory 
where  I  am  working  very  few  men  have  good  work — only  the  engineers 
and  we  three  carpenters.     As  to  the  ordinary  workers  in  the  mill,  may 

God  pity  them,  so  bad  is  their  work I  would  not  wish  it,  not 

only  not  to  my  brother,  but  not  even  to  the  Russian  [tsar]  Nicholas  to 
get  it  by  my  protection  [assistance].  Perhaps  in  the  future  you  will 
have  occasion  to  see  it  yourself;  then  you  will  agree  with  me  that  I  was 

right x\s  to  the  carshops,  they  are  not  here,  but  near  Chicago, 

but  I  hear  that  even  they  don't  work  with  full  speed,  as  the  papers 
have  drummed  it  after  the  election  of  Taft.     If  you  want  money, 

write  to  me  and  I  will  send  you  some '  With  me  everything  is 

good.     I  am  healthy,  I  work  steadily,  only  I  am  bored  here,  because 

in  this  small  town  I  am  as  solitary  as  in  a  forest Write  me 

what  do  you  think  about  the  Polish  National  Alliance  and  the  Polish 

Sokols 

M.  Markiewicz 

207  August  16,  1909 

Dear  Brother  Waclaw:  ....  I  received  a  good  letter  from 
my  parents,  and  besides  the  letter  I  received  beautiful  gifts  from  my 
parents,  brought  by  Witkowski's  brother — a  gold  watch  chain,  my 
monogram  sewed  with  gold  and  silver  threads  and  six  fine  handker- 
chiefs, marked.  I  am  very  much  pleased  with  these  tokens,  and 
from  joy  I  bought  a  gold  watch  for  $60.00.='    I  won't  write  you  more, 

for  I  intend  ....  to  come  to  you  next  Sunday 

Maksymilian 

208  October  5,  1909 

Dear  Brother  Waclaw:'  ....  I  inform  you  about  an  offer 
from  which  you  will  perhaps  profit.  My  old  boss  told  me  today  that 
he  had  much  work,  so  perhaps  I  knew  some  carpenters,  and  if  so  I 

'  He  kept  this  promise,  but  without  taking  money  from  the  bank. 
'  Cf.  No.  202,  note. 


MARKIEWICZ  SERIES  513 

should  send  them  to  him.  I  told  him  that  I  had  a  brother  carpenter 
(i.e.,  you)  who  was  working,  but  if  the  work  would  be  steady,  I  could 
bring  him.  He  answered  that  he  hoped  to  have  steady  work.  So 
I  advise  you  to  come,  dear  brother  ....  we  would  live  here  in  the 

foreign  land  together We  could  meet  him  in  South  Chicago 

and  speak  about  the  business  while  drinking  a  glass  of  beer 

Maks 

209  Island  City,  November  18,  191 1 

Dear  Brother:  ....  I  am  glad  to  hear  that  you  want  to  send 
me  your  money  for  keeping.  I  see  that  you  smother  [hoard]  it  well. 
So  send  it  and  don't  ask  whether  I  will  accept  it.  Describe  how  long 
the  work  there  can  last,  what  are  you  building,  and  how  do  you  live 

there.     I  think  there  are  probably  colds  and  snows Take 

care  not  to  catch  cold  and  not  to  journey  thence  [into  the  other 
world].     Write   more   about   yourself   and   the   country.     Are   you 

satisfied  with  your  success  ?     With  me  tliere  is  no  news 

M. 

Finally,  I  shall  inform  you  that  I  learned  something  which  you 
supposed  I  would  never  learn.  You  were  mistaken.  Well,  and 
because  of  this  I  have  lost  in  you  something  forever.  First,  I  confided 
you  this  [secret],  as  to  a  brother.  Then,  when  I  noticed  that  I  had 
done  badly  [imprudently]  I  begged  you  [not  to  repeat  it,  saying]  that 
if  it  comes  through  you  to  the  daylight,  I  should  have  to  pay  with 
my  good  name.  And  so  it  is.  But  you  did  not  care  about  anything, 
and  you  betrayed  me.  Be  your  own  judge.  I  owe  it  also  to  the  good 
memory  which  you  have,  for  you  repeated  everything  very  exactly. 

Maks 

210  December  i,  191 1 

Dear  Brother  Waclaw:  We  received  today  a  letter  for  you 
from  our  country  and  I  send  it  to  you.  Excuse  me  please  for  its  being 
opened,  but  you  know  how  everybody  is  curious  when  anything  comes 
from  our  country,  so  we  [Stasiek  and  1]  tore  the  envelope  and  satisfied 
our  curiosity.  Your  parents  write  about  a  whole  series  of  accidents 
which  they  had  lately.  The  most  important  is  the  news  about  that 
horse.  It  is  a  pity  to  lose  such  big  money  as  he  was  worth.  Stasiek 
says  that  it  was  a  nice  horse.     We  received  also  a  letter  from  home, 


514 


IKIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 


hut  tluTc  everything  is  well.  First,  everybody  is  in  good  health,  and 
my  father  bought  5  morgs  of  land  from  our  neighbor  Switek,  near 
ours,  for  1,100  roubles.  Further,  my  brother  Wiktor  intends  to 
marry  during  the  carnival  a  Miss  KowaUk  from  Czyzewice.  Stasiek 
says  that  it  would  be  a  splendid  business.  The  girl  is  young,  educated 
well  enough,  the  only  daughter,  and  her  parents  have  a  farm  worth 
about  15,000  roubles.  Wiktor  hopes  that  he  will  reach  his  goal  there, 
because  those  people  are  even  some  remote  relatives  of  my  grand- 
mother Ziolkowska,  and  this  means  something  too.  Further,  Wiktor 
asked  me  to  send  him  about  1,000  roubles,  for  our  father  has  spent 
most  of  his  money  on  that  land  which  he  bought.  Probably  I  ought 
to  help  him  for  some  time.     What  do  you  think  ? 

Now,  you  wished  so  well  to  Miss  H.  G. ;  but  I  learned  that,  as  it 
turns  out,  she  seeks  herself  the  same  [danger]  against  which  you 
warned  her.*  A  proof  is  the  fact,  that  not  long  ago  she  wrote  a  letter, 
such  a  farming  one,  to  that  "priest"  [seminarist],  and  asked  him  to 
accompany  her  [to  walk  with  her]  again.  So  if  she  knows  everything, 
how  she  was  betrayed,  and  dared  to  address  herself  to  him  with  such 
an  oration  [sic],  it  is  enough  to  give  us  an  idea  of  her  virtue.  But  he 
gave  her,  I  heard,  a  rather  sharp  answer,  owing  to  the  occupation 
which  she  had,  that  is,  she  works  in  a  larger  sort  of  a  shoemaker  shop, 
just  opposite  the  St.  Stanislaus  College.  She  sews  buttons  on  the 
shoes,  puts  laces  in,  and  so  on.  With  a  lady  who  has  such  a  position  he 
won't  have  anything  to  do — so  this  student  answered  her.  Enough 
for  the  present  about  this  Miss  H.  G.  At  the  first  opportunity  we  can 
speak  more.  ....  I  have  somewhat  important  business  to  speak 
about,  concerning  the  purchase  of  a  certain  house  here  in  Indiana 

Harbor ^ 

Your  brothers  forever, 

M[aks]  and  S[tanislaw]  Markiewicz 

211  Valparaiso,  August  21,  191 2 

Dear  Waclaw:  ....  I  shall  be  in  Chicago  probably  on  the  31st 
of  this  month.  I  must  make  a  few  purchases  before  going  to  Cam- 
bridge Springs,  Pa.  Among  many  others,  I  must  buy  Webster's 
Dictionary,  which  costs  $18.00  edited  in  1912.     An  older  edition  can 

'  Refers  probably  to  the  content  of  his  preceding  letter.     Waclaw  probably 
warned  the  girl  against  Maks  and  told  her  of  some  previous  love  story  of  his  cousin. 
'  A  recrudescence  of  the  peasant  property  interest. 


MARKIEWICZ  SERIES  515 

be  bought  for  $12 .  00.  It  is  an  indispensable  thing  in  the  school.  As 
to  my  leaving  the  school  of  Valparaiso,  it  is  not  an  unexpected  occur- 
rence, for  I  planned  beforehand  to  do  it.  As  to  the  English  language, 
I  shall  have  time  enough  to  learn  it  in  5  years,  and  in  the  school  of 
the  Polish  National  Alliance  a  year  can  be  spent  for  $150  while  here 
in  Valparaiso  it  would  cost  me  $300;  so  it  is  worth  doing,  if  only  for 

this  reason Before  I  come,  be  so  kind  and  try  to  learn  from 

somebody  about  second-hand  bookstores,  so  we  can  both  go  and  buy 

this  book 

Maks 

212  Smolensk,  January  9,  191 2 

Dear  Brothers:  "Praised  be  Jesus  Christus!"  My  pen  wrote, 
and  my  heart  wept  that  it  did  not  see  you  for  so  long  a  time.  [In  verse.] 
Now  I  send  you  the  sad  news  that  I  have  been  taken  to  this  accursed 
army.  [Describes  how  he  was  sent  with  other  recruits  to  Smolensk.] 
The  physician  sent  me  to  the  hospital  where  I  am  lying  the  third  week 
already  and  I  don't  know  how  long  I  shall  lie  and  what  will  happen  to 
me  further.  God  knows  it.  In  the  hospital  they  give  bad  food,  or 
rather  not  so  bad  as  little,  but  for  the  work  which  we  have  it  is  enough. 
There  are  23  of  us  here  with  ear  disease.  There  are  10  Poles,  but  they 
are  all  from  the  province  of  Lublin;  I  am  alone  from  the  province  of 
Warsaw.  I  am  not  bored,  for  I  have  a  good  companion  who  was  for 
a  whole  year  in  the  agricultural  school  at  Pszczelin.  He  tells  me  al)out 
this  school,  and  time  passes.  We  have  a  good  physician  in  the 
hospital,  but  only  few  men  are  let  go,  so  I  don't  know  what  they  will 
do  with  me.     Perhaps  only  a  miracle  of  God  will  tear  me  away  from 

this  jaw 

MiCHAt  Markiewicz 

213  May  26,  1912 

....  Dear  Brothers:  ....  I  am  waiting  now  for  a  letter 
from  you,  because  I  received  six  roubles,  sent  by  you,  for  which  I 
thank  you  heartily.  They  will  be  very  useful  for  different  expenses, 
for  up  to  the  present  I  had  not  even  money  for  buying  tol^acco, 
because  I  have  not  received  anything  sent  from  home.  And  here  in 
Smolensk  everything  is  expensive,  average  boot-soles  cost  3  zloty 
....  a  loaf  of  wheat  bread,  which  in  our  country  can  be  bouglU  for 
3  copecks,  here  costs  5  copecks. 


5i6  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

I  never  expected  that  such  a  bad  lot  would  befall  me,  as  it  proves 
now,  for  if  I  hail  known  that  I  should  serve,'  I  should  never  have  come 
here,  to  liiis  muddy  and  dirty  Smolensk.  I  should  have  done  much 
better  if  I  had  gone  to  America  instead  of  you,  dear  brother  Stanislaw. 
They  pla.i^ue  us,  God  forbid!  We  hoped  that  after  the  oath  [of 
lidciily]  they  wouldn't  plague  us  so  much,  but  it  is  still  worse.  Till 
noon  they  make  us  run  [exercise]  near  the  barracks.     Afternoon  they 

send  us  to  work They  expect  the  tsar  to  come  to  Smolensk 

this  year,  and  they  plague  us  the  more  for  it.  I  write  home  that  I  am 
getting  on  not  badly,  but  if  mother  knew  what  conditions  I  have  here, 
she  would  shed  many  tears.^  I  shall  probably  expiate  for  you  and  for 
myself.''  I  am  walking  like  a  dead  man,  for  it  is  so  painful  to  serve. 
You  have  extricated  yourself,  but  I  shall  hardly  succeed.  I  go  often 
to  the  medical  office,  but  what  is  the  result?  We  have  a  physician 
who  is  simply  a  thief,  an  old  dog.     Whenever  I  go  to  him,  he  seals 

my  ear  and  writes  something He  says  that  I  am  spoiling  my 

ear  myself.  He  says  that  he  is  writing  a  report  and  that  he  is  sending 
me  to  the  court-martial,  but  there  is  nothing  to  this  court.     He  only 

tries  to  frighten  me,  or  the  devils  know  what  he  thinks He 

did  not  do  anything  bad  to  me  up  to  the  present,  except  that  he  won't 
send  me  to  the  hospital.  I  beg  our  Lord  God  and  God's  Mother  for 
it,  because,  although  in  the  hospital  they  gave  little  to  eat,  yet  it 
was  possible  to  sleep  and  to  rest  enough.     I  often  see  all  the  men  with 

whom  I  lay  in  the  hospital Only  one,  from  the  province  of 

Lublin,   has   been   set   quite   free Another,  about   whom   I 

know  ....  whose  hair  fell  out  and  whose  head  was  left  as  bald 
as  your  knee,  or  as  the  head  of  Korzuszek,  was  not  set  entirely 
free,   but   only   sent   home   for    6    months    to   recover.     [Describes 

'  He  expected  either  to  draw  a  high  number  which  would  exempt  him  or  to  be 
sent  home  by  the  recruiting  commission  on  account  of  his  artificially  provoked  ear 
trouble. 

'  This  regard  for  the  mother  is  typical.  It  seems  somewhat  a  custom  not  to 
complain  to  one's  parents  about  the  military  service.  Cf.  No.  218;  also  No.  72, 
and  other  series  containing  soldiers'  letters. 

5  Stanislaw,  like  Wiktor,  was  set  free  on  account  of  sickness,  after  having 
served  a  short  time.  Therefore  he  did  not  need  to  go  to  America  in  order  to  avoid 
military  service,  and  for  this  reason  Michal  regrets  that  he  did  not  go  himself 
instead  of  his  brother.  "Expiate"  means  here  "suffer  the  predestined  amount  of 
misery." 


MARKIEWICZ  SERIES  517 

weather,  exercise  and  work.]  O,  God's  Mother,  deliver  me  from 
this  Moscovite  jaw !  .  .  .  . 

MiCHAL  MARKIEWICZ 

Please  don't  write  home  about  my  "luxurious"  life  in  the  army, 
for  mother  will  grieve. 

214  July  14,  1912 

Dear  Brothers:  ....  As  to  my  illness,  I  don't  go  to  the 
medical  office  now,  but  I  await  the  winter  and  the  cold.  It  is  true 
that  I  am  afraid  of  these  dogs  the  physicians  lest  they  send  me  to 
the  court-martial,  because  he  decided  at  once  that  I  had  done  it 

intentionally Whenever  I  went  there,  he  always  told  me  not 

to  irritate  it,  and- always  put  gauze  and  cotton  inside.  If  he  put  it 
loosely,  it  leaked,  but  if  he  put  it  tightly,  so  that  I  was  not  able  to 

• ,  then  it  did  not  leak.     Now  I  am  waiting  for  the  cold;   I  will 

complain  of  the  cold  [as  irritating  my  ear]  and  go  often  to  the  medical 
office.  If  the  physician  knew  with  certainty  that  it  is  spoiled  [inten- 
tionally], he  would  have  sent  me  to  the  court-martial,  and  long  ago, 
because  he  is  a  bit  of  a  dog's  brother.  Now  I  won't  write  you  more 
about  it  ...  .  but  when  you  answer,  brother  Stanislaw,  do  it 
carefully,  that  you  may  not  betray  me.     During  June  we  looked  here 

at  the  flying  of  beautiful  aeroplanes It  was  like  a  bird  with 

wings,  and  when  it  rose,  it  twanged  like  a  threshing  machine 

MiCIIAL  MARKIEWICZ 

215  August  19,  1912 

Dear  Brothers :  ....  I  inform  you  about  my  military  service, 
that  it  is  going  on  slowly,  day  after  day,  further  and  further.  We 
have  ended  already  our  duties  in  the  summer  camps,  amid  heat  which 
reached  40°  [Reaumur  or  Centigrade],  ....  and  now  the  weather  has 
changed;  it  is  cold  and  it  rains  every  day.  They  plagued  us  in  the 
camp,  it  is  true,  but  it  will  be  still  worse,  because  we  are  to  go  to 
Moscow  in  a  few  days  for  maneuvers  which  will  last  for  2  weeks,  and 
then  for  a  week  there  will  be  military  review  by  the  tsar.  It  will  be 
hard  if  it  rains  then,  dear  brother.  God  forbid!  To  get  into  this 
accursed  army  and  to  serve — what  for?  To  waste  in  vain  your 
health  and  youth!  Dear  brother  Stanislaw,  I  am  so  weary  and  home- 
sick, God  forbid!     Whenever  I  remember  anything,  my  heart  almost 


5 1 S  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

bursts  open  with  grief.  Why  did  I  not  go  instead  of  you  to  America  ? 
I  rogrot  it  always,  but  it  is  too  late.  Well,  even  now  I  don't  lose  hope 
in  God.  Perhaps  our  Lord  God  will  grant  to  me  such  time  and 
desirable  moment,  as  we  both  desire,  you  and  I.  Meanwhile,  I  don't 
go  to  the  medical  office,  but  I  plan  to  get  sick  during  the  maneuvers, 
when  we  are  in  Moscow.  There  perhaps  they  will  leave  me  in  the 
same  hospital  where  you  were,  for,  as  people  say  ....  there  it  is 
easier  to  be  set  quite  free.  Here  in  Smolensk  it  is  very  difficult; 
they  let  only  the  men  go  who  have  been  operated,  or  those  who  are 
dying,  and  even  those  are  not  set  totally  free,  but  only  for  some  time, 

until  they  recover 

When  I  had  written  up  to  this  passage,  I  was  told  that  I  shall  be 

left   here  ....  because   they   consider   me   unhealthy But 

although  I  remain  here,  I  shall  still  have  a  bad  tiiiie.  Every  day  I 
shall  be  obliged  to  keep  guard  at  the  post.  But  it  will  be  better  than 
at  the  maneuvers.  It  is  bad  in  the  army,  nothing  good  ever  happens. 
Dear  brothers,  you  ask  me  whether  I  need  money.  I  need  it  really, 
because  if  I  wanted  to  satisfy  all  my  needs  I  ought  to  have  lo  roubles 
a  month ;  only  then  could  I  be  a  little  free.  But  when  I  got  those  few 
roubles,  they  were  spent  I  don't  know  where.  I  don't  demand  of  you 
to  send  me  as  much  as  I  ought  to  have,  for  you  must  work  for  it. 
You  don't  receive  anything  for  nothing,  but  it  is  easier  for  you  to  get 
a  rouble  there  than  for  me  a  copeck  here,  so  be  so  kind  and  send  me  a 
few  roubles.  .  .'  .  . 

MiCHAL  MaRKIEWICZ 

216  January  26,  1913 

Dear  Brother  Stanislaw:  ....  I  inform  you  that  I  received 
the  money,  g  roubles  72  copecks,  long  ago,  in  October,  and  I  thank  you 

very  much  for  so  large  a  help  in  the  military  service I  wrote 

you  then  a  letter  at  once I  had  also  a  letter  from  home 

yesterday  in  which  they  inform  me  that  everything  is  good  except 
that  our  sister  Weronika  is  sick.  They  write  also  that  a  Russo- 
Austrian  war  is  likely  to  come.  Indeed,  people  speak  much  about 
war,  and  just  because  of  this  they  held  up  the  soldiers  from  the 
[19)10  year,  who  ought  to  have  gone  on  November  i;  they  don't  let 
them  go  now.  ....  If  the  war  with  Austria  began— God  forbid  I 
It  would  be  upon  our  Polish  land.  It  would  be  dangerous  to  live  in 
our  country.     As  to  me,  it  would  be  also  bad,  because  who  knows 


MARKIEWICZ  SERIES  519 

whether  I  should  not  be  obliged  to  go  to  the  war Up  to  the 

present  there  is  nothing  terrible,  only  we  hear  that  Austria  held  the 
reserves,  as  if  she  were  preparing  for  war,  and  here  the  reserves  are 
also  held.  The  whole  question  is  about  the  Black  Sea.  But  every- 
body says  that  there  won't  be  war God  forbid!     If  I  had  to  go 

to  the  war,  dear  brother  Stanislaw,  who  knows  what  would  happen 
with  us,  perhaps  we  should  never  see  one  another  again.  I  regret 
very  much  that  I  did  not  go  to  America;  there  I  could  live  and  earn, 
as  you  do,  dear  brother.  Well,  I  beg  your  pardon,  Stas,  for  writing 
so.  Don't  think  that  I  envy  you;  on  the  contrary,  may  our  Lord 
God  help  you.     But  I  am  so  worried,  and  I  think  that  I  should  have 

done  better  in  going  to  America They  won't  let  me  go.     I 

don't  go  now  to  the  medical  office,  because  it  [ear]  won't  leak  much, 
but  I  will  go  once  more ^^^^^^  Markiewicz 

217  March  16,  1913 

Dear  Brother:  ....  No  news  is  to  be  heard.  I  live  as  in  a 
forest;  among  this  savage  Moscovite  horde  nothing  can  be  learned. 
[Rumors  about  the  war.]  I  got  a  letter  also  from  home,  such  a  one  as 
I  saw  for  the  first  time  in  my  life,  such  a  terrible  mourning  letter.' 
I  had  not  even  read  it  and  I  did  not  know  what  had  happened  at  home, 
and  the  first  look  made  me  terribly  afraid,  down  to  the  bottom  of  my 

soul God  guard  us  from  more  such  letters!     They  wrote  me 

in  their  last  letter  that  our  grandmother  is  also  ill,  that  her  legs  are 
swelling.  They  wrote  that  they  are  overwhelmed  with  sorrow  after 
the  death  of  our  dear  sister  Weronika.     And  of  the  farming  they  wrote 

that  everything  succeeds  well,  and  the  grinding  is  average 

Dear  brother  Stanislaw,  you  ask  me  whether  our  parents  are  angry  with 

you,  that  they  don't  write  to  you God  forbid!     They  never 

wrote  to  me  anything  like  that,  only  the  letters  don't  reach  you 

MicHAL  Markiewicz 

218  April  8,  19x3 

Dear  Brother:  ....  I  received  the  money,  6  roul)les,  for  which 
I  thank  you  heartily.  I  know,  dear  brotlicr,  that  you  feel  the  need 
which  I  suffer  in  the  military  service,  for  you  know  yourself  what 
goodness  is  in  this  accursed  army.     They  don't  send  me  money  from 

•  The  letter  was  a  printed  dbath-notice,  seldom  used  among  the  peasants. 


5 JO  rRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

home,  because  I  write  them  such  letters  that  they  may  not  grieve 
about  me.  I  write  them  that  I  don't  feel  ill  in  the  army,  and  they 
believe  that  I  feel  really  better  in  the  army  than  at  home.  As  I  don't 
write  for  money  home  they  don't  guess  themselves  [my  need]  and  they 
don't  send  me  any,  for  they  don't  know  well  how  it  is  in  the  military 
service. 

May  God  keep  even  my  worst  enemy  from  such  a  goodness,  may 
not  a  dog  ever  serve  in  the  army!  [Sends  his  photograph  and  asks 
for  photographs.]  Now  I  inform  you  that  the  recruits  of  1910  have 
been  set  free  and  went  away  on  March  26;  even  we  were  more 
cheerful If  only  time  passed  more  rapidly!  .... 

MiCHAL  MaRKIEWICZ 

219  May  20,  1913 

Dear  Brother:  ....  We  celebrated  here  the  Easter  holidays 
together  with  the  Russians,  i.e.,  on  April  27.  Here  all  the  holidays, 
even  for  free  people  [civilians],  go  together  with  the  Russian.'  We 
were  at  the  "Resurrection"  in  the  church  during  the  night  from 
Saturday  to  Sunday.  It  was  celebrated  very  beautifully.  They  let 
off  fireworks,  shot  as  if  with  guns;  for  the  first  time  in  my  life  I  saw 
such  queer  fireworks.  The  holidays  have  not  been  bad,  as  good  as 
they  can  be  in  the  army.  They  gave  a  little  of  everything,  and  of 
beer  everybody  drank  as  much  as  he  wanted.  And  now  for  4  days 
we  have  been  going  to  Easter  confession.  It  is  not  very  far  to  the 
church  from  here,  as  far,  for  example,  as  from  our  house  to  Dobrzykow. 
The  church  is  not  very  big,  but  nice,  built  of  bricks.  It  has  stood 
only  19  years.  I  have  had  no  letter  from  home  for  a  long  time.  I 
don't  know  what  is  the  news  at  home.  A  farmer  from  near  Warsaw 
writes  to  his  son  in  the  army  that  it  is  not  very  well  in  our  country; 

there  was  a  big  frost  so  that  all  the  oats  and  barley  have  frozen 

As  to  myself,  everything  is  going  on  slowly In  these  days  we 

are  camping.  When  this  summer  has  passed,  less  than  a  half  [of 
the  time]  will  be  left.  There  are  rumors  that  service  will  be  reduced 
2  months  to  the  recruits  of  191 1  and  to  us,  because  they  kept  those 
of  1910  four  months  overtime  and  they  will  want  to  get  these  expenses 

MiCHAL  MaRKIEWICZ 

'The  Catholics  in  Russia  outside  of  the  Hmits  of  the  so-called  "Congress 
Kingdom  of  Poland,"  keep  the  dates  of  the  old  or  Julianic  calendar,  which  is 
official  in  Russia. 


MARKIEWICZ  SERIES  521 

220  June  24,  1913 

Dear  Brother  Stanislaw:  ....  My  service  is  going  on  slowly. 
We  went  into  camp  on  May  20  ...  .  but  God  forbid  to  live  in  these 
camps!  Every  day  some  task,  some  hard  task.  It  is  true  that  we 
don't  work  here,  but  these  tasks  [drill]  are  more  annoying  than  any 
work.  I  am  worried,  I  have  no  wish  to  do  anything,  all  this  because 
every  day  it  is  the  same.  And  if  somebody  looked  from  outside  it 
would  seem  as  if  it  were  not  so  bad  in  the  army.  Well,  you,  dear 
brother  Stanislaw,  I  see  that  you  feel  my  need  the  best,  for  you  are 
the  best  persuaded  how  well  it  is  in  this  accursed  Moscovite  army. 
Thanks  to  God  the  Highest,  dear  brother,  you  did  not  serve  these 
Moscovites  long,  while  I  shall  surely  be  obliged  to  remain  for  all  these 
3  years,  unless  God's  mercy  comes.  Happy  the  man  who  does  not 
serve!  More  than  once  have  I  been  convinced  of  this.  Well,  what 
can  be  done,  if  such  is  the  will  of  God  that  I  must  serve.  Happily  one- 
half  of  my  service  has  passed;  perhaps  our  Lord  God  will  grant  that 
the  other  will  pass  also.  This  year,  if  our  Lord  God  keeps  me  alive, 
I  shall  go  home  on  leave,  and  thus  slowly  things  arrange  themselves. 
....  I  am  glad  that  you  are  satisfied  with  my  photograph.  The 
man  who  is  with  me  in  this  photograph  is  my  best  companion,  a  Pole 
from  near  Warsaw,  but  he  goes  to  the  reserves,  i.e.,  home,  in  autumn. 
Send  me  the  soonest  possible  your  photograph  and  that  of  Maks.  If 
it  is  possible,  please  send  me  a  silver  watch  and  a  good  razor.  But 
perhaps  this  will  cost  much  there;  if  so,  don't  send.  It  would  be  very 
agreeable  to  receive  such  a  gift  from  one's  brothers;  I  should  have  a 
remembrance  for  my  whole  life.  I  beg  your  pardon  for  daring  to 
write  for  sUch  things  to  you.     I  say  only,  dear  brothers,  if  it  is  not 

expensive  and  if  you  think  that  it  is  possible,  send  it Brother 

Wiktor  did  not  write  me  that  he  intends  to  marry  in  Czyzew,  but  I 
know  it,  for  already  when  I  was  at  home  Wiktor  drank  more  than  once 
with  her  parents  and  went  to  them  sometimes  with  his  chestnut  mare. 
Indeed  it  would  be  a  happiness  if  he  could  marry  there.  You  can 
send  money  [home],  for  our  parents  spent  their  own  ujion  land,  and 
in  such  a  business  [as  this  marriage]  money  is  useful.  Write  how  much 
you  can  send  him.  Did  brother  Wiktor  not  write  you  whether  there 
is  anybody  to  be  paid  off,  and  why  they  need  money  ?  .  .  .  . 

MiCHAL  MaRKIEWICZ 


52  2  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

221  September  26,  1913 

Dear  Brothers:  ....  I  received  the  money  from  you,  10 
roubles  i  copeck;  just  before  the  maneuvers  it  was  paid  to  me,  and  it 
was  very  useful  during  the  maneuvers.  I  thank  you  heartily,  and 
pxarticularly  you,  dear  brother  Stanislaw.  If  it  were  not  for  your  help 
I  should  have  suffered  much  want  and  misery,  while  so,  thanks  to  God, 
the  second  maneuvers  passed  neither  good  nor  bad.     Thanks  to  God, 

there  was  no  rain  and  no  cold But,  as  soldiers  say,  last  year 

it  was  terrible;  it  rained  the  whole  time,  and  nothing  is  worse  than 
to  be  wet  during  such  a  wandering.  We  have  wandered  like  Jews  in 
the  desert,  all  this  in  memory  of  the  Napoleonic  War,  and  through  the 
same  ways  as  the  French  in  1812-13.  We  passed  many  different 
villages,  and  nowhere  I  have  seen  any  good  house  or  barn,  only  every- 
thing like  henhouses.  It  is  easy  to  notice  that  these  "Kacapy" 
[nickname  for  Russians]  farm  exceedingly  badly.  What  is  worse,  they 
have  no  draw-wells,  only  the  women  go  for  water  far  away,  to  some 
ditch  or  pit.  And  they  sow  whole  fields  with  flax,  as  in  our  country 
\\nth  rye,  for  example.^  I  won't  write  more  about  these  "Kacapy,"  I 
only  say  that  nowhere  is  it  so  well  as  in  our  country,  in  the  beloved 
Poland 

MiCHAL 

As  to  the  watch  and  razor,  you  were  right  in  not  sending  them 
[probably  because  of  the  tax]. 

222  November  22,  1913 

Dear  Brother:  ....  I  received  a  letter  from  home,  in  which 
they  inform  me  that  our  father  received  the  money  sent  by  you, 
precisely  that  about  which  you  wTOte  me  in  your  last  letter,  the  1,000 
roubles,  and  moreover  mother  received  10  roubles.  Father  deposited 
your  money  in  the  savings  bank  of  Gombin.  Wiktor  evidently  could 
not  conclude  the  business  in  Czyzew,  for  he  ^\Tote  that  now  he  is 
calling  upon  the  Jankowskis  in  Kielniki,  and  had  even  asked  already 
the  favor  of  their  daughter.  They  invited  him  to  caU  upon  her. 
Very  well,  but  they  put  off  the  question  of  marriage,  I  don't  know  why 
— whether  they  want  to  get  their  sons  married  first  or  for  some  other 

reason They  [at  home]  wrote  also  that  this  plague  of  a  Zioiek 

[second  husband  of  their  grandmother]  nags  our  house  [family].     For 

'  Cf.  Osinski  series,  No.  131,  note. 


MARKIEWICZ  SERIES  523 

example,  Chojnacki's  boy  tends  his  cattle  [to  graze]  and  once  he 
pastured  them  near  our  windmill.  A  cow,  precisely  that  of  Choj- 
nacki,  damaged  a  wing  of  the  windmill,  and  brother  Ignac  beat  the 
boy  for  it.  This  " berry  "  ["peach "]  of  a  Ziolek  persuaded  Chojnacki 
to  make  a  [complaint  against  Ignac.  The  court  condemned  the 
latter  to  2  weeks  of  prison,  but  father  appealed,  and  we  don't  know 
what  will  result.     Father  in  turn  lodged  a  complaint  against  Chojnacki 

for  damaging  the  wing How  do  you  like  our  dear  grandfather  ? 

May — [the  devil  take]  him — !  Our  brother  Wiktor  wrote  that  he 
slanders  and  blackens  our  house  before  people,  and  Wiktor  intends  to 
reward  him  for  his  bad  muzzle. 

They  write  to  me  to  come  on  leave,  particularly  our  dear  mother. 
I  have  certainly  promised  to  go,  but  the  leave  does  not  depend  upon 

me  alone I  asked  the  captain  here  and  he  promised  to  let  me 

go,  but  whether  he  will  or  not,  I  don't  know,  although  I  have  the  full 

right May  God  grant  me  to  get,  for  a  few  days  at  least,  out  of 

this  true  hell  upon  earth,  this  Moscovite's  jaw,  because  I  am  very 
worried  and  longing  for  my  family.     And  what  is  worse,  they  say  that 

the  service  will  be  made  longer People  say  that  in  the  duma 

of  Petersburg  the  question  is  going  on 

Please  send  to  Maks  from  me  my  best  wishes.  May  God  allow 
him  to  attain  as  soon  as  possible  his  noble  end  [to  finish  with  the 
college]. 

MiCHAL  MaRKIEVVICZ 

223  January  11,  1914 

Dear  Brothers:  ....  I  have  been  on  leave.  I  got  home  on 
December  6,  and  I  left  on  December  30.  Our  dearest  mother  was 
very  glad  about  my  coming  and  greeted  me  very  tenderly.  I  am 
sorry  that  our  dear  mother  was  ill  twice  during  these  two  years  since 

I  have  been  in  the  army Well,  thanks  to  God  the  Highest, 

everything  passed  off  and  now  mother  is  healthy,  although  she  still 
suffers  constantly  from  stomach  catarrh.  Oh,  may  God  grant  our 
dearest  mother  to  recover  fully,  for  our  whole  happiness,  our  whole 
hope  and  our  good  rely  upon  her.  As  to  our  father,  he  complain, 
now  as  he  always  did,  but  he  has  not  been  ill  for  these  two  years. 
When  I  was  at  home  we  received  your  letter,  dear  brother  Stanislaws 
in  which  you  abused  father  for  the  question  of  this  land  from  Swit- 
kowski.     Maks  was  right  in  writing  to  father  that  he  had  even  less 


5:4  rRIMARV-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

confidence  in  him  tlian  in  the  worth  of  a  Russian  rouble.  Father 
juslit'ies  himself,  but  what  he  thought  was  really  nothing  else  than 
that  which  mother  guesses.  Father  excuses  himself  for  doing  so  on 
the  score  that  it  cost  less,  but  in  reality  I  think  that  it  would  have  been 
as  mother  savs.'  As  to  brother  Wiktor,  he  is  neither  upon  water  nor 
upon  ice  [insecure].  He  calls  upon  the  girl  every  Sunday,  but  there 
is  nothing  certain.  But  he  excuses  himself  on  the  ground  that  there 
is  nobodv  to  work  at  home,  and  that  he  won't  marry  until  I  come  back 
from  the  army.  He  is  partly  right.  Well,  but  nobody  knows  how 
God  will  direct  his  lot.  If  he  had  a  good  chance  he  ought  not  to  wait 
until  I  come.  As  to  Ignac,  Julka  and  Mania,  you  would  not  know 
them,  dear  brothers,  they  have  grown  so.  Ignac  is  perhaps  the  biggest 
among  us — a  boy  like  a  ladder.  May  our  Lord  God  give  him  health ! 
I  pity  him  for  falling  a  victim  for  the  sake  of  this  [Chojnacki]  boy's 
skin.  When  I  came,  he  had  sat  in  prison,  for  two  weeks.  [Farm- 
work,  weather  and  crops.]  Grandmother  is  also  bad,  she  looks 
sickly.  As  to  Ziolek,  he  is  healthy  like  a  horse,  only  he  has  grown  a 
little  older 

MiCHAL  MaRKIEWICZ 

224  April  20,  1914 

Dear  Brother:    ....  You  look  very  nice  and  young  in  the 
photograph.     It  is  somewhat  difficult  to  know  you  in  the  photograph, 

for  you  have  growm  so  fat;    you  are  not  quite  like  yourself 

W.  Borek  looks  well  also.  Evidently  you  are  in  good  companionship 
with  each  other,  and  it  is  very  right  and  good  to  have  a  companion 
from  one's  own  neighborhood  and  well  known.  Do  you  live  together, 
or  do  you  perhaps  work  together?  ....  Please  write  me,  and  give 

him  my  best  wishes  and  greetings At  home  brother  Wiktor 

got  married.  The  wedding  took  place  on  February  18,  in  the  church 
of  Radziwie.  He  married  ]\Iiss  Antonina  Oliszewska  from  Poplacin. 
I  don't  know  her,  but  Wiktorek  writes  that  she  is  a  pretty  girl,  of 
middle  height,  19  years  old.  She  has  a  sister  17  years,  and  a  brother 
10  years  old.  Both  her  parents  are  dead  ....  and  left  a  fortune, 
I  wloka  [30  morgs]  of  land  and  moreover  1,500  roubles  cash  for  the 

farm-stock,  sold  after  Oliszewskis'  death This  farm  lies  quite 

near  the  Vistula,  and  a  part  of  the  river  belongs  to  this  land 

'  The  father  probably  bought  or  planned  to  buy  the  land  in  his  owti  name. 
The  "lesser  cost"  probably  refers  to  notarial  expenses. 


MARKIEWICZ  SERIES  525 

The  place  is  very  good,  Wiktorek  writes,  and  he  praises  the  fortune 
highly  enough.  I  hear  that  he  made  indeed  a  good  match,  and  so 
unexpectedly.  When  I  was  on  leave  at  home,  Wiktorek  had  no  girl 
at  all,  and  then  suddenly  he  writes  that  he  is  marrying.  May  God 
bless  him  in  his  new  household.  But  at  home  conditions  have  grown 
worse,  for  there  is  nobody  to  work.  Father  wrote  me  to  come  "for 
recovery,"  at  least  for  half  a  year.  Well,  I  should  be  glad  to  come 
back  once  and  forever  and  to  get  free  from  this  accursed  service, 
but  it  is  not  in  my  power,  I  guess  that  things  are  bad  at  home  without 
us,  but  what  can  I  do  since  I  must  serve?  But  you,  dear  brother 
Stas,  since  you  have  no  work  now  and  since  there  is  likely  to  be  war 
[with  Mexico],  I  would  advise  you  to  come  home.  Please  write  me, 
how  long  do  you  mean  to  remain  in  America?  Wiktorek  intended 
before  to  take  [father's]  farm  himself.^  .... 

MiCHAL  MaRKIEWICZ 

225  July  I,  1914 

Dearest  Brother:  ....  I  received  10  roubles  and  i  copeck 
for  which  I  thank  you  most  heartily.  I  intended  to  write  home  for 
money,  when  unexpectedly  I  received  10  roubles.     For  me  it  is  a  big 

sum  of  money May  God  grant  me  ....  an  occasion  to 

prove  to  you  my  gratitude  for  your  well-doing,  and  your  brotherly 
heart,  dear  brother  Stas.  And  now,  in  the  last  year  of  service  money 
is  very  necessary,  for  we  must  dress  ourselves  a  little  better.  For  it 
is  impossible  to  go  in  the  clothes  which  they  give,  because  people 
would  say  that  such  a  man  came  from  some  prison  or  some  desert,  not 

from  miHtary  service You  ask  about  the  service  [how  long  it 

will   last].     I  cannot    write    anything    with    certainty They 

kept  the  recruits  of  1910  longer  because  there  was  war  in  the  Balkans, 
the  Bulgars  with  the  Turks  ....  and  Russia  wanted  to  benefit  from 

this  war He  [the  Moscovite]  likes  to  make  war  against  the 

Turks,  for  they  are  not  Japanese May  our  Lord  God  and 

'  This  last  must  be  understood  with  reference  to  the  unexpressed  question, 
"Who  will  take  the  father's  farm,  Stas  or  Michal  ? "  Evidently,  Michal  would  like 
to  have  it,  for  since  Wiktor  is  already  married  and  settled  the  brother  who  takes 
the  farm  will  be  favored,  particularly  so  because  of  the  father's  attitude.  Therefore 
he  tries  to  learn  discreetly  whether  Sta§  (who  is  older)  intends  to  return,  and 
whether  he  would  oppose  Michal's  taking  the  farm.  There  is  at  the  same  time  a 
cunning  endeavor  to  learn  his  brother's  intentions,  and  a  mixed  feeling,  for  he 
evidently  loves  his  brother  and  would  like  to  have  him  come. 


5^6  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

God's  Minlu-r  i^rant  nic  to  f:;ct  free  from  this  Moscovite  jaw 

Believe  mo.  when  I  went  with  the  recruits,  I  was  not  so  sad  as  now, 

since  I  returned  from  the  leave.     I  even  wept,  I  was  so  sorry  to  return 

.  .  .  .  anions  these  beasts  and  wolves  the  "Kacapy. "  ....  From 

home  they  write  ....  that    they  have  a  lawsuit  about  the  trees 

which  grow  upon  the  range  between  their  tield  and  the  priest's.     They 

won  the  first  time,  but  they  lost  the  second  time,  for  the  court  did  not 

call  our  witnesses.     The  lawyer  says  that  we  must  win.     It  would 

be  better  if  they  made  peace  instead  of  lawsuits,  which  take  money 

and  time 

MiCHAL  M. 


KOZLOWSKI  SERIES 

The  Kozlowskis  are  a  poor  family  in  the  province  of 
Lomza.  At  his  death  the  father  left  a  small  farm  of  two 
morgs — possibly  inherited  from  his  mother.  The  widow, 
Franciszka,  remained  on  the  farm  with  the  youngest 
boy,  Franek.  One  daughter  (stepdaughter  ?)  of  Franciszka 
married  a  shoemaker  of  the  same  village.  The  position  of 
a  village  shoemaker  is  rather  bad,  and  this  explains  the 
.apparent  cupidity  of  the  daughter.  The  other  children  had 
gone  to  America.  Meanwhile  there  had  remained  undivided 
a  farm  left  by  Franciszka's  late  husband's  father,  and  the 
trouble  begins  with  the  division  of  this  land.  In  the  division 
six  morgs  of  land  are  added  to  the  small  farm  of  Franciszka. 
She  has  no  right  to  sell  these  6  morgs,  but  at  the  same  time 
she  wishes  to  get  as  much  profit  from  the  situation  as  pos- 
sible, and,  on  the  other  hand,  she  is  really  not  in  a  position 
to  take  care  of  the  whole  farm  until  Franek  grows  up.  The 
shoemaker's  wife  has  a  right  to  part  of  the  value  of  the 
whole  farm  and  she  claims  her  share,  but  Franciszka  wants 
to  pay  her  only  a  sum  corresponding  to  her  part  of  the  origi- 
nal farm  of  two  morgs,  and  wishes  to  drive  a  sharp  bargain 
even  then.  Her  first  plan  is  to  sell  the  farm,  conceal  as 
much  money  as  possible  for  herself,  and  go  to  America  to  be 
supported  there  by  her  children.  But  the  children  are 
unwilling  to  give  her  power  of  attorney;  they  seem  rightl)' 
to  distrust  her.  Then,  as  the  opportunity  to  marry  presents 
itself,  she  changes  her  plans,  sells  whatever  can  be  sold 
without  legal  authority,  gets  money  from  her  children  to 
join  them  in  America,  invents  pretexts  for  not  going,  getb 

527 


3_\S  I'RIM ARV-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

niarricil,  and  tries  lo  kcc})  the  whole  farm  for  her  youngest 
son,  while  getting  in  addition  as  much  money  as  possible 
from  the  sale  of  the  forest  and  stock.  She  succeeds  per- 
fectly, and  is  evidently  too  clever  for  her  children.  They 
not  onl\'  get  no  money  from  her,  but  she  succeeds  in  getting 
scMiie  from  them.  Ultimately  she  conciliates  even  her  most 
dangerous  antagonists,  the  shoemaker  and  his  wife. 

All  this  shows  no  lack  of  maternal  feeling.  On  the  con- 
trarv,  she  shows  that  feeling  on  the  occasion  of  her  daughter's 
death.  But  she  has  a  powerful  personality,  and  she  has 
probably  been  independent  for  a  long  time ;  she  has  governed 
her  environment,  and  she  does  not  wish  to  fall  into  the 
position  of  an  old,  helpless,  and  moneyless  mother,  supported 
by  her  children.  And  as  having  some  money  herself  is  the 
only  way  of  keeping  her  independence,  she  endeavors  by 
all  means  to  get  it.  As  a  woman,  she  has  not  the  same 
tradition  of  familial  solidarity  as  men;  she  is  not  the  head 
of  the  family,  the  rightful  manager  of  the  common  property;  j 
there  are  no  rights  and  responsibilities  of  leadership  to  set  : 
limits  to  her  egotism.  The  family-group  as  a  distinct  whole 
does  not  exist  for  her;  she  means  to  deal  always  only  with 
individuals  and  opposes  to  them  her  own  individuality.  In 
so  far  the  case  is  different  from  that  of  the  old  Wroblewski, 
who  shows  a  much  more  far-going  moral  degeneration,  since 
he  is  the  head  of  a  family  and  nevertheless  breaks  off  all 
relations  with  his  sons. 

The  influence  of  Franciszka's  personality  upon  her 
environment  is  very  well  shown  by  the  circumstance  that 
everybody  who  comes  into  immediate  tolich  with  her  finally 
does  whatever  she  wishes.  Her  youngest  son  is  under  her 
absolute  control;  her  kuma,  Maryanna  Szczepanska,  is 
dominated;  her  second  husband  manifests  a  real  devotion; 
to  her ;  even  the  stepdaughter  and  the  shoemaker  are  sub- 
jugated,  though  not  w^ithout  protest.     Her  brothers  and* 


KOZLOWSKI  SERIES  529 

children  in  America  are,  of  course,  less  under  her  power,  but 
even  they  cannot  quite  avoid  her  influence.  The  letters  give 
us  a  good  idea  of  the  means  by  which  the  social  environment 
may  be  controlled  through  merely  psychological  influences, 
without  any  socially  acknowledged  right  to  control — one  of 
the  practical  problems  of  the  peasant  woman  and  solved  by 
many  of  them  in  the  same  way  as  by  Kozlowska. 

The  fundamental  device  is,  of  course,  the  appeal  to  senti- 
ment. Kozlowska  uses  it  artistically.  In  order  to  appre- 
ciate this  we  must  remember  the  peasants'  tendency  to 
schematize  people  and  things.  Every  person  belongs  to  a 
certain  determined  social  type  and  is  presumed  to  have  the 
attitudes  of  this  type;  every  person  has  a  determined  posi- 
tion, and  from  this  position  conclusions  about  his  behavior 
may  be  drawn.  The  surest  way  to  provoke  a  desired  senti- 
mental reaction  in  the  environment  is  therefore  to  assume 
and  to  keep  consistently  a  character  corresponding  to  the 
sentiment  it  is  desired  to  provoke.  Thus,  for  example,  a 
noble,  a  priest,  a  teacher,  an  official,  a  newspaper  man,  an 
agitator,  wishing  to  win  the  attachment  of  the  peasants, 
must  each  act  in  a  different  way.  There  are  also  reactions 
which  only  a  person  in  a  determined  position  can  arouse. 
For  instance,  envy  is  most  easily  awakened  in  peasants 
by  a  peasant.  A  priest  or  a  noble  will  hardly  succeed  in 
provoking  pity,  etc. 

Now,  Kozlowska  has  a  determined  character  and  she 
tries  to  arouse  only  such  feelings  as  are  habitual  with  regard 
to  a  person  of  this  character.  She  is  a  widow  and  therefore 
presumed  to  be  helpless.  The  supi)osition  of  helplessness 
has  a  stronger  basis,  because  she  is  old  and  formally  poor, 
i.e.,  she  has  Kttle  which  is  rightfully  her  own.  Further,  she 
is  a  mother  and  grandmother,  and  supposed  to  have  the 
feelings  of  love,  longing  for  her  absent  chilch-cn,  grief  for  a 
child's   death,   anxiety   for  her   grandchildren    when   they 


.''J 


:o  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 


become  oqihans,  etc.  The  type  of  favorable  reaction  which 
she  can  easily  provoke  in  her  environment  is  thus  predeter- 
mined; it  is  pity  for  her  helplessness  and  sympathy  for  her 
maternal  feelings.  And,  indeed,  she  plays  continually  those 
two  chords.  And  she  does  it  with  just  the  intensity  required 
by  the  social  milieu  to  which  she  belongs.  In  a  more  culti- 
vated milieu,  more  accustomed  to  restrain  the  feelings,  her 
beha\'ior  would  appear  highly  unnatural,  distasteful,  and  hys- 
terical. Perhaps  she  is  in  fact  a  little  hysterical,  but  certainly 
her  behavior  is  adapted  to  her  social  sphere — one  accustomed 
to  a  display  of  feelings.  She  has  nothing  to  lose  and  much 
to  win  by  exaggeration;  therefore  she  exaggerates  her 
helplessness  as  well  as  her  motherly  love,  her  poverty  and 
her  (certainly  unreal)  bad  health,  her  grief  and  her  gratitude. 

Of  course,  her  actions  are  not  in  accordance  with  her 
assumed  character;  but  she  knows  like  a  master  how  to 
present  them  in  a  suitable  light.  The  gradual  selling  of  the 
forest  is  given  as  the  result  of  her  poverty  and  inability  to 
farm.  When  she  wants  the  farm  sold,  she  appeals  to  her 
oldest  son  as  her  "guardian"  and  pretends  to  acknowledge 
his  authority.  When  she  marries,  she  pretends  that  she 
was  forced  to  it  by  her  helplessness.  Her  anger  against  "the 
shoemaker's  wife"  is  justified  by  her  motherly  indignation, 
because  of  the  invectives  and  curses  which  the  stepdaughter 
hurls  against  her  children.  And  the  hardest  blow  to  her  is 
the — just  or  unjust — allegation  of  immoral  conduct,  which 
tends  to  wreck  completely  her  assumed  character. 

But  she  knows  also  how  to  use  other  weapons.  She 
appeals  to  religious  feelings — by  using  in  a  clever  way  the 
name  of  God,  by  sending  religious  tokens,  by  exploiting  the 
magical  fear  of  a  mother's  curse,  by  presenting  other  people's 
duties  toward  her  in  a  religious  form,  etc.  Expressions  of 
indignation  and  pride  alternate  with  appeals  to  pity  and 
strengthen  each  other  by  contrast. 


KOZLOWSKI  SERIES  531 

The  second  typical  means  of  control  is  the  use  of  the 
feelings  aroused,  instead  of  rational  arguments.  In  asking 
for  anything  or  in  explaining  her  conduct  Kozlowska  does 
not  rely  upon  the  strength  of  her  arguments.  On  the  con- 
trary, she  seems  to  avoid  intentionally  the  real  issue  and 
instead  creates  around  the  problem  an  atmosphere  of  senti- 
ment favorable  to  her.  It  is  hardly  a  fully  conscious, 
rationally  motivated  policy,  any  more  than  is  her  ability 
to  provoke  the  desired  feelings;  both  are  certainly  naive. 
Her  use  of  sentiment  instead  of  argument  is  also  largely 
due  to  her  insufficient  training  in  argumentation.  Most  of 
her  arguments,  are,  in  fact,  rather  weak,  and  in  this 
respect  she  is  also  a  type.  The  essential  features  of  her 
argumentation  are  almost  universal,  not  only  among 
women,  but  also  among  men  of  the  peasant  class,  and 
this  is  precisely  the  argumentation  which  is  most  efficient 
with  peasants.  In  order  to  demonstrate  something  ration- 
ally, we  must  not  only  be  able  to  develop  a  logically 
perfect  chain  of  reasoning,  but  must  also  have  an  opponent 
able  to  follow  this  reasoning  to  acknowledge  its  binding 
character;  and  first  of  all,  we  must  have  identical  premises. 
But  a  peasant  opponent  is  not  trained  to  follow  a  line  of 
reasoning,  is  not  accustomed  to  accept  a  thing  as  true  solely 
because  it  has  been  demonstrated  to  him.  And  even  if 
he  admits  a  premise  explicitly,  he  has  always  some  other 
implicit  premises  which  he  keeps  intentionally  unexpressed 
and  which  invalidate  in  his  mind  his  opponent's  conclusion. 
So  it  is  a  difficult  task  to  get  the  peasant  to  accept  your 
argument.  But  if,  with  regard  to  a  given  problem,  you 
succeed  in  arousing  a  set  of  feelings  favorable  to  your  view, 
the  work  is  done,  for  the  peasant  will  liimsclj  invent  argu- 
ments which  will  persuade  him.  This  is  the  mechan- 
ism used  consciously  by  all  those  who  want  to  influence 
the  peasant,  and  they  imitate  it  from  the  half-conscious 


53? 


•KlMARV-CiROll'  ORGANIZATION 


procaluro  of  tlic  j^casants  themselves,  of  which  Kozio-.vska 
gives  a  good  example. 

The  third  means  which  the  old  woman  uses  to  obtain 
what  she  wants  is  to  be  as  exacting  as  possible.  She  not 
onl\-  does  not  give  her  children  w^hat  is  due  to  them,  but  she 
continually  demands  money  from  them,  and  not  only  from 
I  hem  but  even  from  her  brothers,  who  have  no  obligation 
whate\-er  toward  her.  She  simply  reverses  the  situation, 
making  demands  w'hich  the  others  might  naturally  make. 
It  can  be  understood  then  that  under  these  conditions  her 
son-in-law,  instead  of  claiming  his  wife's  dowry,  would  be 
satisfied  if  she  sent  him  back  his  ow^n  money,  or  her  son 
would  be  satisfied  if  she  let  him  alone.  The  principle  is  the 
same  as  in  bargaining,  which  is  a  general  characteristic  of 
the  peasant  as  well  as  of  the  Jew.  In  their  dealings  with 
the  manor-owners  the  peasants'  claims  are  sometimes  impu- 
dent. They  do  not  expect  those  claims  to  be  granted,  but 
they  hope  to  get  at  least  something.  In  many  cases  the 
source  of  this  unlimited  exacting  is  found  in  a  curious 
psychological  identification  of  wish  and  right.  Thus,  the 
peasants'  wish  to  get  the  land  of  the  nobility  gives  rise  to 
a  half-determined,  sometimes  even  fully  determined  and 
rationally  justified,  conception  that  they  have  the  right  to 
this  land.  In  Kozlowska's  case  certainly  there  is  much  of 
this  attitude.  We  find  it  also  in  most  family  quarrels  about 
property,  and  in  many  lawsuits. 

Among  the  other  personalities  in  this  series  the  most 
interesting  is  perhaps  the  kiima  (Marysia's  godmother), 
]\Iaryanna  Szczepanska.  She  is  notable  because  of  the 
nature  of  her  friendship  with  Franciszka.  This  kind  of  old 
women's  friendship  is  very  frequent.  It  is  based  upon  a 
community  of  interests  and  attitudes.  The  women  seek  in 
each  other  a  help  against  their  respective  families  and  com- 
fort in  domestic  troubles,  and,  being  of  the  same  generation 


KOZLOWSKI  SERIES  533 

and  the  same  social  group,  they  agree  perfectly  with  each 
other,  particularly  as  there  are  no  practical  problems  to 
divide  them.  The  necessity  of  such  a  friendship  is  felt 
mostly  in  older  age  by  women  who  do  not  know  how  to 
adapt  themselves  to  the  young  generation,  and  who  begin 
to  feel  solitary  in  their  own  families.  Of  course  if  there  is  a 
close  and  harmonious  relation  between  husband  and  wife 
such  a  friendship  has  less  occasion  to  arise,  and  indeed  we  do 
not  find  it  in  most  of  our  series.  In  their  relation  the  old 
women  manifest  much  mutual  adulation,  and  this  shows 
that  their  friendship  has  still  another  function;  it  is  their 
I  only  way  of  getting  social  recognition  of  the  kind  and  degree 
they  desire.  It  seems  to  be  a  tacit  pact  between  them 
always  to  praise,  never  to  blame  each  other.  They  behave 
in  the  same  way  when  speaking  about  each  other,  and 
Maryanna's  letters  are  good  examples  of  this  behavior. 

Old  men,  like  old  bulls,  do  not  care  much  for  society. 
Their  social  standing  is  more  assured,  their  instinct  of  domi- 
nation finds  place  enough  in  the  family,  their  familial  atti- 
tude does  not  allow  them  to  initiate  strangers  into  their 
home  affairs,  and  they  do  not  need  any  help  against  their 
families.  After  their  retirement  the  situation  changes,  and 
then  we  find  them  sometimes  associated  in  friendship  with 
retired  neighbors  of  the  same  age.  The  usual  consequence 
of  retirement,  however,  is  to  strengthen  the  bonds  between 
husband  and  wife. 

THE  FAMILY  KOZLOWSKI 

Franciszka  Kozlowska,  a  widow 
Antoni  (Antos),  her  son,  living  in  America 
Franek  (Franciszek),  her  son,  living  with  her 
Jozef  Plata,  her  second  husband 

Marysia    (Mania)    Baranowska  |  j^^^  (},,,,^,,,l,rs,  living  with  their  husl.a.uis 
Zosia  Bieniewska 
Julcia  Brzostowicz 


[     in  America 


534  TRIMARY-GROUr  ORGANIZATION 

"Tho  shoemaker's  wife,"  her  daughter  or  stepdaughter 

Antoui  llcrmanowicz,  "the  shoemaker" 

Wiiuentv 


f  Franciszka's  brothers  (or  brothers-in-law) 
Antom       J 

Mar>-anna  Szczcpanska,  Franciszka's  kuma 


226-45.  MAINLY  FROM  FRANCISZKA  KOZLOWSKA  IN  POLAND, 
TO  MEMBERS  OF  HER  FAMILY  IN  AMERICA.  237-38, 
FROM  MARYANNA  SZCZEPANSKA;  230,  2  3  9-4 1,  FROM 
FRANEK;  242-43,  FROM  JOZEF  PLATA;  244-45,  FROM 
ANTONI  HERMANOWICZ 

226  Danilowo,  March  15,  1906 

[To  Marysia  and  Jan  Baranowski]  In  the  first  words  of  m}? 
letter  I  speak  to  you  with  these  godly  words,  "Praised  be  Jesus 
Christus,"  and  I  hope  that  you  will  answer  me  "In  centuries  of 
centuries,  Amen."  .... 

I  inform  you,  dear  children,  about  my  grief.  Were  it  not  for 
my  soul  for  which  I  am  anxious  lest  I  lose  it  in  eternity,  I  should 
have  dro\\Tied  myself,  and  you  would  have  nobody  to  write  to  any 
more.  Dear  children,  I  write  to  you  and  I  don't  s  these  letters 
from  crying.  I  am  only  glad  from  your  letter  that  you  intend  to 
take  me  to  America.  There  perhaps  I  should  still  live  some  years 
more.  But,  dear  daughter  and  son-in-law,  make  some  plan  about 
all  this. 

Dear  daughter  and  son-in-law,  the  worst  is  the  forest,  for  I  could 
find  some  farmer  for  [renting]  the  field,  but  the  worst  is  about  the 
forest.  People  would  cut  it  down  [steal  the  wood  in  my  absence]. 
Dear  children,  you  said  in  your  first  letter  that  you  would  take  me, 
so  take  me  indeed,  I  beg  you  heartily. 

Dear  children,  I  describe  to  you  my  grief.  On  the  same  day 
when  I  received  that  letter  from  }-ou,  I  received  also  a  notification 
from  the  bailiff  that  the  shoemaker's  wife  wants  it  [the  farm]  sold  at 
auction,  and  the  auction  will  be  on  March  21.  Now,  dear  children, 
when  we  were  at  the  court,  I  asked  them:  "How  much  do  you  want 
to  be  paid  off."  She  said  60,  and  he  [her  husband]  said  70.  She 
said  that  she  wanted  not  only  [the  inheritance]  after  her  father,  but 
also  after  her  grandfather.  I  offered  her  50.  But  now  I  will  give  her 
nothing  at  all.     Let  her  go  by  [the  way  of]  lawsuits,  I  will  give  her 


KOZLOWSKI  SERIES  535 

nothing  at  all.'  Now,  dear  children,  I  inform  you  that  she  writes 
letters  to  America,  and  particularly  to  Antoni.  Moreover,  through 
acquaintances  she  sends  messages  against  me.  And  now  Antos  has 
not  written  to  me  for  more  than  3  months  [as  a  result  of  this  slander- 
ing]. And  perhaps,  dear  daughter  and  son-in-law,  dear  children, 
perhaps  they  [Antos  and  wife]  don't  know  that  you  wish  to  take  me  to 
America,  and  they  don't  know.  But,  dear  daughter  and  son-in-law, 
don't  be  angry  with  me  for  the  thing  which  I  shall  mention.  Dear 
children,  I  could  not  get  to  America  for  my  money.  Why,  and  I 
should  not  go  without  my  son  who  is  with  me.  Dear  daughter  and 
son-in-law,  perhaps  you  will  send  me  a  ship-ticket.  Dear  children, 
sign,  all  of  you,  that  you  want  me  to  come.  For  perhaps  you  want 
me  to  come,  dear  daughter  and  son-in-law,  and  perhaps  those  [the 
son  and  daughter-in-law]  don't  want  me  to  come  at  all."  Dear  daugh- 
ter, I  ask  you  whether  you  received  that  letter  in  which  were  the 
scapularies  and  the  veil  of  God's  Mother  ?     You  say,  dear  daughter 

'  One  of  the  main  sources  of  the  innumerable  and  interminable  lawsuits. 
Whenever  in  a  dispute  one  party  goes  to  court,  or  so  much  as  threatens  with  a 
lawsuit,  it  is  enough  to  harden  the  other  party  against  all  persuasion,  even  if  he 
knows  that  he  is  totally  wrong.  But  at  the  last  moment,  before  the  suit  comes 
to  trial  a  reaction  usually  comes — reflection  and  fear  of  losing — and  if  there  are 
mediators  the  matter  is  frequently  settled  at  this  moment.  Much  depends  also 
upon  the  judge,  whether  he  is  able  to  give  the  whole  affair  an  unofficial  form  and 
to  persuade  the  parties  to  agree.  Therefore  the  country  judges  use  as  little 
formality  as  possible,  for  if  once  the  matter  is  put  upon  a  formal  basis  it  ceases  to 
be  a  question  of  right  or  wrong  and  becomes  a  mere  fight.  The  lawsuits  between 
family  members  must  be  considered  from  this  point  of  view.  As  long  as  the  matter 
remains  within  the  family,  agreement  is  always  possible  upon  any  basis;  the  peasant 
is  ready  not  only  to  acknowledge  any  just  claim  but  even  to  make  any  sacrifice. 
But  as  soon  as  the  question  assumes  a  formal  character  no  considerations  of  justice, 
and  in  general  none  of  the  moral  norms  regulating  the  family  life  are  applied  at  all; 
the  law  is  outside  of  morals.  An  attitude  which  would  be  judged  immoral,  unjust, 
sinful,  from  the  standpoint  of  familial  or  communal  relations,  is  not  judged  at  all, 
by  any  moral  standards  in  legal  relations.  And  this  attitude  is  not  always  uncon- 
scious. A  peasant  who  was  in  the  midst  of  a  lawsuit  with  his  brother,  and  who 
was  evidently  and  absolutely  in  the  wrong  from  the  standpoint  of  justice,  replied, 
when  we  pointed  this  out  to  him:  "Why,  they  did  not  want  it  settled  by  the  way 
of  justice!"  meaning  that  they  went  at  once  to  court  instead  of  trying  to  get  \\U 
consent  in  an  amiable  way. 

2  This  request  may  have  two  aims.     She  either  wants  to  i;e  assured  that  in  any  ■ 
case  she  will  be  supported  in  America,  or  she  wants  to  have  a  document  which, 
while  not  equivalent  to  legal  authority,  may  still  enable  lier  to  dis|)()se  of  a  part  of 
the  property  or  to  persuade  the  guardians  to  let  her  do  so. 


5^6  rRIMARV-C.ROrP  ORGANIZATION 

and  son-in  law.  tliat  1  was  angry  with  you.  No,  I  was  not  angry 
at  all,  I  was  very  much  satisfied,  only  I  waited  for  your  answer. 
Dear  children,  you  arc  so  dear  to  me,  that  I  kiss  these  photograi)hs 

of  vou  upon  the  wall 

Franciszka  Kozlowska 


227  November  4,  1906 

....  My  dear  Children:  ....  And  now  I  inform  you 
that  I  am  heallhy,  but  scarcely,  from  all  this  thinking  which  I  have 

upon  my  mind I  received  your  letter  and  3  photographs; 

I  gave  one  to  Szczepanska  and  I  have  two  left.  I  inform  you  that  I 
am  very  much  satisfied,  dear  daughter  and  son-in-law,  may  our  Lord 
God  bless  you,  and  God's  Mother.     May  she  help  you  in  your  work 

and  in  everything Now  I  write,  your  mother,  to  all  of  you, 

my  children,  in  general.  First  to  you,  dear  son,  and  to  my  daughter- 
in-law,  and  to  the  Bieniewskis  and  to  the  Brzostowiczs  and  to  the 
Baranowskis,  and  I  wish  you  every  good,  whatever  you  want  for 
yourselves,  my  dear  children. 

Now  I  inform  you  about  this  land,  that  to  these  2  morgs  were 
added  during  the  new  division,  2  morgs  of  field  and  i  morg  of  forest 

to  each So  there  are  now  6  morgs  of  field  and  2  of  forest, 

8  morgs  together.  Now  I  inform  you,  dear  children,  on  what  spots 
we  received  this  addition.  [Describes  in  detail.]  You,  Antos,  and 
you,  Marysia,  you  know  where  it  is  and  in  what  position. 

Now,  my  dear  children,  it  would  be  the  beat  if  we  sold  it,  for  I 
have  nothing  from  it  except  trouble.  I  don't  sow  the  land,  only 
[strange]  people  do,  for  I  rented  it,  for  I  cannot  manage  it  myself. 
Even  if  I  wanted  to  sow  myself,  you  know  that  there  is  no  barn  and 
there  is  no  place  to  put  the  crops.  I  keep  the  forest,  but  again  people 
steal.  A  man  could  guard  it  more  easily,  while  I,  a  woman,  what 
can  I  do?  I  have  only  trouble.  So  it  would  be  the  best,  my  dear 
children,  to  sell  it,  for  all  this  is  wasted  for  the  land  they  pay  [the  rent] ; 
but  in  the  forest  w'hatever  anybody  snatches  is  his  own,  and  when  I 
need  money,  I  also  sell  some  tree,^  and  so  all  this  is  wasted.  If  you 
don't  do  as  I  advise  you,  dear  children,  after  a  few  years  it  will  be 
much  cheaper  [worth  less].     Now  they  would  give  money,  for  they 

'  She  has  no  right  to  do  this,  and  she  confesses  it,  for  evidently  the  shoe- 
maker's wife  has  written  more  than  once  to  her  brother  and  sisters  that  the  mother 
is  wasting  the  forest. 


KOZLOWSKi  SERIES  537 

want  to  buy  it,  as  it  is  in  good  order,  the  forest  and  the  field.  For 
the  2  morgs  of  forest  they  would  give  now  400  roubles,  and  for  the 
6  morgs  of  land  they  would  give  perhaps  300.  And  perhaps  they 
would  give  more.' 

My  dear  children,  consult  one  another  and  write  me,  how  I  shall 
do.  But  it  would  be  the  best,  my  dear  son  Antos,  if  it  were  your 
head,  for  you  are  my  guardian.  Arrange  it  so  that  we  may  sell  it  and 
that  you  may  take  me  and  Franek  to  America,  for  I  don't  wish  to 
farm  here.  I  have  the  land,  but  I  have  no  barn,  nowhere  to  put 
[the  crops],  and  you  know  that  there  is  no  place  [near  the  house]  to 
build  it.  So  it  would  be  the  best  to  sell  the  field,  if  you  don't  wish 
to  be  upon  it  [to  settle  here],  and  if  I  must  only  grieve  [have  trouble] 
alone.  I  can  sell  it  myself,  only  send  me,  all  you  children,  an  authori- 
zation, and  let  your  uncles  send  me  also  an  authorization,  for  they 
belong  to  the  same  farm  [they  have  a  right  to  a  part  of  it].  Then  I 
shall  sell  it  and  come  to  you,  and  we  shall  live  together,  and  you  will 
get  sooner  something  of  it,  for  now  the  value  is  greater  as  long  as  the 

forest  is  entire  and  nothing  is  missing I  beg  you,  dear  son, 

if  you  allow  me  to  sell  it,  do  it  at  once I  beg  you,  dear  son,  do 

it  for  me,  and  you  all,  my  dear  children,  and  you,  my  dear  brothers, 
do  it  for  me,  for  I  would  see  you  once  more,  as  long  as  we  are  still 

alive.     [Greetings.] 

Franciszka  Kozlowska 

Dear  daughter  Marysia  and  son-in-law:  Why  are  there  in  the 
[wedding-]  photograph  neither  the  Bieniewskis,  nor  the  Brzostowiczs, 
nor  my  brothers,  nor  my  sister-in-law,  only  strange  people?  This 
astonishes  me  much.     What  does  it  mean  ? 

228  March  4,  1907 

....  Dear  Son:  ....  You  are  obstinately  bent  against  me  and 
I  am  against  you.  I  would  not  write  to  you,  but  1  must.  I  write  you 
only:  consult  among  yourselves  [and  decide]  as  you  want  to.  The 
shoemaker's  wife  made  an  inventory  [of  the  farm,  for  auction].  We 
stood  before  the  court,  and  she  quarreled  with  me,  tooth  against 
tooth,  and  moreover  she  cursed  you  for  neither  taking  her  man  to 

•  This  phrase  is  added  later,  the  first  statement  seeming  perhaps  too  improb- 
able. Even  the  worst  land  was  worth  at  this  period  twice  as  much,  and  it  would 
be  a  very  poor  forest  on  which  the  lumber  alone,  without  tlie  land,  would  be  worth 
no  more  than  200  roubles  a  morg. 


;;,«  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

Aiiu-riia  nor  paying  her  off.  Our  guardians  asked  her  how  much  she 
wanlcd  to  be  paid  olT.  Then  this  old  beggar,  this  carcass  [her  hus- 
band] wanted  70  roubles,  and  she  asked  60.  I  will  give  her  50,  and 
the  guardians  also  tell  her  to  take  50  and  no  more.  But,  dear  son, 
I  would  rather  gWe  her  nothing.  What  do  you  advise  ?  I  was  every- 
where [lor  advice],  and  I  thought  of  either  renting  the  field  or  selling 
the  forest  [to  pay  her].  But,  dear  son,  I  wish  I  had  never  lived  until 
this  new  division  and  addition,  since  I  am  a  hinderance  to  all  of  you 
and  you  are  angry  with  me  and  you  don't  write  me  for  half  a  year. 
Were  it  not  for  this  affair  I  would  rather  have  died  [zdechla,  used 
here  vulgarly  like  the  English  "rotted,"  is  properly  used  only  of 
animals  =  German  krepiren]  and  would  not  have  written.  Now, 
dear  son,  come  rather  to  an  understanding  among  yourselves,  take 
it,  sell  it  and  make  peace  with  this  shoemaker's  wife.  Let  her  not 
call  God's  vengeance  upon  you  and  grieve  me.  And  now  after  all 
this  she  intends  to  have  an  auction,  for  her  part  of  the  inheritance 
from  your  grandfather  and  your  father.  You  left  me  here  for  sorrow 
only.  Dear  children,  don't  believe  anybody,  when  the  shoemaker's 
wife  slanders  me  to  people.  Why,  you  get  it  [bad  words]  also  from 
her,  dear  son,  into  your  eyes,  and  behind  your  eyes  [proverbial,  to  your 
face  and  behind  your  back].  And  you  get  still  more  from  her.  She 
says:  "Much  did  he  care  for  his  mother!  And  when  he  came  to 
Warsaw,  he  let  his  nails  grow  a  sqzen  long  [6  feet]  pretending  to  be 
a  gentleman." 

Dear  son,  I  thank  you  for  writing  to  me  so  often!  But  don't 
think,  dear  son,  that  I  write  it  from  my  whole  heart  [that  I  am 
grieved].  I  say  it  simply  because  you  write  once  in  a  year.  If  I 
had  known  that  you  would  guard  me  so!  May  our  Lord  God  and 
your  children  care  for  you  as  much  as  you  do  for  me!  If  you  had 
not  gone  into  the  world  you  would  have  known  better  what  a  mother 
is,  while  now  in  return  for  my  education  [of  you]  you  are  ashamed  of 
me.  But  Manka  did  the  same.  She  accidentally  wrote  one  letter, 
that  we  might  know  only  that  she  got  married.  Dear  son,  please  say 
to  Manka  about  this  letter  that  she  rejoiced  me  awfully,  that  I  don't 
know  what  to  do  in  the  country,  and  she  gave  me  precisely  such 
advice  as  the  letters  she  writes  [no  letters,  no  advice].  To  the  shoe- 
maker's wife  she  can  well  send  bows  and  write,  but  when  her  god- 
mother sends  her  a  gift — she  sent  her  scapularies  and  a  veil  of  God's 


KOZLOWSKI  SERIES  .  539 

Mother — she  did  not  even  thank  her.'  Dear  son,  and  all  my  dear  chil- 
dren together,  I  tell  you  sincerely  I  won't  write  you  any  more  letters 
since  you  are  so  turned  to  stone  against  me.  Since  you  are  so  little 
curious  to  learn  what  is  going  on  here  with  us  I  won't  inform  you. 
I  bless  you  all  with  the  holy  cross  [old  habit  in  bidding  farewell]. 

Dear  son,  you  said  to  Franek,  "If  you  manage  well  I  will  send 
you  some  assistance."  And  now  you  don't  even  send  a  naked  letter 
[without  a  stamp].  But  if  this  shoemaker's  wife  sells  our  land  at 
auction  then  our  assistance  is  over.  Dear  son,  we  keep  two  pigs 
for  ourselves,  but  there  can  be  no  cow  from  them  [probably  alluding 
to  some  promise  to  send  money  for  a  cow],  the  less  so  if  the  shoe- 
maker's wife  drags  us  about  courts,  as  she  is  now  doing.  Dear  son, 
I  ask  you,  and  do  you  answer  me.  Do  you  agree  to  pay  her  50  roubles, 
as  I  wish,  or  not  ?  Perhaps  you  will  send  us  some  money  for  this 
payment  ?  For  if  we  sell  these  pigs,  we  can  have  perhaps  enough 
to  buy  a  cow.  I  beg  you,  dear  son,  for  a  speedy  answer.  I  salute 
you  all,  yourself  and  your  wife  and  my  grandchildren. 

[Franciszka] 

229  June  2,  1907 

....  Dear  Children:  I  inform  you  that  I  am  not  very  healthy, 
for  even  an  iron  man  would  have  no  longer  any  health.  I  thank  you 
heartily  for  this  letter,  dear  children,  which  you  sent  me.^  And 
then,  dear  children,  I  received  also  the  letter  from  Zosia.  Dear  chil- 
dren, I  beg  you  all  together,  answer  me,  what  is  this  "dirt"  which  I 
have  on  me?^  Answer  me,  who  wrote  that  letter  so  that  this  "dirt" 
may  not  grieve  me  longer.  Dear  children,  I  have  enough  of  my  own 
trouble.  Dear  children,  I  can  never  in  the  world  bear  these  troubles, 
for,  dear  children,  in  the  week  when  I  wrote  this  letter  I  went  to  Czer- 
win,  and  I  hardly  got  there,  for  my  feet  were  covered  with  blisters. 

'  The  members  of  the  family  in  America  are  evidently  disaffected  by  reports 
from  the  shoemaker's  wife  and  realize  that  Szczepaiiska  is  in  the  scheme  with  their 
mother. 

^  The  son  has  been  moved  in  some  way  by  the  prccedinR  letter  to  write; 
probably  by  the  mother's  words:  "May  our  Lord  God  and  your  children  care 
for  you  as  much  as  you  do  for  me."  This  is  the  kind  of  mother's  curse  which  never 
fails  to  be  impressive. 

'      3  "Dirt"  is  commonly  used  in  the  sense  of  "immorality."     She  has  probably 
been  accused  of  immoral  relations  with  the  man  who  afterward  marries  her. 


540  I'Rl.MARV-tiROUP  ORGANIZATION 

And  I  wnU  in  \ain,  for  not  all  of  our  guardians  were  there;  3  were 
anil  3,  not.  Now  I  shall  have  to  go  again,  and  when  winter  comes  and 
it  is  necessary  to  crccji  upon  the  snow,  surely  I  shall  die.  And  since 
the  shoemaker's  wife  made  the  inventory,  the  guardians  won't  allow 
me  to  sell  this  property,  for  Franek  is  a  minor. 

And  now,  dear  children,  could  you  arrange  so:  Send  me  such  a 
decision  that  I  can  rent  [the  farm]  for  some  years.  Now  people  are 
afraid  to  pay  money  down  for  some  years,  lest  it  be  lost.  I  should 
be  glad,  dear  children,  to  step  away  from  her  [the  shoemaker's  wife's] 
eyes.  [Si epic,  in  the  original,  is  properly  used  only  for  the  eyes 
of  animals.]  Let  her  not  cause  me  any  more  grief.  If  I  went  to 
vou  perhaps  God  would  guard  me  for  a  year  or  two,  while  thus,  dear 
children,  when  these  troubles  fill  my  head  I  have  [peace]  neither  day 
nor  night.  There  is  no  work  from  me  at  all,  and  soon  I  shall  go 
awav  from  [lose]  my  reason,  and  I  shall  no  longer  understand  any  of 
vour  writing.  O  God  my  dear,  God  my  dear,  why  do  you  keep  me 
in  this  world?'  Dear  children,  I  beg  you,  take  me  to  you,  I  want 
to  have  one  hour  of  relief  at  least  and  not  have  to  listen  to  this  [calling 
of]  vengeance  against  you,  dear  son,  and  against  Zosia.  Moreover, 
she  [the  daughter]  persuades  some  dogs  like  herself  to  write  dirt 
against  me.  What  dirt  do  they  write  against  me  ?  Perhaps  she 
writes  against  me  about  this  [man]  ?  I  who  can  hardly  walk  with 
my  pains,  and  she  writes  dirt  about  me!  For  this  land  I  should  have 
more  than  one  purchaser,  but  when  I  learned  that  the  guardians  won't 
let  it  be  sold,  I  have  no  more  strength  to  bear  all  this.  Oh,  nothing 
can  be  done,  my  dear  children,  evidently  she  must  kill  me  with  trouble 
in  this  country! 

Dear  brother,  you  ask  me  in  your  letter  about  money.  I  did  not 
see  any  money  and  probably  I  am  to  see  none.  When  you  sent  me 
some,  I  saw  it,  but  now  when  you  don't  send,  I  see  none. 

I  greet  you  also,  my  dear  children.  It  is  true  that  I  received  at 
.last  a  letter  from  you,  but  I  will  remember  it  until  my  death — what 
[sorrow]  you  gave  me  about  that  dirt. 

'  Here  the  grief,  although  also  affected,  seems  more  real  than  in  the  first  letter, 
for  besides  the  quarrel  with  the  "shoemaker's  wife"  there  is  another  reason,  i.e., 
the  matter  of  the  "dirt."  Whether  justified  or  not,  such  a  suspicion  is  likely  to 
affect  a  peasant  woman  more  profoundly  than  anything  else.  And  the  impossi- 
bility of  selling  the  land,  meaning  the  failure  of  her  scheme,  is  a  third  reason  for 
grief. 


KOZLOWSKI  SERIES  '541 

I  have  nothing  more  to  write  to  you,  dear  children  and  brother. 
Remain  with  God.     May  God  help  you. 

[Franciszka] 

I  salute  my  sister-in-law  and  my  brother.     Sister-in-law,  why 

should  we  be  angry  with  each  other  and  what  for  ?     I  have  not  seen 

you,  sister-in-law,  with  my  very  eyes,  and  I  shall  die  without  seeing 

you.     Well,  my  dear,  let  us  kiss  each  other,  at  least  by  letter,  at 

least  through  this  paper;   let  us  give  hands  to  each  other.     I  thank 

you  so  much,  sister-in-law,  for  not  forgetting  me  yet,  and  that  you 

both  remembered  me.     Dear  brother,  I  thank  you  for  tliis,  for  your 

knowing  that  I  am  your  sister.     Remember,  dear,  how  you  cared  for 

me  and  I  cared  for  you. 

[Franciszka] 

Dear  children,  I  don't  want  to  make  you  any  trouble  about  taking 
me  [sending  me  a  ship- ticket].  I  should  prefer  if  you  sent  me  a  few 
roubles  [in  cash],  but  I  should  find  my  way  more  easily  if  you  take  me 
[if  you  send  me  a  ticket]. 

230  [June  2  1907] 

Dear  Brother  and  Sisters:   Have  pity  and  take  at  least  our 

mother,  let  her  have  at  least  a  few  easier  hours.     Dear  brother  and 

sisters  and  brothers-in-law,  I  beg  you,  if  you  want  to  see  your  mother 

before  she  dies,  take  her  to  you.     Have  pity,  for,  dear  brother  and 

sisters,  you  have  written  already  4  letters,  thanks  to  God,  and  in  each 

of  them  you  say  that  you  will  take  us  to  America.     So  mother  waits 

for  this  letter  like  the  mercy  of  God.     When  the  letter  comes,  mother 

kisses  it  from  joy  and  wets  it  with  tears,  but  when  she  opens  it  [she 

is  deceived]. 

[Franek] 

231  July  12  [1907] 
....  Dear  Son  Antoni:  Answer  me  how  I  shall  manage,  for  my 

son-in-law  Baranowski  sent  me  a  letter  saying  that  he  is  sending  me  a 
ship-ticket  for  myself  and  for  my  son,  and  wishes  to  take  us  to  America. 
And  you,  dear  son,  come  to  an  understanding  yourself  with  the  others, 
whether  all  of  you  know  about  it  or  not,  for  I  am  not  just  as  I  stand, 
but  I  have  land  and  forest,  and  I  don't  know  how  to  manage.  It  is 
true  that  my  son-in-law  is  good.     But  you,  my  son,  you  are  my 


542  TRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

guardian,  and  answer  me,  how  I  shall  have  it  there  [what  conditions]. 
For,  niv  dear  son,  there  is  a  marriage  opportunity  for  me,  with  Jozef 
Plata,  who  is  a  very  good  man.  So  answer  me,  my  son,  as  soon  as 
possible,  whetlier  I  may  live  in  our  country,  for  I  don't  need  to  wander 
about  the  world  in  my  old  years,  only  my  [youngest]  son  wants  us 
to  go.  Dear  son,  answer  me  as  soon  as  possible,  for  I  am  awaiting 
this  letter  with  my  journey  and  with  my  wedding.'  ....  Dear  son, 
reflect  all  of  you  only  once,  but  well,  for  my  son-in-law  tells  me  to 

rent  the  land  and  the  forest I  cannot  sell  it  myself,  a  father 

can,  but  not  I.     I  have  nothing  more  to  write,  only  I  wish  you  health, 

happiness,  and  good  success Dear  son,  when  you  receive  this 

letter,  don't  show^  it  to  my  daughter  Mania,  and  don't  tell  her  any- 
thing, for  my  son-in-law  wishes  to  take  me  secretly  to  America  [to 
surprise  his  wife]. 

Franciszka  Kozlowska 


232  September  11  [1907] 

....  Dear  Son:  ....  You  advised  me  to  go  but  now  I  am 
not  going.  I  have  married  that  Plata  who  had  Ewa  Pieiikos  as  wdfe, 
from  the  same  village  I  came  from.  What  could  I  do  in  this  misery  ? 
When  I  received  the  ship-tickets  I  did  at  once  what  you  ordered  me 
to  do.  I  rented  the  land  for  3  years,  I  sold  the  cow  which  I  had  and 
the  forest  which  was  left  after  father's  death,  while  yours  [inherited 
from  the  grandfather]  is  still  there.  I  have  wasted  all  the  living 
which  I  had  [store  of  grain,  potatoes,  etc.]  and  I  have  bought  every- 
thing for  the  journey.  And  now  living  is  expensive,  and  I  spent  some 
money  on  living,  and  I  had  to  dress  myself  and  Franek  a  little  before 
going  to  you  ....  and  I  bought  2  shawls  for  13  roubles  and  15 
pounds  of  feathers  for  12  roubles.  [Went  twice  to  the  doctor,  then  to 
Libawa,  and  was  sent  back.]  This  journey  cost  us  much,  for  every- 
where money  had  to  be  paid,  and  I  wasted  everything.  I  have  not 
written  to  you  for  I  fell  sick  from  grief  and  I  waited  until  our  Lord 
God  changed  [restored]  me.  But  now  I  am  somew^hat  better  and  I 
describe  this  to  you.  Hermanowiczowa  [the  "shoemaker's  wife"] 
moved  to  me,  to  my  lodging  and  I  live  with  Plata.     He  built  a  new 

'  The  letter  shows  clearly,  behind  the  cautious  expressions,  a  total  change  of 
intentions.  She  no  longer  wants  to  go  to  America,  but  she  does  not  dare  to  take  a 
decisive  step  at  once.  Probably  at  the  moment  of  writmg  this  letter  the  later 
scheme  is  not  yet  ready  in  her  mind. 


KOZLOWSKI  SERIES 


543 


house,  and  Franek  is  with  me.  How  good  he  [the  husband]  is  to  me, 
thanks  to  God!  May  he  be  always  as  good!  For  when  I  am  sick, 
he  at  least  cares  well  for  me,  and  it  is  well  now.  I  had  decided  to  go 
to  America,  but  when  these  Baranowskis  managed  it  so  badly,  I 
changed  my  mind,  for  now  I  have  no  land,  and  therefore  I  had  to 
marry.  Inform  the  Baranowskis  how  I  did,  and  let  them  send  their 
address,  then  I  shall  send  them  the  ship-tickets  back.  Don't  be 
angry  with  me  for  having  done  so,  for  I  have  wasted  everything 
through  this.  And  in  the  office  [in  Libawa]  they  said  that  these 
are  tickets  for  a  working-ship  [steerage  ?].  And  you  can  know  what 
this   journey   has    cost   me.     From   Warsaw    to   Libawa   alone  42 

roubles ' 

[Franciszka] 

[Postscript] 

And  I  inform  you  that  we  went  [started]  to  America  all  three, 
the  shoemaker  went  with  us  for  money,  for  he  borrowed  it.     When 

'  The  stor}',  as  related  in  this  and  the  following  letters,  is  full  of  contradictions 
and  totally  false.  In  spite  of  her  son's  and  son-in-law's  wish,  she  decided  not 
to  go  to  America  at  all,  but  to  marry  Plata.  She  wished  evidently  to  profit  from 
the  opportunity,  and  to  get  as  much  money  as  possible  for  herself,  as  a  dowry. 
Thus,  according  to  her  son's  wish,  she  rented  the  land  and  sold  a  part  of  the  forest. 
Evidently,  she  had  to  sell  also  her  farm-stock  and  household  effects  in  order  to 
make  it  appear  that  she  really  intended  to  go.  Then  she  had  to  find  a  p^retext  for 
not  going,  to  account  for  the  money,  to  explain  her  marriage,  and  to  conciliate  her 
son-in-law,  the  shoemaker,  and  his  wife — her  worst  enemies — that  they  might  not 
betray  her  but  corroborate  her  story. 

She  hoped  first  to  be  detained  on  the  score  of  sore  eyes  (suspicion  of  trachoma). 
She  went  therefore  to  many  oculists,  hoping  that  one  of  them  would  tell  her  that 
she  could  not  go.  It  is  very  probable  that  she  even  tried  to  get  her  eyelids  inflamed, 
and  went  to  a  Jewish  barber  in  Goworowo  (the  Jewish  barbers  act  secretly  as 
physicians  and  are  ready  to  do  anything — abortion,  artificial  crippling  to  exempt 
young  men  from  military  service,  etc.),  who,  as  she  says  in  letter  No.  233,  "almost 
burned  her  eyes."  She  then  went  to  Warsaw  hoping  to  deceive  the  oculists  there. 
When  this  plan  failed,  she  invented  the  story  of  the  tickets,  which  is  wholly  false. 
First,  she  says  that  the  tickets  were  for  a  "working-ship";  now,  this  term  is 
current  only  among  the  peasants  to  indicate  ships  which  take  only  steerage  passen- 
gers, and  she  could  not  have  heard  this  term  from  the  steamship  agents.  Then 
she  says  the  tickets  were  not  valid  at  all.  But  it  is  evident  that  the  agent  in  Warsaw 
would  not  have  sent  her  to  Libawa  with  such  tickets,  for  he  would  have  been  legally 
responsible.  Certainly  the  tickets  were  valid,  but  for  steerage;  somebody  must 
have  told  her  that  steerage  traveling  was  bad,  and  she  profited  from  this  suggestion 
to  stay.     Perhaps  she  would  not  have  gone  even  to  Libawa  if  she  had  been  alone, 


544  rRlMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

233  October  24,  lyo; 

wo  rcluniod  he  gave  this  money  back,  at  once,  for  he  borrowed  it  from 
the  priest  and  wished  to  go  along  with  us. 

I  inform  you  also  that  when  I  intended  to  go  to  America  I  went 
to  Goworowo  to  a  doctor.  He  poured  something  into  my  eyes  and 
almost  burned  my  eyes.  I  went  twice  to  Warsaw,  and  there  the 
doctor  said  that  I  could  have  been  blinded.  You  say  that  I  did  not 
wish  to  go.  But  I  went  twice  to  Ostrol§ka  to  the  [district-]  chief 
for  passports,  and  I  paid  once  one  rouble,  then  two.  So  much 
trouble  and  cost  I  had. 

....  Now  I  inform  you,  my  dear  children,  daughter  and  son- 
in-law,  that  I  received  your  letter  and  we  answer  you  at  once  and  we 
inform  you  that  we  are  in  good  health  [wishes].  Now  you  write  to 
me,  son-in-law,  and  you  are  angry  with  me.  But  nothing  can  be  done. 
I  am  not  guilty  at  all  in  this  matter,  my  dear  son-in-law,  for  I  was 
already  on  the  way,  in  the  last  station,  in  Libawa,  and  from  Libawa 
we  were  sent  back.  Now,  my  dear  children,  would  I  have  caused  such 
a  cost  for  you  without  wishing  to  go  to  you  ?  WTiy,  our  Lord  God 
would  punish  me  severely  for  it.     And  as  to  this,  dear  children,  that 


but  her  son-in-law,  the  shoemaker,  was  with  her.  Then  she  tries  by  all  means  to 
make  it  appear  that  she  spent  all  her  money  on  the  journey  to  Libawa  and  back. 
It  is  easy  to  calculate  how  much  money  she  really  had  with  her.  The  cow,  crops, 
household  furniture,  must  have  brought  at  least  150  to  200  roubles.  Rental  of 
6  morgs  for  3  years  at  least  180  roubles.  The  son-in-law  Baranowski  sent  60.  The 
sale  of  a  part  of  the  lumber  perhaps  150-200 — together  about  600.  The  journey 
to  Libawa  and  back  for  2  persons,  28  roubles.  As  she  writes  42,  she  must  have 
paid  her  son-in-law's  fare  in  order  to  win  his  discretion.  The  journeys  to  Warsaw 
and  back,  inspection  by  the  oculists,  etc.,  no  more  than  20,  probably  less;  buying 
of  the  shawls  and  feathers  (which  she  later  kept  for  herself),  27,  passport,  3.  If 
we  take  into  account  the  living  during  this  time  and  the  son's  clothing  we  have 
not  more  than  150  roubles  for  all  the  expenses.  Thus  she  had  certainly  about  450 
roubles  left.  She  writes  in  the  letter  No.  232  that  she  was  obliged  to  buy  clothing 
for  herself,  while  later  her  kimia  Maryanna  Szczepanska  says  that  she  was 
obliged  to  sell  her  best  petticoat.  The  kuma  is  evidently  "fixed";  the  daughter, 
the  "  s'.ioemaker's  wife,"  also,  for  after  all  the  preceding  quarrels  she  comes  to 
live  in  her  mother's  house.  Thus,  the  scheme  is  carried  out,  and  Franciszka  must 
have  brought  to  her  husband  no  less  than  400  roubles  of  dowry.  As  she  was  old, 
the  man  would  never  have  taken  her  without  money.  And  all  this  was  so  cleverly 
done  that  she  does  not  lose  her  right — a  part  of  the  inheritance  left  by  her  first 
husband.  Indeed  she  expects  to  receive  the  total  income  from  the  land  when  the 
period  of  its  rental  has  expired,  for  there  is  mention  that  her  husband  must  feed  her 
until  that  time. 


KOZLOWSKI  SERIES  545 

I  got  married,  don't  persuade  [reproach]  this  to  me,  for  I  got  married 
only  when  I  came  back  from  my  journey.  If  the  ship-tickets  had 
been  good,  I  should  be  in  America  already,  with  you,  for  I  wanted 
continuously  [sk]  to  go  to  you.  But  since  it  happened  so,  nothing 
can  be  done,  my  dear  son-in-law.  You  have  made  expenses  for  your- 
self, and  I  also,  my  dear  children,  have  made  expenses  for  myself, 
and  I  got  totally  ruined,  for  I  wanted  to  go  to  you  within  an  hour 
[immediately].  I  had  a  cow;  I  wasted  it.  I  had  some  small  crops 
in  the  field;  I  wasted  them  also,  for  I  prepared  myself  to  go,  and 
you  don't  believe  me  and  are  angry  with  me.  As  to  my  getting 
married,  dear  children,  it  was  from  this  misery,  when  we  had  been 
sent  back  home,  for  I  had  wasted  everything,  so  how  could  I  live? 
And  this  year  all  living  is  expensive  here,  grain  and  potatoes  are 
expensive,  and  so  in  putting  things  together  it  is  easier  for  me 
to  live. 

And  as  to  my  not  having  answered  you  and  sent  you  the  tickets 
back,  it  was  because  I  had  not  your  address,  and  I  was  afraid  to  send 
them  to  these  other  children,  for  perhaps  they  would  not  have  given 
them  back  to  you.  Now  as  soon  as  I  received  your  letter,  I  sent  you 
at  once  the  ship-tickets,  and  these  signs  [checks]  of  these  agents  from 
Warsaw,  to  whom  you  wrote  to  care  for  us,  I  sent  them  to  you  for 
controlling.  Dear  children,  how  much  trouble  and  weeping  I  had 
in  that  Libawa,  God  forbid!  It  is  impossible  to  understand  these 
Germans  [sic!].  Were  it  not  for  an  interpreter  who  explains  every- 
thing in  Polish  I  should  not  have  got  these  ship-tickets  back,  for  they 
threw  them  away  at  once  and  I  could  not  find  them.  They  wanted 
red  ones,  and  these  were  black,  and  therefore  they  sent  us  back  and 
we  have  all  so  much  expense. 

And  now  I  inform  you,  dear  children,  about  these  60  roubles.  I 
have  them  not ,  for  I  have  spent  them.  I  inform  you  that  from  Warsaw 
to  Libawa  the  railway  cost  us  21  roubles  and  21  roubles  back.  Now 
I  bought  you,  Marysia,  2  shawls,  I  gave  13  roubles,  and  15  pounds  of 
feathers,  I  gave  12  roubles,  and  all  this  is  lying  here.  Now,  dear 
children,  I  don't  know  what  I  shall  do  with  all  this  myself,  for  I  have 
my  own  shawl  and  I  don't  want  yours.  Write  me,  dear  daughter; 
perhaps  I  can  send  you  these  shawls  by  somebody.  As  to  the  rest, 
dear  children,  forgive  me.  When  I  have  more  money,  I  will  send 
you  at  least  one  half.  As  to  my  daughter  and  your  wife,  don't  be 
angry,  my  son-in-law,  that  you  did  not  take  any  fortune  with  her. 


546  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

If  you  want  to  conic  here,  sell  her  part  and  take  it,  for  it  belongs  to 

luT.     It  is  as  if  she  had  it  in  her  pocket.'  .... 

Now  I  send  vou  a  greeting  from  myself,  your  mother,  and  from 

Franck,  and  from  your  father,  my  husband.     Dear  children,  I  did 

not  marr>'  a  young  man,  only  a  man  in  the  same  age  as  I  am,  and  he 

is  good  for  me,  and  he  does  not  hinder  you  at  all,  for  he  won't  waste 

your  fortune;   he  has  enough  of  his  own  to  live.     In  another  letter 

I  will  write  you  still  more  about  my  journey,  for  it  is  too  much  writing 

at  once. 

Your  truly  loving  mother, 

Franciszka  Kozlowska 

234  December  24,  1908 

Dear  Son-in-law:  I  inform  you  that  we  received  your  letter 
on  December  21,  for  which  we  thank  you  heartily.  But  instead  of 
being  comforted,  I  was  grieved,  and  I  should  even  prefer  if  you  had 
not  answered  me  so  soon,  for  I  should  think  her  still  alive.  Why  did 
you  send  me,  dear  children,  such  a  letter,  at  once  about  money  and 
about  my  dear  dead  daughter?  Probably  you  intend  to  push  me 
alive  into  the  tomb  through  such  writing  as  you  write  to  me!  You 
write,  son-in-law,  and  you  trouble  me  about  sending  you  at  least  100 
roubles  back.  But  I  thank  God  that  I  hav^e  anything  to  put  into  my 
pot,  for  I  have  wasted  everything  through  your  fault.  I  rented  the 
land,  and  I  live  now  as  I  can,  poor  orphan,  upon  this  world  of  God. 
And  now,  dear  children,  do  you  think  that  I  grieve  only  about  your 
money?  Oh  no,  my  children,  I  grieve  because  my  beloved  daughter 
is  dead  and  the  orphans  are  left.  How  do  they  live  there,  my  dear 
little  grandchildren?  And  I  grieve,  because  Franek  will  have  to  go 
to  the  army,  and  you  all  scattered  about  the  world,  away  from  me, 
poor  orphan.  And  you  cause  me  still  more  grief  by  this  bit  of  paper, 
asking  me  to  give  you  this  money  back.  I  know  that  you  wasted 
money  on  me,  but  I  wasted  also  everything  which  I  owned  upon  this 
journey  to  you.  But  I  don't  deny  what  you  sent  me.  Only,  if  you 
want  to  have  this  money,  come  back  to  our  country,  as  other  people 
do;  you  have  your  parts,  sell  them  and  you  will  have  your  money. 
But  evidently  you  want  to  bury  me  alive  into  this  holy  earth,  that  I 

'The  journey  would  cost  more  than  this  part  would  be  worth.  He  had 
evidently  complained  that  he  not  only  got  no  dowry  with  his  wife,  but  that  he  has 
expenses  on  account  of  the  mother-in-law. 


KOZLOWSKI  SERIES  547 

may  not  live  any  more  upon  this  earth  with  my  beloved  daughter  [sic!]. 
But  why  should  you,  dear  son-in-law,  persuade  me  that  it  is  time 
for  me  to  go  into  this  holy  earth?  When  I  shall  go  to  my  tomb, 
you  won't  even  know  it.'  So,  my  dear  son-in-law,  don't  make 
me  grieve  any  more,  for  you  made  me  grieve  enough  in  a  single 
letter. 

Dear  son-in-law  B.,  I  beg  you,  if  it  is  very  hard  for  you  to  be  there 
with  these  children,  I  beg  you,  if  it  is  possible,  send  me  one  child,  so  I 
can  educate  it.  I  beg  you,  dear  son-in-law,  do  as  you  think  the  best. 
And  I  beg  you,  dear  son-in-law  Franus  [pet  name],  if  you  could  send 
it,  write  me  in  a  letter  whether  you  will  send  it  or  not,  my  dear  son-in- 
law! 

Dear  son-in-law  [Janek]  and  daughter,  although  you  are  angry 

with  me  about  this  money,  I  beg  you  still,  care  for  these  orphans, 

for  you  see  that  they  have  no  mother  now.     And  if  it  is  possible,  I 

beg  you,  dear  daughter,  send  me  one  child.    I  would  keep  it  as  long 

as  my  eyes  shine  upon  this  world.     I  beg  you  for  it,  my  dear  daughter. 

Reflect  how  you  should  act  with  regard  to  my  words.     May  God 

grant  us  to  live  until  this.     Amen. 

[Franciszka] 

235  April  18,  1909 

And  now,  dear  children,  we  answer  you  "In  centuries  of  cen- 
turies, Amen."  And  now  we  inform  you  that  we  received  your  letter 
on  Good  Friday,  for  which  we  thank  you  heartily,  for  not  forgetting 
us.  [Health  and  wishes.]  I  am  healthy,  by  the  grace  of  God,  only  this 
death  of  Zosia  torments  me  and  gives  me  no  peace.  How  is  she 
buried  there,  and  why  was  I  not  there  when  she  was  dying  ?  But, 
dear  daughter  and  son-in-law,  try  that  at  least  these  orphans  get  on 
well,  that  they  don't  suffer  hunger,  for  you  see  that  they  cannot  have 
a  mother  any  more,  only  you  are  their  guardians.  Care  for  them,  and 
God  and  Mother  Mary  will  care  for  you. 

And  I  ask  you,  my  dear  children,  how  do  you  live  without  your 
sister  and  my  dear  daughter,  for  I  think  continually  about  her,  day 
and  night.     I  gave  money  for  recording  her,  and  if  God  helps  nn-  I  will 

'  All  this  about  being  buried,  etc.,  is  probably  nothing  l)Ut  a  rhetorical  develop- 
ment of  her  reproach  for  the  grief  her  son-in-law  has  cause.l  by  his  letter,  or  it  may 
be  an  indirect  allusion  to  some  phrase  in  his  letter.  He  may  have  written,  for 
instance,  that  she  was  too  old  to  marry. 


548  PRIMARV-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

give  also  for  a  ln^ly  mass  for  repose  of  her  soul.'  And  I  i)ray  for  her 
to  Gotl  and  to  our  Mother  Mary,  that  God  may  take  her  to  himself. 
Pray  you  also  to  God  for  her  soul,  and  God  will  forgive  her  certainly. 
Anil  now,  dear  daughter,  you  mention  these  feathers,  asking  me 
to  send  them  to  you.  Vou  see,  it  is  so,  dear  daughter.  These  feathers 
which  I  had  bought  began  to  be  eaten  by  mites,  so  I  sold  a  part  of 
them,  but  if  somebody  happens  to  go  to  America,  I  will  buy  some  and 
send  them  to  you.^  But  if  nobody  goes,  then  nothing  can  be  done, 
and  don't  be  angry  with  me,  dear  daughter  and  son-in-law,  for  I  am 
not  guilty  at  all.  It  is  true  that  it  costs  you  a  few  roubles,  but  I  have 
also  lost  everything  which  I  had.  So  don't  be  angry  with  me,  my 
dear  children,  for  if  I  cannot  reward  you,  I  will  pray  to  God  for  your 

health  and  success,  and  God  will  help  you  in  your  work 

[Franciszka] 

And  I  greet  you,  dear  brother  Wincenty.  I  cannot  give  you  my 
hand  in  this  [help  you],  for  I  have  nothing  myself,  but  you,  children, 
do  your  best  and  nourish  your  uncle  as  you  can.  Dear  brother,  can 
3-ou  not  help  yourself  in  any  way  ?  Come  to  an  understanding  with 
our  brother  and  make  some  plan,  so  that  it  may  be  well. 

You  see,  dear  brother,  when  you  were  in  good  condition,  you  did 
not  want  to  know  anything  about  your  wife  and  children,  and  now 
you  remember  them! 

236  February  9,  19 13 

....  I  received  your  letter,  my  dear  children  [Baranowskis], 
for  which  I  thank  you  heartily,  for  I  waited  for  it  with  longing.  My 
dear  children,  you  say  that  I  am  angry  with  you.  Oh  no,  my  dear 
children,  I  am  not  angry  with  you.  You  say  that  I  did  not  answer 
your  letter.  It  is  true,  my  dearest  children,  that  I  did  not  answer 
you,  but  why?  You  see,  it  is  true  that  you  wished  to  take  me  to 
you,  and  I  was  glad  because  of  your  wish,  but  I  don't  know  whether 
that  ticket  was  bad  or  those  guides.  And  so  you  sent  me  money  and 
I  sold  everything,  or  rather  wasted  everything  [sold  too  cheap]  and 

'  The  priest  has  a  record  of  those  of  his  parishoners  who  have  died,  and  between 
the  sermon  and  the  mass  prays  for  their  souls,  calling  their  names.  A  mass  costs 
from  one  to  three  roubles.  A  record  is  cheaper  and  less  efficient  than  a  mass. 
Franciszka  may  have  had  a  mass  celebrated,  but  prefers  not  to  acknowledge  that 
she  was  in  a  position  to  spend  that  amount. 

'  She  used  the  feathers  as  part  of  her  dowry. 


KOZLOWSKI  SERIES  549 

went.  And  when  I  was  returned,  was  it  my  fault?  I  wasted  your 
money,  and  very  little  of  mine  was  left.  When  I  returned  home,  I 
found  a  desert  house.  What  could  I  begin  then,  poor  orphan? 
Should  I  have  called  to  you,  my  dear  children,  and  related  to  you  my 
trouble  ?  But  my  voice  could  not  have  reached  you,  for  you  are  in  a 
far  country,  and  I  was  left,  an  orphan,  among  waste  and  troubles, 
and  I  had  slowly  to  provide  myself  once  more  with  the  outfit  which  I 
had  wasted.  You  were  angry  with  me,  dear  children,  as  if  I  did  so 
intentionally  in  order  to  take  the  money  without  coming  to  you.  Oh 
my  children,  our  Lord  God  is  above  us,  He  sees  and  hears  everything. 
Should  I  lie?^  Should  I  have  renounced  you  and  not  [wanted]  to 
go  to  you  and  not  [wanted]  to  see  you  ?  Why,  you  know  that  I  am 
left  now  alone,  I  have  none  of  you,  my  dearest  children,  with  me,  I 
am  left  alone,  an  orphan,  and  I  can  see  none  of  you  alive,  only  I 
look  continually  upon  these  dead  photographs.  But  you,  dear  daugh- 
ter, surely  you  forgot  me  in  truth,  since  you  let  a  year  pass  without 
writing  to  me,  and  you  forgot  when  I  asked  you  for  the  photograph  of 
that  orphan  after  [left  by]  Zosia.  You  sent  one  to  the  shoemaker's 
wife  and  you  did  not  even  mention  me.     I  asked  the  shoemaker's 

wife  for  this  photograph,  but  she  did  not  wish  to  give  it  to  me 

Well,  and  now,  dear  daughter,  you  remembered  that  you  have  still 
a  mother  somewhere  in  the  world,  and  you  write,  curious  how  I  Uve 
here  and  how  I  succeed!  .... 

And  now,  dear  daughter  and  son-in-law,  please  don't  be  angry 
about  that  which  I  shall  ask  for,  and  send  me  a  photograph  of  these 
orphans;  let  me  see  them  once  more  at  least. 

Now  I  send  an  image  and  a  toy  for  my  granddaughter 

[Franciszka.] 

237  [November  4,  1906] 

I  write  to  you  both,  my  dear  goddaughter,  I,  your  godmother 
Szczep[anska],  and  I  wish  you  every  good  and  whatever  you  want 
from  our  Lord  God,  the  best.     I  thank  you  for  not  forgetting  about 

'  This  appeal  to  God  is  curious,  for  a  peasant  never  makes  a  false  oath,  unless 
totally  demoralized.  But  an  oath  with  mental  reservation  is  frequent.  In  this 
case  the  oath  does  not  refer  to  anything  in  particular,  unless  to  the  following 
phrase,  and  as  she  probably  really  wanted  to  see  her  children,  it  is  in  so  far  true. 
It  may  be  also  that  in  repeating  all  her  lies  she  has  finally  half-forgotten  her  real 
intentions,  which  she  had  perhaps  also  never  very  explicitly  stated  to  herself. 


55<^  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

mc.  so  I  send  you  a  gift.  These  are  those  scapularies  from  Cz^sto- 
chowa.  and  in  this  one  scapulary  with  the  cross  there  is  sewed  up  a 
[]xirt  of  the]  veil  of  God's  Mother  of  Cz^stochowa.  This  is  important. 
I  send  you  a  blessing  for  your  whole  life.  May  God  bless  you,  and 
God's  Motlier.  And  my  daughter  Helcia  is  very  glad  that  you  don't 
forget  her Szczep[anska] 

238  [December  28,  1908] 

And  now  I,  dear  daughter,  greet  you,  I,  your  godmother,  greet 
you,  Mania!  Dear  daughter,  I  write  you  about  this:  Why  did  you 
cause  such  costs  for  your  mother  that  she  might  go  to  you,  to  America ! 
Going  to  this  America,  your  mother  sold  the  forest  and  rented  the 
land,  and  all  the  money  which  she  had  was  wasted  in  journeying. 
She  went  twice  to  Ostrot§ka;  no  little  money  was  spent;  twice  to 
Warsaw  on  account  of  her  eyes.  Then  at  last  they  went  to  Libawa 
and  there  they  remained  for  some  time,  and  the  rest  of  their  money 
was  spent  on  their  living,  for  the  ship-tickets  were  bad,  and  they  had 
to  return  home.  Your  mother  had  sold  everything,  she  had  sold 
even  her  best  petticoat  for  this  journey,  and  when  she  came  back, 
if  Pl[ata]  had  not  married  her,  I  don't  know  how  she  would  live,  for 
she  had  not  a  grosz  left.  Now,  you  wrote  that  Zosia  is  no  longer 
alive,  and  I  am  also  sad,  and  what  do  you  think  about  your  own 
mother?  And  you  make  her  grieve  still  more  about  this  money. 
You  have  no  idea  what  a  sad  Christmas  your  mother  had  this  year, 
for  she  is  grieved  because  of  the  death  of  her  beloved  daughter.  And 
this  field  which  your  mother  rented  is  still  sown  by  strange  people, 
until  the  years  are  ended  [the  renting- term],  and  your  mother,  as 
you  know,  is  fed  by  Pl[ata]  until  [the  end  of]  this  time.  And  now, 
dear  daughter  Mania,  don't  be  offended  at  my  writing  it  to  you,  but 
your  mother  is  almost  senseless,  and  she  continually  cries  and  com- 
plains, what  a  bad  fortune  befell  her  upon  this  world. 

I,  who  love  you,  my  daughter,  Maryanna  Szczepanska 

Dear  [godjdaughter,  I  have  learned  to  know  your  mother  now. 
If  she  could  take  her  heart  out,  she  would  give  it  to  you,  but  she 
cannot  take  it  out  and  what  will  she  do  with  her  misery  ?  And  now 
I  bid  you  all  goodbye.     May  God  grant  it.     Amen.^ 

'  The  letter  is  evidently  written  under  the  influence  of  Kozlowska,  and  is 
perhaps  instigated  by  her. 


KOZLOWSKI  SERIES  551 

239  October  24,  1907 

Dear  Sister  and  Brother-in-law:  I  send  you  holy  images. 
....  Dear  sister  and  brother-in-law,  you  don't  believe  us  that  we 
wanted  to  go  to  America;  but  ....  I,  your  brother,  will  draw  my 
lot  [be  called  to  military  service]  in  two  years  after  next  spring, 

so  ....  I  should  be  glad  to  see  all  of  you  at  once Dear 

brother-in-law,  I  am  very  much  grieved  that  you  say  that  you  will 
tear  all  the  hair  from  your  head  [from  despair].     Dear  brother-in-law, 

it  is  not  the  fault  of  my  sister 

Fraistek  Kozlowski 


240  [April  18,  1909] 

And  now  I,  Franciszek  [Franek],  thank  you,  dear  brother-in-law 
and  sister,  for  at  least  not  forgetting  me,  for  my  brother  dear  [irony] 
does  not  write  me  a  single  word.  He  is  angry  with  me,  I  don't  know 
what  for.  Although  we  ought  to  love  each  other,  for  we  are  only  two 
and  I  must  go  to  the  army  instead  of  him,  he  does  not  care  for  me. 
Such  a  good  brother,  loving  his  brother!  It  is  bitter  and  hard  for 
me  to  remember  such  a  brother!  What  is  my  fault  toward  him? 
O  God,  be  merciful  to  us,  your  sinners!' 

And  now,  dear  brother-in-law  and  sister,  I  go  to  Prussia,  so  please 

write  me  a  letter  there.     I  will  send  you  my  address.     I  was  in  Cz^sto- 

chowa,  but  I  did  not  expect  that  a  letter  from  you,  dear  sister,  would 

come,  or  else  I  should  have  brought  a  greater  token.     Now  I  send  you 

only  scapularies  of  Mary  the  Virgin,  already  consecrated,  ready  to 

be  put  around  the  neck 

[Franek] 


241  -  June  II,  191 1 

....  Dear  Sister  and  Brotiier-in-law:  [Complains  about 
military  service.]  May  never  any  good  man  serve  in  the  army,  for 
here  everybody  must  be  a  slave  and  is  not  free,  as  at  home.  And  now 
I  ask  you,  my  dear  sister  Mania  and  brother-in-law,  how  do  you 
succeed  in  that  America,  whether  well  or  poorly.  Wrilc  me  please, 
dear  sister,  how  are  these  orphans  kept  after  Zosia['s  death],  .  .  .  .  for 

'  A  strange  phrase  for  a  young  boy;  a  typical  phrase  for  an  old  woman.  The 
style  of  the  whole  letter  is  clearly  an  imitation  of  the  mother's  style. 


55-'  I'K  I  MARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

1  am  \  fr\-  curious  [interested].     And  answer  me,  whether  our  brother- 
in-law    H.    married    [a    second    time]   or    not.     [Describes    military 

life.] 

And  now,  dear  Mania  and  brother-in-law,  I  beg  you  write  a  letter 
to  our  sorrowful  dear  mother,  and  don't  be  angry  with  mother,  for 
she  is  without  guilt  toward  you,  and  sinful  before  God  alone.'  Dear 
Mania  and  brother-in-law,  you  are  probably  angry  since  the  time  when 
you  wanted  to  take  her  to  America.  But  old  mother  then  wanted 
to  go  to  you  as  to  God  (without  comparing  it),-  and  she  rejoiced 
that  in  her  old  years  she  was  to  see  her  children.  But  what  could  she 
do  when  she  was  unable  to  go  to  you  ?  And  now,  dear  sister  Mania 
and  brother-iu-law,  you  are  angry  with  your  sorrowful  and  grieved 
mother,  while  perhaps  you  won't  see  her  any  more  unless  in  the  next 
world.  And  with  this  anger  you  will  go  into  the  next  world,  and  so 
we  shall  look  upon  one  another — and  what  will  God  say  to  this? 
How  shall  we  justify  ourselves  ?  Dear  sister  and  brother-in-law, 
mother  writes  to  me  always  and  says  that  she  has  no  letter  from  you, 
and  she  always  weeps  in  her  letter,  so  it  is  not  pleasant  for  me  either, 

for  she  is  my  mother  and  yours If  you  saw  our  mother,  you 

would  never  recognize  her,  how  she  is  now  without  children,  for 
always  something  new  happens  [some  new  trouble]. 

FrANEK   KOZLOWSKI 

242  [July  12,  1907] 

I,  Jozef  Pl[ata],  wish  to  take  your  dear  mother  for  my  wife. 
Answer  as  soon  as  possible  whether  you  will  take  her  or  whether  you 
tell  her  to  marry  me.  I  would  give  my  life  for  her.  I  have  nothing 
more  to  write,  only  I  send  a  low  bow  to  you  all,  to  the  whole  family. ^ 

Your  well-wishing 

Jozef  Pl[ata] 

'  Not  to  be  taken  as  an  admission  of  any  particular  sin,  but  only  as  the  appli- 
cation of  the  general  principle  of  Christian  humility  that  all  men  are  sinners 
before  God. 

'  The  restriction  is  made  because  a  real  comparison  would  be  a  sin;  the  restric- 
tion characterizes  it  as  a  simple  metaphor. 

5  The  man  simply  asks  for  permission  to  marry  their  mother.  This  indicates 
once  more  the  degree  to  which  the  family  is  felt  as  a  reality,  and  the  marriage  of  any 
member — father  or  mother,  brother  or  sister,  son  or  daughter — as  affecting  imme- 
diately this  reality,  is  a  familial  as  well  as  an  individual  matter. 


KOZLOWSKI  SERIES  553 

243  [April  18,  1909] 
And  now  I,  your  father,  salute  you,  together  with  your  mother 

and  my  son,  and  we  wish  you  every  good,  whatever  you  want  for 
yourself  from  God.  We  greet  [bless]  also  those  little  orphans.  May 
God  keep  them  in  His  holiest  guardianship.  And  [if]  perhaps  any- 
thing in  this  letter  displeases   you,    then  please   forgive,  for  your 

mother  was  terribly  grieved 

[JozEF  Plata] 

244  March  27,  191 2 

....  Dear  Brother-in-law  and  dear  Sister:  It  is  very, 
painful  for  me  that  I  cannot  see  my  family,  and  don't  even  receive  a 
bit  of  paper  that  I  might  at  least  by  letter  speak  with  you.  But  God 
reward  you  even  for  this  bit  of  paper  which  you  send  to  mother,  even 
this  rejoices  me.  I  should  like  to  see  my  family  there  in  America,  but 
as  I  have  no  money  I  can  do  nothing,  and  there  is  nobody  to  help  me. 
If  you  put  together  $10  each  you  could  take  me  to  you.  I  don't 
want  the  wrong  of  anybody,  and  would  give  it  back  with  thanks,  if 
only  God  grants  me  health.  For  when  you  sent  the  ship-ticket  for 
mother  and  for  Franek,  I  told  mother  as  a  joke:  "Take  me  with  you 
to  America,  it  will  be  more  pleasant  to  go  together."  I  had  then  much 
running  to  do  and  many  expenses  to  bear,  for  I  had  to  go  3  times  to 
Ostrol^ka  to  take  an  application  for  a  passport,  and  twice  to  Warsaw. 
At  last  we  three  went  and  I  had  a  ship-ticket,  bought  from  the  agent 
in  Warsaw  for  money,  and  we  went  to  Libawa.  In  the  ofhce  in  Libawa 
they  refused  to  accept  these  tickets  which  you  sent,  and  besides  my 
ticket  they  wanted  21  roubles  for  a  passport.  I  begged  mother  to 
lend  me  this  money  since  I  had  had  already  so  many  expenses.  But 
she  refused  to  help  me;  she  said,  "I  cannot."  Then  I  said,  "Send 
Franek  instead  of  me,  he  will  take  these  tickets  with  him  and  will 
settle  the  matter  by  words,  and  they  [in  America]  won't  lose  so  much." 
But  mother  answered,  "I  am  not  going  and  neither  of  you  is  going 
either,"  and  I  had  to  come  back.  As  to  this,  what  mother  said,  that 
"The  shoemaker  drags  me  about  courts,"  I  did  not  intend  lawsuits 
as  other  people  do,  but  I  had  to  have  a  guardianship  established,  i.e., 
a  family  council.  For  mother  received  2  morgs  of  forest,  and  wasted 
it  half  in  vain.  What  was  worth  5  roubles,  she  sold  for  2,  while  now 
she  must  almost  buy  fuel  herself.     When  I  went  once  to  the  forest 


554  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

and  said,  "Why  do  you  waste  this  timber?"  they  abused  me,  she 
and  her  son,  and  denied  that  there  was  anything  to  which  I  had  any 
rij^ht.  So  I  was  obUged  to  have  a  guardianship  established,  because 
Franek  was  a  minor  and  mother  took  rather  too  much  Hberty.  And 
excuse  me,  don't  be  angry  with  me,  dear  sister  and  brother-in-law, 
for  I  tell  the  truth  always  into  one's  eyes,  not  behind  one's  eyes. 
For  so  many  years  since  you  have  been  in  America  I  have  never  had 
even  a  small  sheet  from  you,  except  now  this  address,  for  which 
may  God  reward  you.  I  should  not  go  to  America,  except  for  my 
children.  My  daughter  Mania  can  marry.  She  is  20  years  old.  My 
son  Wladzio  is  16  years  old,  Zygmunt  6  years,  Genia  4  years,  and  I 
am  very  sad  that  I  cannot  help  them,  for  in  our  country  there  is  no 
work  and  the  expenses  are  big.  What  I  earn  is  only  enough  for  living, 
and  when  we  have  to  pay  the  rent  we  must  go  hungry.  If  you  could 
draw  me  to  you  I  don't  know  how  I  could  reward  you.  [I  should  be  so 
grateful.] 

Antoxi  Herm[anowicz] 

245  May  29,  191 2 

....  Dear  Sister  and  Brother-in-law:  ....  As  to  the 
ship-ticket  which  I  mentioned,  I  did  not  count  on  you  alone,  brother- 
in-law.  For  there  are  three  of  you.  I  don't  count  B.,  for  he  is  like 
a  strange  man.'  I  am  not  acquainted  with  you,  so  I  did  not  look  [to 
you  alone].  I  beg  your  pardon  politely  for  importuning  you.  For  I 
beUeve  everything  you  wrote  about  Antoni,  as  if  I  were  there  myself. 
You  tell  me  to  borrow  140  roubles,  but  it  is  not  so  easy,  for  here 
people  lend  only  to  a  man  who  has  something  to  look  upon  [some 
property].  Meanwhile,  I  live  only  from  these  five  fingers;  I  have 
nothing  but  what  I  earn.  Even  so  our  beloved  [  =  "loving,"  ironical] 
mother,  whenever  she  sees  anything  new  of  clothes  upon  us,  wonders 
whence  we  get  money  for  it.  Instead  of  being  glad  that  we  manage 
to  dress  ourselves  as  we  can,  she  is  angry  with  us.^  How  can  I  expect 
strange  people  to  help  us,  when  our  own  mother  begrudges  us  a  piece 
of  bread  ?  If  I  had  wanted  absolutely  to  be  in  America,  I  should  have 
gone  about  6  years  ago  when  I  went  to  Libawa  wdth  Franek  and  with 

'  The  gradual  incorporation  of  the  brother-in-law  in  the  family  is  interrupted 
by  the  death  of  his  wife,  and  he  becomes  a  "stranger." 

'  Probably  not  envy,  but  an  expression  of  Koziowska's  general  disposition  to 
keep  others  down. 


KOZLOWSKI  SERIES  555 

mother.  Then  I  had  all  my  documents,  and  I  begged  mother  to 
help  me  a  little,  but  she  did  not  want  to.  I  said,  "Then  send  Franek 
instead  of  me."  But  mother  said,  "I  don't  go  and  you  shall  not  go 
either."  And  so  mothers  act  toward  their  own  children!  Because 
she  ruined  herself,  she  wanted  to  ruin  her  children.  But  she  returned 
to  her  own  house,  while  I  returned  like  the  farmer  whose  buildings 
are  all  burned  and  who  is  left  without  a  roof  above  his  head.  The 
few  roubles  which  I  had,  I  lost  them  for  mother's  sake,  and  later  I 
was  obliged  to  earn  and  economize  again.  And  excuse  me  for  writing 
this,  for  I  tell  the  truth.  As  I  believe  you,  so  do  you  believe  me, 
please.     And  now  mother  is  angry  for  your  not  having  sent  money 

for  Franek  when  he  was  going  to  the  army Antos  [her  son] 

sent  her  lo  roubles,  and  now  Antoni  [her  brother]  sent  also  lo  roubles, 

but  all  this  is  not  enough  for  them 

Antoni  Herm — 


JACKOWSKI  SERIES 

These  are  letters  from  a  plain  Galician  peasant  family. 
The  oldest  son,  Jan,  went,  probably  very  early,  to  Germany 
and  from  there  came  to  America  and  settled  in  Chicago. 
The  second  son,  Stanislaw,  was  with  him,  and  then 
alone,  in  Germany,  but  returned  to  Austria  for  his  mili- 
tary service.  The  third  son,  Franek,  is  young  and  stays 
at  home. 

The  quarrels  alluded  to  in  the  beginning  of  the  corre- 
spondence have  their  source  in  economic  matters.  The  con- 
ditions must  be  very  bad  in  Wietrzychowice  upon  a  small 
piece  of  land.  Jan,  who  does  not  seem  to  be  of  a  generous 
disposition,  is  irritated  by  the  demands  for  money,  espe- 
cially as  he  suspects  that  Stanislaw  has  drawn  as  much 
money  as  possible  from  the  parents  during  his  military 
service,  and  that  he  has  tried  to  win  the  favor  of  the  parents 
and  assure  for  himself  the  better  share  of  the  inheritance 
after  his  return  from  the  army.  In  addition,  Stanislaw 
has  evidently  been  a  rather  light-headed  boy,  without 
much  force  or  practicality,  and  Jan  converts  some  of  his 
general  irritation  into  personal  criticism  of  his  younger 
brother. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  efforts  of  Stanislaw  to  introduce 
harmony  into  the  family  are  interesting.  It  frequently 
happens,  as  in  this  case,  that  when  the  family  begins  to 
dissolve  one  member  holds  it  together  more  or  less.  In 
the  Osinski  series  the  mother  does  it  successfully.  In  the 
Terlecki  series  (below)  the  mother  tries  to  do  it,  but  without 
success. 

556 


JACKOWSKI  SERIES  557 

THE  FAMILY  JACKOWSKI 

Jackowski,  a  farmer 
Franciszka,  his  wife 
Jan  j 

Stanislaw  [  his  sons 
Franek      J 
Marysia,  his  daughter 
Jasiek,  a  cousin 
"The  aunt,"  his  mother 
Two  more  aunts  and  two  cousins. 

246-67,      TO    JAN    JACKOWSKI,   IN    AMERICA,   FROM  FAMILY- 
MEMBERS,   IN  POLAND 

246  Trawnik,  August  11,  1909 

Dear  Brother:  A  long  time  has  passed  since  we  saw  each  other 
and  a  (relatively)  longer  time  since  we  wrote.  But  whose  fault  is  it  ? 
Surely  not  mine 

On  Christmas  I  came  home  [from  the  army]  for  a  ten  days'  leave, 
and  precisely  then  we  received  your  letter.  Evidently  if  tliey  had 
known  what  was  written  there,  they  would  certainly  not  have  read 
that  letter.  Seeing  what  was  going  on,  I  went  into  the  field,  for 
tears  stood  in  my  eyes.  Dear  brother,  what  I  did,  I  know  it  well 
enough  myself,  and  what  you  do  and  will  do,  you  must  know  it  the 
best  yourself,  and  it  concerns  nobody  else  at  all.  Now,  dear  brother, 
you  sent  a  little  money  home.  Don't  think  that  I  shall  take  it. 
They  won't  ever  give  it  to  me.  The  second  year  of  my  service 
approaches  its  end,  and  during  this  time  they  sent  me  once  last  year 
3  crowns,  for  which  I  did  not  ask.  Now,  when  I  went  from  the 
Servian  frontier,  we  drank  merrily,  because  we  returned  in  good  health 
from  those  troubles  during  the  winter  in  Bosnia.  Somebody  j)robably 
made  a  mistake  and  reached  in  my  pocket  instead  of  his  own,  or  I 
simply  lost  [my  money]  somewhere.  Then  I  asked  for  4  crowns  and 
they  sent  me  them  [from  home].  I  think  it  was  not  much  during  2 
years. 

Now,  dear  brother,  if  you  have  time  and  wish,  please  write  me  a 
few  words  and  inform  me  why  you  don't  write  home.  Perhaps  you 
are  angry  because  I  shall  return  home  after  my  military  service 
[and  take  over  the  farm]  ?     Well,  don't  think  it,  for  I  won't  be  at 


558  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

home,  I  shall  willingly  yield  to  everybody.  The  world  is  wide  and 
hitjli,  one  can  (luictly  wander  through  it.  Or  perhaps  something  else 
happened  between  you  and  the  home  ?  .  .  .  . 

Stanislaw  J. 

247  September  18,  1909 

Dear  Brother:  I  received  your  letter  and  also  a  dollar  in  it, 
for  which  I  thank  you  heartily.  Now,  dear  brother,  I  asked  you  why 
you  do  not  write  home,  and  you  answer  me  that  it  is  not  my  affair. 
I  confess  that  it  concerns  me  very  little,  and  I  must  write  also  that 
the  other  matter  was  my  affair,  not  yours.  I  should  not  have  gone  so 
soon  to  the  army  or  home,  but  I  had  to,  for  they  caught  me.  Were 
it  not  for  this,  perhaps  we  should  be  now  together.  And  if  you  are 
taken  to  the  army,  you  cannot  hope  that  you  will  be  set  free  for  a 
day  or  half  a  day.  With  me  it  was  the  same;  they  took  me  and  held 
me  until  Christmas.  And  if  my  parents  came  to  me  at  once  in  the 
same  week,  I  cannot  help  it,  and  it  was  not  my  fault. 

Now,  secondly,  when  they  were  with  me,  I  did  not  boast  to  them 
that  I  had  much  money  and  that  I  knew  4  languages.  They  asked  me, 
whether  I  had  money,  and  I  said  that  I  was  not  without  a  cent.  It 
seems  to  me  that  it  was  not  a  lie.  Later,  when  they  were  leaving  me, 
they  told  me  not  to  do  any  silly  thing,  at  least  in  the  army  [probably 
meaning  that  he  did  silly  things  before],  and  to  keep  well.  I  said  that 
nothing  bad  could  happen  to  me  in  the  army,  and  I  said  that  I  knew 
German,  so  it  would  be  always  easier  for  me  than  for  a  boy  who  does 
not  know  it  and  comes  immediately  from  his  village.  In  these  things 
which  I  told  them  there  was  no  lie  even  for  a  heller.  But  as  to  what 
they  wrote  you,  I  am  not  the  Holy  Spirit  that  I  can  know  everything, 
whether  they  wrote  the  truth  or  added  something  more.  If  you  wrote 
in  anger,  dear  brother,  that  I  gave  my  money  to  somebody  to  keep, 
it  was  not  so  much  anger  as  scorn  [ycu  said  it  ironically]. 

Dear  brother,  you  remind  me  also  of  this  fault,  that  though  I  had 
not  seen  my  parents  for  8  years,  I  should  not  have  allowed  them  to 
come  and  visit  me  before  I  went  to  them.'  But  you  are  mistaken, 
for  if  you  were  in  America  for  10  years  and  appointed  the  day  on  which 
you  would  visit  them,  and  if  you  came  to  the  frontier  and  they  [the 
Austrians]  caught  you,  you  could  offer  them  thousands,  they  wouldn't 

'  It  is  not  easy  to  understand  the  basis  of  Jan's  reproach,  but  (cf .  the  following 
note). 


JACKOWSKI  SERIES  559 

let  you  go  until  your  time  came.  Just  so  it  was  with  me,  dear  brother. 
I  was  taken  not  even  at  the  frontier,  but  in  Bremerhafen.  From  there 
they  brought  me  to  Eger  and  thence  to  Tarnow.  What  could  I  do  ? 
I  only  looked  to  see  that  none  of  my  acquaintances  saw  me,  for  he 
would  have  thought  I  had  killed  or  robbed  someone. 

Now,  dear  brother,  you  write  me  that  you  have  experienced  many 
lies  from  me.  I  am  curious  how  you  did  it,  since  we  have  not  written 
to  each  other.  You  remind  me  of  Plagwitz,  where  I  worked  when 
14  years  old.  But  now  I  am  a  grown-up  man  and  I  have  different 
privileges  [sic?  Probably  different  character  and  habits].  What  I 
said  and  did  at  14,  I  surely  would  not  do  now,  at  22. 

Dear  brother,  you  write  about  Jasiek  and  you  say  that  you  cannot 
believe  that  I  had  no  opportunity  to  write  to  him.  If  I  had  had  his 
address,  surely  I  would  have  written.  I  was  at  home,  and  our  aunt 
asked  me  to  write  a  letter  to  Jasiek,  but  a  moment  after  she  went  to 
Sowa  and  wrote  from  there.  What  can  I  do  if  they  quarrel  between 
themselves  ?     Surely  it  is  not  my  fault. 

Dear  brother,  you  write  me  that  in  my  life  you  see  a  whole  series 
of  lies.  This  only  interests  me — whence  do  they  come,  whether 
from  me  or  from  somebody  else  ?  I  did  not  write  to  anybody  except 
3  letters  to  Jasiek.     So  you  must  write  me  whence  these  lies  come. 

Dear  brother,  you  write  me  that  I  give  you  admonitions.  These 
are  not  admonitions  at  all  [when  I  say]  that  you  left  nothing  [no 
money  of  your  own  at  home  ?],  for  I  left  still  less.  You  could  care 
only  if  I  took  anything  from  home,  but  I  wrote  you  clearly  that  I 
take  no  money  from  home.^ 

Dear  brother,  you  write  me  that  the  world  is  wider  before  you.  1 
believe  you,  but  not  strongly.     Though  I  am  a  slave  and  ser\'ant 

'  From  the  whole  letter  it  is  evident  that  Jan,  having  an  unreasoned  Knidge 
against  Stanislaw,  probably  connected  with  the  fact  that  the  latter  is  nearer  iionie 
and  more  able  to  control  their  parents,  tries  to  find  some  rational  cause  of  his  own 
feelings,  and  thus  invents  various  pretexts  to  explain  his  animosity.  The  case  is 
perfectly  typical  for  a  peasant.  The  powerful  background  of  traditional  attitudes 
gives  rise  to  a  behavior  whose  nature  and  reason  are  a  puzzle  to  the  subject  himseU. 
The  latter,  when  asked  for  explanation,  gives  imaginary  conscious  reasons,  more 
or  less  inadequate,  depending  upon  the  degree  of  his  intelligence.  And  a  curious 
evolution  also  occurs;  the  imaginary  reason,  through  the  power  of  expression, 
becomes  more  or  less  a  real  reason  for  the  future— a  part  of  the  subconscious  feeling 
flows  through  this  new  channel.  This  factor  enters  into  the  evolution  of  the 
peasant's  attitude  toward  the  manor-owner,  the  Jew,  the  government,  and  into 
many  religious  and  familial  attitudes. 


56o  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

of  the  emperor,  yet  you  are  also  a  slave,  a  servant  of  somebody  else. 
Perhaps  tlie  same  hajipiness  awaits  you  also — which  I  don't  wish 
you — that  you  will  be  in  the  same  situation  as  I  am,  and  I  in  the  same 
as  you  are.     So  we  cannot  speak  much  about  it. 

Now,  dear  brother,  I  inform  you  that  I  am  a  corporal.  I  succeed 
well  enough,  I  can  say  nothing  against  it,  for  in  the  army  it  cannot  be 
better.  In  a  few  months  this  slavery  will  come  to  an  end.  Ne.xt 
month  I  will  send  you  my  photograph  and  I  beg  you  to  send  me 
yours,  since  we  have  not  seen  each  other  for  so  long  a  time.  Dear 
brother,  let  us  forget  what  was  before,  and  perhaps  our  luck  will 

serve  us  better  in  the  future 

Stanislaw  J. 

248  October  22,  1909 

De.\r  Brother:  I  received  your  photograph,  for  which  I  thank 
you  heartily  and  which  rejoiced  me  very  much.  Now,  dear  brother, 
I  ask  about  your  dear  health  and  success.  For  myself,  thanks  to  our 
Lord  God,  I  am  healthy  and  my  success  is  good  enough;  a  better 
one  cannot  be  found  in  the  army.  Now,  on  October  18,  I  became  a 
Zugsjiihrer  [sergeant]  and  I  am  with  the  recruits.  Dear  brother, 
you  have  sent  me  your  photograph  and  probably  you  await  mine,  so 
it  will  come  soon  after  this  letter.     You  must  pardon  me,  but  I  don't 

feel  at  every  moment  equally  strong  in  my  pocket Now,  dear 

brother,  here  in  Bosnia  there  is  no  news  to  write.  If  I  were  in  our 
country,  I  should  have  more  to  write  you,  for  there  I  should  sooner 

meet  somebody  and  talk,  while  here  are  only  strangers Now 

I  ask  you,  dear  brother,  what  is  the  news  in  America,  who  gets  married 
or  will  marry. 

I  greet  you  kindly  and  heartily,  until  I  see  you  again.  May  God 
grant  it.    Amen. 

Your  loving  brother, 

Stanislaw  J. 

249  December  24,  1909 

Dear  Brother:  In  my  first  words  I  inform  you  that  I  received 
your  letter  and  a  dollar  in  it,  for  which  I  thank  you  heartily. 

Dear  brother,  you  write  that  they  did  not  inform  you  by  telegram 
about  our  father's  death.  I  am  quite  stupid  [I  don't  understand] 
myself.     When  our  sister  died,  I  was  then  in  Tarnow,  and  they  wrote 


JACKOWSKI  SERIES  561 

me  a  card  which  came  on  the  day  of  the  funeral.  I  had  then  no  reason 
to  go,  since  the  funeral  was  over.  Now,  when  our  father  died  I 
I  received  a  letter  from  home  4  days  after  the  funeral.  He  died  on  Sat- 
urday, and  on  Thursday  I  received  the  news,  and  I  wrote  you  at  once. 
Dear  brother,  I  did  not  write  up  to  the  present  for  I  thought  .... 
that  I  should  be  transferred  to  Tarnow  and  thence  I  should  go  on  a 

,  leave I  wrote  home  asking  mother  to  send  a  petition  to  the 

(regiment  that  they  might  transfer  me  to  Tarnow.     But  mother  went 

\  to  ask  the  post  official  and  teacher  for  advice,  and  they  told  her  that 

it  was  impossible,  for  everybody  would  like  to  serve  in  Tarnow.     She 

;  answered  me  that  it  was  not  worth  writing.     Only  when  I  sent  her  a 

[second  letter,  she  went  and  sent  the  petition,  and  probably  about 

'ijanuary  i,  I  shall  be  transferred,  and  if  she  had  written  at  once,  I 

I-  should  be  at  home  for  Christmas.     Now,  dear  brother,  you  write  that 

1  it  would  be  good  for  me  to  get  free  for  a  month  from  my  service,  to 

sit  in  warmth  behind  the  stove  and  to  care  for  my  comfort.'     Dear 

brother,  if  you  think  what  the  service  is  here  in  Bosnia!     For  two  years 

;  to  go  nowhere,  only  to  sit  within  the  walls  of  the  barracks  and  to 

!  think  about  your  future  lot,  this  would  worry  anybody 

Now,  dear  brother!     You  had  feeling  and  love  for  our  father, 

'  everybody  can  say  it  boldly,  and  I  thank  you  with  my  heart  and 

soul  [for  your  expression  of  it  ?].     But  this  is  bad,  that  mother  does 

i  not  do  anything  with  her  own  head,  but  always  listens  to  other  people, 

i  and  is  worse  off. 

Now,  as  to  the  funeral,  I  don't  know  myself  how  it  was,  but  when 

1  <;o  home,  I  will  describe  to  you  everything 

j  Stanislaw  J. 

1250  February  9,  19 ID 

Dear  Brother:  [Generalities  about  health  and  success;  was 
not  transferred  to  Tarnow.]  Now,  dear  brother,  I  inform  you  that 
my  military  service  is  slowly  approaching  its  end.  Now  my  thoughts 
are  hesitating  what  to  do  after  the  military  service.  I  wish  to  ask  to 
be  accepted  as  a  constable.  What  do  you  say  to  it  ?  At  home  we 
have  not  enough  to  live  without  trouble  and  quietly,  and  if  I  wanted 
to  remain  in  the  country  I  should  have  necessarily  to  get  married, 
and  then  to  work  for  the  wife  and  children.     Moreover,  if  God  sends 

■  Probably  not  irony  on  the  part  of  Jan,  but  a  momentary  softening  after 
the  death  of  the  father. 


56 J  1  •  K 1 M  A  R  ^■-C ;  ROW  ORGANIZATION 

some  illness  or  some  misfortune,  it  would  finally  be  necessary  perhaps 
to  take  a  bajj  and  a  stick  and  to  go  begging  about  villages.'  Dear 
brother,  I  tion't  know  your  ideas,  for  you  can  remain  in  America  as 
long  as  you  like  it,  and  when  you  come  back,  the  military  service 
won't  let  you  escape,  but  I  have  served  3  years,  and  [formerly]  I 
have  wandered  enough  about  tliat  Germany,  and  I  have  experienced 
enough  of  good  and  evil.  But  I  don't  know  how  it  is  in  America. 
If  I  am  not  accepted  as  a  constable,  nothing  will  be  left  for  me  except 
to  go  to  you.  Dear  brother,  if  you  receive  this  letter,  please  describe 
to  me  your  condition.     What  is  the  news  with  Jasiek  ?     I  sent  him 

a  photograph,  but  I  had  no  answer 

Staniseaw  J, 

[Letter  of  April  i,  1910,  asks  for  a  little  money  to  buy  clothes  when  he 
leaves  the  army.  States  that  he  has  not  received  more  than  10  gulden  from 
home  during  more  than  30  months.] 

251  June  9,  1910 

Dear  Brother  :  In  my  first  words  I  thank  you  heartily  for  your 

letter  and  for  $10.00  which  I  received  from  you My  success 

is  good  enough,  only  I  am  bored;  these  days  go  so  slowly  in  the  last 
year 

Dear  brother,  I  received  also  letters  from  home  but  they  don't 
rejoice  me  at  all,  for  mother  is  sick.  She  wrote  me  a  letter  that  during 
the  whole  month  of  May  she  was  in  bed.  Something  crept  into  her 
arm  and  she  cannot  move  it.  She  asked  me  to  write  her,  when  I 
received  your  letter,  what  is  going  on  with  you,  for  she  has  had  no 
letter  from  you  at  all.  Dear  brother,  I  don't  understand  all  this. 
If  God  allows  me  to  end  my  service  happily  and  if  I  go  home,  I  will 
describe  everything  in  detail.  Now  I  don't  even  know  who  is  my 
guardian,  although  we  don't  need  him  now  any  more.  I  cannot 
remain  at  home  after  my  military  service,  for  what  should  I  have  of  it  ? 
If  I  wished  to  remain  at  home  I  should  have  to  marry,  and  it  looks 
silly  to  keep  a  wife  upon  a  morg  of  land  and  to  work  like  a  horse  in  a 

threshing-machine 

Stanislaw  J. 

» A  rather  unexpected  standpoint  from  a  peasant.  Cf.  the  attitude  of  Alek- 
sander  (Osinski  series),  who  dreams  of  nothing  but  coming  back,  settling  upon  the 
farm  and  marrying.  Perhaps  the  reason  in  the  case  of  Stanisiaw  is  to  be  found  in 
his  wandering  for  eight  years  in  Germany. 


JACKOWSKI  SERIES  563 

252  July  29,  1910 

Dear  Brother:  ....  I  inrorm  you  that  my  clothes  are  ready 
and  my  shoes  also;  I  wait  only  for  the  maneuvers,  which  will  be  from 
August  14  until  September  10.  We  don't  know  yet  when  we  shall  go 
home 

As  to  you,  dear  brother,  mother  complains  that  you  wrote  her 
not  to  write  to  you  any  more.  Secondly,  somebody  informed  them 
that  you  will  marry  a  girl  who  has  [only  her]  ten  fingers,'  and  that 
everybody  laughs  at  you.  As  to  me,  I  don't  believe  it,  perhaps  some- 
body said  or  wrote  it  in  joke,  and  they  believe  it. 

Now,  dear  brother,  they  have  very  good  crops,  only  they  cannot 
manage  alone,  and  there  is  lack  of  people  in  the  village  [because  of 
emigration].  When  I  go  there  now,  I  must  look  well  at  everything, 
and  go  further.  Dear  brother,  in  ending  these  few  words  I  greet  you 
kindly  and  heartily,  and  don't  be  angry  with  me  about  what  I  write, 
for  it  does  not  come  from  me,  but  from  home 

Stanislaw  J. 


. —       -  September  i,  1910 

Dear  Brother:    I  thank  you  heartily  for  your  letter  and  the 

dollar.  ....  On  October  10  I  am  going  home The  maneuvers 

were  rather  short,  but  helped  us  enough  [tired  us].  Now  we  rest 
after  all  this. 

I  wrote  home  what  they  merited.     I  hope  that  they  won't  write 

such  slandering  any  more  [about  you].     I  don't  marvel  they  did,  for 

you  know  how  people  are  in  the  country,  particularly  in  our  village. 

If  somebody  succeeds  well,  the  others'  eyes  are  aching,  and  if  they 

cannot  annoy  him  in  any  other  way  they  talk  at  least.     As  to  myself, 

I  owe  [have  wronged]  no  one  either,  but  their  eyes  ache  because  I  am 

a  sergeant,  so  .they  say  in  the  village  that  when  I  came  to  Tarnow 

my  uniform  was  full  of  holes  and  patches,  and  that  the  l)etter  guests 

were  ashamed  to  go  with  me  to  the  town.     But  I  laugh  at  them  all. 

Let    them    talk    further.     If    God    grants    it,    everything    will    go 

well 

Stanislaw  J. 


.364  rUIMAKV-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

2CA  WiETRZYCHOWICE,  Octobcr  21,   I91O 

Dear  Son  AND  Brother:  In  my  first  words:  "Praised  be  Jesus 
Christus"  [etc.]. 

Dear  lirolher,  I  inform  you  that  I  came  home  on  the  20th  in  the 
e\  cniiii^  and  I  am  very  glad  that  this  military  service  is  ended  at  last. 
As  to  our  home,  dear  brother,  I  found  everything  in  health  and  in 
very  good  order.  Mother  is  healthy,  Franek  also,  and  Marysia 
keeps  well,  enough. 

Dear  son  and  brother,  we  inform  you  that  up  to  the  present  every- 
thing is  in  the  same  state  as  it  was  when  our  deceased  father  left  it. 
Here  ever>'body  is  against  us,  everybody  is  envious,  one  does  not 
yield  to  another  even  for  a  grajcar  [kreuzer].  Father  had  been  sick 
for  2  years;  an  abcess  grew  on  his  stomach.  He  was  more  than 
once  consulting  the  doctors,  and  nobody  could  help  him,  only  ever\^- 
body  advised  him  to  go  to  Cracow  to  a  hospital.  But  father  would 
not  agree  to  it,  saying  that  he  preferred  to  finish  his  life  at  home, 
with  his  own  people,  not  among  strangers  and  in  another  city.  In 
the  last  time  he  could  eat  nothing,  for  it  [the  illness]  did  not  allow  him. 
At  the  most  he  took  a  glass  of  wine  or  of  milk  every  hour,  and  it 
threw  out  of  him  even  this.'  For  some  months  mother  could  not 
leave  him  for  a  moment,  but  sat  with  him  day  and  night.  And  when 
father  was  giving  his  spirit  to  God,  he  explained  to  mother  all  his 
arrangements,  how  mother  ought  to  do  in  order  that  ever}'thing  might 
remain  as  he  left  it.  Only,  dear  son,  all  the  relatives  and  friends  for- 
got about  your  father,  and  in  the  last  moment  instead  of  going  to  the 
funeral  some  of  them  went  with  oxen  to  the  fair.  For  example,  your 
aunt  from  the  other  house  sent  Franek  [her  son]  to  the  fair  with  a 
Jew,  and  when  your  aunt  from  Szymonowice  mentioned  it  to  her 
she  abused  her  and  said  that  she  [the  aunt  from  S.]  had  come  to  the 
funeral  only  to  eat  and  to  drink.  So  you  can  imagine  how  all  this 
went  on.  Dear  brother,  when  they  related  all  this  to  me,  tears  stood 
in  my  eyes.  And  not  only  at  home,  but  also  in  the  \dllage  I  have 
been  told  the  same.^ 

'  Speaking  of  sickness  as  of  some  impersonal  "  it "  is  a  vestige  of  the  old  magical 
system  in  which  "it"  meant  "the  evil,"  the  noxious  principle. 

'  The  greatest  disrespect  which  can  be  sho\vn  a  family  is  lack  of  eagerness  in 
assisting  at  the  funeral  of  one  of  its  members.  It  shows  that  the  social  standing 
of  the  family  must  be  very  low  indeed.  In  this  case  there  were  no  grown-up  sons 
at  home.  The  son  in  .\merica  sent  no  money;  the  one  in  the  army  had  been  away 
from  home  a  long  time  and,  as  a  soldier,  did  not  count;  the  father  had  been  sick 
for  two  years.    These  factors  had  lowered  the  standing  of  the  family. 


JACKOWSKI  SERIES  565 

Now,  dear  brother,  I  inform  you  that  Nog,  from  Siedliszowice 
came  here  to  us  and  wanted  mother  to  make  a  marriage-festival, 
saying  that  you  had  married  her  sister  there  in  America.  It  is  her 
luck  that  I  was  not  at  home;  I  would  have  given  her  a  festival  which 
she  would  have  remembered  for  a  long  time.  Here  in  Wietrzychowice 
they  fight  among  themselves  like  dogs  and  cats. 

Dear  brother,  when  you  receive  this  letter,  please  describe  every- 
thing that  is  news  there  with  you.  Mother  is  old  already.  She 
cannot  work  as  she  did  before,  for  she  has  not  strength  enough.  I 
think  it  would  be  the  best  for  her  to  sell  [or  rent  ?]  the  field  at  auction, 
and  to  leave  the  house  and  a  bit  of  garden.  She  could  keep  a  pig 
and  go  about  the  house  [keep  order],  and  we  could  help  her  a  little. 
When  I  came  home,  I  pitied  her  so  much  that  I  wept  hke  a  child 
when  she  told  me  all  this. 

Dear  brother,  I  have  sent  a  petition  to  the  constable's  depart- 
ment. If  I  learn  that  they  will  accept  me,  I  will  remain  here,  but 
if  not,  I  will  go  to  you.     I  will  write  you  later  about  it. 

Now,  dear  brother,  there  is  work  enough Times  are  hard, 

mother  has  paid  24  renskis  of  taxes,  and  the  cattle  are  sick.     Nothing 
can  be  sold.     Whoever  has  anything  cannot  sell  it 

Now,  dear  brother,  finishing  these  few  words,  I  beg  you  to  write 
your  thoughts,  for  mother  cannot  do  otherwise.  She  has  worked 
enough,  let  her  have  at  least  in  her  old  years  a  few  days  of  rest.  I 
have  talked  already  with  mother  and  she  agrees.  She  wants  to  keep 
it  for  a  year  still,  for  she  has  everything  sown.  Dear  brother,  we  must 
try  that  everything  may  be  well.  It  won't  cost  us  much,  and  at 
least  mother  will  have  rest  and  comfort  in  her  old  years.  Although 
we  have  lost  our  father,  yet  our  mother  lives  and  we  can  be  proud 
that  she  is  so  good  that  another  could  be  found  with  difficulty  in  the 
village.  She  does  not  ask  a  cent  from  anybody  and  she  won't  waste 
her  own  money  on  trifles,  as  others  do,  for  she  wants  to  leave  a 
remembrance  [inheritance]  to  her  children  after  her  death. 

[Stanislaw  J.) 

255  Lwow,  March  5,  191 1 

Dear  Brother:  [Health  and  success.]  As  you  know  already, 
I  am  in  Lwow  [Lemberg]  in  a  constable  school  for  5  months,  i.e.,  up 
to  the  I  St  of  August.  If  I  hold  out  I  shall  go  to  a  post  in  August,  and 
if  not  I  must  seek  for  some  other  bread H  our  Lord   God 


e;6r}  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

allows,  it  will  jzo  perhaps  well,  for  here  discipline  is  in  the  first  place. 
As  to  the  school,  I  don't  need  to  speak.  Whether  there  is  holiday  or 
Sunday,  you  must  always  look  into  the  books,  and  even  at  night. 

(Miscr\-  at  home  and  in  the  country;  taxes  heavy;  Franek  not 
diligent  or  steady.]  Now,  dear  brother,  I  will  mention  further  the 
letter  which  motlier  wrote  to  you  asking  for  a  few  hellers.  You  got  a 
little  angry,  but  what  can  be  done?  When  we  are  in  need  we  look 
for  any  means  by  which  we  can  get  something.  It  was  the  same  here. 
I  did  not  realize  it  myself  before  I  left  home,  but  when  I  came  home 
and  mother  showed  me  the  accounts,  what  she  spent  after  father  "s 
death,  I  was  astonished;  I  should  never  have  believed  it.  But  never 
mind.  At  last  it  happened  that  there  was  not  a  heller  at  home.  Only 
then  this  letter  was  written.  But  since  you  did  not  want  to  send 
anything,  nobody  can  tear  the  money  away  from  you.  For  this 
money  which  you  sent  for  medicine  for  father  lies  in  the  bank.  The 
last  decision  of  father  was,  not  to  touch  it.  For  if  they  wrote  you 
before  to  send  them  some  and  you  did  not  do  it,  it  was  over.  It  came 
too  late  and  father  thanked  for  it  [refused  it].  Now  you  wrote  also 
that  you  had  worked  enough  for  us,  that  you  must  think  about  your- 
self. It  is  all  right,  but  there  has  not  been  so  ver}^  much  of  it.  You 
earned  some  money  in  Prussia,  our  parents  added  some  of  their  own 
and  bought  a  piece  of  land  for  it,  which  you  have  still.  Y^ou  ought 
not  to  make  reproaches  to  mother,  for  it  is  not  proper.  Mother  wept 
more  than  once  and  said  if  you  had  a  little  remembrance,  at  least 
about  our  father,  you  would  send  at  least  once  in  a  year  [money]  for 
a  mass  for  father.  Don't  think  that  I  want  to  teach  you.  I  don't  do 
it  ever.  But  I  can  write  what  I  hear,  for  I  don't  know  what  is  the 
opinion  of  anybody  [how  others  look  at  the  question,  i.e.,  I  let  everyone 
have  his  own  opinion]. 

[Stanislaw] 

256  May  5,  191 1 

Dear  Brother:  ....  I  am  curious  why  do  you  not  answer  me. 
I  wrote  first  a  card,  then  a  letter,  and  I  received  no  answer;  I  don't 
know  the  cause.  Certainly  my  last  letter  ofifended  you,  for  there 
was  nothing  else  between  us.  I  won't  hide  [retract]  what  I  wrote 
you.  I  wrote  what  mother  told  me.  If  you  got  angry,  it  is  not  m}- 
fault.  There  was  surely  nothing  so  disagreeable  as  to  bring  anger 
between  us.     You  are  a  grown-up  man  and  you  can  manage  according 


JACKOWSKI  SERIES  567 

to  your  own  ideas.  Up  to  the  present  nobody  has  any  right  to  dis- 
pose of  others;  everybody  is  his  own  lord.  Now  I  am  a  free  citizen 
of  the  Austrian  state;  I  can  do  what  I  Hke.  I  can  take  at  any 
moment  what  I  received  after  the  death  of  my  father,  and  do  with 
it  what  pleases  me,  for  in  the  will  it  is  clearly  said  that  when  we 
become  24  years  of  age  mother  has  to  give  each  what  belongs  to  him, 
and  each  can  do  according  to  his  will. 

I  was,  it  is  true,  for  a  few  weeks  at  home  and  I  know  very  well  how 
everything  is  going  on.  Nothing  can  be  said  against  what  is  at  home. 
Everything  is  in  the  greatest  order.  But  as  there  is  nobody  to  work 
at  home,  I  told  mother  to  rent  [?]  the  field,  so  that  only  a  garden 
would  remain  with  her;  then  she  would  not  have  to  work  so  hard  in 
her  old  years.  She  first  asked  you  for  advice,  whether  you  would 
agree.  You  answered  that  you  agreed,  but  as  everything  was  sown 
she  wants  to  harvest  the  crops  this  year  and  to  rent  not  until  the 
autumn.  I  don't  know  yet  how  she  will  do.  I  could  take  my  part 
now,  but  what  do  I  care  for  it  ?  As  long  as  mother  lives  let  it  remain 
with  her,  let  her  do  with  it  what  pleases  her.  Meanwhile  1  can  do 
without  it,  and  later  in  a  year,  when  I  become  a  real  constable  and 
keep  [the  place],  I  shall  have  a  nice  living.  The  school  is  rather  hard 
and  there  is  little  time,  but  nothing  can  be  done,  as  man  can  and 
must  get  accustomed  to  everything.  And  so,  dear  brother,  don't  be 
angry,  for  we  are  only  three  and  we  don't  know  what  yet  awaits  us 
in  this  life.     I  say  only  this,  that  only  concord  will  bring  good  results 

and  fruits  among  us. 

[Stanislaw] 


2^17  June  29,  i()i  ( 

Dear  Brother:  I  am  astonished  at  your  silence.  Why  ha\c  I 
had  no  answer  from  you  for  so  long  a  time?  I  cannot  imagine  it. 
Four  months  have  passed  since  I  left  my  home,  and  as  soon  as  I 
came  to  Lwow  I  wrote  you  first  a  card,  then  a  letter,  and  I  received 
no  answer  at  aU.  But  I  hope  that  this  silence  between  us  will  not 
remain.  What  is  my  guilt  toward  you?  Have  I  done  you  any 
wrong  ?  Certainly  not  I.  When  I  wrote  you  the  letter  from  home, 
I  did  not  write  from  myself,  but  I  wrote  what  molher  asked  me  to. 
And  you  know  certainly  mother  as  well  [as  I  do],  so  you  should  not 
be  angry,  but  do  as  you  please,  for  today  it  is  permitted  to  everybody. 


c68  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

As  to  nivsolf,  I  cannot  say  anything  now.  On  the  one  hand, 
when  I  consider  everything,  it  seems  painful  and  I  regret  a  little 
having  become  a  constable,  but  on  the  other  hand,  if  I  reflect,  every- 
thing ceases  and  some  spark,  of  hope  rejoices  me.  If  I  remain,  I  shall 
have  a  piece  of  bread,  but  earned  with  difficulty,  not  on  account  of 
heavy  labor,  but  because  every  inconsiderate  step  leads  the  constable 
to  the  garrison  [military  prison],  and  at  last  he  may  be  dismissed  and 
go  whence  he  came.  In  another  regard,  he  is  always  exposed  to 
danger  of  life  and  health.  And  in  the  third  place,  anybody  who 
wants  to  serve  as  constable  to  the  end  must  be  deaf,  dumb,  and  blind. 
Onlv  such  a  man  is  a  good  constable.  There  are  orders  enough,  and 
every  order  mvst  be  well  executed,  and  everybody  wants  to  say  [to 
order]  something,  so  nothing  remains  except  to  keep  your  mouth 
shut  and  to  work.     [Describes  the  school.] 

Now,  dear  brother,  if  you  receive  this  letter,  I  beg  you  be  so  kind 
and  if  you  can,  send  me  a  few  kronen,  for  after  the  end  of  this  month 
I  need  them  very  much.  I  don't  know  where  to  turn  to  get  some 
money,  and  it  is  not  suitable  to  go  to  my  post  without  a  kreuzer.  I 
hope,  dear  brother,  that  you  won't  refuse  me,  and  I  will  also  try  to 
requite  you  later  on.     You  have  nothing  to  fear,  for  I  won't  deny  any 

heller  which  I  received  from  you 

Stanislaw  J. 

258  Nadworna,  October  5  [191 1] 

Dear  Brother:  ....  Why  do  you  not  answer  me?  Don't 
mind  if  I  wrote  to  you  for  money.  It  was  in  your  hands,  you  could 
[have  sent  it]  but  you  didn't  have  to.  It  is  your  business.  I  wrote, 
because  I  needed  it.  I  did  not  receive  it,  so  I  must  get  on  without  it. 
Don't  mind  it  at  all,  for  if  you  had  sent  it  I  should  have  paid  it  back 

sooner  or  later Don't  wonder  that  I  wrote  asking  for  money, 

for  I  had  just  left  the  school So  don't  be  angry,  dear  brother, 

only  answer  me  as  soon  as  you  receive  this  letter,  and  if  you  have  a 
photograph,  send  it,  for  I  have  left  the  other  at  home.     Mother 

asked  me  to  leave  it  and  I  could  not  refuse 

Stanislaw  J.  ) 

259  Bednarow,  July  20,  1913 

Dear  Brother  and  Sister-in-law:  I  send  you  hearty  thanks 
for  your  letter  and  photograph I  have  had  no  news  from 


lO 


JACKOWSKI  SERIES  569 

home,  although  I  wrote  a  letter  and  a  card.  Surely  they  are  angry. 
With  them  anger  is  not  very  difficult.  I  expect  a  letter  now  or  later, 
then  I  will  inform  you  in  another  letter  what  they  write  about  your 
marriage.  As  to  Stolarz,  we  don't  write,  for  we  are  angry  with  each 
other  ever  since  my  military  service.  Perhaps  he  is  right  and  perhaps 
I  am.     I  won't  judge  him;  let  somebody  else  judge. 

You  ask  in  your  letter,  dear  brother,  about  my  position,  and 
in  what  a  condition  I  am  here.  [Describes  his  condition,  and 
politics.] 

Staotslaw  J. 

260  May  5,  of  the  year  of  God  19 

First  of  all  we  write  to  you  and  we  speak  to  you  these  words: 
"Praised  be  Jesus  Christus."  We  hope  that  you  will  answer  us: 
"In  centuries  of  centuries.     Amen."  .... 

[Health;  who  was  called  to  the  army.]  Now,  dear  son,  don't 
hope  for  any  money  from  us,  for,  as  you  know,  your  father  has  been 
sick  for  a  long  time  and  whatever  money  there  was,  it  is  spent,  some 
on  doctors,  and  then  when  he  died  the  funeral  cost  us  50  renskis 
[100  crowns].  And  now,  after  father's  death  we  made  the  division 
[of  the  inheritance].  We  were  5  times  in  ^abno  with  the  assessors 
and  the  guardians,  and  then  we  spent  also  money  enough,  for  we  had 
to  give  them  to  eat  and  to  drink.  We  wrote  to  Jasiek  that  he  might 
send  us  his  part  [of  the  expenses],  but  he  answered  us  so,  that  it  would 
be  easier  for  him  to  resign  his  part  of  inheritance  than  to  pay  his  part 
of  the  expenses.  So  I,  your  poor  mother,  must  pay  for  everything. 
I  got  sick  and  was  sick.  And  now  we  do  what  we  can  do  alone,  and 
we  shall  learn  what  we  cannot  do  yet.  We  expected  you  to  come  at 
least  for  harvest-time.     He  [Stanislaw]  cannot  come,  for  we  received 

a  letter  from  Bosnia  that  he  must  serve  there  up  to  the  end 

Franciszka  J. 


a6l  May  5,  1912 

Dear  Son:  ....  [Letter  received;  health.]  There  is  no  news 
in  Wietrzychowice.  When  there  is  any,  we  shall  write  you.  Now  a 
church  will  be  built  in  W.  Now  you  write  us  to  give  the  money 
rather  to  the  poor  [beggars]  than  for  a  mass.     But  if  you  give  to  the 


;to 


TRIM ARV-( -.ROUP  ORGANIZATION 


IKwr  [beiigar]  a  few  cents  or  bread,  he  goes  to  the  Jew  and  gets  so 
drunk  that  ho  lies  under  a  hedge.     So  it  is  better  to  give  for  a  mass 

than  to  the  poor '  ^ 

Franciszka  J. 

262  July  4,1912 

Dkar  Son  and  Brother:  We  received  your  letter  and  $5.00 
for  which  we  thank  you.  Now,  dear  brother,  you  ask  about  the 
crops.     [Hail  ruined  the  crops.] 

Now  for  these  dollars  we  thank  you  heartily,  for  we  need  them 
like  eyes  in  the  head.  Now  black  pox  reigns  in  our  country;  it  is 
still  worse  than  cholera.  The  doctors  come  and  inoculate  everybody 
trying  to  save  them  from  it.  And  if  anybody  dies  it  is  forbidden  [to 
take  him]  to  the  church,  only  directly  to  the  cemetery,  and  they  don't 
allows  him  dressed,  except  in  a  shroud. 

Now,  dear  son  and  brother,  there  is  no  other  news  in  the  village 
except  these  two  misfortunes.  Now  there  will  be  calmness  for  there 
will  be  nothing  to  harvest  and  nothing  to  thresh,  and  at  last  there 
will  be  notliing  to  eat,  except  what  one  buys,  if  he  has  money.'  Now 
we  greet  you  innumerable  times,  hoping  to  see  you  again.     Amen. 

[Franciszka  J.] 

'  The  son  in  America  has  evidently  developed  the  idea  that  giving  money  for 
religious  purposes  is  wasting  it  and  that  it  would  be  better  to  honor  his  father's 
memory  by  using  the  corresponding  sum  on  philanthropy.  But  the  peasant  knows 
no  philanthropic  ends  except  helping  the  beggar.  Assistance  given  to  a  neighbor 
or  to  a  family  member  does  not  come  under  the  head  of  philanthropy,  but  of 
mutual  help.  But  even  the  helping  of  beggars  is  not  a  purely  philanthropic,  but 
a  half-religious  act,  not  only  because  it  is  ordered  by  religion,  but  because  the  beggar 
is  bound  to  say  prayers  for  the  giver.  In  fact,  the  beggar  has  somewhat  a  religious 
function.  (Cf.  Wroblewski  series,  No.  31,  note.)  If  therefore  Franciszka  explains 
that  it  is  not  well  to  give  money  to  beggars,  the  background  of  her  attitude  is  not 
merely  the  feeling  that  the  money  is  wasted  unproductively,  but  also  that  the 
beggars  are  unworthy  of  their  religious  function,  and  that  their  prayers,  profaned 
by  their  going  to  a  Jew,  getting  drunk,  and  lying  under  a  hedge,  would  be  less 
efficient  religiously  than  a  mass.  For  her  it  is  a  matter  of  comparison  of  homo- 
geneous things,  not  of  heterogeneous,  as  for  her  son.  This  peculiarity  of  the 
peasant  life — the  lack  of  a  purely  philanthropic  attitude — explains  to  a  great 
extent  the  mistrust  which  the  peasant  shows  toward  all  philanthropic  institutions, 
organized  by  the  higher  classes,  unless  these  are  based  upon  religion.  The  latter 
exception  shows  that  the  origin  of  the  mistrust  does  not  lie  in  the  general  hostility 
toward  the  higher  classes.     Cf.  No.  31,  note. 

'  The  curious  feature  in  this  letter  is  what  the  Germans  call  Golgenhiimor . 
It  is  often  found  in  the  peasant  songs  and  stories. 


JACKOWSKI  SERIES  571 

263  October  8,  191 2 
....  Dear  Son  and  Brother:  [Letter  received;   health  and 

success.]  Now  in  the  village  there  is  no  news,  for  nobody  got  mar- 
ried. Now  we  have  had  rains  for  2  months  and  nothing  can  be  done. 
Now,  dear  son,  you  write  about  marrying.  Well,  you  can  marry, 
only  you  must  know  whom  you  marry.  And  now  consider  that 
she  may  be  an  honest  girl,  who  would  respect  you  and  would  not 
throw  money  away  for  [just]  anything.  Now  consider  that  she 
may  have  there  something  [some  money],  or  at  least  that  she  may  be 
of  an  orderly  [good]  family.  Now  from  Wietrzychowice  there  is  no 
orderly  girl  [in  America].  Now  take  care  of  yourself,  for  afterward 
it  will  be  too  late.  You  know  that  you  get  married  neither  for  a 
year  nor  for  two,  but  for  your  whole  life.  Now,  when  you  marry, 
may  our  Lord  Jesus  also  bless  you  for  the  wedding.  And  now  I, 
your  mother,  bless  you  and  wish  you  good  luck  in  everything.  Now 
there  is  nothing  new  or  interesting;  if  there  is  anything,  we  will 
write  you.     Now  we  greet  you  ....  and  we  bless  you  once  more 

in  order  that  you  may  marry  the  best  possible. 

[Franciszka] 

264  May  5,  1913 

Dear  Son  and  Brother:  We  received  your  letter  from  which  we 
learned  about  your  health  and  success  and  marriage.  Now  we  are 
very  much  satisfied  that  you  are  married.  Now,  as  to  the  wedding- 
photograph,  my  dear  son,  you  ought  to  send  it  without  asking,  for 
you  can  know  that  whoever  marries  sends  a  photograph  home  after 
his  wedding,  and  a  few  crowns  for  his  parents  in  order  that  they 
may  rejoice  [feast]  that  he  got  married.  So  now,  dear  son  and 
brother,  since  you  ask,  we  beg  you  for  it,  in  order  that  we  may  see 
[your  wife]  at  least  upon  the  paper,  since  we  did  not  see  her  with  our 

eyes. 

Now,  dear  brother  and  sister-in-law,  I  wish  you  health  in  your 
marriage  and  good  success,  that  you  may  live  the  l^est  possible. 
[Village-news  and  greetings.]  [Franciszka  and  FrankkJ 

265  -'"'>'  ^^'  ^9'-^ 
Dear  Son  and  Brother:  ....  We  received  your  letter,  for 

which  we  thank  you,  and  $5  00.     Now  you  write  that  you  sent  two 


572  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

photographs,  and  wc  received  only  one,  where  you  are,  and  Joz-A, 
anil  vours  [wife],  and  the  older  best-maid,  but  there  is  no  other.- .  .  .  . 
Now  for  these  dollars,  my  son,  I  arranged  a  marriage-festival.  I 
invittnl  my  friends  and  Marysia's  mother  and  so  we  amused  ourselves. 
Now,  dear  son,  Kozlok  came  and  said  that  the  guests  had  a  very 
small  feast,  and  we  can  even  know  ourselves,  for  you  sent  us  a  photo- 
graph with  two  pairs,  while  we  have  seen  weddings  where  at  least 
5  or  6  pairs  were  [photographed].  You  have  been  for  5  years  in 
.•\merica  and  yours  [wife]  6,  and  still  you  did  not  make  yourselves  a 
decent  wedding.  Now  we  learned  that  you  are  a  Sokol.  Well, 
my  son,  we  would  advise  you  to  leave  it,  for  you  won't  be  well  off. 
For  nobody  has  yet  been  well  off  for  being  a  Sokol,  and  you  won't 

cither.     [Greetings.] 

[Franciszka  and]  F[ranek]  J. 


266  September  30,  1913 

Dear  Son  and  Brother:  ....  You  ask  what  was  in  this  [lost] 
letter.  Well,  there  was  this.  Don't  dare,  my  son,  to  sell  your  field 
here  without  my  knowing  it  and  don't  let  yourself  be  cheated,  as 
Stoklosiak  cheated  Kazimierz  M.,  who  sold  him  his  lot  of  land  half- 
gratis.  So  I  admonish  you,  my  son,  that  you  may  know  what  to  do. 
If  you  intend  to  sell,  write  home,  and  I  will  describe,  w^hat  and  how 
you  should  do  with  all  this.     [Crops;   weather;   farm- work.] 

Now,  dear  brother,  wTite  us  hov/  do  you  wish  and  what  do  you 
think  whether  you  will  return  or  will  stay  there.  Now  as  to  me, 
dear  brother,  I  want  to  go  there  to  you,  for  here  we  work  but  we  can 
produce  nothing,  for  whenever  we  make  a  few  cents,  at  once  there  is 
an  expense,  and  it  looks  as  if  one  measured  the  \vater,  and  the  water 

is  always  there So  I  beg  you,  describe  to  me  what  you  think, 

what  you  think  about  yourself  and  about  me 

[Franciszka  and]  Franek  J. 

267  June  12,  1914 

Dear  Son  and  Brother:  ....  When  you  w-rite,  describe  to  us 
how  far  from  Chicago  you  will  go  to  this  farm.  Now^  describe  to  us 
whether  this  land  is  fertile,  and  how  many  morgs.  For  we  would 
dissuade  you  from  this  intention.     In  our  country  there  are  terrible 


JACKOWSKI  SERIES  573 

taxes  ....  and  so  many  different  expenses  that  it  is  impossible  to 
pay,  while  the  crops  are  bad,  and  if  rain  comes  [during  the  harvest], 
everything  sprouts,  so  that  it  is  impossible  to  eat  the  bread.  Now, 
as  you  know,  two  years  ago  hail  beat  everything  and  only  the  naked 
soil  remained.  Last  year  everything  sprouted,  and  now  God  alone 
knows  what  will  be  with  the  crops.  So  if  you  have  money,  it  would 
be  perhaps  better  for  you  to  buy  a  house  in  Chicago  than  a  farm. 
Now  don't  be  angry  with  me  for  giving  you  advice,  but  I,  as  your 
mother,  want  you  to  live  the  best  possible.  Now,  you  see,  there  are 
many  people  from  our  country,  but  they  all  settle  in  Chicago 

[Franciszka] 


KANIKULA  SERIES 

In  contrast  with  the  preceding  materials — relatively 
intelligent  and  showing  a  great  variety  of  interests — we 
place  here  the  most  stupid  series  of  our  whole  collection. 

The  letters — their  style,  the  manner  of  dating  them, 
etc. — show  a  very  low  degree  of  intellectual  development. 
Two  of  the  letters  are  dated:  "The  present  day  of  the  pres- 
ent month."  On  receiving  from  us  a  money-order,  the 
son  protested,  saying  that  he  expected  money  and  received 
a  mere  scrap  of  paper — and  this  after  three  years  in  America. 
He  did  not  know  how  to  write  his  own  address. 

Now  this  series  discloses  the  meaning  of  the  peasant's 
stupidity.  This  does  not  manifest  itself  in  an  inability  to 
manage  the  normal,  habitual  business  of  life.  The  Kani- 
kulas  know  well  enough  how  to  farm,  to  make  good  mar- 
riages, to  buy  land,  etc.  And  the  most  ignorant  peasant 
may  be  quite  successful  within  the  usual  circle  of  practical 
problems.  Perhaps,  indeed,  in  the  peasant  tales  the  success 
of  the  youngest,  stupid  son  is  precisely  the  expression  of  the 
fact  that  lack  of  development  of  the  reflective  faculties 
goes  along  very  well  with  practical  cleverness.  (Cf.  Intro- 
duction :  "Theoretic  and  Aesthetic  Interests.")  The  usually 
admitted  manifestation  of  stupidity  is  the  inability  to  adapt 
one's  self  to  new  practical  situations.  But  even  this 
criterion  is  not  exact  enough.  Indeed,  a  new  situation  is 
seldom  immediately  imposed  by  the  environment  and  pas- 
sively accepted  by  the  individual;  usually  the  latter  selects 
out  of  a  diversity  of  external  circumstances  some  practical 
situations  among  many  others  equally  possible,  and  tries, 
consciously  or  instinctively,  to  select  only  such  problems  as 
he  is  more  or  less  able  to  solve.     In  this  w^ay,  for  instance, 

574 


KANIKULA  SERIES  575 

is  to  be  explained  the  fact,  often  noted  with  astonishment 
by  the  peasants  themselves,  that  the  facihty  of  adaptation 
of  emigrants  to  their  new  environment  is  not  proportional  to 
the  degree  of  their  intelligence  and  culture.  It  evidently 
depends  upon  the  merely  negative  ability  of  the  man  to  limit 
his  sphere  of  activity. 

The  only  criterion  of  intelligence  is  therefore  the  width  of 
the  sphere  of  activity  within  which  the  man  can  be  suc- 
cessful, the  range  of  problems  which  he  is  able  to  solve. 
The  mere  faculty  of  adaptation  depends  only  mediately 
upon  the  degree  of  intelHgence.  In  a  completely  new 
environment  an  intelHgent  man  will  more  easily  find  soluble 
problems  within  his  reach  than  a  stupid  one.  But,  on  the 
other  hand,  his  claims  are  greater,  and  thus  subjectively 
his  chances  may  be  equal  or  less.  The  stupid  Kanikula 
is  much  happier  in  America  than  the  intelligent  Piotrowski 
or  Porzycki.  (Cf.  those  series.)  And  this  criterion  of 
intelligence  depends  in  turn  upon  a  feature  with  regard  to 
which  the  Kanikula  series  is  particularly  instructive — the 
range  of  interest.  It  could  hardly  be  narrower  than  it  is 
here. 

To  this  general  point  of  view  we  shall  return  in  a  later 
volume,  when  we  attempt  to  appreciate  the  intellectual 
evolution  of  the  peasant  during  the  last  thirty  years  under 
the  influence  of  the  movement  of  "enlightenment." 

The  Kanikula  correspondence  covers  two  and  a  half 
years.  Four  letters,  very  much  like  the  first,  are  omitted 
—three  asking  for  money  and  one  expressing  thanks  for 
money.  The  family  solidarity  seems  to  be  preserved. 
The  son,  indeed,  did  not  send  money  home  at  once,  but 
probably  he  could  not. 


570  rRIMARV-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

268-72,  FROM  PIOTR  KANIKULA,  IN  POLAND, 
TO  HIS  SON,  IN  AMERICA 

268  Letter  written  on  the  present  day  of  the  present 

month  [1912,  Spring] 
[Usual  greetings,  wishes;  information  about  weather.]     And  now, 
dear  son.  wc  inform  you  about  this  money  that  you  sent,  that  we 
received   it   and  answered   you   directly.     [One   page   about  letter- 
writing  follows.] 

[PlOTR  KaNIKULA] 

Dear  Brother-in-law,  I  beg  you  very  much,  describe  to  me 
....  how  it  is  there  in  America,  and  how  is  the  work  now,  whether 
good  or  bad  ....  because  I  want  to  go  to  you.  Dear  brother-in- 
law,  I  shall  ask  you  to  help  me  in  some  manner  to  get  to  America, 
because  in  our  country  nothing  can  be  done.     The  wages  are  now  very 

small I  have  nothing  more  to  write.     Goodbye. 

[Jozef] 

269  Letter  written  in  1912  [Spring] 

[Usual  greetings;  letter  received.]  And  now,  dear  son,  we  beg 
you  very  much  to  send  us  money.  Don't  forget  about  us,  because  it 
is  more  and  more  difficult  for  us  to  work  in  our  old  days.  Father  has 
sprained  his  hand  and  cannot  work,  and  you  went  away  and  took 
with  you  every  penny  wherever  it  was,  and  you  left  us  without  a 
penny,  so  if  (God  forbid!)  death  comes,  we  shall  have  not  a  penny. 
....  And  Jozef,  your  brother-in-law,  had  no  work  in  the  factory 
during  the  whole  winter,  only  walked  about  Huszczka,  and  now  he 
has  gone  to  Chelm,  since  Easter.  [More  asking  for  money  and 
describing  bad  conditions.]  And  now,  dear  son,  I  ask  you,  where 
did  you  put  the  ax  ?     Write,  where  you  put  it,  so  we  shall  not  have  to 

search   for  it 

PiOTR  Kanikula 

^70  Letter  written  on  June  8,  19 12 

....  We  send  you  already  the  third  letter  and  you  don't  answer. 
Have  you  forgotten  about  us  already,  or  what  ?  And  you  don't  send 
money,  although  we  need  it  very  much,  because  Joszt  is  parceling  a 
field,  so  we  would  take  some  morgs.     You  don't  even  send  those  few 


KANIKULA  SERIES  577 

roubles  back  to  Hanusia  [sister] .  Other  people  have  sent  some  hundred 
roubles  each.  Karol  Smotrys  sent  300  roubles  and  Piotr  Podolak, 
Paulina's  husband,  200,  and  Piotr,  Pawel's  son,  sent  100,  and  you 
don't  send  anything  to  us.  You  know,  when  you  wanted  it  and 
you  could  borrow  nowhere  a  single  rouble,  we  helped  you,  and  you  have 
forgotten  about  us.  When  you  needed  [money]  you  said  you  would 
send  it  immediately  when  you  got  there,  and  you  have  been  there  half 
a  year  already  and  don't  send.  Other  people  don't  do  like  you.  They 
have  sent  already,  and  you  did  not.  [More  complaints  and  admoni- 
tions.] 

[Piotr  Kanikula] 

271  Letter  written  on  May  20,  19 13 

....  And  now  we  inform  you  that  here  Joszt  is  parceling  a 
field,  so  if  you  sent  us  money,  we  would  take  some  land,  not  for  any- 
body else,  but  for  yourself.  And  Anusia  requests  you  to  send  her 
[money]  also,  because  she  would  also  take  some  land.  She  needs 
[money]  for  everything,  because  he  [her  husband]  does  not  serve  now. 
You  don't  owe  her  much  more,  and  yet  you  don't  send  back  those 
few  roubles.  Then  send  money,  and  we  will  take  some  land.  [Greet- 
ings, wishes:  repeated  requests  for  money.] 

Piotr  Kanikula 


272  Letter  written  on  April  15,  1914 

....  We  are  already  very  bad.  Father  is  ill,  our  old  years  are 
verv  bad,  because  we  have  no  health.  Now  we  thank  you  very 
much,  dear  son,  for  your  letter  and  postcard,  we  thank  you  very  much 
for  not  forgetting  that  we  live  in  this  world.  So  we  wish  you  blcssmg 
from  God.  Be  married,  with  God,  and  may  God  help  you  to  be 
married  happily,  and  let  God  bless  you  first,  and  then  we  bless  you 

and  wish  you  every  good  from  God  the  Merciful And  don  t 

forget  about  us  as  long  as  we  live  in  the  world,  and  may  God  allow  us  to 

see  you,  dear  children.  ....        •         1 

You  wrote  that  Smotrys  is  no  longer  alive-that  his  wife  poisoned 
him.  It  is  not  true.  Who  could  invent  it  so  and  so  [in  such  (k-Uul]  f 
How  do  people  make  a  dead  man  of  a  living?  What  you  wrote 
about  Stach-that  he  married  Helena  Loza-it  is  truc^  He  marnec 
her  against  the  will  [of  her  parents],  he  drove  her  to  Grabowiec  and 


.-^  rRIMARY-GROUr  ORGANIZATION 

there  they  got  married.  Because  Loza  did  not  wish  her  to  marry 
him,  he  married  her  against  his  will.  Now  they  are  sitting  in  the 
house  of  Jozwa,  but  Loza  refuses  to  give  her  anything. 

(News  about  weather.]  Dear  son,  don't  forget  about  us.  Our 
dear  children,  remember  about  us  old  people,  because  you  know  that 
we  have  now  to  live  like  small  children.  As  we  formerly  cared  for 
you,  so  now  it  is  our  turn  to  be  cared  for  by  somebody.  I  repeat,  we 
are  now  like  small  children  whom  somebody  must  dress  and  put  their 
shoes  on  and  feed  them.     [Greetings,  blessings;    request  for  letters.] 

[PlOTR   KaNIKULA] 

Now  the  wife  of  Jozef  greets  very  much  her  husband  and  the  soi 
greets  his  father.'  .... 

'  Kanikuia  evidently  took  his  brother-in-law  to  America. 


'  his  sons 


TOPOLSKI  SERIES 

The  family  is  now  living  in  a  town  and  working  in  a 
factory,  but  they  came  from  the  country.  There  is  therefore 
some  difference  between  the  parents  and  the  children;  the 
latter  are  already  developing  to  some  extent  the  features  of 
townspeople,  while  the  parents  are  typical  peasants.  The 
relation  between  parents  and  children  assumes  a  particular 
form ;  the  children  are  totally  independent  and  the  parents 
try  to  keep  up  the  country-relations,  not  by  authority,  but 
by  sentiment. 

THE  FAMILY  TOPOLSKI 

Topolski,  a  factory-worker 

His  wife 

Waclaw  (Wacek) 

Antek 

Janek 

Stefek 

Bronka  I 

Jozia  [  his  daughters 

Stasia  (Stachna)  J 

Michalowski,  Bronka's  husband 

G ,  an  aunt  of  Stasia 

Michal  \ 

„  ,  .      >  cousins 

Edzio   J 

273-80,  TO  STASIA  TOPOLSKA,  IN  AMERICA,  FROM 
FAMILY-MEMBERS,   IN  POLAND 

2.73  OSTROWIEC,  March  20,  1912 

DEARCmLDREN: We  writc  this  letter  on  Gocxl  Wcchn-s.lay. 

for  Stefek  came  for  the  holidays  and  he  writes  it,  while  A.itck  <  ocs 
not  want  to  write.     He  would  prefer  to  be  sick  for  3  days  nulur  ihan 

write  one  letter We  gave  the  process  to  a  lawyer.  .         . 

Your  father  aspires  and  prays  to  God  that  he  may  go  to  Kujawy  [the 

579 


580  rRIMARV-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

farm  which  is  the  object  of  the  lawsuit],  if  it  were  only  one  hour  liefore 

dyinj,',  and  not  hear  any  more  this  bullying  in  the  factory ' 

Hronka  wrote  to  us  that  Micha!owski  [her  husband]  teases  her  in  his 
letters.  She  complains  that  she  is  unhappy.  She  has  always  some 
misunderstandings  with  him.  And  you  there  [Stasia],  keep  away 
from  Michalowski,  lest  people  ascribe  to  you  some  [evil]  things,  for 
Malczykowa  asked  already  whether  you  are  not  living  in  the  same 
apartment.^    Has  Michalowski  sent  some  money  to  his  wife  ?  .  .  .  . 

Write  us  what  work  is  Waclaw  doing Bronka  also  wonders 

that  in  your  letters  to  her  you  mention  little  about  Waclaw.  Janek 
is  such  a  disorderly  boy  as  he  has  always  been;  he  does  not  put  any 
money  aside.  We  had  hardly  put  40  roubles  in  the  bank  for  him  \\  hen 
he  drew  it  and  bought  a  bicycle.^  And  if  he  has  some  trouble  in  the 
factory  he  comes  and  asks  us  to  gather  any  money  that  we  have, 
saying  that  he  will  go  to  America.  For  the  holidays  we  have  30 
pounds  of  flour,  12  pounds  of  ham  and  a  leg  of  veal.     Michal  brought 

all  this  from  Iwaniska 

Everybody  from  Home 


274  December  29,  191 2 

Dear  Stasia:  We  received  your  letter  ....  and  we  were  very 
much  rejoiced,  but  when  we  read  it  we  wept.  Why  did  you  leave 
W'aclaw  [brother  with  whom  she  went  to  America]  thus  ?  You  ought 
to  remain  with  him  and  to  come  back  together.  God  knows  what  has 
become  of  him?  Perhaps  in  such  a  big  city  he  cannot  f.nd  you. 
What  did  we  suffer  until  we  got  this  letter  from  you!  People  said 
that  you  were  arrested  [while  crossing  the  frontier]  and  put  into 
prison,  others  said  that  you  were  sent  back  by  etapes  [from  prison 
to  prison  to  the  native  village].  Jula,  from  Kielce,  said  that  the 
ship  stopped  in  the  sea  and  no  ship  was  permitted  to  go.     And  now 

■  Longing  for  land  and  for  independence.  The  feature  is  almost  universal 
among  peasants  who  work  in  factories  in  Poland,  but  is  weakened  or  disappears  in 
America. 

'  This  suspicion  would  hardly  arise  in  a  village.  Bronka  is  Stasia's  sister,  and 
a  relation  between  Stasia  and  her  husband  would  be  felt  as  almost  incestuous. 

^  Were  the  family  living  in  the  country,  the  father  would  probably  not  allow 
Janek  to  withdraw  the  money.  For  example,  the  money  earned  by  the  children 
at  season-work  in  Germany,  even  if  not  given  to  the  parents  for  spending,  is  never- 
theless almost  always  given  to  them  to  keep  until  the  son  or  daughter  marries. 


TOPOLSKI  SERIES 


581 


the  people  say  that  it  is  bad  in  America,  that  this  new  president  is  not 
good,  that  factories  have  stopped  and  only  a  few  of  them  are  active, 
that  he  has  diminished  the  pay  for  work,  and  that  he  endeavors  not  to 
admit  the  Poles  into  America,  saying  that  they  spoil  the  people  there.' 
All  this  is  more  grief  for  us,  for  while  you  did  not  lose  much,  Waclaw 
had  money  and  good  work  and  lost  it  all.     If  he  does  not  get  work 

there,  it  will  be  bad.     Write  us  about  everything Did  you  get 

acquainted  with  somebody  from  Ostrowiec?  If  not,  try  to  do  it.* 
Write  us  whether  you  are  boarding  with  somebody  else  or  cooking 
for  yourself,  and  about  Wacek  also,  whether  you  both  are  not  home- 
sick. For  while  you  have  been  away  from  home  for  a  long  time  [she 
was  first  in  Russia],  Waclaw  left  the  home  for  the  first  time  so  we 
don't  know  how  he  feels.  [News  about  the  factory  in  which  the 
father  is  working.]  Janek  [brother]  has  left  that  girl  in  Kunow,  for 
she  wanted  him  to  rent  an  apartment  for  her  in  Ostrowiec  and  to 
furnish  it,  while  he  wanted  to  go  to  her  [to  live  in  her  parents'  house] 
for  some  time,  until  they  earn  and  put  aside  more  money.  As  he 
had  not  money  enough  [for  the  apartment],  they  separated.^  [Politics; 
calls  for  military  service;  condemnations  of  political  offenders.] 
There  is  no  more  news,  but  you  must  describe  your  journey,  what 
they  gave  you  to  eat  upon  the  ship,  how  much  money  you  spent,  and 

everything Write  us  regularly,  a  letter  every  two  weeks 

Your  Parents  and  Everybody  from  Home 

2^5  February  26,  19 13 

Dear  Children:  ....  We  are  curious  how  you  look  now, 
Stasia.  We  imagine  that  you  must  look  very  bad,  because  you  grieve 
[are  homesick].  But  nothing  can  be  done,  it  must  be  so  for  some 
time.     Antek  K.  went  to  America.     He  did  not  wish  to  go  to  the 

'  The  childish  idea  of  the  president's  influence  upon  social  and  economic  life 
is  evidently  the  result  of  two  factors-familiarity  with  the  idea  of  absolutism  and 
the  enormous  agitation  which  precedes  the  presidential  election. 

^  Parents  are  always  glad  when  their  children  find  in  America  people  of  their 
own  village  or  neighborhood.  There  is  thus  maintained  some  semblance  of  com- 
munity interest,  oversight,  and  mutual  aid. 

3  The  reason  seems  trifling.  Among  peasants  where  the  question  of  an  inde- 
pendent home  is  connected  with  the  question  of  a  farm,  such  an  attjlude  would 
be  justifiable,  and  even  then  a  girl  would  hardly  object  to  her  husinincl  s  hvmg  for 
some  time  with  her  parents.  Here  the  evident  motive  is  vanity-a  vamty  of  the 
type  which  develops  in  towns. 


58j  primary-group  organization 

army,  he  preferred  America.     He  took  your  address You 

cannot  imagine  how  many  people  go  to  America.  Soon  very  few 
will  remain  in  our  country.  We  are  curious  whether  Michalowski 
sent  some  money  to  his  wife.  Write  us  exactly  about  everything, 
how  you  like  it  in  America.  How  does  the  food  taste  to  you,  for 
we  hear  that  the  cooking  is  different  there  ?  Write  us  whetlier  you 
did  not  meet  somebody  else  of  your  acquaintance.  Perhaps  you 
feel  belter  now  than  in  the  beginning.  Did  you  dance  during  the 
last  days  of  carnival?  For  Rem.  wrote  that  he  danced  so  much  as 
to  lose  his  heels.  My  dear  Stasia,  when  you  write  a  letter,  write  it 
in  the  presence  of  Wacek,  that  he  may  dictate  a  few  words  in  his 
own  name,  for  it  is  so  painful  for  us — as  if  he  were  not  there.     We 

know  nothing  about  him And  yourself,  you  write  such  short 

letters,  there  is  nothing  to  read,  although  you  are  in  such  a  distant 

country Now  we  inform  you  about  this  lawsuit.     The  lawyers 

assure  us  that  we  shall  win.     We  have  asked  two  and  they  both 

^^^  ^^ Your  Parents  and  Everybody  from  Home 

276  April  22,  1913 

Dear  Children:  ....  Our  lawsuit  about  Kujawy  will  be 
judged  on  May  5.  As  soon  as  it  is  over  we  will  write  you  at  once- 
And  we  beg  you,  in  the  case  we  need  money  to  pay  this  farmer's  part, 
send  us  as  much  as  you  have.  Ask  even  Michalowski  to  give  you 
those  100  roubles  back.  We  expect  that  if  we  win  in  Radom  he  will 
appeal  to  Warsaw.     Then  we  should  not  need  the  money  so  soon. 

But  perhaps  he  won't  be  able  to  appeal You  need  not  be 

afraid  about  your  money,  for  it  would  not  be  lost  if  mortgaged  upon 
the  farm.  Of  the  100  roubles  which  Waclaw  left  we  spent  50  on  this 
lawsuit,  but  we  keep  a  pig  which  we  bought  for  7^  roubles  after  Christ- 
mas. Now  we  could  get  more  than  30  for  it.  So  if  we  don't  win, 
we  shall  sell  the  pig  and  put  the  money  in  the  bank'  [to  Waclaw's 
account].     [News  about  friends,  etc.] 

Your  Parents  and  Everybody  from  Home 

277  Dyminy,  August  22,  1913 

Dear  Stachna  [Stasia]:  I  read  your  letter  to  Edzio.  The  con- 
tent of  the  letter  touched  us  very  much.  It  is  true  that  you  have 
been  courageous  in  going  so  far.     This  only  is  happy,  that  you  suc- 

'  In  these  money  matters  the  attitude  of  the  parents  is  typically  peasant. 


TOPOLSKI  SERIES  583 

ceeded  in  persuading  Waclaw  [to  go  with  you].  Probably  your 
time  passes  more  pleasantly  together.  Are  you  healthy  at  least? 
I  really  cannot  imagine  that  you  are  there  at  the  other  end  of 
the  world;  I  should  not  muster  courage  enough  to  do  it.  I  admire 
you 

God,  0  my  God!  What  does  destiny  do  with  man!  He  finds 
himself  suddenly  there  beyond  the  sea.  Man  is  like  a  ball.  I  feel 
this  all,  I  have  experienced  it  myself  to  some  extent,  this  working 
for  a  piece  of  bread,  ....  but  I  should  not  have  equaled  your  bold- 
ness in  leaving  your  country  and  your  native  home.^    I  imagine  your 

fear,  your  regret,  your  fears!     My  dear,  God  has  seen  all  this 

The  Highest  Creator  will  reward  you,  since  he  has  tried  you  thus. 
The  confidence  in  God's  mercy  never  deceives  anybody.  Perhaps 
God  will  grant  you  some  good  lot  in  reward  for  that  trouble  and 
labor  which  you  have  borne  up  to  the  present.^  O  God!  don't 
fail  to  come  with  help  to  them.  From  my  poor  side,  I  wish  you 
to  come  back  happy  and  to  reach  the  end  for  which  you  left  your 
home,  and  may  the  presence  of  the  Highest  always  be  a  witness  of 
your  lot. 

You  ask  about  my  children.  [Information  about  children.]  Jozia 
[Stasia's  sister]  was  here  not  long  ago  and  mentioned  that  you  dissuaded 
her  from  marrying  a  widower.  But  I  understand  her  very  well.  He 
is  an  honest  and  laborious  man,  and  the  children  don't  play  any  part. 
The  boy  is  5  years  old  and  can  even  be  useful,  while  both  the  girls  are 
kept  by  their  grandmother.  The  girl  [Jozia]  is  not  in  her  first  youth. 
Moreover,  he  liked  her  [fell  in  love  with  her].^  I  advised  her  to  marry 
him.  I  told  her  that  if  she  is  good  she  will  be  happy  [of]  herself. 
Have  you  no  opportunity  [to  marry]  there?  I  advise  you  also  to 
marry,  not  to  wait  and  not  to  select,  for  this  is  the  worst.  As  long 
as  you  are  in  good  health  all  is  well.  I  notice  it  in  myself.  Evidently 
it  is  easier  to  hold  out  someone's  else  back  [to  be  beaten]  than  ot'c'^ 

I  The  difference  between  the  older  and  younger  generations  is  here  clearly 
expressed.  Indeed,  the  emigration  of  women  (not  going  to  their  husbands)  is  a 
comparatively  recent  phenomenon. 

»  The  suffering  as  such  is  here  considered  as  a  sufficient  claim  on  God's  reward 
although  no  one  obliged  the  girl  to  go  to  America. 

3  It  is  characteristic  that  the  usual  term  still  used  in  the  country  for  love  before 
marriage  (love  without  either  sexual  relation  or  marriage-lic)  is  "liking,"  not 
"lovmg,"  while  between  parents  and  children  or  brothers  and  sisters  the  term 
"loving"  is  current. 


;S4  rRIMARV-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

own.     But  I  shall  wait  soon  for  news  about  your  marriage.'     It  is  lo 
be  hopcil  that  such  a  girl  as  you  are  should  not  waste  her  tim-: 

[Your  Aunt]  G. 


278  OsTROWiEC,  February  9,  19 14 

Dear  Stasia:  We  received  your  letter  on  Feb.  i,  and  Waclaw 
came  back  on  Feb.  3.    He  came  in  good  health,  had  no  accident.     The 

crossing  of  the  frontier  cost  him  4  roubles He  says  that  he  is 

bored  here,  he  regrets  that  he  came  back.  As  to  the  work,  we  don't 
know  yet— for  he  has  not  yet  asked  anybody — whether  he  wall  get  any 

or  not Your  father  keeps  wxll,  but  he  could  not  be  a  shooter 

anymore,  for  he  does  not  see  well.  When  he  comes  back  from  the 
factory  he  often  falls  or  jostles  people.  In  Ostrowiec  it  is  as  warm  as 
in  summer.  If  we  were  in  Kujawy,  we  should  think  about  sowing, 
while  as  it  is  probably  that  farmer  will  sow  for  us.  We  are  tired 
with  waiting.  It  seems  to  us  as  if  there  were  10  years  left  until  the 
end  of  this  suit.  But  what  can  we  do  ?  When  w^e  were  the  plaintiffs 
the  suit  was  soon  decided,  but  now  he  is  the  plaintiff,  and  we  can  do 

nothing Wacek  asks  you  to  thank  the  agent  who  said  that 

he  would  go  6  days  [by  sea],  while  he  went  10.  He  regrets  now  that 
he  came  and  says  that  in  the  spring  he  will  go  back.  That  would 
be  a  trouble  for  us,  if  he  went  back,  took  the  money,  and  we  should 
have  nothing  to  pay  for  Kujawy.  Nobody  feels  it  as  much  as  I  do 
[the  mother],  for  I  should  like  to  get  there  as  soon  as  possible,  while 

it  lasts  so  long 

Your  Parents 

279  May  21  [1914] 

Dear  Stasia:  You  know  that  you  worry  me  now  in  writing  that 
wc  nave  forgotten  about  you.  Why,  we  sent  tw^o  postcards  and  two 
letters  after  Easter.  And  now  I  am  obliged  to  send  you  a  letter 
without  a  stamp,  for  evidently  you  gave  a  bad  address.  You  may 
know  that  there  is  not  an  hour  during  the  day  without  my  thinking  of 

»  The  aunt  and  the  parents  retain  the  traditional  attitude  as  to  the  necessity  of 
marrying,  but  the  aunt  cares  less  than  the  parents  whether  the  girl  makes  a  good 
match.     Cf.  Noi.  279,  280. 


TOPOLSKI  SERIES  585 

you.  But  since  you  moved  to  another  lodging  evidently  the  address 
is  bad.  And  instead  of  my  writing  reproaches  to  her,  she  writes  to  us! 
Instead  of  describing  at  length  how  she  succeeds  there,  she  sends  a 
postcard,  neither  this  nor  that  [without  determined  news].  Write 
us  about  this  bachelor,  whence  is  he,  what  is  his  name?  Is  it  the 
same,  from  the  province  of  Lublin,  about  whom  you  wrote,  or 
another?  But,  my  dear,  you  write  that  he  has  neither  money  nor 
work.  Well,  if  you  get  married  in  America,  you  should  at  least  make 
a  career  [marry  well],  or  else  you  will  both  suffer  misery.  My  Stasia, 
be  careful  about  yourself  and  don't  stain  yourself  again  [?].'  As 
long  as  Wacek  was  there,  I  was  not  so  anxious,  while  now  I  fear  more 
about  you.  Write  us  whether  you  have  seen  Michalowski,  for  his 
wife  was  with  us  when  we  wrote  this  letter  and  said  that  she  knew 
everything  about  him  from  Staszewski,  who  had  lived  with  him.  He 
sent  100  roubles  for  her,  but  has  not  yet  given  the  debt  back  to 

Wacek 

[Your  Mother  and]  Everybody  from  Home 

280  July  12  [19 14] 

Dear  Stasia:  We  received  your  letter  ....  with  the  photo- 
graph, but  instead  of  getting  comfort,  we  wept,  for  probably  you 
won't  come  back  if  you  marry  there.  You  wrote  here  once  about  that 
bachelor,  that  he  would  not  come  back,  so  we  don't  know  whether  it 
is  the  same  or  another.  For  your  mother  and  father  it  is  very  painful, 
for  they  won't  remain  long  upon  this  world.  But  what  can  be  done  ? 
If  you  cannot  do  otherwise,  we  don't  bind  you  lest  you  should  com- 
plam  about  us  later  on."  You  write  us  nothing  about  him;  we  don't 
know  whence  he  is  and  what  is  his  name,  whether  he  is  some  skilled 
workman,  whether  he  has  some  money.  For  when  two  poor  people 
come  together,  it  is  not  very  good.  And  he  is  prol)ably  old,  for 
indeed  everybody  says  that  he  looks  [on  the  photograph]  as  if  he  were 

•  In  the  original  it  is  not  clear  whether  the  word  zn6w  (again)  has  the 
meaning,  "for  the  second  time,"  or  is  used  as  a  particle  strengthening  the  advice. 

^  The  parents  are  evidently  opposed  to  this  marriage,  but  they  do  not  dare  to 
urge  their  opposition,  (i)  because  a  poor  marriage  is  better  than  none;  (2)  because 
they  are  afraid  of  a  complaint  from  their  daughter  (equivalent  to  a  curse)  if  slie 
should  remain  an  old  maid  through  their  interference;  and  (3)  because  the  girl 
is  already  partially  independent. 


S.so  rRI.MARV-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

more  than  forty  aiul  as  if  he  had  gray  hair.  He  must  not  have  been 
for  a  long  time  in  America,  for  he  wears  whiskers  not  in  the  American 
fashion,  cut  and  fixed,  but  hanging  down  in  disorder.  But  if  he  is  an 
honest  and  good  man,  don't  mind  anything.     For  us  it  matters  onlv 

that  we  might  see  you  some  day 

Wo  kiss  you  a  thousand  times.  We  hope  that  you  will  send  us 
a  k'llcr  before  your  wedding.  Don't  give  him  this  letter  to  read, 
lest  he  be  offended. 

YoiiR  Family 


S^KOWSKI  SERIES 

Up  to  the  present  we  have  had  to  do  with  famihes  of 
peasant  farmers.  Here  we  find  a  family  of  manor-employees. 
Jan  S^kowski,  the  father,  is  probably  a  farm-clerk  or  a  land- 
steward.  He  has  some  education.  His  letters  are  written  in 
rather  good  Polish.  The  other  letters  of  the  family  are  on 
the  average  not  above  the  usual  level  of  peasant  letters.  But 
a  letter  which  Mania  wrote  to  us  in  sending  the  letters 
shows  an  astonishing  progress  made  during  her  four  years  in 
America.  Perhaps  it  is  due  to  her  husband's  influence. 
She  is  one  of  the  few  of  our  peasant  correspondents  showing 
an  interest  in  our  work. 

The  manor-life  develops  features  which  differ  to  some 
extent  from  those  of  the  peasant  farmers.  The  series  there- 
fore assumes  a  particular  importance.  There  are  over  two 
million  manor-servants  (famihes  included)  in  Poland.  The 
main  bulk  of  them  are  the  so-called  parobeks,  i.e. ,  those  who  do 
physical  farm- work  (plowing,  sowing,  harvestirg,  threshing, 
driving, etc.).  Then  come  the  cattle-, pig-, and  sheep-herders, 
forest-guards,  watchmen,  etc.;  then  handworkers  (black- 
smiths, carpenters,  gardeners,  millers) ,  then  private  serwants 
(butlers,  cooks,  maids,  grooms,  laundresses,  coachmen), 
and  finally  the  "  officials "  (overseers,  clerks,  stewards, 
cashiers,  managers,  distillers,  head  foresters).  A  rather 
small  estate  has  thirty  to  forty  servants,  most  of  thcni 
married;  a  relatively  large  estate,  of  some  seven  or  eight 
thousand  acres,  has  two  hundred  to  three  hundred  servants; 
but  there  are  estates  which  keep  many  more  ihaii  this, 
although  the  largest  ones,  from  about  twenty  thousand  lo 
three  hundred  thousand  acres  (or  over)  have  partly  the 
tenant  system.     Thus,  the  manorial  organization  exerts  a 

587 


5SS  PRnrARY-CROUP  ORGANIZATION 

innvcrful  inlluciicc  upon  country  life,  and  this  extends 
bcvonti  tlic  sphere  of  the  manor-servants,  because  there  is 
intermarriage  between  them  and  the  farmers,  and  a  ruined 
farmer,  or  his  children,  frequently  goes  into  service. 

The  diaracteristics  which  the  life  of  a  manor-employee 
tends  to  develop  are  rather  negative.  The  dependence 
upon  the  manor-owner  is  much  greater  than  that  of  em- 
ployees upon  employer  in  the  city,  because  the  whole  life  of 
the  manor-employee  is  spent  in  the  manor,  and  even  his 
private  life  is  not  completely  his  own.  At  the  same  time, 
we  find  in  addition  to  the  business  relation  a  social  hierarchy 
much  more  rigid  than  in  the  town.  A  higher  employee  in  a 
town  business  may  be  received  in  his  employer's  house,  may 
marry  his  daughter,  may  become  his  equal  if  he  makes 
money;  the  manor-official  is  once  and  forever  outside  of 
the  social  sphere  of  his  noble  employer — unless,  of  course, 
he  is  a  ruined  noble  himself,  or  his  employer's  relative. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  manor-official  tends  to  keep  between 
himself  and  the  physically  working  servants  the  same  dis- 
tance as  that  which  separates  him  from  his  employer. 
In  this  way  the  system  always  keeps  alive  the  idea  that 
social  hierarchy  is  something  absolute.  In  accordance  with 
this  idea,  humility  toward  the  superior  and  arrogance 
toward  the  inferior  appear  quite  natural;  no  moral  con- 
demnation of  any  kind  is  attached  to  them. 

Moreover,  while  we  have  distinguished  only  three  degrees 
in  this  hierarchy— the  employer,  the  official,  the  servant — 
there  are  in  fact  many  more.  On  a  large  estate  there  is  a 
continuous  gradation  from  the  head  manager  down  to  the 
unmarried  posylka  (servant  helping  the  parobek)  involving 
sometimes  as  many  as  six  or  seven  degrees  of  social  (not 
merely  business)  hierarchy.  On  the  other  hand,  on  a 
very  small  estate  the  distinctions  between  employees  may 
be  rather  small,  as  the  highest  type  of  employee  may  be  an 


Sl^KOWSKI  SERIES  589 

overseer  or  clerk.  This  is  S^kowski's  position.  It  is  easy 
to  understand  how  many  insignificant  interests,  petty 
vanities,  and  ridiculous  fights  result  from  this  system. 

x\nother  feature,  still  more  negative,  whith  manorial  life 
tends  to  develop,  is  petty  dishonesty.  The  control  of  the 
employees  in  a  manor  is  particularly  difficult  because  of  the 
complexity  of  the  functions,  the  difficulty  of  introducing  a 
permanent  division  of  labor,  and  a  corresponding  specifica- 
tion of  responsibiUties,  etc.  The  temptation  to  steal  is 
stronger  here  than  anywhere  else,  because  of  the  old  prepos- 
session that  "stealing"  means  stealing  only  money,  cattle, 
horses,  or  manufactured  things,  while  stealing  natural 
products  which  serve  to  maintain  human  or  animal  life  is 
simply  "taking"  and  hardly  reprehensible.  It  becomes 
reprehensible  when  these  products  are  stolen  and  sold,  but 
the  difference  is  easily  overlooked. 

Egotism  is  also  more  easily  developed  in  manorial  life 
than  in  village  life.  The  idea  of  mutual  help  and  of  collabora- 
tion scarcely  exists.  The  manor-servants  look  for  help  to 
the  owner,  not  to  one  another;  there  is  no  mutuality  and  no 
reciprocity,  as  in  help  between  equals.  Instead  of  this, 
another  solidarity  develops— the  complicity  in  laziness 
and  stealing.  Only  during  the  regenerating  movement 
of  the  last  twenty  years  has  the  idea  of  the  solidarity  of 
general  interests  of  manor-servants  as  workers— the  counter- 
part of  the  socialistic  idea— succeeded  in  developing;  and 
it  has  resulted  in  many  successful  strikes,  in  which,  never- 
theless, only  the  lower  workers,  not  the  manor-officials, 
took  part. 

In  familial  relations  the  influence  of  the  manorial  life  is 
also  rather  negative  as  compared  with  that  of  the  village  life. 
There  is  indeed  no  rivalry  and  no  struggle  among  children 
for  inheritance,  but  there  is  also  no  solidarity  resulting 
from  common  interests.     The  father  does  not  look  upon  his 


5CX)  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

children  as  upon  collaborators  and  helpers,  but  as  upon 
a  burden  of  which  he  tries  to  get  rid  as  soon  as  possible  (as 
Sekowski  does)  by  sending  them  away  to  work  on  their 
own  account.  When  the  children  have  left  their  parents' 
home,  nothing  else  keeps  them  together,  and  there  is  no 
tendency  to  return.  As  most  of  the  manor-servants 
wander  from  place  to  place,  there  are  no  stable  associations 
with  a  determined  iocahty.  The  egotism  and  hardness  of 
the  parents  in  village  life  are  tempered  by  the  idea  that 
their  children  will  inherit  the  farm  upon  which  they  have 
worked  during  their  whole  life,  and  will  continue  their 
work;  the  sphere  of  interest  includes  the  future  genera- 
tions. In  manorial  life  the  only  interest  which  makes  the 
parents  care  for  the  future  of  their  children  is  the  hope 
that  one  of  the  children  will  take  them  when  they  are 
unable  to  work. 

THE  FAMILY  SEKOWSKI 

Jan  Sekowski,  a  manor-employee 

His  wife 

Adam  (Adas)         1 

Tadeusz  (Tadzio)  / 

Kazia  1 

Mania  (Maryanna)  [  his  daughters 

Leosia  (Leokadya)   J 

Frania  (Franka),  Adam's  wife 

Teodor  Kacperski,  Kazia's  husband 

Janek,  Mania's  husband 

Zytniewski  and  wife,  S^kowski's  parents-in-law 

Manka,  their  granddaughter 

Staska,  niece  of  Sgkowski's  wife 

"The  aunt,"  Staska's  mother 

Walenty,  the  aunt's  second  husband 


S^KOWSKI  SERIES  59 1 

281-95,    LETTERS   FROM   THE  S^KOWSKI  FAMILY,  IN  POLAND, 
TO  FAMILY-MEMBERS  IN  AMERICA 

281  Lazy,  December  5,  1909 

Dear  Husband:  I  inform  you  that  we  are  in  good  health,  and 
we  wish  to  you  also  the  best  health  and  success  from  our  Lord  God. 
Dear  husband,  the  third  star'  [Christmas]  approaches  already  since 
you  have  been  far  away  from  us  in  that  foreign  country.  Dear 
husband,  there  is  no  more  painful  moment  for  me  than  when  I  remem- 
ber that  you  are  there  far  away  and  quite  alone.  So  we  send  you  a 
star  and  at  the  same  time  I  divide  a  wafer''  with  you.  Dear  husband, 
as  to  our  coming,  you  must  know  first  whether  we  have  good  eyes. 
Dear  husband,  so  we  shall  go  to  to  Poznaii,  when  we  shall  know  cer- 
tainly that  we  are  going.  Dear  husband,  I  beg  you  in  the  name  of 
everything  in  the  world,  don't  change  your  word.  For  I  won't  write 
you  [ask  you]  any  more  about  it,  because  you  wrote  [as  if  reproaching] 
that  I  wanted  absolutely  to  come  to  America.  Dear  husband,  it  is 
true,  but  don't  be  afraid  [of  my  coming,  for  I  will  be  a  good  wife]. 
For  I  know  what  [a  life]  I  had  when  you  were  at  home,  how  you  always 
made  my  heart  joyful.  Dear  husband,  I  did  not  know  at  all  how  to 
respect  [appreciate]  you.^     But  now,  dear,  and  only  now,  I  know 

'  The  word  is  used  in  connection  with  Christmas  ceremonies  to  indicate  (i)  the 
first  star  on  Christmas  eve,  with  the  appearance  of  which  the  supper,  the  most 
important  ceremony,  begins;  (2)  the  Christmas  celebration  in  general;  (3)  the 
Christmas  gifts;  (4)  stars  cut  out  of  paper,  wafers,  etc.,  hung  upon  the  Christmas 
tree  or  sent  in  letters  as  Christmas  tokens;  (5)  a  transparent  and  illuminated  star 
of  paper  or  glass  with  which  boys  walk  about  the  village  on  Christmas  night, 
singing,  offering  wishes,  asking  for  gifts. 

^  The  consecrated  wafer  plays  an  important,  partly  magical,  role.  It  is  con- 
secrated before  Christmas  and  during  the  eve  supper  the  members  of  the  family 
divide  a  part  of  it  among  themselves  and,  while  eating,  express  wishes,  evidL-nlly 
with  a  half-conscious  idea  of  a  power  inherent  in  the  wafer  to  fulfil  wishes,  and  with 
the  conscious  idea  of  communion.  The  rest  is  kept  and  used  during  the  year,  more 
or  less  with  the  idea  of  its  healmg  properties;  powders  are  preferably  taken  in 
connection  with  it.     Preparing  and  selling  wafers  is  the  privilege  of  organists. 

3  We  have  seen  (Introduction:  "Marriage")  that  "respect"  is  the  fundamental 
norm  of  conjugal  relations.  The  love  included  within  the  norm  of  respect  is  not 
romantic  or  sensual  love.  Sensual  love  as  such  is  clearly  outside  of  the  idea  of 
normal,  that  is,  perfect  conjugal  relations.  And  while  it  exists  in  young  marriages, 
it  is  not  to  be  spoken  of;  it  is  considered  as  being  something  indecent.  There  is, 
for  example,  a  letter  from  a  peasant  in  the  newspaper  Zaranic  describing  iiow  a 
priest  in  his  wedding-address  condemned  sensual  abuses,  but  spoke  of  them  so 


50J  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

liow  necessary  it  is  to  respect  the  husband,  as  the  conjugal  duly 
orders. 

Dear  huslxmd,  I  inform  you  also  about  our  daughter,  how  intelli- 
gent she  is.  When  I  ask  her,  "  What  will  father  buy  you  ?  "  she  says, 
"Shoes."     She  says,  "Dear  papa,  Mania  will  go  to  papa." 

I  wish  you  health  and  happiness  for  your  name-day,  dear  Adas. 

Mania  [sister]  begs  you  to  find  a  nice  boy  for  her.'  But  she  begs 
\-ou  not  to  write  about  it,  for  father  reads  every  letter.  WTien  we 
come  to  you  we  shall  speak  of  it.  I  greet  you  kindly  and  heartily,  and 
goodbye.  Your  loving  wife  and  daughter, 

[Frania] 

282  February  i  [1910] 

De.\r  Brother:  I  have  a  little  wish  [request]  for  you.  You 
wrote  before  that  you  would  send  ship-tickets  for  Frania  and  for  me, 
and  that  we  should  go  together  to  America,  and  now  you  sent  us  such 


realistically  as  to  make  his  hearers  indignant.  This  is  the  reason  we  so  seldom 
find  expressions  of  love  in  conjugal  letters,  particularly  if  these  are  dictated.  In 
one  letter  from  America  (Strucinski  series)  a  husband  makes  to  his  wife  some 
sensual  allusions  but  immediately  begs  her  pardon. 

The  best  illustration  of  the  antithesis  of  conjugal  feelings  within  the  norm  of 
respect  and  outside  of  this  norm  is  afforded  by  the  practice  of  beating.  Beating 
one's  wife  is  evidently  among  the  worst  actions  from  the  standpoint  of  the  norm 
of  respect.  But  between  young  people  it  harmonizes  perfectly  \vith  love.  A  young 
woman  often  likes  to  be  beaten,  particularly  when  the  husband  beats  her  because 
he  is  jealous,  because  the  wife  is  not  demonstrative  enough,  or  refuses  marital  rela- 
tions. Beating  is  then  considered  a  proof  of  love;  a  woman  considers  herself 
wronged,  not  loved,  when  the  husband  never  beats  her.  Women  speak  with 
pride  of  being  beaten,  and  are  unhappy  because  of  the  indifference  of  husbands 
who  do  not  beat  them.  Any  interference  in  these  cases  ends  badly  for  the  inter- 
fering person,  who  may  be  beaten  by  man  and  wife  together.  Evidently,  such  an 
attitude  toward  beating  is  to  be  understood  only  upon  the  sexual  basis.  The  atti- 
tude is  quite  the  contrary  when  the  pair  (or  the  husband)  is  old,  when  the  reason 
of  beating  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  reciprocal  relations  of  man  and  wife,  as, 
for  example,  when  the  man  beats  his  wife  in  some  quarrel  about  money  or  about 
the  children. 

'  There  is  a  general  and  justified  opinion  among  Polish  girls  that  it  is  very  easy 
to  get  married  in  America  and  that  the  Polish-American  husbands  are  better. 
This  explains  partly  the  fact  that  girls  are  willing  to  go  to  an  unknown  man  who  asks 
them  in  marriage  (cf.  the  case  of  Staska  in  this  series),  and  in  general  that  they 
risk  going  alone  to  America  while  they  are  often  afraid  to  go  alone  to  the  nearest 
town  in  their  own  country. 


S^KOWSKI  SERIES  593 

a  hopeless  letter.     So  I  beg  you,  dear  brother,  if  now  it  is  difficult  for 

you,  then  do  it  a  little  later,  in  the  beginning  or  in  the  end  of  May 

Why,  I  will  pay  you  back  as  soon  as  I  earn,  if  I  only  come  happily 
there.     I  have  learned  sewing  and  in  any  case  I  can  do  other  work 

also I  should  like  to  earn  a  Httle  more,  for  here  I  shan't 

earn  anything,  even  if  I  go  to  Prussia.  And  in  Prussia  one  must  also 
work,  perhaps  worse  than  in  America.  Only,  dear  brother,  if  I 
could  go  together  with  Frania !    It  would  be  better  also  for  her  during 

the  journey,  and  afterward  we  could  work  together 

Your  sister, 
Maryanna  [Mania]  S^kowska 

283  February  17,  1910 

Deap  Son:  I  received  your  last  letter.  I  am  very  much  pained 
that  you  have  such  bad  luck,  while  others,  impotent  and  lazy  fellows, 
earn  nice  money.  But  nothing  can  be  done.  You  ought  not  to  lose 
hope  and  courage.  Where  fear  is  the  greatest  God's  help  is  the 
nearest.  Who  perseveres  to  the  end  will  be  saved,  only  patience 
and  perseverance  are  needed.  You  know  that  I  also  had  often  hard 
and  painful  times,  but  I  suffered  and  only  asked  God  for  any  imjjrove- 
ment  of  my  lot.  And  our  Lord  God  helps  willingly,  if  that  improve- 
ment is  really  necessary,  for  everything  is  good,  whatever  God  does. 
And  therefore  at  the  end  of  such  a  prayer  one  must  say:  "Not  mine, 
but  Thy  will,  O  God,  be  done." 

You  say  that  the  hernia  pains  you.  Probably  you  do  not  always 
wear  the  belt.  I  got  it  also,  for  during  the  digging  of  potatoes  I 
had  to  put  them  into  the  cart  ....  but  as  soon  as  I  noticed  it,  I 

went  to  Poznan  and  bought  a  belt  and  now  I  feel  very  well 

Evidently,  if  you  wish  absolutely  to  come  home,  I  have  nothing  against 
it,' but  is  it  not  a  pity  to  spend  more  than  100  rouJjles  upon  the  journey, 
when  you  have  no  money  ?  And  then,  what  will  you  do,  go  to  Prussia 
[for  season-work]  ?^    Don't  trouble  yourself  about  Franka.     If  she  is 

'  The  unwillingness  to  have  his  son  back  and  perhaps  a  burden  to  himself  is  in 
interesting  contrast  with  the  attitude  of  any  farmer,  who  at  the  worst  asks  liis  son 
to  wait  until  he  has  earned  some  money,  but  always  wants  him  to  return  ulUmatcly. 
Cf.  Markiewicz  series,  Osihski  series,  etc. 

=  The  practice  of  going  to  Prussia,  although  very  much  cleveloped,  is  not  looked 
upon  as  desirable  in  itself,  only  as  a  necessity.  It  is  considered  well  for  a  boy  or  a 
girl  to  go  for  two  or  three  years,  get  together  a  dowry,  and  become  a  little  acquainted 
with  the  wide  world,  but  those  who  make  their  living  in  this  way  are  rather  despised. 


504  rRl.MARV-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

lircd  with  staying  in  our  home  she  may  go  to  service/  and  everywhere 
it  will  be  well.     Thus  she  ought  not  to  dream  about  America,  but  she 

will  go  to  Prussia.     And  then  you  can  write  to  each  other 

We  all  greet  you  most  kindly.  your  father 

J.    S^KOWSKI 

284  March  18,  1910 

De.ar  Son:  We  all  at  home  wept  about  your  misfortune,  and  we 
try  to  find  some  way  to  improve  your  lot,  but  we  are  unable  to  do 
anything.  God  alone  is  left  to  you,  and  He  will  help  you  without 
doubt,  only  you  must  pray  warmly  to  Him.  But  at  the  same  time 
don't  let  your  hands  fall,  try  in  every  way.  Sometimes  it  is  even 
necessary  to  humiliate  one's  self  deeply,  but  one  must  not  mind 
it '  May  God  help  you.  your  father, 

J.    S^KOWSKI 

285  March  18,  1910 

Dear  Husband:  I  inform  you  about  our  health,  that  we  are  in 
good  health,  only  for  me  there  is  no  greater  pain  of  the  heart  than  that 
God  has  sent  you  such  a  sickness  in  that  foreign  country.  Dear 
husband,  what  may  not  happen  with  you  there  when  you  are  so 
severely  sick!  Who  takes  care  of  you  in  this  sickness?  My  heart 
cannot  bear  any  longer  this  grief  about  your  misfortune!  What 
conditions  do  you  have  there,  in  that  America?  Dear  husband, 
if  God  grants  you  to  recover,  and  if  you  see  that  the  conditions  are 
bad  in  that  America,  come  home!  I  wdll  go  again  to  season-work. 
Dear  husband,  I  beg  you,  if  God  still  gives  you  health,  write  to  me 
and  describe  to  me  everything  about  your  illness.  If  this  letter 
[finds]  you  still  alive!  For  I  think  that  you  are  no  more  alive.  Dear 
husband!  How  I  wanted  to  see  you  once  more  before  your  death! 
lor  you  know  how  I  have  loved  you,  and  I  never  have  lost  hope  in 
God,  and  even  now  I  don't  lose  it  totally.     Perhaps  our  Lord  God 

'A  farmer  would  never  allow  his  daughter-in-law  to  go  into  service;  he 
would  consider  it  derogatory  to  his  son  and  himself. 

'  This  is  the  phrase  to  which  the  writer's  daughter  Kazia  Kacperska  alludes 
when  she  says  that  "father  told  Adam  to  beg."  In  fact,  this  is  an  advice  which  a 
farmer  would  hardly  give  his  son,  while  it  shows  that  the  writer's  attitude  in  these 
matters  is  influenced  by  his  servile  position. 


S^KOWSKI  SERIES  595 

will  still  give  you  health!  Only  I  am  very  anxious  because  of  my 
dreams,  for  I  had  them  very  bad.  Dear  husband,  if  you  live  still, 
answer  me  as  soon  as  possible,  for  my  heart  will  be  grieved  until 
I  receive  news  that  you  live  still.  Dear  husband,  I  should  prefer  to 
die  rather  than  you  should  die.  For  what  should  I  do  if  you  were  to 
die?'  I  put  all  my  hope  in  you!  Dear  husband,  I  am  even  unable 
to  describe  this  pain  which  I  have  upon  my  heart.  But  never  mind 
for  myself — but  the  child!  If  you  knew  how  she  rejoiced  that  she 
would  go  to  you!  These  last  days  she  continually  pointed  at  you[r 
photograph],  saying,  "This  is  my  papa,  and  this  [the  old  S^kowski]  is 
papa's  papa."  And  she  was  so  glad  that  she  would  go  to  her  papa! 
And  she  loved  [caressed?]  you  so,  as  if  someone  had  ordered  her.^ 
But  we  did  not  tell  her  at  all;  she  did  it  of  herself.  And  all  this  was 
for  this  pain  and  grief!  When  we  tell  her  that  her  father  is  sick  and 
mother  will  go  to  Prussia,  she  says,  "Mama  won't  go  Prussia,  but 
will  go  with  Mania  to  papa."  If  she  sees  that  I  am  weeping  she 
begins  to  cry  and  does  not  allow  me  to  weep.  Dear  husband,  I  greet 
you  kindly  and  heartily. 

Your  Loving  Wife  and  Your  Daughter 

I  commend  you  to  our  Lord  God  and  I  pray  to  our  Lord  God 
that  He  may  give  you  health  and  that  we  may  see  one  another. 
And  if  not  upon  this  world,  may  we  merit  to  see  one  another  in  the 
other  world. 

286  December  13,  1910^ 

Dear  Sister  Mania:  .  .  .  •  Tadzio  is  very  glad  that  you  will 
send  him  money  for  a  new  suit.  He  knows  already  how  to  read 
and  to  write  a  little,  and  now  he  says  that  he  will  learn  still  better. 
....  We  have   now   two  boarders,   both  from   Prussia.     One   of 

'  This  letter  shows  traces  of  tears  and  is  perhaps  the  strongest  expression  of 
conjugal  love  in  our  collection.  The  traditional  form  of  conjugal  relation,  as  a 
mere  familial  relation,  here  breaks  down  completely;  the  married  couple  becomes 
a  unique,  almost  isolated,  social  group.  We  shall  follow  later  the  same  process 
in  detail  in  other  series.  Here  the  conjugal  relation  is  more  easily  liberated  from 
the  familial  ties  because  in  manorial  life  those  ties  themselves  are  not  very  strong. 

^The  word  "loving"  for  "caressing"  is  very  often  used;  the  peasants  are 
indeed  little  inclined  to  caress,  and  a  caress  is  always  the  expression  of  a  strong 
feeling. 

3  One  letter  preceding  this  one  is  omitted.  It  contains  Jan's  enunu-ralion  of 
the  expenses  of  the  journey  of  Mania  and  Frania  to  America. 


3(^(,  PRIM ARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

thorn  ....  speaks  Polish,  but  tlie  other  does  not.  They  arc  the 
kind  of  cn2;incors  who  put  water-pipes  in  the  manor.  Both  are  still 
unmarried.  We  killed  a  pig  not  long  ago,  and  I  went  to  Kazia  to 
take  her  some  [meat].     I  was  there  for  a  week,  and  Kazia  made 

a  skirt  for  me  and  for  mother  a [illegible  word]  which  I  brought 

home.     I  had  put  some  money  aside  for  this  journey,  for  I  sweep 

the    room    of    these    gentlemen Your    hen    is    dead.  .... 

Tereska's  man  has  been  taken  to  the  army,  and  her  sister  has  a 
child  [illegal].  Jozef  went  to  America,  and  Zoska  will  also  go  before 
summer,  for  she  was  his  girl.     Kazimierz  [Mania's  sweetheart]  is 

not  taken  to  the  army He  neither  walks  nor  speaks  with  any 

girl,only  is  always  very  pensive Dear  Mania,  mother  is  now  so 

feeble  and  tired  that  she  cannot  work.  As  long  as  I  am  at  home  I 
do  everything,  but  father  talks  already  about  my  going  to  [season-] 
work.     Could  you  write  that  I  should  not  go,  for  I  don't  mind  anything 

except  mother.^     Mother  longs  also  for  you 

Your  sister, 

Leokadya  S^kowska 

287  March  20,  191 2 

Dear  Children:  ....  Yesterday  we  had  St.  Joseph's  holiday. 
In  the  afternoon  we  were  with  Tadeusz  in  Zagorow,  for  mother 
ordered  a  suit  for  him  there,  for  6  roubles.  It  will  be  ready  for  Sunday. 
We  have  now  such  nice  and  warm  days;  the  pig  is  well  fattened. 
He  will  be  killed  as  soon  as  Kazia  comes  to  help  mother  work.  May 
God  grant,  dear  children,  your  wishes  to  be  fulfilled,  that  you  may 
be  able  to  take  us  some  day  to  you,  for  here  one  cannot  count  for 
anything.  As  long  as  I  can  run  [work]  well  they  keep  me,  but  when 
I  get  older,  they  will  do  the  same  with  me  as  they  did  with  Mr.  R.^ 

'  The  situation  shows  once  more  the  father's  egotism  and  avarice;  this  attempt 
to  drive  the  last  daughter  from  the  home  while  the  mother  needs  her  help  could  only 
exceptionally  occur  in  a  farmer's  family. 

^  This  insecurity  of  the  manor-servant's  position  justifies  to  some  extent  his 
faults.  It  had  been  always  the  custom  to  support  old  manor-servants  when  they 
had  served  long  in  the  same  manor,  but  in  later  times  changing  of  place  has  become 
more  and  more  usual.  Ten  years  ago  an  association  was  organized  for  the  pension- 
ing of  the  old  manor-servants.  A  manor-servant  can  hardly  put  aside  money 
enough  from  his  salary  to  keep  him  in  his  old  age.  The  only  way  to  amass  some 
capital  is  the  illicit  one,  and  there  are  indeed  many  manor-servants  who  have 
bought  nice  farms  and  houses  in  small  towns.  S^kowski  evidently  has  money, 
although  he  does  not  acknowledge  it. 


S^KOWSKI  SERIES  597 

If  the  Zytniewskis  [wife's  parents]  come  we  shall  be  almost  obliged  to 
support  them.  Then  I  should  like  your  mother  and  Tadeusz  to  go 
to  you,  and  I  should  still  remain  for  some  time  with  the  grandparents, 

and  grandmother  would  keep  my  house I  will  tell  Tadeusz 

to  write  you  also  something  in  the  evening,  for  I  have  nothing  more 
to  write.  Only  he  does  not  want  much  to  write,  saying  that  he  has 
enough  of  his  own  writing  [for  the  school]. 

[J.   Sl^KOWSKl] 

288  [March  20,  19 12] 

Dear  Sisters:    I  received  your  card,  for  which  I  thank  you 

heartily,  for  remembering  me And  now  I  beg  you,  economize 

as  much  money  as  possible,  that  I  may  come  some  day  to  you  with 

mother  and  father.     And  now  I  inform  you  also  about  those  ducks  of 

yours.     You  know,  that  gray  duck,  when  she  sees  me  far  away  she 

quacks  and  runs  toward  me. 

I  remain,  your  brother, 

Tadeusz  S^kowski 

289  April  9,  191 2 

Dear  Frania:    I  received  your  letter Grandfather  and 

grandmother  Zytniewski  came  to  us  to  stay,  and  they  brought  one 
granddaughter,  10  years  old.  What  can  I  do?  I  cannot  grudge 
a  little  food  and  a  corner.  As  long  as  I  am  in  Lazy  they  can  be 
with  me.^    [News  about  work,  friends,  and  acquaintances.] 

J.  SlJKOWSKI 

290  January  15,  1913 
Dear  Daughter  [Mania]:  So  at  last  that  time  has  come  to  you 

when  the  human  lot  is  totally  changed.  From  a  maiden  you  will 
become  a  married  woman,  from  a  free  being  a  slave  of  your  husband 
and  of  fortune,  from  a  merry  and  lively  [girl]  you  will  become  sad, 
for  there  is  no  true  happiness  in  this  world;  it  exists  only  after  death, 
and  then  only  for  the  chosen  ones.  In  this  world  there  is  a  valley  of 
tears,  nothing  but  anxiety,  suffering,  and  different  troubles  which  we 
must  bear  patiently  in  order  to  merit  that  true  happmess.  We 
'  We  see  in  this  example  how  the  supporting  of  aged  ,,arents  is  felt  as  an  abso- 
lute obligation.  Even  the  old  miser  S?kowski,  who  drives  all  his  children  away  to 
work,  cannot  begrudge  his  wife's  parents  a  place  with  him. 


:;oS  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

can  novcr  avoid  misfortunes  and  we  are  unable  to  bear  them  with 
;>ationcc  without  the  help  of  God.  Therefore,  may  the  Lord  God 
who  blessed  Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob,  this  God  who  blessed  our 
forefathers  and  who  remembered  us  in  His  Providence,  who  will 
never  lors^et  His  creatures  up  to  the  end  of  the  world — may  He  bless 
\-ou  until  the  end  of  your  life  as  your  parents  bless  you  now.  In  the 
name  of  the  Father  f,  the  Son  \,  and  the  Holy  Spirit  t,  Amen. 
May  God  grant  it.    Amen.^  Your  Parents 

291  April  8,  1913 

Dear  Children:  Yesterday  we  received  your  letter  and  I  answer 
you  at  once.  First  I  inform  you  that  we,  i.e.,  your  father,  mother, 
and  grandfather,  are  in  good  health  and  we  wish  you  the  same  with 
our  whole  soul  and  heart.  Grandmother  and  Maiika  went  to  Kalisz, 
and  Tadeusz  is  probably  in  the  middle  of  the  sea  or  already  near 
America,  and  will  be  there  sooner  than  this  letter.  You  could 
have  written  sooner  about  feathers  [for  pillows],  then  Tadeusz  would 
have  taken  them.  Manka  Kowal  won't  go  now;  they  have  changed 
their  mind,  and  first  Kaziek  will  go  and  two  daughters  of  Kaminski 
the  miller.^  They  will  surely  go  to  Chicago,  because  a  rich  brother  of 
Kamihska  lives  there,  and  I  believe  that  the  F's  borrowed  money 
from  him  for  the  exemption  of  Kazimierz  from  the  army.  Moreover 
mother  says  that-you  have  enough  feathers,^  while  Leosia  has  nothing, 
and  what  will  Leosia  say  to  it  ?  Well,  perhaps  it  would  not  matter 
much,  these  few  feathers,  but  there  won't  be  any  opportunity  [to  send 
them]  until  I  go  with  your  mother.     As  to  the  gift  from  Janek,  I  did 

"  The  pompousness  of  speech  and  the  preaching  attitude  of  this  letter,  as  well 
as  of  some  other  of  S^kowski's  letters,  are  explained  by  the  combined  influence 
of  religion  and  manorial  life.  They  imply  a  relative  superiority  of  the  "preacher" 
over  his  hearers,  and  are  found  most  frequently  among  men  who  are  more  or  less 
outside  of  the  proper  peasant  community  and  a  little  above  it  by  their  learning — 
organists,  commune  secretaries,  shop-keepers,  manor-employees,  etc.  As  these 
men  having  no  land  property  are  looked  upon  by  the  peasant  farmer  with  a  curious 
mixture  of  superflcial  respect  and  a  profound  and  hidden  disdain,  the  display  of  their 
relative  learning,  particularly  in  divine  and  moral  matters,  is  a  means  of  securing 
and  defending  their  superiority.  The  peasant  is,  in  fact,  much  impressed  by  good 
speaking. 

^  Kaziek  (Kazimierz)  was  formerly  engaged  to  S^kowski's  daughter. 

^  Feathers  are  the  most  necessary  part  of  the  dowry;  the  poorest  girl  must 
have  a  good  feather-bed.  Feathers  and  pillows  are  collected  beyond  the  real 
necessit}'. 


S^KOWSKI  SERIES  599 

not  rejoice  [expect]  so  long  as  I  did  not  hear  anything,  but  now,  since 
I  have  been  promised,  I  will  wait  patiently  till  it  comes.  I  am  very 
glad  that  I  have  a  son-in-law  who  is  able  to  buy  a  gift  for  his  father, 
while  I  must  present  gifts  to  Kacperski  [other  son-in-law].  He  does 
not  ask  for  them,  but  it  would  not  be  suitable  otherwise.^  On  Easter 
they  did  not  come  to  us,  but  on  Pentecost  they  will  certainly  come, 
and  mother  always  finds  something  to  give  them,  while  I  give  them 
20  marks,  as  if  for  their  traveling  expenses.  They  don't  wish  to  go  to 
America,  and  probably  they  will  never  go,  although  a  factory- 
workman  like  Kacperski  would  earn  more  in  America  than  in  Prussia. 
Be  energetic  with  Tadeusz  there,  and  make  him  learn  well;  the 
more  and  the  better  he  learns  the  better  it  will  be  for  him.  As  to  the 
photograph,  it  is  necessary  only  to  know  how  to  stand  and  to  arrange 
one's  self  the  best  possible.  Wliy  does  your  mother  look  so  well  in  her 
photograph  ?  Because  she  is  taken  more  from  the  side.  Mother  does 
not  look  so  young  today;  she  did  perhaps  20  years  ago.  If  you  don't 
look  well  in  your  first  photographs,  I  think  that  it  is  not  the  fault  of 
the  photographer,  but  your  own.  Still  I  don't  intend  to  burn  these 
photographs,  for  in  a  few  years  you  will  look  exactly  thus,  and  then 
they  will  be  good.  And  now  I  wish  you  would  have  your  photo- 
graph taken  once  more,  but  all  of  you  together,  and  without  any 

strange  persons  except  those  who  belong  now  to  our  family 

Janek's  parents  asked  me  to  tell  them  how  they  could  come  from  their 
locality  to  us,  for  they  intend  to  visit  us.  But  I  doubt  much  whether 
they  will  risk  it,  the  more  so  when  I  describe  [the  way]  to  them, 
for  they  are  not  far  away  from  the  railway,  while  we  live  about  10 
miles  [Polish  =  50  English]  from  Kalisz,  the  nearest  station.'  .... 

I  S^kowski  gave  no  dowry  to  any  of  his  daughters,  and  even  tluis  he  c()nii)laiiis 
of  one  son-m-law  that  he  must  give  him  presents,  whereas  he  liimseU'  accepts 
presents  from  the  other.  Such  an  attitude  would  be  normal  in  village  life  only 
in  an  old  and  helpless  widow.  A  farmer,  even  a  poor  one,  would  accept  a  present 
from  his  son-in-law,  but  only  because  he  considered  that  after  his  death  the  son- 
in-law  would  have  the  inheritance;  and  he  would  never  grudge  the  giving  of  a 
present.     He  would  consider  S^kowski's  attitude  humiliating. 

^  The  family  lives  near  the  German  frontier.  As  the  Russian  government, 
for  strategical  reasons,  did  not  allow  the  building  of  railways  in  this  part  of  the 
country,  while  on  the  German  side  the  railroads  were  numerous,  the  life  of  the 
frontier-districts  is  much  more  closely  connected  with  the  life  of  the  Poh'sh  provinces 
in  Germany  than  with  that  of  central  Poland.  The  season-emigration  (in  the 
district  where  the  S^kowskis  live,  20  per  cent  of  the  population  goes  every  year  to 
season-work)  develops  direct  relations  with  central  and  western  Germany  and  is  a 
medium  of  German  influence. 


fKK>  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

My  fatluT  and  mother  live  in  Smulsk  still.  Some  days  ago  I  received 
a  letter  from  my  father  in  which  he  asks  for  a  few  roubles.  I  answered 
him  and  I  promised  [to  send  them]  somewhat  later,  for  now  I  have 
none,  as  I  spent  everything  on  Tadeusz['s  journey].  But  my  father 
writes  that  he  is  already  very  feeble,  and  my  mother  also.  He  is  78, 
and  mother  79  years  old.  If  I  can,  I  should  be  glad  to  visit  them 
once  more Your  parents, 

[J.    S^KOWSKl] 

292  March  4,  1914 

De.\r  Son:  I  received  all  your  letters,  the  maps  and  the  booklet. 
I  looked  over  all  this.  At  the  first  sight  it  seems  very  good  and 
promising  much;  even  if  only  one-half  were  true  of  what  is  printed 
in  this  booklet  it  would  still  be  very  good.  In  any  case  I  advise  you 
not  to  begin  anything  before  you  learn  the  truth.  You  have  time 
enough,  since  you  have  not  yet  sold  your  house.  So,  as  I  wrote  you 
in  my  preceding  letter,  ask  your  paper  for  advice.  They  write 
there  precisely  that  they  don't  want  to  make  a  fortune  from  their 
paper,  only  to  inform  the  Poles  as  much  as  possible.  They  will 
neither  praise  nor  blame,  but  will  write  you  the  truth;  they  will 
perhaps  even  print  it  in  the  paper.  Perhaps  in  the  office  of  that  paper 
in  Chicago  they  know  about  these  farms,  and  perhaps  not;  you  could 
send  them  one  such  booklet,  if  you  have  any  more,  for  it  would  be 
better  if  they  first  read  the  booklet  and  answered  then.' 

I  believe  you  that  factory  work  can  become  a  bore,  and  that  it 
will  pay  less  and  less,  while  living  will  be  always  more  and  more 
expensive,  for  people  continually  go  to  America.  Write  also  to 
I'ranek,  Leosia's  [husband],  and  send  him  such  a  booklet  if  you  can. 
He  has  money,  and  perhaps  there,  where  he  works,  somebody  knows 
Florida. 

About  all  points  it  is  necessary  to  ask  everybody's  advice,  but  not 
to  listen  and  not  to  believe  everybody,  and  above  all  not  to  tr>^  to 
catch  the  pigeon,  letting  the  sparrow  go,  and  then  to  have  nothing. 

'  The  old  man's  conceit  is  clearly  manifested  in  this  giving  of  advace  without 
knowing  the  conditions.  At  the  end  of  this  letter  he  gives  the  text  of  the  letter 
which  his  son  ought  to  write  to  the  paper.  Another  example  is  the  question  of 
photographs,  which  recurs  in  many  letters.  Evidently  the  manor-life,  developing 
the  tendency  to  keep  as  strong  as  possible  small  hierarchical  distinctions,  leads  to  the 
custom  of  asserting  one's  own  superiority  in  any  matters,  however  trivial. 


S^KOWSKI  SERIES  6ol 

If  it  were  near  you  could  go  there  some  Sunday  and  ascertain  it 
personally,  but  it  is  very  far.  I  think  you  would  have  to  travel 
perhaps  3  days.  Perhaps  it  is  not  so  hot  there  as  it  would  be  if 
Florida  were  upon  the  continent,  but  it  is  a  peninsula,  not  very  wide, 
and  therefore  it  may  be  cooler.  At  any  rate  I  advise  you  to  think 
about  it  day  and  night  and  when  you  have  proofs  that  it  is  worth 
doing,  then  to  set  to  work  at  once. 

Let  Tadeusz  learn  as  much  as  possible,  let  him  be  assiduous  and 
obedient,  let  him  never  offend  Frania,  that  she  may  not  have  to  com- 
plain about  him  when  we  see  one  another  some  day 

[J.   S^KOWSKl] 

[Includes  the  draft  of  a  letter  to  the  Polish  paper  asking  for 
advice  about  buying  the  farm.] 


293  June  28,  1914 

Dear  Mania:  We  received  the  photograph  of  this  Leonard,  and 
a  scrap  instead  of  a  letter,  upon  which  you  had  written  about  Staska.' 
....  Grandfather  is  with  us,  but  so  weak  that  it  is  impossible  to 
use  him;  so  mother  went  to  Kalisz  herself  and  spent  a  few  days. 
Staska  would  like  to  go,  but  your  aunt  is  very  angry  about  it.  She 
quarreled  at  once  with  your  mother,  for  she  exploits  Staska  a  great 
deal^" 

Staska  went  to  be  photographed,  but  I  don't  know  how  she  will 
look,  for  there  was  nobody  to  advise  her  and  she  will  be  photographed 
in  full.  Thus  the  face  will  be  small  and  indistinct,  and  if  she  does 
not  stand  sidewise,  but  straight,  the  photograph  may  be  quite  unlike 
her.  I  said  at  once  when  your  mother  came  back,  "Why  did  you 
not  advise  her  how  the  photograph  ought  to  be  and  how  she  ought 
to  stand?"  Why  is  our  photograph,  i.e.,  mine  and  your  mother's, 
so  distinct,  and  why  does  your  mother  look  in  the  photograi)h  like  a 
girl,  although  she  is  50  years  old?    Staska  will  send  a  copy  here 

'  Staska  is  the  writer's  wife's  niece  whom  this  Leonard,  Mania's  friend,  wants 
to  take  to  America  and  to  marry  without  knowing  her.  For  a  similar  case,  cf. 
Butkowski  series. 

^  This  kind  of  parental  egotism,  where  the  parents  hinder  the  marriage  of  their 
children  because  they  wish  to  exploit  their  work,  is  really  rare.  The  impulse  to 
it  is  frequent,  as  we  shall  see  more  than  once,  but  is  usually  counterbalanced  by 
the  stronger  wish  to  see  the  children  married.     Cf.  Introduction:     Marriage. 


(>02  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

when  it  is  ready,  and  I  am  to  send  it  to  you,  but  if  it  does  not  please 
mc  I  will  send  it  back  and  let  her  have  another  taken. 

As  to  my  opinion,  I  don't  like  to  praise  anybody  much  but  I  must 
confess  Uiat  Staska  is  a  very  good  girl,  intelligent,  working,  saving, 
luindsomc,  only  a  little  too  tall  and  not  instructed.  But  these  are 
secondary  faults.  At  any  rate  she  deserves  good  luck.  Today  is 
precisely  the  twenty-ninth  anniversary  of  our  marriage  with  your 
mother.  It  was  also  Sunday,  and  St.  Peter's  and  St.  Paul's  day  on 
Monday.  We  have  lived  together  for  so  many  years,  struggling  with 
a  various  fortune  [sc.  rather  bad],  which  is  Hkely  to  be  found  in  every 
marriage.     Well,  good  or  bad  fortune  must  be  accepted  alike 

Our  priest  is  still  ahve,  but  very  feeble 

Q.    S^KOWSKl] 


294  July  5,  1914 

Dear  Children:  ....  It  is  perhaps  better  that  you  did  not 
succeed  in  selling  your  house,  for  there  is  no  evil  which  does  not  turn 
to  good.'  Perhaps  later  you  will  sell  it  more  profitably,  and  in 
America  when  you  have  money  you  can  buy  land  at  any  moment; 
there  is  enough  of  it  there.  I  thank  Frania  very  much  for  her  work 
upon  Tadeusz.  It  is  well  that  he  is  now  with  Leosia.  Let  everybody 
have  a  part  of  the  trouble.  And  thus  a  day  [wuU  pass]  after  a  day, 
a  year  after  a  year,  and  you  won't  even  notice  how  he  will  reach  his 
1 6th  year,  and  then,  according  to  the  American  laws,  he  will  be  able 
to  work  himself.     [News  about  acquaintances.] 

From  Mania  I  received  a  very  strange  letter.  She  and  Leosia  Uke 
to  write  much  and  to  add  larger  and  smaller  scraps  to  the  letter.     And 

this  letter  had  also  such  a  scrap — and  nothing  more Probably 

the  letter  was  too  thick  and  somebody  hoped  that  there  was  money, 

opened  the  letter  and  did  not  put  back  the  main  sheet Upon 

this  scrap  ....  Mania  wTites  us  to  send  Jozef's  [daughter]  Staska 
to  America,  saying  that  she  had  a  boy  there  who  would  send  Staska  a 
ship-ticket.     Mother  was  a  week  ago  in  Kalisz  about  this  matter. 

'  This  kind  of  optimism  is  nothing  but  the  ultimate  expression  of  the  usual 
peasant  resignation  to  the  past  and  the  irreparable  which  prevents  him  from  being 
ever  discouraged  and  always  enables  him  to  begin  again.  The  emigration  to 
Brazil  afforded  many  such  examples.  Peasants  who  were  bom  rich  came  back 
completely  ruined  and  began  at  once  as  manor-servants  to  work  and  to  economize 
with  unrelenting  energy  and  vitality. 


S^KOWSKI  SERIES  603 

Staska  would  be  glad  to  go  but  your  aunt  and  her  Walenty  [her  second 
husband]  won't  let  her  go  from  Kalisz,  for  Staska  has  a  good  position 
there,  while  your  aunt  and  Walenty  suffer  misery,  because  they  both 
keep  drinking  heavily.  Your  aunt  quarreled  at  once  with  your 
mother,  so  that  the  latter  cried.  I  don't  wonder,  for  the  Zytniewski 
family  [from  which  the  aunt  comes]  is  good  only  for  drinking  vodka, 
quarreling,  and  discord.^  Staska,  as  it  seems,  will  be  something  else. 
As  I  noticed,  she  is  intelligent,  sparing,  pretty  enough,  only  some- 
what too  tall.  Grandfather  Zytniewski  is  with  us  ...  .  but  quite 
impotent  [feeble  and  useless]. 

[J.    Sl^KOWSKl] 


295  July  19,  1914 

Dear  Mania:  Yesterday  we  received  Staska's  photograph  from 
Kalisz  and  today  we  send  it  to  you.  I  don't  know  whether  all  this 
will  succeed  and  whether  Staska's  journey  will  come  about.  She 
wants  to  go  to  America;  your  aunt  is  not  satisfied  with  it,  but  she 
cannot  hinder  it.     Everything  will  depend  upon  how  they  write  to 

each  other  and  how  their  photographs  please  them If  they 

come  to  an  understanding,  I  would  advise  you  not  to  send  a  ship- 
ticket,  but  money  ....  for  in  the  case  of  some  unforeseen  hindrance 

it  is  easier  to  get  the  money  back But  send  it  to  my  address, 

for  it  is  impossible  to  trust  your  aunt.     They  are  in  a  bad  situation, 

and  very  avaricious If  you  don't  receive  any  answer  from 

Kalisz,  don't  think  that  it  is  Staska  who  does  not  answer,  but  that 
perhaps  somebody  plays  bad  tricks,  i.e.,  cither  her  employers  [she 
is  a  housemaid]  or  your  aunt.  So  write  simultaneously  here  and  to 
Kalisz.     Before  Staska  leaves,  we  should  like  to  bring  her  here  and 

to  send  her  from  here  upon  the  journey 

[J.  Sj^kowski] 


296  Bydgoszcz,  November  23,  19 13 

Dear  Mania:  I  received  your  letter  with  the  photograph  and  I 
am  very  glad  that  you  got  such  a  man.  But  first  of  all,  let  him  be 
good,  for  money  is  of  no  use  if  your  life  is  not  hapjiy.     When  you 

'  This  is  a  hard  expression,  as  his  ovra  wife  comes  from  this  family  and  licr 
parents  live  with  him. 


t.04  rKl.MARV-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

uTDto  that  I  couKl  also  have  such  luck  Teodor  [her  husband]  was 
terribly  anj^ry  and  is  still  angry  with  you.  It  is  true  that  I  could 
have  also  such  luck.  But  no,  even  now  I  still  fear  to  go  to  America, 
and  when  I  was  at  home  I  was  so  timid  that  I  would  not  have  gone  to 
Konin  alone.  If  I  had  gone  when  father  had  ordered  me,  when 
Rozvna  went  from  the  manor,  I  should  have  fallen  precisely  into  that 
misery.  Perhaps  I  should  not  even  live  today,  for  you  know  how 
.\dam  had  it  how  father  told  him  to  beg.'  And  I  am  so  inclined  to 
crying  and  so  timid,  I  should  never  have  talked  to  anybody  [father 
or  mother]  about  it.  You  know  how  it  is  with  the  Baj tiers  now,  how 
much  Rozyna  cost  them  [how  large  a  dowry  they  gave]  and  what  a 
splendid  wedding  it  was.  And  now  what  has  she  ?^  You  know  that 
he  wanted  to  shoot  her  down.  Everybody  must  bear  the  lot  which 
God  designed  for  him.  I  have  not  a  gay  life  either.  I  did  not  intend 
to  write  of  it  to  you  ever,  but  now  over  this  letter  of  yours  he  made 
me  suffer  more  than  ever.  You  see  how  it  happens.  You  know 
him,  for  he  was  in  our  house.  Do  you  remember  how  good  he  was — 
like  a  child — and  now  he  sins  as  if  he  were  not  the  same  man.  For- 
merly he  mended  my  stockings  and  made  my  bed  when  I  w^as  alone, 
and  now  he  says  that  mother  and  father  persuaded  him  and  that  we 
held  him  in  order  to  make  him  marry  me.  And  what  did  he  say  to 
me  ?  He  said  that  he  would  be  so  good  that  I  should  beat  him  rather 
than  he  me,  that  he  would  take  me  even  in  a  single  dress  if  father 
gave  nothing,  that  he  had  i,ooo  marks  and  this  would  be  enough  for 
everything.  And  now  he  says  that  it  is  not  true,  that  he  never  said 
so.  He  reproaches  me  always  that  others  got  so  and  so  much,  and 
what  did  I  get  ?  And  he  denies  that  he  ever  said  so  [that  he  would 
take  me  without  dowry].  May  your  husband  only  not  be  so  false! 
I  don't  even  wish  to  write  home  about  it,  for  father  would  tell  it  to 

everybody,  and  it  is  a  shame  for  us.     Nothing  can  be  done 

I  became  a  guiltless  victim,  for  I  thought  that  he  loved  me  so  of  him- 
self, while  it  was  mother  who  persuaded  him  and  gave  him  more 
than  one  glass  of  liquor.  And  now  he  reproaches  me  with  all  this. 
Father  also  plagued  me  and  I  did  not  have  a  merry  life  at  home,  while 
he  painted  everything  so  sweetly  to  me — that  I  should  have  every- 

' .  >llusion  to  No.  284. 

'  Rozyna  probably  married  the  man  the  writer  was  to  marry.     Her  allusions 
to  dowry  mean  that  a  wife  with  a  dowry  has  an  additional  right  to  good  treatment. 


S^KOWSKI  SERIES  605 

thing  so  good.    Do  you  remember  how  it  was  in  Ruda  at  that  party, 

how  he  danced  with  all  the  girls  while  I  stood  in  the  corner  and  wept  ? 

And  this  was  only  the  first  year.     What  must  it  be  now,  when  5  years 

have  passed  ?     I  cannot  write  you  everything. 

I  greet  you  a  thousand  times  and  wish  you  good  sleep.     Could 

you  not  have  sent  me  at  least  a  dollar,  to  drink  some  wine,  for  I  was 

not  at  the  wedding? 

[Kazia  Kacperska] 

Love  each  other,  that  you  may  have  a  child,  a  boy,  in  a  year. 
Remember  me  and  comfort  me. 


MAKOWSKI  SERIES 

We  find  here  again  a  modiiication  of  the  fundamental 
peasant  attitudes,  due  to  the  fact  that  the  Makowskis  are 
not  farmers,  but  belong  to  the  handworker  class  in  a  small 
town. 

The  letters  of  Antoni  Makowski  give  us  the  expression 
of  a  paternal  feeling  distinct  from  that  which  we  find  in 
other  series;  it  is  a  father's  love  without  any  assumption 
of  authority  or  any  patronizing.  But  this  simple  attitude 
is  less  primitive  than  the  complex  one  of  love  and  authority 
which  we  have  seen  in  the  earlier  series.  The  lack  of 
paternal  authority  implies  a  disintegration  of  the  primitive 
familial  group.  This  is  proved  in  the  present  case  by  the 
familial  quarrels  alluded  to  in  Makowski's  letters  and  by 
the  lack  of  solidarity  of  which  he  complains.  The  causes  of 
this  change  are:  (i)  the  fact  that  among  the  handworkers 
the  old  forms  of  social  life,  though  slower  to  disappear  in 
pro\incial  towTis  than  in  large  cities,  dissolve  more  rapidly 
than  in  the  country;  (2)  the  emigration,  both  to  America  and 
to  Prussia,  of  which  the  district  of  Przasnysz  is  one  of  the 
oldest  centers.  In  consequence  of  this  the  father,  in  his 
relation  toward  his  children,  ceases  to  be  the  representative 
of  the  family-group  and  becomes  a  mere  individual. 

Another  interesting  point  in  this  series  is  the  attitude 
toward  death.  As  noted  elsewhere,  death  for  the  peasant 
is  an  important  but  normal  phenomenon — normal  not  only 
as  to  theoretical  reflection  but  also  as  to  the  sentimental 
reaction  toward  it.  In  the  intelligent  classes,  on  the  con- 
trary, the  death  of  a  beloved  person  is  always  reacted  upon 
as  an  abnormal  fact,  in  spite  of  the  theoretical  reflection. 
The  difference  has  its  source  in  the  social  regulation  of  the 

606 


MAKOWSKI  SERIES  607 

attitude  toward  death  which  we  find  among  the  peasant 
traditions.  Socially,  death  is  a  normal  fact,  and  will  be 
such  for  the  individual  in  the  exact  measure  in  which  the 
individual's  attitude  is  socially  determined.  This  view 
is  corroborated  by  the  fact  that  in  any  concrete  case  of 
death  among  the  peasants  today  (if  we  abstract  the  rem- 
nants of  the  old  naturalism  and  of  the  magical  Christianity) 
the  important  part  is  played  by  the  social-religious  system, 
while  the  individual  mystical  attitudes  are  relatively  little 
developed.  Death  is  viewed  by  the  dying  person  and  by 
his  relatives  from  the  standpoint  of  the  rehgious  com- 
munity to  which  the  individual  and  his  family  belong; 
the  interest  in  future  life,  the  problem  of  the  relation  to 
God,  are  less  absorbing  than  the  questions  of  social  cere- 
monies before  and  after  death,  and  of  the  attitude  of  the 
family  and  the  community  toward  the  dying  individual, 
of  the  common  prayers  to  be  said,  masses  to  be  celebrated, 
etc.  This  shows  the  extent  to  which  social  regulation  of  the 
attitude  toward  death  is  dominant. 

In  the  present  case,  where  the  familial  connection  is 
weakened,  one  link  of  this  social  regulation  is  lacking. 
The  death  of  Zygmunt  and  that  of  his  mother  are  reacted 
upon  in  the  socially  determined  way  within  the  narrow 
circle  of  the  nearest  family  on  the  one  hand  and  within  the 
widest  circle  of  the  community  on  the  other,  but  not  by  the 
intermediary  circle  of  the  family  in  the  wider  sense,  as 
including  all  relatives.  (Cf.  the  behavior  of  Walcr>'s 
father,  in  the  Wroblewski  series.)  Further,  in  the  case  of 
Zygmunt's  death  there  is  a  socially  abnormal  clement— 
the  extraordinary  nature  of  his  sickness.  But  otherwise, 
we  find  the  typical  attitudes— the  calm,  although  sorrowful, 
expectation  of  death  by  the  dying  person  and  the  family; 
the  traditional  farewell  and  blessing  given  to  those  who 
remain;    the  religious  ceremonial  before  death   (with  its 


6o8  rRIMARV-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

magical  background);    the  funeral  ceremonies,  with  their 
social  importance,  etc. 

THE  FAMILY  MAKOWSKI 

Antoni  Makowski,  a  shoemaker 

His  wife 

Stanislaw  (Stas,  Stach)        1  , 

Zvcmunt  ,  . 

,  ■     ,       ,„,       ,   ,rr      ,s      }  his  sons 

W  adaw  (u  acus,  \\  acek) 

Kazio  (Kaziek) 

Mania  (Marynka),  his  daughter 

W.  Makowski,  Antoni's  brother 

\Madek  (WJadyslaw) ,  a  cousin 

Grandmother  Grudzinska,  the  mother  of  Antoni's  wife  (probably) 

Hipek 


„        ,    t  her  sons 
Franek 


297-305,     TO    STANISLAW     (STAs)     MAKOWSKI,     IN     AMERICA, 
FROM   FAMILY-MEMBERS   IN   POLAND 

297  Przasnysz,  December  29,  1908 

In  the  first  words  of  our  letter  "Praised  be  Jesus  Christus." 

We  received  two  of  your  letters,  and  we  are  very  much  satisfied, 

for  in  your  first  letter  you  wrote  that  you  were  sick  and  we  were 

terribly  grieved,  but  in  your  second  letter  you  write  that  you  are  in 

good  health,  and  we  thank  our  Lord  God,  for  this  [health]  is  a  treasure 

from  God We  are  very  much  pained  that  it  is  already  the 

second  Christmas  eve  that  we  divide  the  wafer  and  you  are  not  here. 
W^e  said  "W'ith  whom  does  our  Stach  divide  the  wafer?"  and  w'e 
looked  upon  your  photograph.  I  shed  tears  that  you  are  not  here, 
dear  Stach,  and  w-e  cannot  divide  this  dear  wafer  with  you,  for  we 
don't  know  whether  we  shall  live  until  the  next  year.  May  God 
grant  us  to  see  one  another  as  soon  as  possible!  We  divided  all  of  us 
the  wafer  which  you  sent  among  all  of  us.  Kaziek  took  a  bit  of  it  and 
went  to  your  photograph  and  pretended  to  put  it  into  your  mouth, 
saying,  "Dear  Stas,  bite  a  little  of  this  w'afer!"  and  we  wept.' 

'  Kaziek  expressed  symbolically  the  idea  of  the  spiritual  participation  of  the 
absent  brother  in  the  familial  festival.  We  see  here  how  new  symbols  are  created 
in  order  to  keep  up  the  spirit  of  the  old  organization  in  new  conditions. 


MAKOWSKI  SERIES  609 

Dear  Stas  we  received  the  large  photographs,  but  not  the  small 

ones Probably   they   were   stolen   in    the   post-office,    these 

photographs  and  the  little  crib  [a  colored  paper  imitation  of  a  crib,  one 
of  the  popular  Christmas  tokens,  like  stars,  angels,  Santa  Claus,  etc.]. 
We  are  pained  that  you  have  spent  money  and  we  have  no  benefit 

of  it;  you  must  labor  for  every  grosz.     It  is  a  pity You  look 

very  handsome  in  the  photograph.  How  big  you  have  grown!  And 
this  best  girl  looks  rather  pretty  also.  Who  is  she?  Tell  us  where 
she  comes  from.' 

Dear  Stas,  why  do  you  reproach  us  about  some  gossip  ?  Since  you 
have  been  [in  America],  for  almost  2  years,  you  never  wrote  even  two 
words  about  people,  so  what  gossip  can  there  be?  We  are  very 
much  astonished  and  we  wonder.  Dear  Stas,  you  know  the  whole 
Grudzinski  family.  They  envy  us,  they  would  drown  us  in  a  spoon  of 
water  if  they  could — Hipek  as  well  as  Franek  and  the  grandmother 
[so  probably  they  are  the  source  of  the  gossip].'  But  perhaps  our 
Lord  God  will  grant  us  to  overcome  everything  with  His  help 

Dear  Stas,  we  embrace  you  innumerable  times.  May  our  Lord 
God  help  you  in  everything.  We  admonish  you,  save  as  much  money 
as  possible,  in  order  to  have  a  remembrance  that  you  have  been  in 

America  when  you  come  back  to  our  country 

A.  Makowski 

298  November  8  [1909] 

....  Dear  Stas:  Now  I  shall  describe  to  you  Zygmunt's  sick- 
ness. He  was  sick  with  typhoid  fever  for  17  days.  No  help  could 
be  given.  Our  doctors  could  not  help.  I  brought  a  doctor  from 
Ciechanow,  and  he  could  not  help  either;  it  only  cost  much  money. 
But  I  wanted  to  save  him,  for  he  was  the  only  support  of  us.  Now 
the  three  little  ones  are  left  with  me,  and  your  mother  upon  the  bed. 

■  The  photograph  was  evidently  taken  at  the  wedding  of  some  fricn.l  where 
Stai  was  a  best  man,  and  the  best  men  and  maids  were  photographed  in  pairs 
An  occasion  of  this  kind  is  often  the  beginning  of  a  relation  between  a  best  man  and 
a  best  maid  leading  to  a  new  marriage.  Indeed  the  pairs  arc  often  matched  with 
this  in  view.     Hence  the  interest  of  the  parents  in  the  girl. 

^  The  Grudzinskis  are  the  family  of  Antoni's  wife.  We  find  here  a  new  type 
of  dissolution  of  familial  ties.  Up  to  the  present  we  have  seen  only  individual 
members  losing  the  attitude  of  familial  solidarity  for  some  particular  reasons.  Here 
we  find  an  open  fight  between  two  branches  of  the  family,  evidently  made  possible 
by  the  growing  differentiation  of  town  from  country  life. 


6io  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

Tho  (locoasod  Zv^nuint  was  a  little  angry  with  you  for  having  written 
him  thus,  that  he  behaved  badly.  Somebody  must  have  informed 
you  falsciv,  for  he  was  interested  in  nothing  except  work  and  church. 
He  had  ini]irt)\etl  himself  for  two  years  and  passed  the  examination 
in  the  school.  Your  father  has  wept  a  long  time  for  you,  but  there 
remains  the  hope  that  at  least  we  receive  sometimes  a  letter  from 
vou;  this  is  our  whole  joy.  But  from  Zygmunt  we  shall  never  more 
receive  anything.  Before  dying,  he  bade  us  all  farewell,  and  you  also, 
dear  Stas.  He  asked  you  not  to  be  angry  with  him.  He  had  a  very 
nice  funeral.  There  were  as  many  people  as  on  All  Saints  Day,  even 
manv  Jews.  Four  garlands  were  carried  before  the  cofhn,  which 
were  made  for  him  in  the  town,  and  we  received  two  telegrams,  one 
from  Plock,  from  the  priest  Krolikowski,  and  one  from  his  companion. 
I  cannot  write  any  more  about  Zygmunt's  funeral,  for  our  heart  bursts 

open  with  sorrow 

Dear  Stas,  you  may  be  exempted  [from  military  service],  because 
Zygmunt  is  dead,  and  these  others  are  small.  Your  father  hopes  you 
will  come  home  perhaps.  We  have  nothing  more  to  write.  We  hope 
that  you  will  share  our  sorrow.  Now  we  all  greet  you.  Answer  us 
as  soon  as  possible.  As  to  Wladek  [cousin],  don't  answer  him  at 
all;   why  should  you  have  this  trouble  wdth  him?     When  Zygmunt 

was  sick  he  did  not  even  drop  in  once 

.  [Your  father] 

Antoni  Makowski 

299  November  15,  1909 

....  DearStach:  First  I  inform  you  about  the  sad  situation  of 
your  parents.  Zygmunt  is  dead,  on  November  2,  after  terrible 
sufferings,  for  he  was  terribly  ill  for  3  weeks  and  did  not  speak  a  word 
for  2  weeks.  I  have  lived  40  years  and  I  have  never  seen  a  man  so 
desperately  sick  as  he  was.  Your  parents  did  not  undress  for  17 
nights  for  they  both  had  to  sit  with  him,  because  he  always  tried  to 
run  away,  and  beat  himself  so  that  his  arms  and  legs  were  all  bruised. 
And  now  I  write  you  news  which  is  much  sadder  still.  Your  mother 
fell  sick  at  once  after  the  death  of  the  late  Zygmunt  and  is  now 
severely  sick,  so  that  the  priest  was  there  with  our  Lord  God  [sacra- 
ment], and  she  will  soon  follow  her  son.  And  as  to  their  material 
situation,  they  have  exhausted  whatever  they  had.  Your  father 
walks  like  a  shadow  from  grief.  And  you  ask  why  do  they  not  answer 
you.     But  perhaps  you  don't  receive  our  letters;    perhaps  you  are 


MAKOWSKI  SERIES  gu 

then  in  the  factory  and  somebody  else  receives  your  letters.  More- 
over, somebody  has  turned  your  head  and  you  listen  to  him  and  write 
foolish  letters  to  your  parents.  When  they  received  your  last  letter 
they  became  still  more  sick.  So,  dear  Stas,  forget  everything  and 
share  the  sorrow  of  your  family.  Now  we,  your  uncle  and  aunt, 
send  you  sincere  greetings.     Amen.  W.  Makowski 

300  December  8  [1909] 

....  We  received  your  letter,  for  which  we  thank  you.  Now, 
when  the  Christmas  holidays  are  approaching,  we  send  you  a  wafer 
and  we  divide  it  with  you  and  we  wish  you  merry  holidays.  We  wish 
you  to  have  merrier  holidays  than  we  have  here  in  our  country,  for  we 
have  very  sad  ones,  because  we  are  pained  that  you  are  not  here  and 
Zygmunt  is  not  here  and  mother  is  very  sick,  so  that  she  cannot  rise, 
and  she  may  not  live  until  the  holidays.  Now  we  won't  describe  any- 
thing more  until  the  next  letter.  I,  your  oldest  brother  Waclaw, 
and  Mania  and  Kazio,  we  three  little  orphans,  we  divide  the 
wafer  with  you  and  wish  you  a  Merry  Christmas.     And  don't  for- 

S^^  ^^ Waclaw  Makowski 

2 01  January  i,  191  o 

....  Dear  Stas:  We  received  your  two  letters,  for  which  we 
thank  you,  for  only  your  letters  rejoice  us.  Your  mother  was  awfully 
glad  to  receive  this  letter;  she  even  kissed  it  from  joy.  For  your 
mother  is  very  sick.  Dear  Stas,  don't  grieve  that  you  are  far  away 
in  the  world  and  have  nobody  except  God.  Your  mother  has  been 
sick  for  more  than  two  years,  and  has  remained  in  bed  for  10  weeks, 
and  thus,  dear  Stas,  I  must  worry  terribly,  for  I  have  nobody.  I 
must  cook  myself,  for  Marynka  is  too  little  yet  and  needs  care  herself. 
And  as  to  the  family  [relatives],  in  happiness  they  are  good,  but  in 
misfortune  they  don't  even  look.  I  don't  know  how  I  shall  do  now. 
Your  mother  won't  live  long;  Mania  and  Wacek  must  be  sent  lo 
school,  for  they  have  not  yet  learned  much.  But  I  don't  know  how 
I  shall  manage  all  this.  Our  Lord  God  has  put  a  terrible  cross  upon 
me,  and  I  have  carried  it  for  3  months  already.  I  don't  work  any 
more  at  all  in  my  shop.  Now  I  thank  you  for  the  money,  for  it  was 
very  useful  to  me.  May  God  give  you  health  [as  reward).  And 
Kaziek  is  a  pretty  boy;  you  would  not  recognize  him.  And  he  is 
clever  1    [Weather.] 


6ij  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

Your  nicUhor  cannot  write  any  more,  so  she  tells  me  to  write  you 
thus:  She  kisses  you  with  her  whole  heart  and  her  whole  soul,  and  wishes 
vou  every  good,  whatever  you  want  from  God,  and  success  in  your 
intention.  "And  [she  says]  I  wish  you  to  be  my  true  child,  good 
and  religious.  And  may  we  see  each  other  in  Heaven.  And  don't 
forget  about  your  father  and  these  little  orphans.  And  now  I  bless 
\ou  in  this  far  world,  in  the  name  of  the  Father  and  the  Son  and  the 
Holv  Spirit,  Amen  I  And  now  I  bless  also  my  dear  brother-in-law. 
Don't  abandon  my  Stach!  And  I  bless  you,  my  sister,  and  your 
children;  may  God  bless  you!     And  also  my  brother  [cousin]  G." 

Onlv  don't  grieve,  only  don't  grieve;  perhaps  our  Lord  God  will 
still  grant  health  to  your  mother.  Now  we  greet  you,  I  your  father, 
wish  you  a  good  New  Year,  and  Waclaw,  and  Mania,  and  Kazio. 

AxTOXi  Makowski 


302  January  14,  1910 

DE.A.R  Stas:  We  send  you  sad  news,  for  we  have  already  buried 
vour  mother.  A  great  sorrow  reigns  over  us  after  the  loss  of  our 
dearest  [wife  and]  mother  and  the  dear  Zygmunt.  We  have  gone 
through  two  funerals  in  so  short  a  time.  The  funeral  was  very 
beautiful,  for  there  were  4  priests.  The  priests  did  not  cost  me  very 
much.  And  there  were  many  people.  Yes,  dear  Stas,  I  am  totally 
ruined.  Your  mother  has  been  sick  for  more  than  two  years,  and 
the  doctors  cost,  and  I  could  not  work,  and  now  I  cannot  work  either, 
because  a  terrible  sorrow  overcomes  me  for  your  mother  and  Zygmunt 
and  you,  dear  Stas.  Now  I  don't  know  what  to  do.  If  I  knew  that 
in  America  I  should  be  able  to  educate  these  three  orphans  I  would 
go  to  America.  So  I  beg  you,  answ'er  me  and  advise  me  how  to 
manage  all  this.  Yes,  dear  Stas,  don't  grieve,  only  pray  our  Lord 
Jesus  for  health  and  don't  forget  about  us  and  don't  be  angry  with 
us  for  writing  you  so  often.  Now^  we  greet  you,  I,  your  father,  kiss 
you  heartily,  and  Waclaw,  and  Marynka,  and  Kazio, 

Antoni  Makowski 

303  February  15,  1910 

Dear  Stas:  ....  I  thank  you  heartily  for  your  letter,  because 
only  your  letter  can  rejoice  us.  We  cannot  cease  to  long  for  our 
beloved  Zygmunt  and  our  dear  mother  who  loved  us  so.     And  now 


MAKOWSKI  SERIES  613 

we  must  think  about  ourselves.  But  nothing  can  be  done.  God's 
will!  Your  mother  was  not  sick  with  consumption,  but  with  chronic 
lung  catarrh,  so  the  doctors  said.  It  is  only  your  "dear"  grand- 
mother who  gossiped  that  your  mother  was  sick  with  consumption. 
She  told  it  everywhere  in  Przasnysz  and  even  wrote  it  to  America. 
Such  is  our  dear  family! 

Now,  dear  Stas,  I  shall  describe  to  you  our  incident — what  the 
Lord  God  can  do!  When  Zygmunt  died,  our  deceased  mother  wept 
terribly,  lay  down  at  once  and  died  from  this  sorrow.  On  the  third 
day  after  your  mother's  funeral  Wacus  fell  sick  with  typhoid  and 
had  41°  [Centigrade]  of  fever.  What  could  we  do?  Marynka  and 
Kazio  with  tears  prayed  to  God's  Mother  and  devoted  him  to  God's 
Mother  and  asked  God's  Mother  for  his  health,  promising  that  when 
he  recovered,  he  would  go  to  Cz^stochowa.  The  fever  disappeared 
at  once.  It  was  at  3  in  the  afternoon,  and  at  4  the  fever  had  already 
yielded.  The  doctor  could  not  beUeve  that  he  was  better.  He  was 
weak  after  this,  but  for  the  last  two  weeks  he  has  walked  and  now, 
thanks  to  God,  he  is  already  going  to  school  and  is  perfectly  healthy.' 

Dear  Stas,  I  should  advise  you  that  it  would  be  better  if  this  Miss 
Szczepanska  went  to  you.  You  know  her  very  well,  so  perhaps  she 
would  be  good  for  you.  Now  she  is  in  Warsaw,  and  even  got  a  little 
instructed.  As  to  Miss  Drewniacka,  I  cannot  tell  you  anything,  for 
it  could  spread  about  [gossip],  only  I  write  you  that  she  wrote  a  letter 
to  one  boy  here  in  the  town  asking  him  to  come  [and  marry  her].* 

Antoni  Makowski 

304  April  7,  1910 

....  I  thank  you  heartily  for  your  letters,  for  only  your  letters 
rejoice  me.  I  should  like  to  have  a  letter  from  you  every  day,  but  it 
is  impossible.  Now,  dear  Stas,  I  write  you  about  our  holidays. 
We  had  very  sad  hoUdays,  so  that  I  cannot  even  describe  them  to  you. 
Nobody  from  our  family  calls  upon  us  and  nobody  helps  us.     As  long 

'  Cases  like  this  one  are  related  by  the  thousands,  not  only  among  peasants,  but 
among  intelligent  classes.  The  vow  of  a  pilgrimage  to  Cz?stochowa  is  considered 
particularly  effective. 

^The  fact  would  be  considered  reprehensible  in  two  respects,  (i)  as  proving 
that  the  girl  is  not  really  attached  to  StaS,  since  not  long  before  becoming  engaged 
to  him  she  wrote  to  another,  and  thus  she  wants  to  marry  just  anybody;  (2)  as 
proving  that  she  lacks  self-appreciation,  since  she  makes  advances. 


6 14 


PRT^[ARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 


AS  everything  was  whole  [clotlies,  etc.]  it  was  only  half  as  bad,  but 
now  I  don't  know  what  way  to  turn.  You  wrote  me  to  take  some 
woman,  but  it  is  not  wortii  while,  for  I  must  give  her  a  room  and  pa}- 
her,  and  ihe  children  won't  have  any  benefit.  Probably  I  shall  be 
obliged  to  marry.  Up  to  tJie  present  I  see  nothing  convenient.  And 
the  shoemaker's  work  is  bad,  there  is  no  earning  at  all.     I  don't 

know  how  it  will  be.     All  the  men  are  going  to  America Now 

our  priest  from  Przasnysz  is  going  to  Cz^stochowa,  and  I  have  devoted 
W'acek  [made  a  vow  in  his  name  that  he  w'ould  go].  But  I  don't  know 
liow  to  send  him  alone,  and  then  it  will  cost  about  15  roubles 

A.  Makowski 

305  June  21,  1911 

....  Dear  Stas:  I  won't  describe  to  you  my  success;  you 
know  yourself  very  well  how  I  succeed.  You  write  in  your  letter 
that  when  Wacek  and  Mania  grow  up  it  will  be  very  well  with  me.' 

And  now,  dear  Stas,  I  called  upon  Mrs.  Drewniacka  on  the  same 
day  when  I  received  the  letter,  and  Mrs.  D.,  had  also  received  a  letter 
from  Mania  [her  daughter].  So  we  talked  it  over  and  I  went  to  the 
priest  and  took  both  birth-certificates,  which  I  send  you.^  Why 
did  you  not  write,  when  your  wedding  will  be  ?  I  would  have 
gone  to  your  wedding,  while  now  I  won't  go.  It  is  very  painful  to  me 
not  to  be  at  the  wedding  of  my  first  son.     And  now  describe  to  me, 

how  the  wedding  was  and  who  was  at  it Send  me  your  wedding 

photograph.  Dear  son,  I  send  you  my  blessing,  may  Lord  God  bless 
you  and  God's  Mother  and  St.  Jozef.  I  wish  you  every  good  [etc.]. 
In  the  name  of  the  Father  [etc.].  Now  I  cannot  write  any  more 
for  regret  contracted  my  heart,^  only  I  greet  you  and  my  dear 
daughter-in-law. 

Your  loving  father, 

Antoni  Makowski 

'  Evidently  an  unfinished  reproach.  The  father  is  offered  small  comfort. 
The  son  should  have  promised  to  come  back,  and  the  following  paragraph  seems  to 
indicate  that  he  had  formerly  promised  to  take  his  father  to  America. 

*  The  son  marries  precisely  the  girl  whom  the  father  sought  to  dissuade  him 
from  marrying,  and  the  father  complies  with  the  fact  without  protest. 

3  The  letter  is  one  of  the  best  expressions  in  our  collection  of  paternal  resigna- 
tion and  affection  in  the  face  of  the  repudiation  by  the  child  of  the  familial  ties. 
Usually  in  such  cases  the  father  rebukes,  threatens,  preaches,  or  curses. 


CUGOWSKI  SERIES 

The  author  of  these  letters,  Jozef  Cugowski,  is  a  skilled 
workman  of  peasant  origin  and  has  evidently  some  general 
instruction.  His  letters  are  in  rather  good  Polish.  He 
has  kept  almost  all  the  traditional  peasant  attitudes,  only 
more  individual,  conscious,  and  equilibrated. 

After  his  father's  death  he  assumes  immediately,  as  the 
oldest  brother,  the  role  of  head  of  the  family,  and  if  he  still 
seems  to  recognize  that  his  brothers  have  an  equal  right 
of  decision  and  asks  for  their  advice,  it  is  partly  a  formality, 
partly  a  desire  to  keep  harmony,  partly,  finally,  the  lack  of 
personal  interest  in  any  possible  economic  arrangement 
about  the  fortune  left.  This  lack  of  personal  interest  shows 
that  for  him  the  role  of  head  of  the  family  is  nothing  but  a 
social  function  imposed  by  circumstances  and  resulting  from 
the  familial  unity.  But  there  is  one  point  in  which  his 
attitude  differs  slightly  from  the  average  peasant's — he 
goes  further  in  his  patriarchal  attitude  than  is  normal  in 
the  country  by  practically  excluding  from  the  family-group 
all  the  members  who  do  not  bear  the  same  name,  i.e., 
married  sisters  and  brothers-in-law.  In  this  respect  his 
(otherwise  justified)  treatment  of  Graj,  his  contemptuous 
attitude  toward  Margas,  his  (probably  willing)  limitation  of 
the  subscription  to  their  parents'  monument,  arc  very 
significant.  He  goes  so  far  as  practically  to  consider  his 
stepmother  and  his  sisters-in-law  more  as  real  members  of 
the  family  than  he  does  his  own  sisters.  Now,  there  is  of 
course  some  superiority  of  masculine  over  feminine  relation- 
ship among  the  peasants,  but  not  to  such  an  extent;  there 
are  locaHties  where  no  such  superiority  seems  to  be  acknowl- 
edged at  all.     As  to  the  question  of  keeping  the  father's 

615 


f=,ir.  I'Kl.MARV-CiROl  r  ORGANIZATION 

larin  -it  is  cvidenlly  Graj  who  is  nearer  to  the  peasant 
iradilion  than  Cugowski.  Since  no  son  can  take  the  whole 
farm  because  all  the  sons  have  other  occupations,  according 
to  the  peasant's  ideas  it  should  be  taken  by  a  son-in-law 
rather  than  be  di\ided.  But  Cugowski  wants  the  farm  to 
remain  in  the  hands  of  some  male  member  of  the  family,  and 
since  this  cannot  be  done  he  no  longer  cares  for  its  integrity. 

In  religious  matters  Cugowski  keeps  most  of  the  char- 
acteristic features  of  the  actually  dominant  moral-religious 
system,  particularly  the  rich  formalism  and  the  lack  of 
realh-  m\stical  or  eschatological  interests.  But  religiousness 
is  already  much  more  individualized  and  internal.  Except 
the  mention  of  the  crime  in  Jasna  Gora  (Cz^stochowa),  we 
Imd  nothing  in  his  letters  concerning  churches,  ceremonies, 
meetings,  etc.  Thus,  we  can  consider  his  religion  as 
intermediary  between  the  moral  and  the  mystical  system. 
The  same  may  be  said  of  his  attitude  toward  death;  still 
to  some  extent  socially  determined,  it  leaves  much  more 
place  for  individual  sorrow. 

One  of  his  features  is  typically  peasant — the  pomposity 
of  style  so  usual  in  all  the  peasants  who  rise  intellectually 
above  the  average  level.  In  this  particular  case  there  is 
hardly  any  showing  off.  We  have  rather  the  impression 
(which  all  the  peasant  speeches  leave)  that  the  man  simply 
enjoys  his  own  ability  of  "fine"  talking  or  writing.  It 
must  be  remembered  also  that  a  letter  ought  to  be  the  best 
Hterary  work  of  which  the  writer  is  capable, 

THE  FAMILY  CUGOWSKI 

Cugowski,  a  farmer 

His  second  wife 

Jozef,  a  skilled  workman  ] 

Taos,  a  merchant  I 

Stas  (Stanislaw) 

Piotr 


CUGOWSKI  SERIES  617 


Wikcia  1 

Frania  >  his  daughters 

Anusia  ] 

Ewcia  (Ewa) ,  Jozef's  second  wife 

Marya  P.  (Marynia),  Jozef's  third  wife 

Romus  ] 

Micio    [  J6zef's  sons  (by  his  second  wife) 

Henio 


•  Jozef's  daughters  (by  his  second  wife) 


Genia  (Geniusia) 

Bogunia 

Irenka 

Stasia 

Miehasia,  Teos'  wife 

Lucia,  Stas's  wife 

Graj,  Wikcia's  husband 

Ludwik,  Frania's  husband 

Margas,  Anusia's  husband 

306-18,     FROM      JOZEF      CUGOWSKI,     IN     POLAND,     TO      HIS 
BROTHER   STANISLAW   (STAs),   IN  AMERICA 

306  OSTROWIEC,  July  25,  1907 

"Praised  be  Jesus  Christus!" 

Dear  Lucia  and  Stas:  With  a  great  impatience  we  awaited  the 
news  from  you,  whether  God  had  led  you  happily  to  the  place  of  your 
destination.  But  glory  be  to  God  for  having  kept  you  happy  and  in 
health,  in  spite  of  great  difficulties  and  dangers.  Thanks  be  to  him 
for  it  for  eternal  times.  I  received  your  letter  two  weeks  ago,  and  I 
answer  only  today  because  of  different  circumstances  about  which  I 
shall  inform  you  at  least  partly  in  this  letter. 

First,  I  inform  you  about  a  very  sad  thing  concerning  our  dear 
father,  that  he  bade  us  farewell  forever.  Tired  with  his  life's  work, 
the  old  man  moved  to  a  better  land,  into  eternity.  [It  happened] 
soon  after  your  departure,  no  more  than  a  week,  for  he  died  on 
May  25.  I  intended  to  leave  the  next  day,  as  we  had  decided,  when 
I  received  suddenly  a  telegram  asking  me  to  come  for  the  funeral.  So 
we  both  went  and  Genia  with  us.  Teos  was  also  there,  but  alone. 
The  funeral  was  very  beautiful.  The  priest  came  home  for  the  body 
and  accompanied  it  to  the  cemetery,  because  Teos  and  I  attended  (o 
everything  ourselves.  I  don't  know  how  it  would  have  been  other- 
wise,  how   our  good  and  sentimental   [irony]   brother-in-law   (Jraj 


(,jS  rRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

would  have  arranged  it,  for  he  even  refused,  or  rather  did  not  wish 
to  send  a  telegram  for  me  and  Teos,  but  busied  himself  with  every- 
thing until  the  priest  and  the  neighbors  forced  him.  He  wished  to 
push  his  work  to  the  end,  but  he  did  not  succeed  at  all.  What  is 
worse  for  him,  he  has  become  now  in  our  eyes  and  conviction  our  worst 
encm>-  forever.  When  we  came  everything  was  ready,  i.e.,  the 
funeral  agreed  upon,  the  coffin  bought.  But  God  have  pity,  what  a 
coffin!  First  too  narrow,  but,  what  is  the  most  important,  about 
6  inches  too  short.  But  it  cost  only  17  zloty  [2  roubles,  55  copecks], 
so  you  can  imagine  what  ca,n  be  had  for  that  money.  As  soon  as  I 
came  I  ordered  at  once  another  made  and  I  took  upon  myself  the 
decision  of  everything  until  Teos  came.  Graj  was  very  much  dis- 
satisfied and  spoke  very  little  w'ith  me.  But  that  is  not  yet  the  end. 
After  the  funeral  it  was  necessary  to  decide  about  what  was  left,  of 
course,  with  our  whole  family  present,  that  is,  I,  Teos,  Graj  with 
Wikcia,  Ludwik  with  Frania,  Anusia,  mother  and  Piotr.  It  was  to 
be  divided  into  equal  parts,  but  as  father  said  while  alive  that  it  was 
to  go  to  one  of  you  two,  I  don't  oppose  the  will  of  our  father,  but 
respect  it  and  resign  my  poor  part  for  the  benefit  of  you  or  Teos. 
But  as  you  were  not  present,  I  gave  it  in  your  name  to  Teos.  Frania 
with  her  husband  and  Anusia  did  the  same.  Only  he  [Graj]  did  not 
want  to  agree  to  anything;  he  wanted  to  be  the  farmer  after  our 
father's  death,  to  give  a  few  roubles  to  mother  and  to  drive  her  out 
upon  the  road.  But  it  cannot  be  and  won't  be  so.  I  proposed 
to  give  him,  as  remuneration  for  the  pains  which  he  took  for  our  father, 
one  meadow,  half  of  the  harvest  for  this  year,  one  part  of  the  turf 
and  the  wood  which  lies  near  the  house.  But  he  refused  to  accept  it. 
Then  he  got  a  few  roubles  in  cash  and  such  a  dismissal  that  he  went 
home  without  even  bidding  us  goodbye.  After  this  I  called  two 
farmers  ....  and  wrote  an  authorization  in  favor  of  our  mother, 
that  she  was  to  live  in  the  house  until  her  death,  harvest  everything, 
pay  the  taxes  and  keep  the  house  in  order,  with  the  help  and  advice 
of  these  two  farmers.  They  bound  themselves  by  their  own  signature 
that  they  won't  permit  anybody  to  take  anything,  except  Teos  in  the 
future  and  our  mother  at  present.  In  case  of  violence,  these  two 
have  the  right  to  call  on  others  for  help  and  to  prevent  positively 
any  abuse. 

Now,  my  Stas,  he  begins  to  protest  furiously  that  as  the  oldest 
son-in-law  he  has  the  right  to  sell  the  farm  at  auction,  and  he  says 


CUGOWSKI  SERIES  619 

that  he  has  your  authorization.  But  we  don't  beUeve  that  you  could 
have  resigned  in  his  favor,  particularly  in  writing.  I  don't  expect 
it  to  be  possible,  knowing  his  mean  intentions  with  regard  to  us  all. 
[Work;    condition  of  the  country.] 

JOZEF 

307  September  7,  1907 

....  Dear  Sister-in-law  and  Brother:  We  received  your 
letter  on  Thursday  ....  for  which  we  thank  you  very  much.  We 
waited  for  some  news  from  you,  but  alas!  such  a  large  space  divides 
us  that  no  news  can  come  rapidly  from  the  other  hemisphere  of  the 
earth.  But  glory  be  to  God  that  you  are  both  in  good  health,  and 
that  you,  my  Stas,  have  some  work  and  can  earn  for  your  living  and 
that  of  your  wife.  I  hope  that  later  on  you  will  get  better  and  more 
profitable  work  ....  and  then  you  can  Uve  better  than  in  our  native 
country.  You  know  how  it  was  when  you  were  leaving,  and  now 
things  don't  seem  to  get  better  but  rather  worse.  The  trade  and 
industry  are  stopping,  particularly  now  when  winter  approaches. 
Our  factory  goes  on  very  badly  ....  and  you  know,  my  dear  ones, 
that  there  is  a  numerous  family  to  nourish,  so  there  is  enough  to 
think  of  when  one  cannot  earn.  And  what  is  the  worst,  there  is  no 
place  to  go,  for  in  the  whole  country  it  is  the  same,  in  some  localities 
still  worse.  Food  has  become  much  dearer  ....  everything  costs 
about  I  more  than  before.  It  is  because  in  many  localities  hail  has 
beaten  the  crops,  in  other  locaUties  they  have  rotted,  in  Russia  and 
Lithuania  there  were  strikes  in  many  manors,  and  the  crops  were 
left  in  the  field.  Moreover  fires,  incendiary  and  from  lightning,  have 
also  destroyed  much  bread.  In  a  word,  our  Lord  God  Ux));  the 
bread  away  and  begins  to  punish  these  beastlikc  elements  which 
now  don't  acknowledge  their  Creator  as  their  Lord  above  them,  but 
in  the  most  horrible  way  blaspheme  against  Him  and  against  every- 
thing which  is  holy,  i.e.,  the  faith  and  His  commands.' 

Dear  Stas,  you  ask  me  now  for  the  second  time  to  get  from 
Baranski  your  40  roubles.  So  I  shall  describe  to  you  now  his  present 
situation.  When  he  came  back  he  got  sick  and  stayed  for  some 
weeks  in  bed.  I  was  just  then  in  their  house,  but  they  begged  mc 
'  A  good  expression  of  the  peasant's  hate  of  revohitionary  ideas,  not  c.ninter- 
balanced  in  this  case  by  any  reflection  on  the  probable  Ijearing  of  these  uleas  u|.on 
the  condition  of  the  lower  classes  or  upon  the  national  Polish  life. 


OJO  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

in  the  name  of  everything  [and  said]  that  when  he  was  better  and 
began  to  work  somewhere  he  would  try  to  get  money  and  would  give 
il  back.  But  what  happened?  A  few  days  later  he  came  to  health 
attain,  and  went  in  search  of  work  in  the  direction  of  the  frontier,  to 
Zawiercie.  And  what  did  this  scoundrel  do  ?  A  few  steps  from  the 
railway-station  he  cut  his  throat  and  stabbed  himself  three  times. 
When  people  noticed  him,  he  gave  few  signs  of  Hfe.  They  took  him 
....  to  the  hospital  ....  and  sent  her  a  telegram  asking  her 
lo  come.  I  don't  know  whether  he  is  still  alive,  and  even  if  he 
recovers,  criminal  responsibility  awaits  him,  the  scoundrel,  for  suicide.' 
.And  thus,  my  dear  ones,  your  40  roubles  are  to  be  considered  lost. 
In  their  home  is  misery,  some  children,  and  not  a  penny  put  aside. 
....  And  you  must  know,  dear  Stas,  that  you  are  not  the  only  one 
who  is  the  victim  of  this  cheater.  He  had  borrowed  money  from 
many  people  when  coming  back  from  America,  and  even  more  than 
from  vou.  Who  is  to  be  made  responsible  for  this  money,  while  this 
woman  and  her  children  ought  rather  to  have  some  help?  You 
remember  probably  how  I  advised  you  to  be  careful,  for  you  did  not 
know  him,  and  now  my  prophecy  is  almost  fulfilled 

From  our  mother  we  have  had  no  news  for  some  weeks.  I  don't 
know  how  Graj  treats  her  there.  But  it  seems  to  me  that  he  won't 
get  anything  by  his  avarice  and  wrath 

Dear  brother,  I  inform  you  about  one  thing  more.  I  don't  know 
whether  you  will  both  agree.  We  decided,  Teoa  and  I,  to  erect  a 
monument  to  our  dear  parents.  It  would  cost  about  150  roubles, 
and  the  local  priest  would  take  charge  of  the  matter,  for  it  was  he  who 
gave  this  idea,  a  very  good  one.  So  if  you  wish  to  contribute,  it 
would  be  a  monument  from  the  sons,  for  our  sisters  refused  to  take 
part  in  it;  only  the  sons  with  their  wives 

JOZEF 

308  December  29,  1907 

Dear  Sister-in-law  and  Brother:  [Expression  of  familial 
affection;  New  Year  wishes;  news  about  work  and  factory.]  I 
received  a  letter  from  our  mother  a  few  days  ago.     She  describes  to 

'  Technically  correct  as  to  the  possibility  of  prosecution,  but  a  more  unreserved 
and  self-righteous  condemnation  of  suicide  than  is  usual  among  peasants.  As 
shown  by  popular  tales  and  songs  the  attitude  is  by  no  means  uniform,  but,  as  in  the 
higher  classes,  varies  with  the  motive  of  the  suicide,  the  character  of  the  person,  and 
the  social  consequences  of  the  act. 


CUGOWSKI  SERIES  621 

me  more  or  less  her  farming,  and  writes  about  Graj,  that  he  took  all 
the  clothes  of  our  late  father.  But  no  matter;  he  can  take  nothing 
[valuable].     In  a  few  words  I  shall  describe  it  to  you.    He  wrote  a 

long  letter  to  Teos,  with  claims  to  everything  which  is  left He 

intended  to  have  it  sold  at  auction,  and  even  asked  a  lawyer's  advice. 
He  wished  by  all  means  to  triumph  and  to  have  the  upper  hand,  but 
he  was  deceived.  Teos  sent  me  his  letter,  which  he  probably  did  not 
expect.  And  of  course  I  gave  him  a  suitable  answer,  for  he  slandered 
me  as  well  as  my  wife 

JOZEF 

309  March  25,  1908 

Wednesday,  Day  of  the  Annunciation  of  the  Holiest  Virgin  Mary. 

"Praised  be  Jesus  Christus." 

My  dear  and  beloved  L[ucia]  and  S[tas]  both  together: 
[A  page  about  work  in  America  and  in  Poland.]  Dear  Stas,  I  got 
our  last  payment  from  the  factory  [insurance  money,  paid  out  when 
the  workman  leaves  the  factory,  becomes  unable  to  work  or  dies] 
and  I  put  it  into  the  bank.  You  will  have,  as  last  help,  a  few  hundred 
roubles  secure.  And  perhaps  our  Lord  God  will  bless  you  in  your  work 
and  your  intentions,  and  you  will  earn  some  more  money  and  increase 
your  capital.     May  God  grant  it ! 

Here  is  misery,  as  before;  nothing  has  changed.  If  we  work  for  a 
week  we  stop  for  another  or  two.  And  what  proscriptions  they  [the 
factory-owners]  invent!  It  is  awful.  But  what  can  we  do,  since  in 
the  whole  empire  the  conditions  are  the  same.  And  robberies  and 
attacks  are  the  order  of  the  day,  although  we  have  a  state  of  war. 
We  don't  know  when  it  will  be  abolished  and  some  rights  given  to 
the  nation.  From  our  factory  many  people  have  been  dismissed, 
the  big  mill  has  stood  still  for  some  months 

Now,  my  Stas,  I  shall  mention  something  about  Graj.  He  com- 
plains awfully  to  you  about  me  and  Ewcia  [writer's  wife],  saying  that 
we  have  wronged  him,  that  I  have  abused  him  in  my  letter  and 
Ewcia  has  told  him  the  truth.  He  says  about  me  that  Piotr  insti- 
gated me,  and  therefore  I  acted  and  decided  thus.  But  I  shall  tell 
you  only  this,  that  I  have  acted  according  to  my  own  reason  and  con- 
viction; I  am  not  a  child  that  anybody  can  instigate  and  persuade  to 
do  something  which  does  not  agree  with  the  truth  and  ray  conscience 
and  my  own  opinion,  for  I  have  my  own  reason  already.     If  he  says 


6j2  prtmarv-oroup  organization 

that  through  our  fault  he  got  too  little,  well,  I  shall  try  to  add  some 
[money]  more,  that  he  may  have  enough  and  may  not  complain  about 
me  or  my  wife.  And  I  will  mention,  or  rather  remind  him,  what  he 
pot  and  what  we  got.  And  I  will  ask  him  also  who  has  more  rights, 
whether  he,  as  the  oldest  son-in-law,  or  I,  as  the  oldest  son.  And 
if  I  mailc  such  a  decision,  it  was  not  for  my  own  benefit,  but  for 
the  benefit  of  vou  and  Teos.  This  is  the  first  point.  And  the  second 
point  is  that  all  this  [the  farm]  ought  to  remain  in  totality,  as  the 
onlv  remembrance  of  our  parents  in  our  native  country.  He  thought 
probably  that  he  would  inherit  all  this  and  would  manage  it  alone, 
but  it  cannot  be  by  any  means  and  will  not  be.     [Easter  wishes.] 

JOZEF 

310  July  12,  1908 

....  My  dear  and  beloved  L[ucia]  and  Stas:    I  received 

your  letter Don't  be  angry  with  me  for  not  having  written  to 

you,  but  I  was  sure  that  you  would  do  as  hundreds  and  thousands  of 
people  do  who  come  back  in  throngs,  cold  and  hungry.  But  since 
your  condition  is  not  so  bad,  and  moreover  you  are  both  in  good 
health,  we  are  very  glad,  and  thanks  be  for  it  to  God  the  Highest.  It 
would  not  be  a  crime  if  you  should  come  back,  but  you  know  how  it  is 
now  in  our  country,  and  so  you  are  right  in  not  moving.  [Describes 
the  economic  and  poKtical  conditions  of  the  country,  lack  of  work, 
murders.] 

Now  I  inform  you,  my  dear  ones,  about  our  success  and  health  at 
home.  I  and  my  children  are  now  healthy,  thanks  to  God,  but  with 
Ewcia  things  are  very  bad.  For  a  long  time  she  had  been  weak, 
she  walked  and  did  what  she  could.  But  almost  since  Christmas  she 
has  been  worse  and  worse,  to  such  an  extent  that  on  Easter  there 
was  nobody  to  make  anything  [any  Easter  food].  I  don't  care  for  my- 
self, but  the  children  had  almost  nothing,  and  I  have  a  heavy  sorrow, 
for  she  was  lying  sick  during  the  whole  holidays,  so  weak  that  she  could 
not  come  up  these  few  steps.  I  asked  factory  and  private  doctors,  but 
it  did  not  help  at  all,  for  it  is  a  lung  disease  which  requires  a  special 
cure.  So  a  private  doctor,  after  examination,  decided  that  she  must 
go  abroad.  So  I  had  to  do  it,  in  order  to  save  the  health  of  the 
mother  of  the  family  which  God  gave  us.  Well,  without  much  hesi- 
tating I  took  my  wife  to  Zakopane  and  placed  her  in  a  sanatorium 
there.     The  cost  is  enormous,  for  it  will  cost  almost  150  roubles 


CUGOWSKI  SERIES  623 

monthly,  but  nothing  can  be  done,  I  must  comply  with  it.  May 
God  only  grant  her  to  recover.'  I  cannot  determine  today  how  long 
she  will  be  there,  for  it  has  been  only  a  week  and  a  half.  The  doctor, 
after  examining  her,  gave  me  this  comforting  hope,  that  she  can 
recover,  but  not  soon,  at  least  in  two  months.  May  God  the  Omnipo- 
tent grant  it,  for  I  am  unhappy  with  these  small  children  in  such  a 
time  as  now.  Believe  me,  my  dear  ones,  I  cannot  keep  my  ideas 
together  in  view  of  the  burden  which  overwhelms  me.  I  try  to  get 
along  with  these  children  as  well  as  I  can,  for  it  would  be  impos- 
sible to  hire  anybody.  I  must  hire  only  for  washing,  and  the  rest 
Genia  manages  alone,  according  to  my  directions.  You  waited  for  a 
letter  from  me,  but  I  was  unable  to  write  even  a  few  words.  When 
I  came  back  from  the  factory,  instead  of  resting  I  had  to  try  to  "give 
some  food  to  this  poor  sick  woman.  But  could  I  do  it  as  it  ought 
to  be  done  ?     And  can  one  get  everything  always,  even  for  money  ? 

Yes,  dear  Lucia  and  Stas,  my  destiny  strikes  me  hard,  particularly 
as  in  the  present  time,  which  is  so  bad,  I  ought  to  be  thinking  about 
economizing  as  much  as  possible,  and  here,  on  the  contrary,  I  must 
take  the  money  which  I  have  put  aside  in  order  to  save  health.  But 
if  God  gives  health,  we  must  live  in  some  way.  Meanwhile  may  Thy 
will  be  done,  my  Lord! 

It  was  at  the  end  of  May  in  Petersburg,  I  took  Romus  [son]  to 
Teos,  that  he  might  learn  business  and  help  them.  I  have  received 
already  two  letters  from  them  and  one  from  Romus.  He  is  very 
much  pleased  and  he  understands  everything  well.  Perhaps  God 
will  grant  him  to  have  a  piece  of  bread  in  this  way  in  the  future. 
He  has  not  much  instruction,  but  Teos  also  has  little  and  lie  manages 

'  From  a  man  in  Cugowski's  position  the  sacrifice  is  great,  for  it  prohaljly 
means  a  sacrifice  of  his  whole  fortune.  A  peasant  farmer  would  hardly  do  this. 
But  it  would  be  a  mistake  to  explain  it  merely  by  a  stronger  affection.  Cugowski's 
affection  is  probably  not  much  stronger  than  that  of  an  average  peasant,  par- 
ticularly as  it  is  his  second  wife  and  as  half  a  year  after  her  death  he  marries 
for  the  third  time  and  seems  to  be  happy  again.  There  is  certamly  another 
reason  for  sacrificing  more  than  a  peasant  would;  he  is  a  hired  workman,  his 
whole  life  is  organized  upon  the  basis  of  salary,  and  property  has  for  him 
only  the  secondary  value  of  a  resource  in  the  case  of  extraordinary  c.xi.enses; 
■  its  influence  upon  his  social  standing  is  also  very  slight.  Kor  tlie  peasant  on  the 
contrary,  property  means  a  basis,  not  only  of  economic  life,  but  of  the  whole  indi- 
vidual and  social  life.  Farm-work  is  his  main  interest,  land  is  the  essential  con- 
.  dition  of  his  social  standing  in  the  community.  Therefore  for  a  peasant  a  sacnfice. 
-economically  equal  to  that  of  Cugowski  would  be  sul,jeclivcly  ..K:.,n.,.:nal.ly 
i  greater,  almost  impossible. 


624  rKlMARV-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

a  rathiT  big  business.  Romus  has  finished  two  classes,  and  if  he  is 
willinji  ho  can  learn  there,  for  it  is  easier  than  in  our  town.  Teos 
and  his  wife  don't  look  well,  although  they  have  enough  to  eat  and 
don't  lack  money.  But  they  don't  lack  work  and  trouble  either. 
They  keep  ten  men,  so  there  is  enough  to  think  about.  Three  good 
shops  and  a  bakery  are  upon  his  head.  There  is  income,  but  also 
enormous  expenses.  I  advised  them  to  take  a  smaller  business  and 
to  manage  it  alone,  then  it  would  be  easier.  But  they  say  that  every- 
thing would  be  well  were  it  not  for  those  people  who  don't  pay  their 
debts I  have  sent  long  ago  the  money  for  our  father's  monu- 
ment, but  I  have  no  news  yet  whether  it  is  ready Genia  learns 

very  well;  she  got  prizes  last  year  and  this  year.  She  passed  to  the 
3d  division 

JOZEF 

311  BoLESLAWow,  September  7,  1908 

Dear  and  beloved  Lucia  and  Stas:  ....  I  am  a  little  com- 
forted in  hearing  that  after  so  long  a  time  you  got  some  work  and 

you  will  be  able  to  earn  at  least  for  a  modest  living At  least 

you  made  your  wife  free  from  that  hea^y  work.  This  is  your  great 
luck,  granted  by  God,  that  health  favors  both  of  you  in  these 
troubles  about  material  existence,  for  otherwise  it  would  be  bad  in 
that  distant  and  foreign  country.  You  write  yourself,  my  Stas, 
that  it  is  not  well  to  be  sick  there,  because  the  doctors'  treatment 
is  bad.  The  same  usually  happens  here,  with  a  few  exceptions. 
Whoever  has  money,  has  everything,  and  whoever  is  poor,  the  wind 
always  blows  into  his  eyes  [Proverb].  And  it  is  no  news  that  the 
working-class  is  ill-favored  today,  not  only  there  but  upon  the  whole 
earth-sphere. 

As  I  have  written  you  in  the  last  letter,  I  think,  Ewcia  is  sick. 
Up  to  the  present  she  remains  in  bed,  not  even  at  home,  but  abroad, 

in  Zakopane But  thanks  to  God,  she  feels  much  better,  and 

perhaps  God  the  Almighty  will  grant  her  to  recover,  although  it  costs 
us  very  much.  More  than  two  months  have  passed  since  she  went 
there,  and  I  manage  to  get  on  alone,  as  well  as  I  can  with  my  children. 
....  If  I  could  earn  more!  But  work  is  so  bad,  that  I  earn  scarcely 
enough  to  keep  the  house,  and  God  sent  Ewcia  the  sickness,  for 
which  I  spend  the  rest  of  the  old  supplies.  I  really  don't  know 
what  will  happen  when  everything  is  spent,  and  if  health  does  not 


CUGOWSKI  SERIES  62  s 

come  back.  I  don't  know  what  I  shall  do  alone  with  these  small 
children.  ....  But  Thy  will  be  done,  0  Lord!  [Crops;  weather; 
bad  condition  of  the  country.] 

JOZEF 

3^2  January  6,  1909 

Day  of  the  Three  Kings  f  G[aspar]  f  M[elchior]  \  B[althazar]' 

"Praised  be  Jesus  Christus." 

Dear  and  beloved  Lucia  and  Stas:  [Two  pages  about  tlie 
factory  in  which  he  is  working  and  the  conditions  of  the  work.]  Now 
I  shall  describe  to  you,  my  dear  ones,  our  present  sorrow,  which 
harasses  me  terribly.  Ewcia  has  been  severely  sick  for  the  last  three 
weeks,  and  so  feeble  that  she  cannot  rise,  while  there  is  unhappily 
nobody  to  do  anything  for  this  poor  sick  woman  and  give  her  even 
any  food.  Genia  goes  to  school,  and  even  if  she  did  not,  she  is  still 
a  child  and  what  can  be  asked  from  her  ?  I  took  a  maid,  but  God 
pity  us!  She  is  quite  incapable  of  doing  anything.  And  I  go  to  the 
factory  for  the  whole  day,  so  you  can  imagine  what  care  this  jioor 
sick  woman  has.  My  health  is  also  beginning  to  be  ruined.  Four 
weeks  ago  I  got  a  spineache  which  plagued  me  so  much  in  the  begin- 
ning that  I  had  to  lie  down  and  remained  ten  da\'s  in  bed;  I  was 
unable  to  move  my  hand  or  foot,  and  the  pain  was  terrible.  Even 
today  I  am  not  cjuite  well,  but  I  cannot  remain  in  bed,  I  must  walk  as 
well  as  I  can,  for  my  duties  oblige  me  to  do  it.  My  sickness  also  has 
contributed  to  some  extent  to  make  my  wife's  health  worse.  And 
so  she  is  grieved  because  of  my  sickness,  and  I  am  grieved  a  hundred 
fold  more  by  her  sickness,  for  mine  can  pass  with  time,  while  God 

alone  knows  how  long  hers  will  last To  complete  all  this,  I 

received  a  letter  from  Teos  before  Christmas  [informing  nicl  that 
Michasia  [his  wife]  was  dangerously  ill  with  typhoid  fever.  'VUv 
letter  was  full  of  such  a  terrible  sorrow  that  we  wept  over  their  lol. 
although  ours  is  not  better  in  this  respect.  And,  so  my  di'ar  Lucia 
and  Stas,  I  announce  sad  news  to  you.  You  have  wished  us  a 
Merry  Christmas,  but  we  have  spent  it  almost  in  tears,  particularly 
I,  for  there  is  nobody  to  do  anything.  I  don't  care  about  myself, 
but  about  my  children.  And  so  from  all  sides  sorrow  and  grief 
harass  the  man  in  this  poor  life,  and  there  is  no  better  hope  in  any 
respect Jozef  and  Ewa  with  'I'mkik   I'"amii.y 

'  These  three  letters  arc  written  on  January  6,  with  consecralcd  i  lialk,  upon 
the  door  of  every  house,  and  are  not  to  be  erased  until  the  fullowinj,'  year. 


626  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

^i^  February  28,  1909 

....  Dearest  Lucia  and  Stas:  ....  I  announce  to  you,  my 
dear  ones,  a  very  sad  news,  a  terrible  blow  that  befell  me  a  few  weeks 
a^'o.  Even  today  I  don't  know  how  to  describe  it  to  you,  because  of 
my  heavy  sorrow  and  terrible  grief. 

As  I  told  you  in  my  last  letter,  we  both  were  sick,  Ewcia  and  I. 
Today  I  am  in  good  health,  thanks  to  God,  for  my  sickness  was 

transitory  and  through  care  my  pains  have  disappeared But 

my  dear  poor  Ewcia  bade  us  farewell  forever,  leaving  these  little 
children  orphans  and  me  in  a  heavy  sorrow  with  them.  I  don't 
know  how  to  describe  to  you,  my  dear  ones,  what  a  terrible  woe  and 
despair  are  tossing  me.  I  don't  know  how  to  define  this  terrible  blow; 
I  almost  lose  my  senses.  After  such  care  on  my  part,  after  such 
enormous  expenses,  it  was  impossible  to  save  her  by  any  means  from 
that  terrible  disease,  until  it  ended  v;ith  death  amid  horrible  sufferings. 
She  was  conscious  almost  till  the  last  moment,  and  begged  us  in  the 
name  of  everything  that  is  sacred  to  help  her,  poor  martyr.  You 
can  imagine,  my  dear  ones,  what  was  going  on  within  me  when  my 
children's  mother  and  my  wife  implored  for  help  and  I  could  not 
help  her.  My  heart  almost  burst  open  with  grief  in  looking  at  a  dear 
person  whose  life  was  going  out  forever  before  my  eyes,  and  who  had  a 
right  to  live,  who  was  very  necessary  in  this  world  to  bring  up  her 
children  who  were  so  small.  You  have  no  idea  what  a  torture  it  is 
for  the  dying  person  when  she  is  conscious.  I  cannot  describe  it  and 
nobody  can  relate  it.  But  I  had  no  less  to  suffer  in  looking  at  such 
an  agony.  For  if  an  old  person  dies  one  can  more  easily  comply  with  it, 
while  my  poor  Ewcia  was  still  a  young  woman;  she  had  lived  scarcely 
36  years,  she  was  in  the  fulness  of  life,  and  she  had  to  die.  I  was  glad 
when  she  came  back  from  abroad  in  September.  She  looked  so  well, 
and  she  was  so  full  of  joy  that  she  had  got  her  health  back.  But  our 
rejoicing  did  not  last.  After  a  few  weeks  she  began  to  get  worse,  and 
so  rapidly  that  there  was  no  help.  Every  day  she  was  worse ;  you  could 
almost  see  her  fade  away.  I  brought  doctors  again  ....  but  it  did 
not  help  at  all.     Three  weeks  before  Christmas  she  lay  down  and  did 

not  rise  again Sad  is  my  lot,  for  I  am  today  in  such  a  situation, 

that  I  have  neither  money  nor  wife,  nor,  what  is  the  most  important, 
a  mother  for  my  children.  You  must  know  my  dear  ones,  that  the 
3  months  abroad  cost  more  than  500  roubles  and,  counting  other 
expenses,  I  suffered  an  awful  loss.     And  all  this  was  in  vain,  for 


CUGOWSKI  SERIES  627 

nobody  has  ever  recovered  from  consumption,  and  poor  Ewcia  was 
sick  with  this  terrible  disease.  Now,  after  her  death  and  funeral 
I  had  to  sell,  almost  for  nothing,  her  bedding  and  many  other  things 
which  she  used,  and  I  don't  know  what  to  do  with  the  things  which  are 
left.  It  is  easy  to  waste  them,  while  they  cost  a  considerable  sum  of 
money.  And  I  have  no  near  friends  with  me  who  would  give  me 
salutary  good  advice.  Everything  has  fallen  upon  my  head,  troubled 
with  a  heavy  sorrow.  You  can  agree  yourselves,  my  dear  ones,  that 
my  present  situation  is  painful  above  any  expression.  But  Thy  will 
be  done,  O  Lord!  I  must  carry  this  heavy  cross  which  you  have  put 
upon  me,  O  Lord!  Give  me  only  strength  and  patience  in  order  not 
to  fall  under  its  weight! 

My  dear  ones,  I  should  have  much  to  write  you  still,  but  excuse 
me,  for  even  in  penning  these  few  words  my  heart  is  cut  with  sorrow, 
and  I  write  almost  without  ideas,  they  have  become  so  entangled. 
Three  weeks  have  passed  today  since  she  left  us,  i.e.,  on  February  7,  at 
10  o'clock  in  the  evening,  and  still  I  cannot  come  to  myself  and  I 
don't  know  what  will  be  further.  I  only  pray  God  to  give  me  health 
in  order  to  earn  bread  for  these  poor  orphans,  and  to  educate  them 
that  they  may  find  their  way  in  life.  For  myself  I  don't  foresee  any 
happiness  upon  this  miserable  world,  for  I  have  experienced  none  up 
to  the  present.  In  less  than  17  years  I  have  buried  two  wives,  and 
in  such  conditions  one  may  become  weary  of  his  life 

JOZEF 

314  April  2,  1909 

My  beloved  Lucia  and  Stas:  ....  You  probabI\- 
received  my  letter  with  the  sad  news,  what  a  severe  blow  befell  me. 
The  second  month  since  the  death  of  my  dear  Ewcia  will  be  ended 
soon,  and  still  I  cannot  adjust  myself  to  this  reality.  I  feel  so  lonely. 
Every  object  reminds  me  vividly  how  great  a  lack  is  felt  at  every 
step  when  one  has  no  wife,  mother  and  housekeeper.  Still  more 
I  feel  it  now,  when  the  solemn  holidays  of  Easter  are  approaching. 
Everybody  rejoices,  even  if  he  is  in  misery,  on  this  joyful  day.  wliile 
I,  unhappy  man,  experience  for  the  second  time  such  an  awful  |.;un  -.1 
heart,  particularly  today,  being  burdened  with  so  numerous  a  fam.l>- 
and  in  the  critical  times  which  have  prevailed  in  our  country  .lunng 
the  last  few  years.     But  nothing  can  be  done,  such  is  evident !>•  my 


6j8  trim AKV-c'.Rorr  organization 

destiny  from  God,  to  bear  only  heavy  crosses  and  sorrow  and  toil- 
some labor.  In  a  word,  it  is  not  granted  to  me  to  share  bright  and 
plcas;int  davs,  but  only  thick  clouds  overshadow  the  horizon  of  my 
life  and  send  sometimes  strong  lightnings  which  shatter  almost 
totally  the  remnants  of  hope  of  my  wretched  life  in  this  valley  of 
tears.  And  I  can  say  truly  "My  soul  is  sorrowful  even  unto  death." 
But  Thv  will  be  done.  0  Lord!  And  although  I  am  so  tormented  with 
different  kinds  of  afflictions,  still  I  don't  lose  hope  in  the  mercy  of  the 
Highest,  that  He  will  deign  to  comfort  me  at  least  for  the  short  time 
of  my  shattered  Ufe.  And  conscious  of  the  duties  which  I  have,  I 
invigorate  myself  with  this  hope  and  say,  aft2r  the  Lord's  Psalmist: 
"Sursum  Corda." 

Dear  Stas,  I  inform  you  moreover  that  besides  the  sorrow  which  I 
bear  one  thing  still  harasses  us,  i.e.,  this  miserable  fortune  which  was 
left  after  the  death  of  our  parents.  As  you  know,  my  Stas,  Graj  was  thf: 
mainspring  in  trying  to  manage  so  that  it  might  not  get  into  your 
hands  or  those  of  Teos,  that  it  might  not  be  willed  to  any  of  you  by  a 
notarial  act  during  our  father's  life.  And  thus  it  happened.  So  now 
Graj  gives  Teo5  no  rest,  but  "dries  his  head"  [annoys  him  by  asking] 
continually  that  a  division  may  be  made,  or  that  Teos  will  give  him 
the  power  to  be  a  trustee  of  it.  But  I  cannot  agree  to  it  in  any  way. 
He  does  not  write  to  me,  for  he  is  afraid  because  I  have  abused  him 
much,  once  during  our  dear  father's  funeral,  and  then  for  the  second 
time  in  my  letter.  So  he  corresponds  now  only  with  Teos  and  gives 
him  no  rest  but  wants  to  benefit  from  it  himself  and  to  drive  our  step- 
mother away.  But  he  does  not  succeed,  for  I  know  about  everything 
because  Teos  sends  me  all  his  letters;  he  does  not  suspect  it  probably. 
He  tries  to  persuade  Anusia's  husband  also,  a  man  named  ]\Iargas,  to 
cede  him  their  claims,  and  proposes  to  let  this  Margas  live  in  this  house. 
This  Margas  wrote  already  to  me  and  to  Teos  that  a  part  is  due  to 
him  also.  But  I  don't  know  him  and  don't  wish  to  have  this  pleasure. 
And  so,  my  Stas,  think  about  it  well,  how  to  act.  If  you  want  to  keep 
this  farm,  I  as  well  as  Teos,  will  give  you  a  written  document  that  we 
resign  our  claims  in  favor  of  you,  and  you  may  then  make  some  plan 
with  it,  that  it  may  remain  with  you  and  that  in  the  future  our  name 
at  least  will  be  there.  To  tell  the  truth,  it  is  not  a  resting-place  for 
us  even  in  the  future,  for  I  suppose  that  it  will  end  by  being  equally 
divided,  and  then  each  member  of  the  family  will  get  perhaps  60 
roubles  or  even  less,  and  it  will  not  profit  one  member  to  pay  all  the 


CUGOWSKI  SERIES  629 

others  off,  because  there  are  8  parts You  know,  my  dear  ones, 

that  Teos  and  I  have  enough  of  our  own  troubles,  and  I  don't  want  to 
occupy  myself  with  something  which  has  little  material  importance 
for  me.  And  again,  to  give  it  to  some  fool  Uke  Graj  or  to  some 
Margas  that  he  may  get  the  whole  benefit  is  not  suitable  and  I  don't 
think  of  it.  We  have  resolved  that  our  stepmother  shall  stay  there 
until  her  death  and  shall  care  for  everything,  but  they  don't  Hke  it  and 
Graj  wants  to  have  the  upper  hand  and  to  drive  her  away;    but 

without    our   permission   he   can   do   nothing Perhaps    our 

Lord  will  grant  us  to  meet  this  year  at   the   consecration   of  our 

parent's   monument;     then   we   could   settle   this   matter I 

beg  you,  dear  Stas,  after  receiving  this  letter  write  at  once  to  Teos  and 
me 

JOZEF 

315  December  12,  1909 

"L[audetur]  J[esus]  Chr[istus]." 

Dear  Lucia  and  Stas:  After  so  long  an  interruption  I  bring 
it  about  to  write  you  something  about  myself,  and  during  so  long  a 
time  much  material  of  different  content  has  gathered.  [Letter  and 
photograph  received.] 

I  inform  you  first,  that  I  have  entered  for  the  third  time  into  the 
conjugal  bond.     My  wedding  was  performed  on  October  31,  in  the 

parish  Wojciechowice My  wife's  maiden  name  is  Marya  P. 

She  is  a  young  person  only  26.  She  is  of  the  size  of  the  deceased,  but 
her  character  is  mild  beyond  expression,  so  that  in  a  few  days  she 
knew  so  well  how  to  gain  the  love  of  the  children,  particularly  of 
the  Httle  Stasia,  that  the  latter  begins  to  cry  aloud  at  the  mention  of 
her  leaving.  In  a  word,  I  thank  God  and  the  Holiest  Mother  for 
their  holy  providence.  I  can  say  boldly  and  from  my  heart  that 
further  my  fife  will  be  lighter  and  happier,  for  I  have  suffered  very 
much  in  my  Hfe,  particularly  during  the  last  times.  I  am  unable  to 
describe  what  an  enormous  burden  oppressed  my  shoulders.  But  God 
the  Almighty  in  his  Providence  deigned  to  comfort  me.  It  is  true  ihal 
only  a  few  weeks  have  passed  since  our  wedding,  but  I  am  confident 
that  the  future  will  be  most  certainly  light,  for  such  a  noble  character 
as  that  with  which  my  beloved  Marynia  is  endowed  can  never  change. 
I  at  least  will  give  not  the  slightest  reason  for  it  but  will  endeavor  by 
all  means  to  reward  her  sacrifice,  for  it  is  indeed  not  a  small  sacrifice, 


O^o  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

anil  I  shall  know  how  to  appreciate  it  duly  after  so  many  troubles  and 
such  a  heavy  sorrow.  But  I  won't  describe  it  in  detail;  perhaps 
God  will  grant  us  to  see  one  another  and  then  you  will  get  acquainted 
with  mv  chosen  little  wife.  Meanwhile  ....  we  send  you  our 
wedding  photograph.  I  dont  know  whether  you  will  like  her  in 
the  photograph,  although  I  may  say  that  she  is  well  [pretty]  enough.' 
Hut  I  inform  vou  at  the  same  time  of  news  sad  beyond  expression. 
Gcnia  has  been  dangerously  and  severely  ill  for  some  weeks,  and  this 
grieves  us  much.  ]\Iay  God  give  her  recovery,  for  it  is  really  a  pity. 
Such  a  good  child Marya  and  Jozef 


316  October  15,  1910 

....  My  beloved  Lucia  and  Stas:  First  I  inform  you,  my 
dear  ones,  about  the  very  sad  accident  which  happened  in  that 
miraculous  place,  Jasna  Gora  [Cz^stochowa],  through  this  scoundrel 
and  murderer,  the  Paulinist  Damazy  ]\Iacoch,  and  his  mates.  They 
disgraced  the  miraculous  image  of  the  Holiest  Mother  and  robbed  it 
of  jewels  and  costly  adornments.  Moreover,  they  have  long  passed 
their  time  in  the  cloister-cells  in  revelry,  and  this  year  in  July  they 
committed  a  murder  in  this  holy  place.     It  is  impossible  to  describe 

what  a  feeling  of  oppression  prevailed  in  the  country But 

thanks  to  God,  the  main  criminal  and  his  as«ociates  have  been  caught, 
and  justice  will  measure  a  merited  punishment  to  them.  [News 
about  work,  factory,  weather.] 

Dear  Stas,  there  is  the  question  of  this  miserable  property  left  by 
our  deceased  parents.  As  you  know,  it  is  not  willed  to  anybody,  but 
must  be  divided  into  equal  parts.  Teos  wrote  to  me  asking  me  to 
arrange  it,  but  no  other  arrangement  can  be  made  except  an  equal 
division.  So  we  came  to  an  understanding  with  Teos  and  it  is  decided 
thus,  for  you  must  agree  yourself  that  such  a  situation  cannot  last  long; 

everything  gets  wasted,  and  there  is  no  proprietor  to  repair 

Write  me  your  opinion 

Marya  and  Jozef  with  Their  Family 

'  Here  the  man's  conjugal  attitude  is  completely  indi\'idualized.  .\lthough 
the  marriage  was  probably  contracted  partly  for  economic  reasons,  partly  with 
regard  to  the  children,  Cugowski,  whose  individual  feelings  are  more  developed 
than  in  the  average  peasant  and  less  subordinated  to  the  familial  attitudes,  intro- 
duces a  sentimental  element  into  his  conjugal  relations,  which  is  usually  lacking 
even  in  firs*  marriages  of  peasants. 


CUGOWSKI  SERIES  631 

3^7  August  5,  191 1 

....  Beloved  Lucia  and  Stas:    I  beg  your  pardon  for  not 

having  given  you  any  news It  is  not  a  big  thing  to  write  a  few 

words  and  it  does  not  take  much  time,  only  the  most  important  part 
is  played  here  by  a  thought  free  [of  care],  while  I  ha\'e  very  little  of  it, 
for  trouble  and  sorrow  have  been  my  continual  companions  since  long 
ago.  Our  Lord  God  does  not  spare  me  His  crosses  in  this  miserable 
valley  of  sorrow.  And  so,  beginning  with  the  sickness  and  death  of  m\' 
wife  Ewcia,  a  year  later  [came]  the  death  of  my  beloved  and  always 
regretted  daughter  Geniusia.  She  was  extinguished  like  a  light 
while  still  like  a  blossoming  bud  of  a  pure  lily.  The  sorrow  of  my 
heart  after  the  loss  of  these  dear  beings  is  not  yet  calmed,  the  wound 
of  the  heart  is  not  yet  healed,  and  already  a  new  blow  begins  to 
wound  my  heart,  for  even  if  I  do  not  wish  it,  I  must  tell  you  the 
sad  news  in  order  to  relieve  myself  a  little  at  least.  Well,  it  is  so, 
my  dear  ones.  Henio  [son]  has  been  sickly  for  a  long  time,  but  now 
for  a  few  months  he  has  been  seriously  sick.  I  don't  wish  to  believe 
it,  but  it  proves  that  he  has  the  same  symptoms  of  disease  as  Ewcia 
and  Geniusia  had.  Neither  medicine  nor  strengthening  food  is  of 
any  help;  he  is  weaker  and  weaker,  he  looks  worse  and  worse,  until 
at  last  he  will  end  with  this  sad  death. 

And  so,  my  beloved  Lucia  and  Stas,  this  is  more  or  less  the  first 
side  of  the  medal  of  my  present  life,  concerning  the  feelings  of  my 
heart  and  the  moral  side.  And  now  as  to  the  material  side,  I  cannot 
say  that  it  is  painted  with  bright  colors.     [Work;   factory  conditions.] 

DearL.  and  S.,  inform  me  what  is  the  news  with  you From 

Teos  I  have  had  no  news  lately.  They  succeed  rather  well,  but 
health  favors  neither  of  them.  Romus  and  Micio  are  with  them. 
Romus  has  been  there  for  more  than  three  years,  and  I  took  Micio 
last  October.  Romus  is  already  a  rather  good  salesman.  As  to 
Bogunia,  she  has  finished  three  divisions  [of  the  village  school |  and 
we  don't  know  what  to  do  with  her  now.  Irenka  passed  into  llic 
second  division.  She  does  not  learn  well,  but  she  is  health \  and 
strong.  Stasia  is  also  in  good  health,  only  my  poor  dear  Hcnio  is 
very  weak  and  it  will  clearly  be  dithcult  for  him  to  recover.  But 
may  God  grant  it,  for  I  am  very  sorry  for  him. 

Now  I  shall  mention  in  short  our  actual  common  life.  Thanks  to 
God,  I  cannot  complain  about  my  wife.  She  complies  with  every- 
thing as  well  as  she  can,  not  badly.     Well,  and  the  fruit  of  our  love 


i\T,2  rRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

came  to  us,  of  female  kind;  she  is  6  months  old,  is  healthy  and  keeps 
well. 

Inform  us,  my  dear  ones,  what  is  the  news  with  you,  how  does 
vour  health  serve  you,  how  do  you  succeed,  and  how  about  your 
projjcnv  ?  Do  you  think  of  increasing  your  family  now,  or  only  when 
\ou  have  put  some  capital  aside ?..... 

Marya  and  Jozef  with  Their  Family 

318  November  12,  1911 

....  Beloved  Lucia  and  Stas:  ....  We  are  glad  that  you 
are  both  in  good  health  and  success,  and  the  proof  of  it  is  that  you 
intend  to  buy  a  house.  May  God  help  you,  my  dear  ones!  Happy 
the  man  who  does  not  need  to  pay  this  awful  tribute  of  rent,  having 
the  opportunity  to  come  to  [acquire]  his  own  property. 

My  dear  L.  and  S.,  probably  you  think  more  than  once  .... 
why  do  I  write  to  you  so  seldom  ?  But  you  will  agree  that  I  have 
many  reasons  to  be  downhearted  and  sluggish  and  lazy  toward  every- 
thing, so  to  speak.  I  shall  explain  to  you  at  least  some  part  of  these 
reasons.  Well,  you  know  what  I  passed  through  after  your  depar- 
ture. I  lost  first  my  wife,  a  year  later  my  dear  Geniusia.  This  year 
a  third  blow  struck  me,  a  not  less  hard  one;  my  beloved  little  son 
Henio  bade  us  farewell  forever  on  September  13.  I  am  unable  to 
describe  my  woe;  you  have  no  idea  what  sorrow  and  pain  of  heart 
toss  me  after  the  loss  of  these  my  dearest  beings.  I  should  not  wish 
to  my  worst  enemy  that  which  God  sends  upon  me.  Among  such 
pains  and  afiiictions  one  simply  does  not  want  to  live;  the  world, 
even  in  its  most  beautiful  colors,  loses  its  charm,  and  one  becomes 
indifferent  toward  everything.  Verily  I  am  that  martyr  whom  God 
puts  to  the  test  and  whom  destiny  strikes  heavily.  But  Thy  will 
be  done,  0  Lord !  I  say  only  this :  Ill-fated  [euphemistically,  instead 
of  "accursed"]  is  this  disease  against  which  no  remedy  has  been  found 
up  to  the  present,  but  whoever  is  afflicted  with  it  sees  an  inevitable 
death  before  his  eyes.  And  it  is  the  most  terrible  disease,  for  it 
consumes  gradually,  leaving  the  mind  conscious  almost  until  the 
moment  of  agony.  And  how  many  victims  it  swallows  at  different 
ages,  mostly  in  youth.  I  will  add  only  this,  that  it  cannot  be  described, 
what  a  grief  tears  the  heart  in  looking  upon  the  slow  agony  of  a  dear 
being  when  you  are  unable  to  help,  to  give  some  reUef  or  even  some 


CUGOWSKI  SERIES  633 

hope,  while  this  [being]  implores  to  be  saved.  My  beloved  children, 
how  they  longed  for  life!  My  dear  Geniusia  mentioned  you  often, 
saying  that,  when  you  came  back  she  would  already  be  grown  up.  But 
when  the  poor  child  was  sick  in  bed,  she  said  herself:  "I  shan't  see 
auntie  or  uncle  any  more."  And  how  she  wished  to  see  Teos!  In  the 
same  way  my  beloved  Henio  asked  more  than  once:  "Please,  father, 
when  will  uncle  come  back  from  America,  for  I  should  like  so  much  to 
see  him."  But  alas!  too  large  a  space  divides  us,  we  could  not 
even  dream  about  it.  Let  us  rather  leave  these  sad  questions  in 
peace,  for  tears  overflow  the  eyes  and  the  heart  almost  bursts  open 
with  heavy  grief.  My  dear  ones,  as  to  this  money  of  yours,  it  is  sent 
and  probably  you  will  receive  it  sooner  than  this  letter.  I  had  some 
trouble  with  it,  for  you  did  not  send  me  any  authorization,  and  I 
had  to  show  your  letter  as  a  proof  that  you  had  asked  it  sent.     They 

did  it  only  for  me,  out  of  politeness,  because  they  know  me 

This  is  how  your  capital  stands:  I  have  sent  375  roubles,  the  sending 
cost  3  roubles,  94  copecks,  20  roubles  are  left  as  your  share,  which  you 
can  receive  only  after  New  Year.  You  have  also  20  roubles  with  me, 
and  as  I  wrote  you,  the  monument  upon  the  grave  of  our  parents 
cost  150  roubles,  so  I,  Teos,  and  you  have  contributed  50  roubles  each. 
....  I  did  not  use  your  money  on  anything  else,  for  it  was  put  in  the 
bank  in  your  name,  and  I  could  have  put  in  even  the  biggest  sums, 
and  they  would  not  have  given  me  back  even  a  penny.     Such  is  the 

law _ 

M[arya]  and  Jozef  with  Their  Family 


BARSZCZEWSKI  SERIES 

The  family  Barszczewski  lives  on  the  limits  of  ethno- 
graphical Poland.  The  province  of  Grodno  has  a  mixed 
Polish,  Lithuanian,  and  White  Ruthenian  population.  As 
it  lies  outside  of  the  kingdom  of  Poland  fixed  in  1815,  the 
etTorts  at  Russification  have  always  been  stronger  and  more 
continuous  there;  thus,  there  is  a  certain  influence  of  Russian 
culture.  These  two  factors  explain  certain  differences  in 
attitudes  when  compared  with  the  normal  psychology  of  the 
Polish  peasant.  The  infiltration  of  eastern  influences  may 
perhaps  be  the  reason  for  the  marked  dissolution  of  the 
family  relation  which  we  find  here.  The  father  does  not 
hve  with  the  mother  (No.  322),  Stanislaw  quarrels  with 
Jozefa,  with  Kryszczak,  with  Aleksander  B.,  and  breaks  off 
relations  almost  completely  with  his  parents — all  because 
of  certain  economic  misunderstandings.  Tomasz  writes  an 
exceptionally  hard  letter  to  his  mother  when  she  asks  for 
help  (No.  328).  Their  brother-in-law,  Stefan,  is  accused  of 
indifference  by  his  sister  and  parents.  And  it  is  evident 
from  other  facts  that  this  situation  is  the  result  of  the  dissolu- 
tion of  a  former  state  of  greater  solidarity.  Indeed  the 
claims  of  familial  soHdarity  are  the  same  as  in  a  normal 
Polish  family.  For  example,  everybody  asks  Stanislaw 
for  money  on  the  basis  of  the  familial  relations.  And  those 
claims  are  still  partly  recognized;  Tomasz  had  lent  money 
to  Stanislaw,  Stanislaw  gives  a  dowry  to  his  sister.  More 
than  this,  we  find  here  a  typical  endeavor  to  estabhsh  a 
personal  connection  between  two  members  of  the  family  who 
do  not  know  each  other  (No.  328).     Thus  the  fundamental 

634 


BARSZCZEWSKI  SERIES  635 

familial  organization  was  evidently  the  same  as  everywhere 
among  the  Polish  peasants.  And  the  disorganization  can- 
not be  explained  merely  by  the  influence  of  modern  hfe,  since 
it  exists  already  in  the  older  generation  and  could  hardly 
develop  so  rapidly  in  the  young  generation  if  it  had  not  been 
prepared. 

The  second  feature  is  the  "philosophical"  attitude  to- 
ward social  and  religious  problems  which  we  find  in  the 
letters  of  Tomasz  and  Aleksander.  It  is  not  Polish  in  its 
form,  but  reminds  us  of  the  socialistic  and  mystical  reflec- 
tions, usually  clad  in  poetical  expressions,  of  the  Russian 
home-bred  "philosophers  of  life."  The  route  by  which 
the  influence  came  is  easily  explained;  it  can  be  only  the 
Russian  literature.  Accordingly,  those  attitudes  are  rather 
superficial,  particularly  with  Tomasz;  they  do  not  greatly 
influence  the  practical  hfe. 

THE  FAMILY  BARSZCZEWSKI 

Jan  Barszczewski,  a  farmer 
His  wife 

Tomasz 

Stanislaw       ,  . 

>  his  sons 
Antoni 

Aleksander 

JozefaKryszczak    U  is  daughters 

Wiktora  Btaszczuk  J 

Antonina,  wife  of  Tomasz 

Marya  (Wiszniewska),  wife  of  Stanislaw 

Marya  (Gorska),  wife  of  Aleksander 

Paulina,  wife  of  Antoni 

Aleksander  Kryszczak,  husband  of  Jozefa 

Alfons,  son  of  Tomasz 

Adela,  daughter  of  Wiktora  Blaszczuk 

Stefan  Gorski,  brother  of  Marya,  Aleksandcr's  wife 

Stefan's  father 


63(. 


PKI MARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 


^19-48,    TO   STANISLAW   BARSZCZEWSKI,    IN    AMERICA,    FROM 
FAMILY-MEMBERS,    IN   POLAND 

ijQ  Grodno,  November  17,  1906 

[To  Stanislaw  Barszczewski.  Beginning  of  the  letter  missing.] 
About  70,000  people  are  tortured  in  prisons,  hundreds  have  been  shot 
and  hanged.  The  spring  ....  will  probably  put  more  innocent 
victims  to  Uie  sword  than  the  present  winter,  for  the  blood  that  is 
shed,  the  fire  of  cities  and  villages,  do  not  subdue  the  people  but 
rather  kindle  hatred  against  their  persecutors  and  oppressors.  In 
our  province  it  is  a  httle  quieter  but  at  Indur  robbers  compelled  the 
post-official  to  give  them  all  the  money  from  the  office.  In  Sisdra 
the  post-official  killed  one  and  wounded  another  of  12  robbers,  and 
the  others  fled  without  money.     But  it  does  not  matter  much  as  long 

as  there  is  no  army  with  guns  in  villages  and  cities Now 

everything  is  dear,  from  salt  and  matches  up  to  the  coat  on  your 
shoulders  and  the  wagon  of  firewood  at  the  market;  cheap  is  only 
the  fife  of  the  poor  man,  because  it  is  taken  away  without  question, 
without  witnesses,  without  court. 

Probably  you  are  longing  there,  dear  brother,  and  sometimes 
sorrowful.  I  anticipate  that  although  such  a  great  distance  of  land 
and  sea  separates  you,  still  in  your  thought  you  visit  your  countr\-, 
your  relatives,  and  friends;  you  remember  the  radiant  moments  and 
the  painful  hours,  you  imagine  the  circumstances  met  long  ago; 
your  native  country-house  with  its  straw-roof  and  its  dear  inhabitants 
seems  lovely  to  you;  perhaps  even  the  curved  ridge  between  the  fields 
or  a  naked  stone  upon  the  stripped  soil  reminds  you  sweetly  of  some 

mystery  of  the  past 

ToMASZ  Barszczewski 


320  Village  Sytki,  December  26,  1906 

Our  dearest  Son  Stanislaw:  We,  your  parents,  inform  you  that 
we  are  alive  and  healthy,  thanks  to  our  Lord  God.  We  wish  to  you 
also  good  health,  and  may  God's  Mother  bless  you  in  your  health 
and  help  you  in  your  plans,  and  may  the  Savior  of  the  world  not  forget 
you,  because  you  don't  forget  us.  Truly,  you  are  our  son,  because 
you  remember  our  family.  So  we  also  bless  you,  at  least  in  a  letter, 
since  we  cannot  speak  with  you  face  to  face  and  heart  to  heart.     God 


BARSZCZEWSKI  SERIES  637 

alone  knows  whether  we  shall  yet  speak  with  you,  at  least  once  before 
our  death,  and  embrace  you  in  our  parental  arms. 

[Barszczewskis] 
[Greetings  and  wishes  from  brothers.] 

And  now  I,  [your]  sister  Jozefa,  I  throw  myself  upon  your  neck, 
dear  brother,  and  I  kiss  innumerable  times  your  brotherly  lips,  at  least 
by  letter.  May  God  keep  you,  brother,  in  His  care,  may  God's 
Mother  help  you  in  all  your  plans,  may  the  Guardian  Angel  care  for 
you  and  remember  you  at  every  step,  as  you  don't  forget  about  me 
and  help  me.  You  sent  me  for  my  dowry  such  a  big  sum.  I  did  not 
hope  to  receive  such  a  gift,  those  100  roubles.  Once  more  I  return 
and  kiss  your  brotherly  lips,  ten  times  for  every  rouble. 

Your  sister,  loving  to  the  grave, 

Jozefa  Barszczewska 

321  November  10,  1907 

Answer:  "In  centuries  of  centuries.  Amen,"  In  the  first  words 
of  my  letter:   "Praised  be  Jesus  Christus." 

And  then  I  send  you,  brother,  a  low  bow,  and  I  wish  you  from  our 
Lord  God  every  good,  first  health,  then  happiness,  in  a  land  so  far 
away  from  your  native  country.  May  this  God's  Mother  defend 
you  against  every  ill.  0,  Saint  Anthony,  O  Miraculous,  hear  my 
prayer!  And  you,  all  Saints,  help  my  dear  brother  in  so  far  a  land 
to  pass  happily  his  time  of  service.  And  then  also  I,  husband  of 
Jozefa  from  the  village  Bujak,  Aleksander  Kryszczak,  your  future 
brother-in-law,  I  send  you,  dear  brother-in-law,  my  lowest  bow  and  I 
wish  you  from  our  Lord  God  every  good,  whatever  you  ask  from  God. 
And  then  together  with  my  wife,  your  sister  Jozefa,  we  send  you  the 
lowest  bow  and  we  wish  you  from  our  Lord  God  to  hve  in  health  and 
happiness  in  America. 

Now,  dear  brother,  you  sent  a  letter  and  you  speak  in  it  about 
being  angrv  with  me,  your  sister  Jozefa,  and  with  brother  Aleksander. 
You  have  a  reason  to  be  angry  with  our  brother,  but  with  me  you  have 
no  reason  to  be  angry.  You  write  that  I  took  the  cow.  But  I  (h<l 
not  take  the  cow  myself,  but  our  parents  themselves  let  me  take  it. 
It  was  a  sort  of  a  dowry  that  I  took.  I  did  not  .Im.nid  anyt Inng 
from  our  parents,  and  my  husband  Aleksander  dul  not  demand  .1, 
because  he  heard  from  our  parents  that  you  wrote  a  letter  that  you 


0;S  rRlMAKV-C-.ROlT  ORGANIZATION 

winiltl  send  mc  money  for  a  cow.  And  now  you  write  about  being 
anu'ry  with  nic.  But  I  did  not  take  it  myself.  Our  parents  said  so, 
"  Wo  have,  thanks  to  God,  two  cows,  so  take  the  old  one,  and  the  young 
one  will  remain  with  us,  and  when  your  brother  sends  you  money, 
you  will  buy  another,  or  you  will  have  it  for  something  else." 

0,  dear  brother-in-law,  if  you  knew,  what  a  misfortune  I  had.  A 
C(nv,  when  calving,  went  away  [died],  and  a  young  horse,  3  years  old, 
died  also.  Therefore  we  beg  you,  dear  brother-in-law,  don't  be  angry 
with  me  and  with  my  wife,  because  we  have  a  farm  which,  thanks 
to  God,  cannot  be  counted  as  small — two  parts  of  [my  father's]  farm 
(the  third  is  taken  away  for  my  uncle),  and  10  desiatinas  [=  20  morgs  = 

2b  acres]  which  I  bought And  what  you  say  about  taking  the 

cow  away,  I  don't  mind  it,  but  your  parents  said  themselves,  "For 
such  a  large  farm  it  would  not  be  nice  of  us  not  to  give  the  cow."^ 
And  they  said,  "Take  the  cow,  children,  and  when  Stanislaw  sends 
you  money,  you  will  buy  another,  and  for  us  this  young  one  will  be 
enough."  I  gave  them  hay  and  vetch  for  their  cow.  So  now,  my 
wife  and  I,  we  beg  you,  brother-in-law,  to  keep  your  promise.  Yes, 
dear  brother,  you  have  no  reason  to  be  angry.  We  beg  you,  if  you 
cannot  give  us,  then  lend  us  at  least,  because  we  need  it  now  very 
much.     Goodbye.  Jozefa  and  Aleksander  Kryszczak 

322  [Spring,  1908] 

[Three-fourths  of  the  letter  filled  with  greetings  from  all  the  mem- 
bers of  the  family.]  And  I,  Aleksander,  write  further  about  how  all 
this  happened.  Brother,  you  are  very  angry  with  me,  because  it 
happened  so  in  our  life.  It  is  not  you  and  not  I  who  arranged  it,  but 
our  Lord  God  himself  sent  it.  In  our  hfe  we  were  compelled  to  bear 
greater  misery  than  this  one,  and  we  bore  it;  so  we  must  bear  this  one 
also.  My  brother,  if  we  don't  forgive  each  other,  our  Lord  God  will 
not  forgive  us.  You  said,  brother,  to  provide  for  the  wedding  of  Jozefa. 
So  I  gave  such  a  wedding  as  was  suitable.  It  cost  all  together,  with 
the  bed-furnishings,  about  100  roubles,  and  the  100  roubles  of  dowry 
which  you  sent  and  the  cow  before  calving,  worth  80  roubles. 

I  did  not  write  to  you,  brother,  where  father  lives.  Father  is  in 
Baciki  at  home.     He  does  not  wish  to  be  with  mother. 

[Aleksander  Barszczewski] 

'  The  meaning  is  that  Jozefa's  husband  is  a  rich  man,  owns  a  large  farm,  and 
it  would  not  be  suitable  if  Jozefa  had  too  small  a  dowry. 


BARSZCZEWSKI  SERIES  639 

323  [July  21,  1908] 

Dear  little  Brother:  It  is  long  that  we  have  had  no  news  from 
you,  about  your  health  and  existence,  and  we  want  to  know  something 
about  you — how  you  hammer  out  your  happiness  abroad.  We  know 
that  in  America  it  is  no  longer  as  it  used  to  be,  because  a  multitude  of 
factories  have  stopped  work.  Many  of  our  people  have  come  back 
under  their  native  roofs;  but  you  give  no  news  of  yourself. 

Since  spring  our  parents  have  been  living  in  Grodno,  father  with 
me,  mother  with  Aleksander.  With  the  present  letter  I  hastily 
address  myself  to  you,  hoping  that  I  may  find  in  your  kindness  a  gra- 
cious help  for  me  in  the  present  moment  which  is  a  very  difficult  one 
for  me.  The  question  is  this:  As  you  know,  if  you  wish  to  earn  a 
miserable  rouble  here,  you  must  bathe  it  in  your  sweat  before  you 
receive  it.  In  order  to  support  my  small  children  and  my  wife  and 
to  assure  their  existence  in  the  future,  I  must,  according  to  my  obliga- 
tions, rise  when  the  night  with  her  dark  cloak  begins  to  fly  before  the 
hght  of  the  coming  day.  While  all  people  around  me  calmly  sleep 
untroubled  on  their  soft  couches,  I  set  to  work  in  order  to  clear  the 
roads  for  them,  that  when  the  powerful  of  this  world  walk  in  their 
leisure  they  may  not  hurt  their  delicate  feet  against  any  small  lump 
of  earth,  or  that  the  capricious  ladies  may  not  soil  their  many-colored 
silk  dresses.  The  whole  long  day  I  work  like  an  ant  in  an  ants  nest, 
until  night  drives  away  the  last  light  of  the  day.  And  so  days,  weeks, 
months,  and  years  pass,  and  who  knows  whether  my  whole  life  will 
not  be  like  this?'  Thanks  to  hard  labor  I  succeeded  in  putting 
aside  a  small  sum  out  of  which  I  bought  a  little  land  and  built  a  small 
house,  but  I  cannot  finish  it  because  of  lack  of  money;    there  are 

'  On  this  type  of  philosophizing,  cf.  Introduction:  "Theoretic  and  Aestliclic 
Interests."  The  content— the  contrast  between  the  rich  and  powerful,  and  tlie 
poor  workman— shows  the  influence  of  city  life  and  of  the  workman  psychology. 
We  do  not  find  this  attitude  among  the  peasant  farmers  who,  even  if  poor,  have  in 
those  matters  a  psychology  of  independent  proprietors.  Socialism  finds  little 
interest  among  the  farmers,  not  only  because  of  its  standpoint  in  matters  of  prop- 
erty but  also  because,  since  the  abolition  of  serfdom,  there  has  developed  a  cer- 
tain self-consciousness  and  pride  in  the  peasant  which  render  the  idea  of  being  a 
class  oppressed  by  the  capitalist  devoid  of  content  and  difficult  of  acceptance. 
There  is  envy,  of  course,  and  a  sentiment  of  injustice  in  the  division  of  properly, 
but  no  consciousness  of  being  exploited-except  in  matters  of  taxes.  Moreover, 
the  peasant  farmer,  being  the  member  of  a  family,  does  not  feel  so  iso  aled  in  h.s 
struggle  for  life  as  does  the  workman.  Tomasz  is  only  beginning  to  develop  the 
workman  psychology. 


6^0  I'RlMARV-GROUr  ORGANIZATION 

neither  stoves,  nor  doors,  nor  windows,  nor  many  other  things.  I 
can  borrow  nowhere,  even  at  lo  per  cent,  and  now  the  time  hurries 
me  to  tinish  it.  So  I  beg  you,  dear  brother,  don't  refuse  my  request, 
send  me  the  soonest  possible  at  least  what  you  owe  me,  and  hereby 
Nou  will  do  a  great  service  to  myself  and  to  my  family.  You  know, 
fear  comes  upon  me  when  I  remember  that  if  I  don't  have  my  own 
small  home  when  my  strength  and  my  health  refuse  their  service 
and  I  shall  be  compelled  to  take  a  stick  into  my  hand  as  a  help  to 
my  feet,  that  I  shall  then  have  to  spend  the  rest  of  my  days  in  some 
damp  and  half-dark  cellar.  I  feel  ill  at  this  thought.  I  endeavored 
to  add  one  penny  to  another  in  the  measure  of  my  strength  and 
capacity  in  order  to  secure  myself  against  any  black  hour,  and  to 
have  at  any  rate  a  roof  of  my  own. 

Besides  what  you  owe,  please  tell  Stefan  that  we  beg  him  to  lend 
us  about  50  roubles,  and  at  the  first  opportunity  we  promise  to  give 

it  back,  with  our  thanks 

ToMASz  and  Antonina  Barszczewski 

324  February  4,  1909 

....  Dear  Brother  Stanislaw:  ....  We  beg  your  pardon, 
don't  be  angry  with  us  if  we  offended  you  about  this  ship-ticket, 
because  we  did  not  know  at  whose  cost  you  counted  it,  and  now  we 
thank  you  for  explaining  to  us  how  it  ought  to  be.  Aleksander  says 
that  he  will  give  us  100  roubles  [of  the  debt  he  owes  you]  and  we  thank 
you  for  it,  for  your  good  will  and  your  good  actions.  We  thank  also 
our  brother  Aleksander,  because  he  did  not  disavow  that  [debt], 
which  he  pays  us 

Now  it  is  your  parents  who  write.  Dear  son,  you  write  to  us, 
your  parents,  and  you  ask  us  about  the  money  which  you  sent.  But 
you  sent  us  50  roubles  when  Aleksander  came  from  the  army,  which 
were  for  his  journey,  and  you  sent  the  rest  at  our  disposition,  and 
now  you  ask  about  it.  The  150  roubles  [additional]  which  you  sent, 
you  wrote  and  said  yourself  in  your  letter  that  you  were  providing  for 
the  marriage  of  Jozefa,  and  we  did  everything,  as  you  wrote,  we  your 
father  and  mother,  your  parents.  And  now,  Stanislaw,  you  demand 
200  roubles  from  Aleksander.  We  ask  you  what  [200  roubles]  ?  He 
is  giving  100  roubles  to  Tomasz,  and  100  roubles  were  spent  for  our 
different  expenses,  for  wedding-clothes,  marriage-feast,  and  different 
things 


BARSZCZEWSKI  SERIES  641 

Dear  brother,  we  are  not  very  well  satisfied  that  we  have  to 
demand  money  from  Aleksander.  It  would  be  much  better  for  us 
to  receive  it  from  those  hands  into  which  we  gave  it  [from  you  directly, 
since  you  borrowed  it  from  us]. 

Dear  Brother-in-law  Stefan,  we,  Tomasz  and  Antonina,  send  you 
a  low  bow,  and  your  not-yet-known  brother-in-law  Aleksander 
Barszczewski  and  your  sister  Marya  send  you  a  low  bow  also.  You 
ask  how  is  it  in  Grodno,  whether  employment  can  be  found.  Dear 
brother-in-law,  those  employments  are  very  difficult  to  find.  And, 
dear  Stefan,  we  beg  your  pardon  about  this  ship-ticket,  because  you 
were  offended  and  very  angry  with  us.  Now  you  say,  brother  and 
brother-in-law,  that  we  are  becoming  very  full  of  honor  [sensitive]. 
Oh,  no!  You  have  pride  and  honor,  but  we  don't  have  honor.'  .... 
[Tomasz,  Antonina,  Aleksander,  Marya] 

Dear  brother  Stefan,  you  ask  about  father;  but  why  do  you 
not  write  to  father  ?  You  have  not  sent  a  single  letter  to  father,  and 
father  has  waited  and  waits  still.  Father  keeps  the  farm  for  you,  and 
you  don't  think  at  all  about  him.  Remember  about  your  father. 
Father  remembers  about  you  and  takes  care  of  everything.  Father 
ordered  the  monument,  and  it  is  already  done,  for  a  deposit  has  been 
paid;  but  it  is  not  yet  paid  for  entirely,  because  father  has  now  no 
money,  so  he  is  waiting  until  spring.     Perhaps  God  will  give  some 

possibiHty,  or  perhaps  the  son  [yourself]  will  send  something 

[Marya  Barszczewska] 

325  May  25,  1909 

Dear  Companion,  Mr.  Stanislaw:  [Usual  greetings  and  wishes.] 
And  now  I  beg  your  pardon  for  not  writing  for  so  long  a  time,  but  I 
was  on  a  trip  for  3  weeks,  and  when  I  came  it  was  just  then  work, 
planting  season  in  the  garden.  You  know  I  have  not  been  at  home 
for  two  years,  so  everything  was  gone  to  waste.  I  rested  for  two 
days  and  began  to  work  during  the  day;  and  the  evenings  are  short, 

one  must  hurry  to  sleep The  journey  was  neither  good  nor 

bad,  so  that,  thanks  to  God,  I  came  through  happily,  only  when  I 
arrived  at  Grodno,  I  had  a  small  accident.     When   I  left  the  car 

•  "Honor"  means  with  the  peasant  personal  pride  shown  in  familial  and  com- 
munal relations  and  mainly  in  economic  matters.  It  is  therefore  not  always  a 
virtue. 


0^2  TRI MARY-CROUP  ORGANIZATION 

somclxKiy  stole  my  purse  with  my  money.  There  was  not  much, 
t'ive  roubles  with  some  copecks,  and  American,  Belgian,  Dutch, 
German,  coins.  I  don't  regret  the  Russian  money,  but  I  do  those 
strange  coins,  because  I  gathered  them  for  remembrance.  And 
moreo\-cr,  it  was  not  nice,  an  American  coming  home  in  a  cab  and 
asking  the  landlady  to  pay  the  cabman.     Everything  else  I  brought 

arrived  safely I  gave  the  ear-rings  to  your  sister-in-law,  for 

which  she  thanks  you  very  much.  She  is  very  much  pleased. 
Tomasz  bought  a  lot  and  built  a  small  house,  your  second  brother 
bought  also  and  builds,  and  your  parents  are  in  Grodno,  your  father 
with  Tomasz,  mother  with  the  younger  son,  and  so  they  live.  Only 
they  are  very  angry  with  Tomasz  because  you  wrote  to  the  younger 
brother  to  give  Tomasz  your  money.  Tomasz  took  loo  roubles,  and 
the  rest  remains  with  the  younger  brother,  because  both  of  them  need 
it.     They  both  bought  [lots]  and  they  are  both  building. 

[Signature  missing] 

326  September  5,  1910 

....  We  inform  you,  dear  brother,  that  we  received  200  roubles 
of  money,  and  [w^e],  your  brother  and  sister-in-law,  thank  you  very 
much  for  not  refusing  our  request.  Now,  brother  Stanislaw,  you 
asked  whether  our  parents  are  alive,  so  we  answer  you  and  inform 
you  that  they  left  for  the  country,  because  mother  was  very  ill  and 
she  was  afraid  of  dying  in  Grodno,  so  they  left  for  the  old  place. 

But,  thanks  to  God,  now  they  are  in  good  health Now  you 

ask,  brother,  about  Chodorowski.  He  is  now  a  great  lord,  he  does 
not  even  wish  to  speak  to  us,  because  he  has  opened  a  beershop  and  a 
store.  You  say  that  you  sent  him  3  letters,  and  he  says  that  he  has 
received  none 

Tomasz  Barszczewski  [Probably  written  by  his  son.] 
Now  your  [god] son  bows  to  you.     He  tends  the  cow. 

327  November  7,  1910 

De.ar  Brother:  [Generalities  about  health.]  I  heard,  dear 
brother,  that  you  wrote  that  you  intended  to  come  in  a  year.  So  we 
beg  you,  come,  and  we  will  live  here  as  best  we  can.  Now  I  beg  you, 
dear  brother,  if  you  can,  send  me  100  roubles.  I  don't  want  them  for 
drinking,  but  I  should  like  to  buy  another  cow.     I  have  some  roubles. 


BARSZCZEWSKI  SERIES  643 

but  it  is  not  enough.  I  have  a  piece  of  land,  but  I  hate  to  sell  it. 
If  you  come  you  can  take  it  for  your  house,  and  if  you  don't  want  it 
I  shall  then  sell  it  to  somebody  else  and  give  you  the  money  back.  I 
should  like  to  borrow  money  here,  but  nobody  will  give  it  to  me. 
Good  men  have  none  and  bad  men  are  envious.  Now  I  inform  you, 
dear  brother,  that  my  house  costs  me  705  roubles,  and  the  cellar  105 
roubles.     I  beg  you,  dear  brother,  together  with  my  wife,  don't 

refuse   my  request Now  your   [god]son  Alfons  greets  you, 

wishes  you  every  good  and  begs  you  to  come. 

[ToMASz  Barszczewski] 

328  [Probably  winter,  1910-11] 

....  I,  Aleksander,  your  brother,  and  my  wife  Marya  and  my 
children,  we  Barszczewskis,  send  you  a  greeting  brother  Stanislaw 
and  sister-in-law.  We  don't  yet  know  our  sister-in-law,  but  by  letter 
we  kiss  you,  brother  and  sister-in-law,  and  we  wish  you,  in  the  name 
of  Jesus,  health  and  whatever  you  want  from  God.  And  now  I  ask 
you,  brother,  whether  our  Lord  Jesus  loved  the  world  or  the  man  ? 
I  say,  the  man,  because  for  his  sake  He  was  hung  upon  the  cross,  and 
He  loved  the  man.  When  hanging  upon  the  cross,  He  saw  John 
under  the  cross,  and  said  to  his  mother,  "There  standing  near  you  is 
your  son."  And  He  said  to  John,  "That  is  your  mother."  So  He 
called  us  sons  of  Mary,  and  His  brothers.  Our  Lord  Jesus  says  to  us, 
"Brothers,  love  God,  and  I  will  love  you."  Our  Lord  Jesus  orders 
men  to  love  one  another  and  to  call  one  another  brothers.  Why  do 
we,  children  of  the  same  father  and  the  same  mother,  not  love 
one  another?  Why?  Because  fire  is  kindled  among  us,  and  hell 
l)urns,  and  satans  rejoice,  that  we,  brothers,  live  well  and  rcmcm])cr 
one  another  and  love  one  another  in  such  a  way  [irony].  Oh,  may 
God  and  the  Holiest  Mother  grant  us,  brothers,  to  love  one  another; 
as  Mary  loved  our  Lord  Jesus,  so  we  ought  to  love  one  another  and 
have  charity.  As  Christ  our  Lord  said,  "Love  one  another  and  ha\e 
charity,  then  your  Highest  will  love  you."'  But  you,  brother,  did 
>ou  remember  that  you  had  a  father  and  a  mother  in  your  land ? 
You  forgot  how  your  mother  nursed  you,  how  many  nights  she 
did  not  sleep.     You  went  to  make  money,  and  you  forgot  that  you 

I  The  whole  religious  introduction  may  be  either  an  imitation  of  a  sermon  or 
a  result  of  "philosophizing"  under  Russian  influence,  as  with  Tomasz.  Hut  from 
this  point  to  the  end  the  letter  is  typically  Polish  and  peasant. 


644  rRTMARV-GROUr  ORGANIZATION 

U'ft  olil  parents.  Do  you  know,  brother,  what  a  sorrow  there  was 
when  our  mother  was  dying?  She  called  to  us,  "My  sons,  why  do  I 
not  see  \-ou  ?  Vou  went  far  away  into  the  world,  and  you  forgot 
about  us."  What  a  pity  it  was  when  our  mother  was  dying  that 
(here  was  nobody  to  wipe  the  tears  from  her  eyes.  And  nevertheless 
in  dving  she  blessed  [her  sons],  and  she  blessed  you,  brother  Stanislaw. 
She  did  not  forget  you,  although  you  forgot  your  mother.  Before  her 
death  she  wrote  asking  for  help,  then  I  borrowed  some  money  and 
sent  it  to  them;  but  Tomasz  wrote  such  a  letter  that  our  father  could 

not  listen  when  they  read  it  to  him,  so  he  wrote  me 

Aleksander  Barszczewski 

329  Village  Sytki,  December  29,  1913 

My  dearest  Son  Stasio  and  my  Daughter-in-law:  I,  your 
father,  send  you  my  blessing.  May  God  bless  you  in  your  intentions 
and  help  you;  whatever  you  wish  for  yourselves,  I  wish  it  to  you. 
And  now  I  inform  you,  dear  children,  that  I  am  alive,  but  as  to  my 
health,  I  scarcely  live  in  this  world.  I  cannot  nourish  myself  [take 
the  same  food]  as  before,  and  to  tell  the  truth,  it  is  very  hard  for 
me  to  live  now.  And  I  inform  you,  dear  son,  that  we  buried  your 
mother  3  years  ago,  but  you  did  not  know  about  mother's  death, 
because  you  forgot  about  us.  It  seems  to  me  that  7  years  have 
passed  since  we  spoke  to  one  another  by  letters.  More  than  once 
we  wept  for  you,  thinking  that  you  were  no  longer  alive.  But  at 
last  we  received  news  from  you,  and  I  was  glad  that  in  my  old  days 
I  heard  at  least  by  letter  some  words  about  your  life  and  success. 
Now  I  beg  you,  my  son,  don't  forget  about  me,  your  old  father,  and 
perhaps  God  will  not  forget  about  you.  I  wish  you,  my  dear  children, 
every  good,  and  above  all  health.     Your  father,  old  already, 

Jan  Barszczewski 

[Follow  greetings  from  brother  and  an  old  companion.] 

330  May  19,  1914 

Dear  Brother  and  Sister-in-law:  ....  I,  your  brother 
Antoni,  address  myself  to  my  brother  Stanislaw  with  a  great  request. 
My  dear  brother,  I,  your  brother,  with  great  timidity  beg  you  to  be 
so  good  and  to  lend  me  at  least  300  roubles.  I  will  give  it  back, 
every  penny,  because,  to  tell  the  truth,  I  have  enough  to  live  on  from 


BARSZCZEWSKI  SERIES  645 

my  work,  but  I  want  to  buy  a  piece  of  land.  In  our  village  they  are 
making  colonies/  and  it  is  very  difficult  to  live.  I  was  much  better 
off  before,  because  I  had  no  trouble  about  pasture,  but  profited  from 

the  common  pasture But  now  everybody  has  his  own  piece 

of  land  in  a  single  lot,  and  everybody  pastures  upon  his  own  lot;  and 
as  to  me,  you  know  that  my  whole  property  is  a  garden,  where  I  must 
live  and  plant,  and  I  have  no  place  to  pasture.  Well,  there  is  in  our 
village  a  piece  of  field  for  sale,  I  don't  know  whether  you  remember 
or  not,  left  by  the  old  Pietruczak.  The  youngest  son  went  to  another 
village  w  przyst^py  [provincialism,  meaning  probably  "joining  his 
wife  and  her  property"],  but  his  own  piece  of  land  is  a  part  of  his 
inheritance  from  his  father.  But  he  is  too  far  away  to  cultivate  it, 
and  he  wishes  to  sell  it,  and  he  said  to  me,  "Buy  this  piece  of  land 
from  me,  and  you  will  have  a  field  and  a  pasture."  So,  my  brother, 
that  is  the  reason  why  I  beg  you  and  my  sister-in-law  to  help  me  and 
to  lend  me  this  sum  of  money.  If  you  are  afraid  that  I  will  not  give 
it  back,  I  will  send  you  my  note,  I  will  certify  it  with  the  notary  and 
send  it  to  you  beforehand,  and  then  you  will  send  me  the  money. 
I  beg  you,  my  brother,  with  my  whole  heart.  I  have  no  money,  and 
what  can  I  do  ?  Among  us  it  is  very  difficult  to  borrow.  I  beg  you 
for  a  speedy  answer,  whether  you  will  lend  me  or  not.     Answer  me 

with  an  open  heart 

An[toni]  [and]  Paulina  B.\rszczewski 

oaj  [November  27,  1907] 

....  Dear  Brother  Stanislaw:  ....  We  are  very  unhappy 
because  during  this  whole  year  we  had  not  a  happy  hour,  only  con- 
tinuous sorrow.  We  intended  to  build  a  house,  but  lumber  is  dear; 
we  must  endeavor  up  to  the  last  [not  clear].  Before  we  l)cgan  it 
our  mother  died;  some  weeks  afterward  my  husband's  l)rolher  was 
called  to  military  service;  after  some  weeks  more  my  husband's 
father  died;  some  weeks  passed  after  this,  and  our  oldest  son  died. 
Such  a  continuous  misery,  and  tears  shed  in  a  stream !  Dear  brother, 
I  kiss  you,  at  least  by  letter,  and  I  beg  you,  don't  forget  about  me, 

because  you  know  that  we  come  from  the  same  blood 

Your  loving  sister, 

WlKTORA 

«  A  "colony,"  is  a  new  type  of  peasant  farm.  Cf.  Wrol.lewski  scries,  No.  S3, 
note. 


(..;' 


PR  1 M  A R V-G ROUP  ORGANIZATION 


To  my  godfaUier: 

Dkar  Father,  I  send  you  my  lowest  bow,  bowing  below  your 
knees,  and  I  kiss  both  your  hands.  I  inform  you  that  I  am  healthy, 
thanks  to  God,  and  I  wish  you  the  same,  good  health  from  our  Lord 
God,  every  virtue  and  happiness.  You  ask  me  whether  I  learn,  so 
1  will  tell  you  that  I  wish  it  very  much,  but  now  it  is  cold  and  snow 
fell,  and  I  have  no  shoes,  only  old  slippers.  I  kiss  your  hands  and 
I  beg  you  for  a  pair  of  shoes,  and  then  I  beg  your  pardon. 

The  sun  is  set,  the  light  is  out,  my  pen  slipped  from  my  hand,  I 
want  to  sleep.     Goodbye! 

Your  well-wishing, 

Adela  Blaszczuk  [a  very  young  child] 


HALICKI  SERIES 

In  the  Barszczewski  series  we  noticed  certain  effects  which 
Russian  influence  has  upon  the  peasant  on  the  eastern  border 
of  ethnographical  Poland.  Here  we  find  the  German  in- 
fluence manifested  in  the  west.  The  Halicki's  live  in  a  small 
town  in  the  province  of  Posen.  They  are  not  peasants,  but 
belong  to  the  lower  bourgeoisie.  The  original  difference 
in  attitudes  between  the  peasant  class  and  the  lower  bour- 
geoisie (handworkers,  shopkeepers,  etc.)  in  small  towTis  was, 
however,  rather  small.  In  fact,  the  Polish  bourgeoisie 
was  constituted  mainly  of  two  elements — German  immi- 
grants of  the  bourgeois  class  and  PoHsh  peasants  settled 
in  towns.  In  smafl  towns  the  latter  element  prevailed. 
To^vn  life  developed,  of  course,  different  attitudes  in  eco- 
nomic, and  to  some  extent  in  religious,  life,  but  the  char- 
acter of  famiHal  life  and  the  relation  toward  the  community 
remained  essentially  the  same,  and  even  in  economic  life 
most  of  the  fundamental  features  of  the  peasant  are  pre- 
served, e.g.,  quantification  of  economic  values,  property 
as  fundamental  category.  Nevertheless  these  old  attitudes 
disintegrate  more  rapidly  in  towns,  and  any  external  influ- 
ence shows  its  effects  much  sooner  in  a  town  than  in  a 

vfllage. 

And  this  is  precisely  true  in  the  case  of  the  Ilalickis. 
The  hard,  business-like  attitude  toward  life  wliich  char- 
acterizes the  Prussian  organization  has  been  assimilated  b\- 
the  Poles  in  the  province  of  Posen;  this  assimilation  was 
necessary  in  view  of  the  economic  and  nalional  struggle- 
which  they  have  to  carry  on.  The  changed  attitudes  rc(iuirc 
a  reorganization  of  the  old  familial  and  communal  s(,lidarit>- 
upon  a  new  basis,  and  this  reorganization  is  gomg  on.     But 

647 


048  rklMARV-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

wlu'icwr  it  is  not  >et  achieved  the  new  attitudes  merely 
dissohc  tlic  old  social  system,  and  we  find  such  situations 
as  the  i^resent  one. 

One  special  point  is  strongly  emphasized  in  this  series — 
the  character  of  a  letter  as  means  of  literary  expression  and 
the  feeling  of  obligation  to  make  the  letters  as  good  as 
lH)ssible  from  the  literary  point  of  view. 

THE  FAMILY  HALICKI 


her  sons 


R.  Halicka,  a  widow 

Polikarp 

Kazio  (Kazimierz) 

Michal 

Tadek  (Tadzio,  Tadeusz) 

Pela 

Jadwiga  i  ,        .       , 

Stasia  (Stacha,  Stanislawa)  [ 

Mania  (Mar>'ska.  Marysia) 

Stas  (Stanislaw)  Rakowski,  Pela's  husband 

Krukowski,  Jadwiga's  betrothed 

Grandmother 


332-47,  TO  POLIKARP  HALICKI,  IN  AMERICA,  FROM  FAMILY- 
MEMBERS  IN  POLAND,  AND  A  LETTER  (348)  FROM 
HALICKI   TO   THE   AUTHORS. 

332  Zalesie,  October  7,  191 2 

Dear  Son:  I  thank  you  for  your  letter,  for  which  I  waited  with 
longing.  We  knew  that  one  ship  sunk  with  the  men.  Glory  be  to 
God  that  you  are  healthy  and  happy.  I  beg  you,  my  dear  son,  write 
to  us  as  often  as  you  can,  you  know  how  glad  I  am  when  I  can  speak 

with  you  at  least  by  letters My  sickness  has  decreased  a 

little;  during  the  past  week  I  was  so  sick  that  I  did  not  recognize  my 
friends.  I  don't  know  whence  this  sickness  came  .  .  .  .  but  Stasia 
knew  how  to  help  me,  and  God  is  good  and  let  me  leave  my  bed. 
And  you,  dear  Polikarp,  have  provided  me  so  well  with  housegoods 
that  I  can  have  everything,  whatever  a  sick  person  may  need.  When 
I  look  upon  the  furniture  bought  from  your  economized  money  I 
must  shed  tears.     In  your  room  lives  your  successor,  ]Mr.  Frankowski. 


HALICKI  SERIES  649 

....  He  is  quiet  and  talks  little.  He  did  not  wish  to  take  the  room 
without  boarding,  so  he  will  pay  60  marks.  But  I  don't  know  how 
it  will  be  further,  for  you  know  well  how  our  family  is.  I  told  Jadwiga 
to  go  away.  Now  she  weeps  and  probably  she  won't  go.  Tadzio 
works  in  the  mill 

And  now  I  come  back  to  your  letter.  How  nicely  you  have 
described  everything  as  in  a  book!  May  God  give  you  a  good  place, 
where  you  can  pay  easily  the  debt  for  your  journey.  You  know 
probably  everything,  how  it  is  in  our  country,  about  the  arming. 
People  say  that  you  must  also  come  back.  What  a  sorrow  I  feel! 
Perhaps  soon  they  won't  even  let  your  letters  come  through 

I  finish  my  plaintive  letter,  my  son.  Praise  be  to  God  for  your 
health.  Stasia  has  written  more  at  length  to  you;  I  don't  want  us 
both  to  bore  you  with  the  same  things 

Now,   my  child,   I   commend  you    to   God,   to   His   holy  care. 

May  everything  happen   to   you,   whatever   you   wish    from    God. 

I  remain. 

Your  mother  to  the  grave, 

R.  Halicka 

Write  to  Kazio  and  Michal.  Greetings  for  everybody.  I  am 
feeble,  but  I  want  absolutely  to  write  with  my  own  hand;  it  seems  to 
me  as  if  I  talked  with  you.' 

^oo  December  5,  1Q12 

[Quotation  from  a  religious  song.] 

Dear  Polikarp:  Since  you  left  this  song  always  rings  in  our  ears. 
On  Sunday,  after  you  left,  it  was  sung  in  the  choir  during  tiir  lioly 
mass;  we  and  mother  could  not  withhold  our  tears.  Mother  in 
particular  is  very  low  in  spirits.  She  was  sick,  and  I  was  even  afraid 
that  this  sickness  would  take  a  serious  turn.     Now,  thanks  to  tiod, 

'  The  mother's  familial  attitudes  remain  unchanged,  and  while  I'olikarp  does 
not  show  much  solidarity  with  regard  to  the  other  members  of  the  family  lie  keeps 
the  traditional  attitude  toward  his  mother.  The  particularly  near  relation  between 
the  mother  and  this  son  (cf.  Nos.  337,  338,  341,  34S)  is  probably  <lue  K,  (lie  fart 
that  he  is  the  oldest  and  took  care  of  the  family  after  his  father's  death.  On  ti.e 
side  of  the  son  there  seems  to  be  a  real  affection  for  his  mother,  but  bes..les  ih.s  the 
conscious  tendency  also  to  be  and  to  be  considered  a  model  son  Ih.s  feeling  of 
his  own  righteousness  must  have  been  assisted  by  Hie  altilude  of  the  m„tluT  who 
always  gave  him  as  an  example  to  the  younger  children. 


650  TRI MARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

she  is  somcwhal  calmer.  I  would  not  grieve  you  with  sad  news;  I 
tliink  nevertheless  Uiat  it  will  be  better  if  I  describe  to  you  everythini^ 
sincerely. 

I  am  very  pained  that  we  have  spent  the  last  times  so  sadly. 
Tcrhaps  vou  regret  it  yourself,  for  if  you  had  known  that  you  would 
get  so  far  awav  certainly  you  would  not  have  acted  thus,  and  you 
would  ha^•e  spared  our  mother's  tears.  And  Stasia,  and  even  Jadwiga, 
is  not  so  bad,  although  she  has  a  sharp  tongue.  Particularly,  I  could 
not  bear  it  that  you  hated  her  so.  What  should  I  say  ?  I  ought  to 
avenge  myself  more  than  you  did.  Perhaps  you  won't  be  pleased  with 
me  for  mentioning  old  sins.  But  I  know  how  much  we  have  all  wept 
when  we  learned  that  you  were  to  go  away  in  earnest.  It  seemed  to 
us  so  improbable.  Jadwiga  cried  for  whole  days  that  she  did  not  bid 
you  goodbye.  Everybody  said  that  it  would  be  better  if  Michal  had 
left,  he  would  have  caused  less  sorrow. 

Your  place  is  occupied  by  a  Mr.  Frankowski.  The  boys  ought  to 
take  him  for  a  model.  What  a  quiet  man!  For  whole  evenings  he 
stays  at  home,  reads,  plays  with  the  boys  at  different  games.  Mother 
would  even  prefer  sometimes  if  he  went  somewhere  or  shut  himself  up 
in  his  room;  she  could  then  do  more  [housework].  Mania  is  with 
me  during  the  day,  helps  me  in  everything  and  waits  impatiently  for 
the  evening  to  come — they  are  so  merry  and  jest  so  much  there  at 
home.  But  Jadwiga  stays  with  me  continually;  she  helps  me  in 
sewing  and  sleeps  here.     I  have  only  3  girls  for  sewing,  and  there  is 

very  much  work Don't  wonder  that  we  did  not  answer  you 

sooner.     Stas  [husband]  committed  it  to  me,  and  I  have  too  much 

to  do.     The  business  goes  on  very  well But  although  we  have 

enough  to  eat  and  to  drink  I  am  not  satisfied  wdth  all  this.  Stas  is 
iniquitous.  He  never  gets  drunk  but  he  has  such  a  something  in  him 
that  more  than  once  the  worst  ideas  come  into  my  mind.  I  put  all 
the  fault  upon  myself  and  reproach  myself  [for  having  married  him], 

and  you  would  do  the  same You  write  me  that  you  are  pleased 

there  and  succeed  well.  Thanks  to  God,  if  it  is  really  so,  but  it  seems 
to  me  that  you  try  to  stifle  yourself  [your  feelings].  I  cannot  believe, 
I  know  your  disposition,  I  know  how  much  I  suffered  without  sho\\*ng 
it,  although  I  was  judged  very  bad.  And  today,  when  I  reflect,  it 
seems  to  me  that  there  was  nobody  worthy  of  my  sufferings.  Stas 
would  not  be  so  bad  of  him.self,  if  he  were  better  educated  and  did  not 
lack  religion.     This  kills  me,  that  he  was  able  thus  to  pretend.     And 


HALICKI  SERIES  651 

today  it  seems  as  if  he  wanted  to  avenge  himself  upon  my  family,  as 
if  he  hated  them.  He  won't  let  the  children  come  to  our  home. 
Although  for  the  sake  of  appearances  we  don't  show  it  to  people,  yet 
as  we  are  in  business,  people  notice  enough.  And  for  his  own  family 
he  fights  to  the  last.  Surely  he  would  like  to  have  them  with  him. 
They  moved  to  Leszno,  God  knows  for  how  long.  If  they  had  known 
that  Stas  would  come  so  rapidly  to  his  own  business,  they  would  not 
have  done  it.  What  I  shall  have  to  struggle  with  still !  And  it  pains 
me  still  more  when  I  see  discord  at  home,  lack  of  attachment  of  one 
to  another.  My  heart  burst  open!  I  should  like  to  sympathize 
more  with  them  during  my  life,  but  they  [the  boys]  are  too  hard. 
Although  they  have  Frankowski's  example  it  is  of  no  use.  I  don't 
praise  him  too  much — I  know  little  of  his  past  life — but  as  far  as  we 
know  him  it  is  difficult  to  find  such  a  kind  and  quiet  man.  But 
Michal!  If  he  does  not  improve  he  will  perish  miserably.  Nobody 
praises  him. 

Perhaps  I  shall  bore  you  with  my  scribbling,  but  I  don't  know 
how  to  compose  a  letter  as  well  as  you  do.  Moreover  I  have  written 
it  during  a  whole  week,  and  I  have  a  sore  hand.  Only  I  beg  you  very 
much,  you  have  already  the  letter  from  Krukowski,  help  them  as 

you  can,  but  keep  him  in  hand Don't  be  obstinately  grudging 

against  Jadwiga,  for  we  have  enough  to  suffer  from  others  [outside  of 
the  family].  Today  I  so  much  want  concord  among  our  family.  I 
have  always  desired  it,  but  today,  after  a  new  catastrophe  with 
Stas— perhaps  they  will  write  you  al)out  it  from  home.  I  finish 
this  letter  at  home,  for  I  cannot  do  it  in  my  own  house  from  fear 

of  Stas 

I  wish  you  healthy  and  merry  holidays— health,  liapi)iness,  and 

God's  blessing  in  the  New  Year. 

I  have  still  so  much  to  write— but  later. 

Your  loving  sister, 

Pela 


-,,  >  December  16,  igi2 

334 

Dear  Polikarp:  I  write  to  you  for  the  first  time I  wish 

you  a  Merry  Christmas I  noticed  that  you  have  sl.)|)i>e.l 

writing.     But  you  ought  to  keep  in  yourself  the  feeling  of  a  Pozmwuik 

[man  from  Posen]  and  not  to  have  already  that  of  an  American.     If 


(.'2 


I'KIMARV-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 


I  could  find  lluMc  some  suitable  position,  I  should  come  next  spring, 

for  here  I  am  bored  to  death ' 

The  Ifamilv-j  war  is  a  little  calmed,  but  not  for  long.     I  hope  you 

don't  intend  to  come  back  while  it  lasts Mother  says  that 

when  she  receives  a  letter  from  you  she  feels  as  if  she  spoke  with  you. 
....  In  the  house  of  Rakowski  [brother-in-law,  Pela's  husband], 
there  was  an  outbreak  lately.  R.  told  mother  to  get  out  of  his  house, 
without  anv  reason.  But  don't  be  anxious  about  mother;  I  will 
avenge  her.  Pela  is  much  changed,  for  R.  has  beaten  her  severely. 
.\  real  crazv  bandit.  If  you  write  to  him  abuse  him  soundly.  And 
don't  make  him  a  gift  of  your  money  [ask  him  to  pay  his  debt  to  you], 
for  he  has  scarcely  got  feathers,  and  he  wants  to  fly.  [He  became 
arrogant  toward  his  wife's  family  as  soon  as  his  own  business  de- 
N'eloped.     Probably  he  was  formerly  dependent  upon  them  in  financial 

matters.] 

Your  brother, 

Kazimierz 

335  New  Year,  1913 

De.\r  Sox:  ....  I  was  very  glad  to  receive  the  money,  but  I 
felt  how  parsimoniously  you  must  have  lived,  dear  son,  wishing  to 
help  me  for  the  holidays.  Even  if  I  had  not  the  lord's  help  [probably  a 
widow's  pension],  I  should  not  ask  anything  from  you.  Try  only  to 
put  some  money  aside  and  to  come  back  as  soon  as  possible  to  our 
country,  at  least  for  a  short  time.  Naturally  only  if  we  have  peace, 
for  in  the  contrary  case  you  must  give  up  coming,  for  I  hope  that 
you  won't  come  here  for  death.  Take  care  of  your  health  and  life. 
Krukowski  and  we  are  waiting  for  your  answer  to  his  letters.  It 
would  be  better  [if  it  comes]  for  you  would  describe  everything,  but 
I  believe  that  he  won't  mind  [if  it  does  not  come],  but  will  go.  He  has 
relatives  enough  there.     Frankowski  is  no  longer  here.     The  reason 

was  that  he  saw  here  no  future  at  all He  noticed  it  at  once  and 

tried  secretly  to  find  another  place,  and  he  succeeded When 

he  bade  goodbye  to  the  priest  ....  the  latter  asked  him  whether 
Michal  [the  WTiter's  son]  is  able  to  occupy  his  [Frankowski's]  place. 

'  The  tendency  to  get  away  from  home  is  becoming  so  general  among  Polish 
boys  that  it  may  be  considered  one  of  the  most  important  causes  of  emigration. 
Even  in  Poland  children  feel  as  a  burden  their  dependence  on  their  parents  and 
their  obligations  to  them,  and,  of  course,  this  feeling  can  only  increase  in  America. 


HALICKI  SERIES  653 

He  said:  "He  is  able,  but  the  lord  must  control  him  well."  Michal 
is  preparing  my  grave.  He  keeps  company  with  Kostek  and  does  not 
care  for  his  own  good.     Ask  Frankowski  yourself  what  will  become 

of  Michal.     Tadek  will  be  a  man,  for  he  is  diligent As  to 

the  letter  [with  gossip]  about  which  you  write  ....  don't  mind 
it  at  all.  We  have  still  much  other  slandering  to  bear.  We  don't 
go  anywhere,  we  don't  talk  with  anybody,  and  people  cannot  hold 

out  nevertheless Baker  must  leave  his  place,  for  the  lord 

noticed  that  he  permitted  himself  too  much  with  Praska,  and  both 

were  dismissed  in  order  not  to  give  scandal  to  young  people 

Your  Mother 

Dear  Polikarp,  don't  wonder  if  mother  does  not  write  herself,  but 
her  eyes  are  weak  and  she  is  continually  unwell,  and  she  wishes 
nevertheless  the  letters  to  be  written  in  her  name. 

336  February  3,  1913 

Dear  Polikarp:  ....  I  shall  describe  to  you  shortly  the  news 
from  Zalesie.  Last  month  we  celebrated  the  fiftieth  anniversary  of 
the  last  insurrection.  On  January  22,  there  was  a  divine  service, 
and  the  day  before,  a  mass  for  the  dead.  Our  two  veterans  [ancient 
insurgents  who  lived  in  Zalesie]  were  invited  to  Posen,  but  they 
remained  here.  At  every  meeting  of  every  association  they  occupy 
the  first  place ' 

Yesterday  we  had  a  representation,  arranged  by  the  united  asso- 
ciations, but  after  this  there  were  no  dances,  only  social  plays. 
Jadwiga  performed  her  part  splendidly.     Michal  also  played  in  this 

theater As   to   the  pastoral  mass   [on   Christmas  night],   I 

cannot  describe  it,  for  I  was  not  in  the  church.  I  know  only  that  they 
sang  very  nicely. 

After  your  departure  it  was  very  sad  at  home,  but  now  it  will  be 
sadder  still,  for  Michal  also  left  us  this  morning.  Bui  we  have  much 
fun  with  Tadzio.  Once  during  the  supper  he  asked  Mr.  l-'ranl^owski 
and  Kazimierz,  "How  much  do  you  pay  to  your  men?     l'\)r  /  pay 

■  Great  respect  is  shown  to  the  men  (of  any  social  class)  who  took  part  in  the 
Polish  insurrection  of  1863.  They  are  considered  in  some  way  as  the  kcipcrs  of 
the  ideal  of  Poland's  independence  and  are  assumed  to  have  an  cxceplionally 
high  moral  standard.  The  interesting  point  is  that  in  spite  of  their  diriuuit  situa- 
tion as  exiles,  almost  all  of  them  have  grown  up  to  the  moral  level  wliicli  tlie  public 
respect  imposes  upon  them. 


654  TRIMARY-GROUP  ORGAN!   A  I  ION 

so  and  so  much."  ....  They  have  already  given  him  the  title 
'•director  of  the  mill."  But  in  the  office-work  he  is  very  industrious. 
They  arc  siitisticd  with  him  and  believe  that  he  will  be  a  good 
mcrcliant 

Now  sad  days  will  begin  here  [because  of  Lent].  We  shall  spend 
Suntiays  only  in  reading  books 

I  linish  my  short  writing Correct  my  faults,  for  it  is  my 

first  letter. 

I  embrace  you  heartUy.  Maryska  [Mania] 

3317  February  10,  1913 

Dear  Son:  ....  For  some  days  I  have  had  the  intention  of 
writing  this  letter,  but  I  could  not  gather  my  thoughts,  for  my  heart 
was  burdened  with  sorrow,  because  Michal  also  was  leaving  us,  I 
am  very  anxious  that  he  may  get  back  his  good  name.  You  know  him 
very  well,  so  you  can  guess  how  he  is.  He  has  found  a  place  himself 
and  wanted  absolutely  to  go  into  the  world,  but  when  the  moment 
of  separation  came,  he  could  not  withhold  tears.  I  have  at  least  this 
one  comfort,  that  he  made  his  peace  with  God.  In  the  evening  he 
went  to  town  to  confession,  the  next  morning  he  received  holy  com- 
munion, and  he  left  on  the  third  day He  wrote  that  he  is 

working  with  a  veteran  of  the  last  insurrection.  I  hope  that  under 
the  influence  of  such  a  man  he  will  be  edified.'  You  will  receive  soon 
a  letter  from  him 

Dear  son,  Stasia  and  I  have  had  sad  dreams.  We  saw  you  always 
gloomy  and  weeping.  But,  as  I  guessed  from  your  letter,  you  must 
have  borne  painful  moments  when  you  were  leaving  the  Ganzes.^ 
Only  take  care  that  these  disagreeable  things  don't  happen  any  more. 
I  beg  you  for  God's  sake,  don't  poison  your  health  with  this,  that  I 
may  see  you  and  embrace  you  once  more,  as  my  most  beloved  child. 

What  a  joy  it  was  when  we  received  the  parcel  of  tea!     It  has  a 

very  good  taste  and  seems  to  us  more  healthful  than  ours I 

was  very  glad  that  you  had  such  an  idea.  Grandmother  even  men- 
tioned once  that  as  you  remember  about  your  mother,  our  Lord  God 
won't  forget  you 

'  Cf.  No.  336,  note. 

*  He  was  engaged  to  their  daughter  and  left  because  of  some  quarrel.  The 
mother  means  that  the  bad  dreams  are  already  fulfilled  and  no  further  misfortune 
is  to  be  anticipated. 


HALICKI  SERIES  655 

As  to  the  gossip  of  Ososka,  I  have  calmed  her  already.  Now  they 
begin  to  talk  about  the  Ganzes.  Ososka  said  that  Mrs.  Ganz  and  her 
daughter  are  running  after  men,  and  Mr.  C.  took  an  aversion  to  her 
[the  daughter]  once  and  forever. 

Dear  son,  I  inform  you  that  Krukowski  intends  certainly  to  go  to 
America.  Before  leaving  he  will  be  engaged  to  Jadwiga,  and  when 
he  comes  happily  to  America,  he  will  take  her  at  once.  Only  I  am 
afraid  that  you  won't  receive  her  as  a  brother  [should].  But  it  is 
true  that  her  character  has  changed  and  she  is  now  very  serious. 
When  Krukowski  comes  show  him  where  he  can  find  the  best  work. 
Don't  be  afraid  about  money,  for  he  finds  his  way  himself.  I  think 
that  it  would  be  the  best  for  them  if  they  could  settle  in  Milwaukee, 
for  it  is  the  best  to  be  among  one's  own  people.  You  know 
Krukowski,  that  he  is  a  good  man 

Wherever  I  go,  everybody  asks  how  you  succeed.     Our  priest 

asks  often  about  you;   whether  you  intend  to  remain  there  and  how 

you  succeed.     I  say  only  that  good  people  get  on  well  everywhere, 

while  bad  people  are  always  sour 

Your  Mother 

338  February  19,  1913 

Dear  and  beloved  Son:  I  received  the  money  for  which  I  send 
you  a  hearty  "God  reward."  I  rejoice  very  much,  dear  child,  that 
being  in  such  a  far  world,  you  nevertheless  remember  about  me.  I 
doubt  whether  any  of  your  brothers  will  do  it.  But  certainly  God 
will  reward  you.  Dear  son,  it  is  not  your  duty.  Why  should  you 
ever  refuse  anything  to  yourself  ?  And,  moreover,  you  have  still  the 
burden  of  the  journey  [the  debt].     So  once  more,  may  God  reward 

you!  .... 

As  I  have  mentioned  already,  dear  son,  Krukowski  is  going  on 
March  8,  for  he  saved  so  much  that  now  he  can  boldly  go,  and  if  he 
does  not  like  it  he  can  boldly  come  back.  Before  leaving,  i.e.,  next 
Sunday,  he  will  exchange  rings  with  Jadwiga.  So  I  beg  you,  consider 
him  a  member  of  our  family,  i.e.,  in  the  beginning,  until  they  marry. 

Later  let  them  do  as  they  like.     Krukowski confessed  to  me 

sincerely  that  if  he  had  married  Jadwiga  at  once  he  wcv.ld  be  happier 

today.     But  it  is  not  his  fault He  told  me  th;,i  !..■  lovrd  you 

much.     And  you  know  how  Jadwiga  has  always  inten.  ed  to  go  to 
America.     Perhaps  fortune  will  be  kind  to  her I  shall  send 


656  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

you  something  tlarough  Krukowski;    I  think  perhaps  cigars  and  a 

bottle  of  cognac And  I  beg  you,  take  care  of  Krukowski, 

lest  some  American  girl  should  seduce  him.     Well,  God's  will 

Your  Mother 

339  ^P^^*  3,  1913 
Dear  Son:  ....  We  had  here  nice  [Easter]  holidays.     Michat 

was  away  only  3  days,  he  couldn't  hold  out  longer O  my  God, 

how  Michal  is  changed!  He  sat  at  home,  and  when  I  told  him  to  go 
and  amuse  himself  he  petted  me  and  said,  "Eh,  mother,  I  feel  the 
best  with  you."  Imagine  this!  He,  who  was  so  insolent!  I  won't 
e\-en  describe  how  they  behaved,  he  and  Kazimierz,  after  your  going. 
And  their  demands!  ....  Kazimierz  is  a  little  angry  for  the  truth 
which  you  wrote  him 

Tell  me  what  you  want.  I  will  send  you  everything  through 
Jadwiga.  For,  as  you  know,  the  ship-ticket  will  come  soon. 
And  may  God  grant  it,  for  I  have  already  spent  money  enough. 
And  people  envy  her,  marrying  Krukowski. 

Grandmother  is  mortally  sick.  All  her  children  came,  and  she 
blessed  us  all 

Krukowski  wept  much  in  leaving.  When  Jadwiga  receives  the 
ship-ticket,  we  shall  order  a  mass.  The  singers  here  want  to  sing 
"  Veni  Creator "'  for  her.  your  truly  loving 

Mother 

340  May  25,  1913 

Dear  Polikarp  :  I  thank  you  heartily  for  your  letter.  You  ask 
me  why  I  have  not  given  any  news  about  myself  for  so  long  a  time.  I 
think  you  gave  the  reason  yourself  in  writing  me  that  I  am  drinking, 

loafing  about  restaurants,  etc I  wonder  much  that  you,  being 

in  America,  know  better  what  I  am  doing  than  myself.  Evidently 
you  ought  to  know  that  the  news  of  your  correspondent  (I  know  even 
who  it  is)  is  not  at  all  in  accordance  with  tlie  truth.  [News  about  his 
future  examination  for  journeyman-builder;  complaints  about  his 
master.]  Well,  but  all  this  will  last  only  for  a  certain  time.  I  think 
that  this  will  be  the  last  winter  I  shall  spend  at  home.  I  don't  know 
yet  where  I  shall  go,  but  I  will  not  remain  here.^  .... 

Kazimierz 

'  Cf.  No.  334,  note. 


HALICKI  SERIES  657 

341  June  28,  1913 

Dear  Son:  ....  I  had  bad  forebodings  about  Jadwiga's 
journey,  and  I  was  not  mistaken,  for  you  probably  know  already  from 
Krukowski,  what  a  difficult  journey  she  had,  and  that  she  is  sick.     I 

cannot  sleep  at  night  until  I  receive  better  news It  is  nobody's 

fault,  she  has  what  she  wanted.     Well,  may  God  the  Highest  grant 

her  health!     She  left  with  tears  and  begged  my  pardon You 

will  agree,  dear  Polikarp,  that  she  has  suffered  penance  enough  during 

this  journey We  received  your  photographs.     They  are  so 

natural  that  Stasia  and  Mania  kissed  them.  They  put  them  upon 
a  table  and  adorn  you  every  day  with  fresh  flowers.  [Enumerates  the 
gifts  which  she  sent  through  Jadwiga.]  People  don't  cease  to  wonder 
that  you  remember  me  so  and  send  money  so  often. 

Your  Mother 

342  August  13,  1913 

Dear  Polikarp:  ....  I  wonder  why  you  always  find  in  my 
letter  some  desire  of  vengeance,  some  bitterness,  some  sharp  tone. 
Even  if  I  had  any  reason  to  avenge  myself,  I  am  unable  to  perform 
any  vengeance;  I  don't  know  at  all  to  whom  my  vengeance  could 
be  addressed.  I  am  persuaded  that  only  the  references  of  Tadzio 
about  me  influence  you  thus.  But  I  don't  wish  to  write  any  more 
upon  this  subject.  Also,  I  won't  inform  you  about  the  good  and 
would-be  good  actions  of  Tadzio.  Be  sure  that  he  has  remained  the 
same  "little  angel"  [devil]  as  he  was  formerly.  You  write  me  to 
accept  your  model  remarks  without  anger.  Was  I  ever  angry  about 
them  ?  From  my  letters  you  can  conclude  that  I  am  angry  only  with 
Tadzio's  stories  about  me.  Well,  I  won't  exonerate  myself  before 
you,  for  I  have  no  reason 

Rakowski   is   now   rather   calm,   but  he   does   not   talk   with 

mother 

Kazimierz 

343  August  17,  1913 
Dear  Brother:  You  mentioned  in  your  last  letters  to  mother 

that  Marvsia  and  I  had  forgotten  about  you.  But  it  is  not  so  bad  as 
you  think.  I  was  a  little  hurt  because  I  was  the  first  who  wrote  you 
and  I  did  not  receive  any  answer I  thought  that  it  was  not 


658  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

pleasant  for  you  to  receive  news  written  by  your  sister  Stacha.  But 
Tadek  came  once  from  the  mill  asking  me  whether  I  knew  how  to 
write  a  letter;  if  yes,  then  you  ask  me  to  write  you  a  few  words,  and 

if  not,  then  he  said  that  he  would  help  me So  I  take  the  pen, 

but  I  have  no  time  to  compose  a  beautiful  style,  only  whatever 
thoughts  come  to  my  head,  my  hand  follows  them  obediently,  in  order 
to  describe  my  life  for  a  rather  long  time. 

I  must  confess  that  I  have  now  greater  and  greater  duties,  as  the 
oldest  in  the  house.  The  whole  house  rests  upon  me,  particularly  since 
we  have  a  strange  person  at  home.  Mother  is  burdened  with  years, 
but  nevertheless  she  is  always  active;  she  has  nobody  [else]  to  help  her. 
Mania  is  in  business  (I  should  like  it  better  if  she  occupied  herself 
with  sewing,  for  among  these  people  she  will  get  a  bad  character), 
and  thus  she  must  be  rather  served  at  home,  ....  for  even  if  she 
wished  to  help  us,  she  can  sometimes  scarcely  walk,  poor  girl.  And 
thus  we  both,  mother  and  I,  struggle  with  the  cruel  lot.  I  thought 
that  when  Jadwiga  left  there  would  be  fewer  persons  at  home,  but 
instead  of  her  there  is  grandmother,  who  can  scarcely  breathe.  More- 
over, I  took  an  apprentice  for  sewing.  You  can  imagine  my  yoke. 
In  the  morning  I  comb  my  ladies  [she  is  a  hairdresser],  when  I  come 
home  there  is  a  great  hurry  about  cooking  dinner.  (I  cook  myself 
since  we  have  boarders.)  Sometimes  I  have  no  time  to  breakfast. 
And  then  cleaning  of  rooms,  the  apprentice  asks  about  work— it  is 
maddening!  And,  as  you  know,  there  is  no  little  [farm-]  stock.  In 
a  word,  we  have  very  much  to  do.  But  though  we  work  so  much, 
life  is  calm,  for  the  boys  behave  well  enough.  We  can  thank  God  that 
He  gives  us  health.  Moreover,  you  send  us  from  time  to  time  what 
you  can;  whatever  you  do  for  mother,  you  do  it  also  for  us.  Often 
we  have  mirth.  When  your  letter  comes  everybody  tries  to  get  it 
first.  For  example,  when  you  wrote  your  last  letter  to  mother  you 
must  have  been  in  a  splendid  humor,  and  it  caused  us  a  great  joy. 
....  Now  I  permit  myself  also  to  describe  to  you  how  Michal  was 
for  two  weeks  at  home.  The  poor  fellow,  he  has  improved  very  much 
in  his  home  life;  we  spent  very  pleasant  hours  and  days.  The  poor 
boy,  he  looks  so  bad  and  does  not  care  for  his  health.  He  tried  to  get 
a  place,  but  he  was  dismissed  everywhere.  You  know  how  mother 
IS.  She  began  to  get  anxious,  he  became  very  irritable  lately,  and 
finally  he  got  some  place  in  O.,  but  he  will  be  there  only  a  month. 
Even  if  one  wanted  to  put  the  blame  on  him,  one  could  not.  It  is 
evidently  his  destiny,     I  noticed  during  his  stay  at  home  that  he 


HALICKI  SERIES  659 

never  said  a  prayer,  slept  over  the  time  of  mass.  Perhaps  he  got 
so  Germanized  in  that  last  place.  I  pity  him  much,  but  I  cannot 
help  him. 

Dear  Polikarp,  in  your  letters  to  Michal  I  read  about  a  secret 
which  you  had  confided  to  him.  If  you  will  not  be  angry  with  me  I 
will  tell  you.  Leave  off  this  intention.  The  actor's  life  is  miserable 
and  your  health  is  not  good  enough.  If  you  were  in  Posen,  it  would 
be  another  question;  we  should  admire  you  also.  It  is  well  that 
mother  does  not  know  about  it,  for  certainly  she  would  have  counted 
it  among  the  worst  crimes.'  This  news  came  to  the  ears  of  Pela  and 
Mania;   even  Kazio  and  Tadzio  know  nothing. 

Describe  to  me  what  coiffure  is  fashionable  in  America  and  what 
dresses.  Jadwiga  writes  so  little  that  I  cannot  get  an  answer  to  any 
questions,  and  Krukowski  does  not  write  at  all.  Soon  it  will  be 
mother's  name-day,  and  on  September  2,  that  of  Frankowski.     Don't 

forget  to  send  him  wishes.     He  got  another  place Everybody 

invited  him,  ....  but  he  did  not  go  anywhere,  he  remained  with  us. 
Three  days  after  his  departure  he  came  through  Zalesie  from  Posen  to 
his  new  place,  and  came  to  us  again.  He  was  angry,  for  Mrs.  Ch. 
congratulated  him  on  leaving  his  heart  in  Zalesie,  and  in  general 
everybody  in  Z.  says  that  I  go  nowhere  because  I  am  engaged  to  him. 
....  I  am  proud  that  I  became  an  interesting  person  in  Zalesie. 
Though  never  such  an  idea — to  marry  Frankowski — came  into  my 
head;  but  people  talk.  It  is  true  that  he  got  attached  to  us.  He 
writes  often  to  me,  and  it  is  difficult  for  me  to  answer  him.  Often 
if  mother  did  not  oblige  me  I  should  not  do  it.  But  I  doubt  whether 
he  will  be  now  equally  attached.     Probably  he  will  be  proud  of  his 

luck Don't   forget   about   Michal.     Give  him   always  good 

advice.     Frankowski  himself  when  he  knew  him,  said  that  he  needed 

continual  advice  and  remonstrance,  for  he  is  very  light-headed 

I  send  you  a  hearty  greeting. 

Your  sister, 

Stacha 

'  The  prejudice  against  the  actor's  life  is  not  at  all  based  upon  any  idea  of  the 
immoral  character  of  theatrical  shows — which  does  not  exist  in  Poland — but  upon 
the  current  conception  of  the  actor's  private  life,  as  wandering,  insecure,  immoral 
in  sexual  relations,  given  up  to  drinking.  The  conception  is  drawn  from  the  obser- 
vation of  wandering  provincial  troops  half  a  century  ago.  The  artistic  Bohetnc 
is  precisely  the  antithesis  of  the  life-ideal  of  the  Poles  of  Posen.  The  theater 
itself  in  Posen  is  an  exception  in  public  opinion  because  of  its  national  importance. 


66o  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

^44  September  i6,  1913 

Dear  Polikarp:  I  cannot  understand  how  my  letter  could  have 
angered  you  so  much  [the  letter  referred  to  is  missing],  and  how  the 
moment  after  reading  that  letter  could  have  been  the  most  dis- 
agreeable since  you  have  been  in  America.  Don't  beheve  that  I, 
writing  that  letter  with  good  intentions,  wanted  to  give  you  any  advice 
or  to  make  any  reproaches  about  your  behaving  badly.  Oh  no!  I 
know  your  character  now.  I  know  that  you  have  been  not  only  a  good, 
but  a  model  brother,  for  I  don't  know  how  the  others  will  be  but  I 
think  that  no  one  of  them  will  behave  as  you.  I  have  particularly 
Michal  in  mind,  for  although  he  was  able  to  behave  well  during  the 
2  days  which  he  spent  at  home,  in  reality  he  is  not  like  this.  Mother 
grieves  now  over  the  lot  that  awaits  him.  Now  he  works  in  the  mill, 
but  I  don't  know  how  long  it  will  last.  For  Tadzio  it  is  disagreeable, 
for  he  is  more  respected  than  Michal  [though  he  is  only  a  boy],  and 
more  than  once  he  complains  about  him  when  he  comes  back  home. 
Michal  feels  happy  with  Kostek,  with  whom  he  keeps  company  as 
if  he  were  dependent  upon  him.  But  through  this  he  ruins  all  his 
future.  Do  you  know,  he  has  become  worse,  not  better.  Even  if 
there  are  strangers  at  home  he  behaves  as  if  he  were  quite  uneducated, 
and  swearing  is  with  him  a  usual  thing.  Perhaps  he  will  have  more 
humility  when  he  has  not  a  pfennig  in  his  pockets,  as  it  was  in  Kamien 
where  he  had  not  even  money  enough  to  send  a  postcard  home. 
Mother  did  not  write  you,  perhaps,  about  it,  but  I  am  obliged  to, 
for  you  believe  that  he  has  reproaches  to  hear  from  us.  But  you  are 
mistaken,  for  it  is  not  he,  but  we  who  hear  reproaches.  Mother  [does 
not  reproach  him,  for  she]  is  afraid  that  he  may  take  his  life.  I  won't 
write  any  more,  for  I  don't  know  what  an  impression  this  letter  will 
make  upon  you,  and  then  it  is  already  i  o'clock  at  night  and  time  to 
sleep.     The  best  time  to  write  is  night  for  me,  for  nobody  hinders 

me 

Be  healthy,  cheerful,  keep  far  from  you  all  troubles  and  don't 
get  angry. 

With  kindest  greeting  and  hearty  embraces. 

Always  the  same, 

Maryska 


HALICKI  SERIES  66 1 

345  September  29,  191 3 

Dear  Son:  ....  I  received  the  money  for  which  I  thank  you 
heartily.  I  think,  and  I  explain  to  your  brothers  and  sisters,  how 
sparing  and  industrious  you  must  be.  The  postmen  wonder,  and 
some  people  even  envy  me.  You  intended  10  marks  for  Michal  [for 
his  name-day].  You  have  a  truly  brotherly  heart.  But  it  is  sad, 
for  I  did  not  give  him  this  money  at  once.  I  could  not.  He  sends 
almost  every  day  letters  with  applications  [for  work]  in  answer  to 
advertisements,  and  I  must  always  give  him  50  pfennigs  or  even 
I  mark.  He  has  even  sent  your  photograph  once,  for  he  had  no  more 
of  his  own.  I  don't  know  whether  he  will  give  it  back  to  me.  If  his 
character  does  not  change  he  will  only  spoil  your  reputation.  He 
could  not  stay  longer  in  his  second  place.  I  asked  him  to  persevere 
at  least  for  a  month,  and  even  this  he  scarcely  did.     His  clothes 

were  so  dirty  that  I  had  to  wash  them  like  a  miller's  clothes 

In  Posen  they  know  his  character  already,  and  then  he  knows 
that  he  cannot  get  more  than  40  or  50  marks  there.  He  won't 
be  able  to  live  upon  it  poor  boy.  I  spoke  about  him  with  the 
director  of  the  mill.  He  could  be  employed  there  but  he  made 
so  many  mistakes  in  a  week!  Tadzio  might  lose  his  place  through 
him.     The  director  told  me  that  he  preferred  Tadzio,  and  will  raise 

his  wages Mr.  S.  told  me  once  upon  the  street  that  Michal 

knows  nothing.  Now  he  has  work  for  2  or  3  weeks  in  the  agricul- 
tural shop. 

This  very  day  I  told  all  my  children  that  if  I  turn  the  money  which 
you  send  me  to  the  benefit  of  all  of  them  they  all  should  be  grateful  to 
you.     Is  it  not  so  ?  .  .  .  . 

The  girls,  i.e..  Stasia  and  Mania,  received  a  letter  from  you;  they 
refused  to  show  it  to  me,  only  they  were  sad  and  cried.  What  did  you 
write  them  ?     I  don't  know  up  to  the  present.' 

God  reward  you  for  having  remembered  your  mother's  name-day 

in  this  far  world.     Michal  asked  Tadzio,  "Tadzio,  when  is  mother's 

name-day?"     Well,  he  is  intelligent! 

[Your  Mother] 

I  rejoice  always  in  receiving  your  letter  as  if  I  talked  with  you. 
You  have  inherited  from  your  father  this  faculty  of  beautifully  com- 
posing a  letter.     I  notice  that  none  of  your  brothers  have  this  gift. 

■  Cf.  No.  344- 


662  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

346  February  2,  1914 

Dear  Brother:  Probably  you  expected  to  receive  my  letter 
sooner,  but  I  could  hardly  find  a  quiet  moment,  for  I  not  only  have 
much  work  in  the  shop,  it  awaits  me  at  home.  When  a  moment 
comes  I  profit  by  it  to  sew  my  dresses.  And  now  mother  is  with 
Stas  and  Pela,  at  a  family-festival,  for  Pela's  little  son  Polikarp  is 
baptized  today.  Stacha  is  at  a  performance  at  the  Sokols.  Every- 
body is  away,  and  I  am  glad  that  I  can  pen  a  few  words  to  you. 

The  winter  season  [in  the  shop]  was  very  gtod,  and  the  proprietor 
is  satisfied.  It  is  perhaps  because  the  expropriation  [of  Polish  land] 
is  postponed  and  people  are  less  criticized  [when  they  buy  in  German 
shops.  The  girl  is  in  a  German  shop].  I  should  never  have  believed 
that  at  such  a  time  people  would  go  to  strangers;  in  our  shop  .... 
almost  two-thirds  of  the  buyers  are  Poles.  Although  in  Zalesie 
exceptions  are  not  so  much  made  [Poles  who  work  with  Germans  are 
not  so  despised],  nevertheless  it  is  very  painful  for  me  that  I  must  be 
among  people  who  persecute  us  continually.  How  glad  I  should  be 
to  stay  at  home,  for  there  is  work  enough  everywhere.  Only  mother 
cannot  decide  and  keep  her  decision.  You  don't  know  what  annoy- 
ances I  must  bear  sometimes.  In  one  of  your  letters  to  mother  you 
wrote  that  my  demands  are  too  great.  But  you  are  mistaken.  I 
know  that  somebody  has  written  false  things  to  you  about  me.  But 
I  will  bear  patiently  everything.  For,  to  tell  the  truth,  I  am  only 
a  victim,  as  you  mentioned  once  in  a  letter,  and  I  must  suffer  for  all 
the  others.  Perhaps  Jadwiga  was  also  misused  in  this  way  and  now 
she  must  suflfer  for  it,  for  what  nobody  was  willing  [to  say]  Jadwiga 
had  to  say.  Therefore  it  was  said  that  she  had  a  big  mouth,  and 
finally  she  was  considered  the  worst  at  home.^  But  perhaps  the  time 
will  come  when  after  getting  rid  of  this  scorn  she  will  be  considered 
the  best. 

It  is  very  difficult  for  me  to  talk  about  Michal,  for  at  this  thought 
my  ideas  seem  to  leave  my  head.  I  think  that  you  have  been  also 
much  oppressed  by  this  news.  He  was  always  a  dreamer,  with  no 
seriousness,  and  he  will  remain  one.  After  all  the  letters  from  mother, 
after  all  the  begging  and  imploring  he  decided,  after  a  long  time,  to 
write  that  he  lighted  a  cigarette  with  these  silly  stories  [that  he  does 
not  mind  them;  he  is  evidently  accused  of  some  dishonesty].  And 
here  the  Jew  threatens  mother  again  with  the  court.     I  don't  know 

'  Cf.  No.  348. 


HALICKI  SERIES  663 

how  this  matter  will  end.  Polikarp,  make  this  sacrifice,  write  him  a 
few  words,  they  will  certainly  act  upon  him,  I  am  sure.  What  a 
life  he  must  lead  now  with  the  Lejowskis,  where  anger  is  always 
boiling.  Antek  L.  and  his  father  pass  each  other  by  as  if  they  were 
not  acquainted.  How  can  Michal  improve  there?  So,  I  beg  you, 
grant  my  request.  [Weather;  skating;  amusements.]  You  have 
forgotten   about   my   name-day;    everybody   has   forgotten   except 

mother.     I  never  remember  having  such  a  name-day 

I  finish  my  splendid  writing  and  kiss  you  many  times. 

Always  the  same, 

Maryska 

347  February  22,  1914 

Dear  Polikarp:  ....  You  ask  me  whether  I  am  in  such  a 
financial  position  that  I  could  go  to  the  architectural  school.  Don't 
you  know  our  condition  ?  Don't  you  know  that  the  money  which  I 
bring  home  is  immediately  spent?  It  is  very  nice  of  you  that  you 
wanted  to  deprive  yourself  and  to  put  aside  for  me,  i.e.,  to  lend  me, 
some  money.  I  am  glad  that  I  have  at  least  one  such  brother.  Could 
not  Michal  send  some  money  home,  for  I  hear  that  he  gets  140  marks 
a  month  ?     As  to  me,  I  shall  see  later,  in  May  or  June.     I  shall  risk 

writing  to  Posen  [to  the  school] Perhaps  Rakowski  could 

also  lend  me  some  money,  for  I  have  nothing  myself There 

was  a  call  to  military  service  yesterday.     Everybody  was  taken  except 

3  boys.     Mother  even  wept  from  pity 

Kazimierz 

348  March  4,  191 5 

Dear  Sm:  ....  The  quarrel  with  my  sister  Jadwiga  arose,  in 
my  opinion,  from  a  very  trifling  cause,  although  my  mother  and  my 
sisters  ascribed  to  it  more  importance. 

When  we  were  once  together  at  a  party,  Jadwiga  noticed  that  my 
behavior  toward  one  of  my  friends  was  too  cordial.  My  brothers  and 
sisters  disliked  the  whole  family  of  this  girl  for  some  wrong  caused  us 
a  few  years  ago,  but  I  did  not  care  about  it.  At  home  they  reciuired 
me  to  avoid  altogether  our  so-called  enemies,  but  I  did  not  conform 
to  this  demand,  considering  such  behavior  not  suitable  in  society 
(in  the  club).     Although  I  never  met  this  girl  intentionally  outside 


664  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

of  the  club  meetings,  the  gossip  grew  that  I  was  secretly  engaged  to 
her.  Jad\\nga  caught  this  gossip  and  was  the  first  to  inform  mother 
of  it.  My  family  would  never  have  consented  to  such  an  alliance, 
and  I  did  not  think  of  it  either.  In  general,  there  was  no  love-relation 
at  all  with  that  friend.  In  view  of  the  gossip,  I  gave  no  explanation 
but  demanded  that  they  should  not  annoy  an  innocent  girl.  This 
only  strengthened  the  suspicions.  The  whole  matter  was  later  cleared 
up,  particularly  when,  in  consequence  of  this  incident,  I  let  myself 
be  persuaded  by  some  persons  from  America,  who  were  then  in  Zalesie, 
and  came  with  them  here,  lea\ang  a  splendid  position  and  my  "  sweet- 
heart."    I  succeeded  in  getting  my  mother's  permission,  promising 

to  remember  her  and  to  come  back  after  two  years Jadwiga 

refused  neverthless  to  bid  me  goodbye.     She  is  now  here  in  America, 

and  our  relations  are  again  harmonious 

P.  Halicki 


RZEPKOWSKI  SERIES 

The  Rzepkowski's  are  of  peasant-noble  origin.  The 
father  of  Emilia  and  Marya  and  the  grandfather  of  Zocha 
were  brothers  and  farmers.  The  letters  show  the  evolu- 
tion from  peasantry  toward  the  middle  class  through  two 
generations.  The  evolution  is  more  rapid  in  the  first  branch 
of  the  family  (Nos.  349,  350)  than  in  the  second;  Zocha's 
father  is  still  only  a  janitor  {stroz)  in  Warsaw.  Neverthe- 
less there  is  a  curious  difference  between  the  two  generations 
(the  two  aunts  on  the  one  hand,  the  niece  on  the  other)  with 
regard  to  intellectual  and  moral  refinement  and  in  the  atti- 
tude toward  life-problems.  The  fundamental  attitudes  of 
the  old  women  differ  little  from  those  of  average  peasant 
women,  in  spite  of  their  instruction,  which  is  much  above 
the  average  peasant  level.  The  girl,  on  the  contrary,  while 
preserving  still  a  general  peasant  background,  shows  a  rare 
self-consciousness,  impressionability,  and  individualization 
— manifested,  for  example,  in  her  attitude  toward  death. 
The  difference  is  probably  due  to  the  fact  that  the  attitudes 
of  the  lower-middle  class  differed  less  from  the  attitudes  of 
the  peasants  thirty  or  forty  years  ago  than  they  do  now, 
and  that  the  old  women  have  lived  more  in  the  country  and 
in  small  towns,  while  the  girl  has  been  reared  in  Warsaw. 
Perhaps  also  the  particular  sensibility  of  the  girl  has  its 
source  in  her  consciousness  of  approaching  death. 


66s 


666  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

THE  FAMILY  RZEPKOWSKI 

August  Rzepkowski,  an  emigrant 

Michal 

Jakob 

Klemens 

Stas         [■  his  cousins 

Emilia 

Marya 

Wikcia 

Zocha,  daughter  of  another  cousin 


349-52,      TO      AUGUST      RZEPKOWSKI,     IN      AMERICA,     FROM 
FAMILY-MEMBERS   IN   POLAND 

349  January  27,  1908 

Dear  August:  I  lack  words  to  thank  you  for  remembering  me. 
You  gave  me  a  great  pleasure  in  sending  your  photograph  and  that 
of  your  family.  When  I  came  to  the  Radonskis  (to  Wikcia)  and  she 
gave  me  your  photograph  saying  that  it  was  for  me  and  asking  whether 
I  recognized  you,  I  could  not  recognize  you;  you  have  changed  very 
much/  And  you  would  not  know  me  either.  I  am  already  a  gray- 
haired  old  woman.  My  misfortunes,  griefs,  sorrows  about  my  chil- 
dren ruined  my  health.  It  is  already  25  years  since  I  married,  7  years 
since  I  became  a  widow.  I  have  five  children,  three  boys  and  two 
daughters.  The  oldest,  Kazimierz,  is  23  years  old.  He  is  in  a  military 
school  in  Czugajewo,  government  Cherson.  When  my  husband  lived 
he  was  in  the  fourth  class,  and  finished  it  after  the  death  of  my  hus- 
band, but  had  no  great  wish  to  learn  and  went  to  the  army  [as  volun- 
teer].^ But  as  the  number  of  Poles  in  the  miHtary  school  is  limited, 
for  3  years  he  could  not  pass  the  examination,  only  last  year  he  suc- 

'  August  has  renewed  relations  with  his  cousins  and  his  brother  after  more 
than  twenty  years  of  absolute  silence.  This  sudden  revival  of  familial  feelings  is 
a  frequent  case  and  comes  without  any  apparent  reason.  Not  less  frequently  it 
happens  that  members  of  a  family  who  have  never  kno\vn  one  another  feel  suddenly 
interested,  write  and  try  to  meet.  This  behavior  is  obviously  due  to  a  functioning 
of  infantile  memories,  and  points  back  to  a  more  communistic  familial  organization. 

'  It  is  considered  rather  bad  for  a  Pole  to  make  a  military  career  in  the  Russian 
army.  As,  moreover,  the  instruction  of  the  array  officers  is  very  insufficient 
(hardly  equal  to  the  gymnasium  instruction),  this  explains  why  the  mother  con- 
siders her  son's  choice  as  a  result  of  his  unwillingness  to  learn. 


RZEPKOWSKI  SERIES  667 

ceeded  after  many  difficulties.  The  other  son,  Boleslaw,  22  years, 
could  not  learn  because  of  deafness.  He  finished  only  two  classes  in 
the  gymnasium  in  Kalisz.  After  his  father's  death  I  sent  him  to 
the  chocolate  and  candy  factory  "Cukiernicy  Warszawscy,"  but 
nobody  would  accept  him  because  he  lacks  instruction  and  is  deaf  (in 
one  ear).  The  third,  Maryan,  21  years,  finished  6  classes  in  a  real 
gymnasium  and  is  studying  in  Warsaw,  in  the  school  of  Wawelberg. 
He  will  become  a  technical  engineer,  but  he  is  in  only  the  second 
year,  and  there  are  four.  The  oldest  daughter,  Janina,  is  17  years  old; 
she  is  in  a  boarding  school  in  Warsaw  in  the  sixth  class.  In  June  she 
will  finish  there  and  will  go  to  the  musical  conservatory,  because  she 
has  great  ability  and  talent  in  music.  She  has  4  years  still  to  work, 
and  then  she  must  earn  her  living  by  lessons.  The  younger,  Wieslawa, 
is  16  years  old,  she  is  at  the  same  school  in  the  fifth  class.  When  she 
finishes  I  shall  try  to  get  a  place  as  teacher  for  her.  After  the  death 
of  my  husband  very  little  [money]  remained;  were  it  not  for  the  help 
of  the  family  I  could  not  educate  my  children.  God  took  their  pro- 
tector away  when  he  was  most  necessary  for  the  children.  Michal, 
my  youngest  brother,  is  a  priest  in  Dzierzenin.  He  took  me  with  all 
my  children  to  himself;^  and  Jakob  and  Klemens  ....  help  with 
money.  Thanks  to  their  good  hearts,  I  can  instruct  my  children. 
Mother  and  Karusia  had  been  also  with  Michal.  Four  years  ago 
Karusia  died She  was  55  years  old.  Mother  died  on  Novem- 
ber 4,  one  year  ago.  One  half  of  her  body  was  paralyzed;  she 
lay  months  in  her  bed.  Poor  thing,  she  suffered  much,  but  was 
always  calm,  submitting  to  the  will  of  God.  Her  death  was  very 
easy,  she  slept  quietly  and  left  us  orphans.  God  took  away  from  us 
this  beloved  bond  of  the  whole  family.     My  husband  died  also  from  a 

heart  illness He  was  buried  in  Warsaw,  because  there  Jakob 

has  his  tomb,  where  his  wife  is  buried.     Father,  mother,  and  Karusia 

'  To  have  a  member  of  the  family  a  priest  is  considered  the  greatest  luck  by 
the  peasants.  The  fact  itself  more  than  anything  else  raises  the  social  standing 
of  the  family;  some  of  the  priest's  religious  character  is,  in  the  eyes  of  the  peasant, 
communicated  to  his  relatives.  And  in  economic  matters  the  priest  proves,  as  we 
see  in  the  present  case,  of  the  greatest  help  to  the  family.  He  has  a  good  income 
and  no  personal  obligations;  he  is  supposed  to  preserve  the  attitude  of  familial 
solidarity,  and  he  does  preserve  it  in  fact.  Therefore  every  peasant,  almost 
without  exception,  when  giving  instruction  to  his  son,  dreams  that  the  latter  will 
become  a  priest.  We  have  here  the  same  attitude  which  for  many  centuries  the 
noble  families  had  preserved;  one  son  had  to  become  a  priest  for  the  sake  of  the 
family,  even  if  it  meant  a  sacrifice  of  personal  aspirations. 


0(iS  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

are  buried  in  Ciechanow,  because  Jakob  erected  a  family  tomb  of  the 
Rzepkowskis  there,  as  uncle  Wiktor  is  a  priest  there  and  will  be  there 
up  to  his  death.  Mother  wished  father  to  be  buried  there  and  uncle 
to  take  care  of  the  chapel  and  to  celebrate  the  holy  mass  for  the  souls 
of  the  deceased  family  as  long  as  he  lives. 

Lastly  I  have  had  trouble  because  in  spite  of  the  deafness  of  my 
son  Boleslaw  they  insisted  on  calling  him  to  the  army.  They  kept 
him  in  the  hospital  in  the  fort  of  Modlin,  and  wearied  him  during  6 
weeks.  I  had  much  to  suffer  before  I  succeeded  in  getting  him  free. 
You  have  no  idea  what  lawless  things  are  going  on  here,  we  are  so 
happy  that  often  the  living  envy  the  dead.  A  small  star  shone  for 
a  moment  and  again  clouds  are  coming  [referring  to  the  promises  of 
autonomy  made  by  Russia  in  1906]. 

Do  you  correspond  with  anyone  from  Lipsk  ?  Do  you  know  that 
they  have  been  permitted  to  build  a  church  ?'  I  was  there  a  year  ago, 
after  30  years.  I  had  hoped  to  find  a  little  progress  and  improvement, 
but  I  saw  with  pain  that  it  is  worse  than  it  was  when  we  lived  there. 
The  glass  [drinking]  plays  the  main  part  there.  The  backwardness 
is  enormous.  I  write  this  letter  in  Zaremby,  where  I  have  been  for 
a  week  with  [my  brother]  the  priest  Klemens.  Wikcia  came  also, 
and  Emilia  lives  here.     We  come  so  very  seldom  together;    we  are 

the  only  sisters  since  Karolcia  left  us  [died] 

Your  sister  [cousin], 

Marya 

350  January  28,  1908 

Dear  August:  By  a  very  strange  and  unexpected  accident  we 
got  news  of  where  you  are  living  in  America;  up  to  the  present  we 
did  not  know  where  to  find  you.  We  take  advantage  of  the  address 
we  received  and  without  delay  we  take  the  pen  in  order  to  inform 
you  what  is  the  news  with  us.  But  during  such  a  long  past  and  such 
a  long  time  of  our  common  silence  many  changes  had  to  come,  very 
sad  changes  (or  our  family.  Our  parents  are  dead,  and  sister  Karolina, 
the  husband  of  Auntie  Misiewicz,  both  the  ^otkiewskis,  the  husband 

of  my  sister  Mania,  etc Only  my  husband  Pawel  is  alive 

....  and  the  young  generation,  which  also  is  getting  old.  It  is 
very  sad  that  in  Lipsk  they  devote  themselves  so  much  to  the  glass. 

'  The  permission  to  build  a  (Catholic)  church  is  still  diflQcult  to  get  in  Russian 
Poland,  particularly  in  the  east. 


RZEPKOWSKI  SERIES  669 

If  you  are  curious  and  if  you  wish  to  know  about  me,  I  shall 
try  to  inform  you.  I  am  permanently  with  my  brother,  the  priest 
Klemens,  who  is  priest  of  the  parish  Zaremby  Koscielne,  and  Pawel, 
my  husband,  is  with  my  son  in  Sosnowiec'  They  are  working  at 
the  Nadwislaiiska  railway  station  and  are  getting  on  very  well  there. 
Jadzia,  my  daughter,  has  an  elementary  school  in  Warsaw  and 
has  been  doing  well,  but  now  she  has  trouble,  because  when  the 
government  suspended  the  Polish  School  Association  she  had  to  try 
to  get  official  permission  to  have  a  school,  though  she  has  a  certificate 
and  has  passed  the  examination.  Probably  she  will  receive  the 
permission,  but  she  must  wait. 

As  to  myself,  for  my  old  years  I  chose  the  calm  and  comfortable 
retirement  with  priest  Klemens.^  I  am  very  well  situated  here.  I 
have  comfortable  lodging  and  a  quiet  life.  The  church  is  near,  which 
makes  me  most  joyful  and  happy  for  my  whole  life.  What  can  be  more 
pleasant  today,  in  my  old  age,  than  ceaseless  prayer  on  my  lips  ?^ 

'  A  rather  exceptional  situation,  particularly  as  the  letter  does  not  show  any 
hostility  between  husband  and  wife.  The  probable  explanation  is  the  following: 
In  peasant  marriage  the  relation  often  grows  rather  cool  with  progressing  age,  but 
the  tradition  of  common  life  is  so  strong  that  it  is  hardly  broken,  except  when  the 
man  emigrates  to  America.  But  here,  in  the  second,  half-educated  generation, 
the  sentimental  and  intellectual  ties  between  man  and  wife  are  yet  hardly  stronger 
than  among  peasants,  while  the  tradition  has  lost  its  influence.  The  prestige  of  her 
brother,  her  own  prestige  as  his  housekeeper,  and  economic  considerations  doubt- 
less play  a  part.     Cf.  note  3. 

^  She  speaks  of  her  brothers  "priest"  Klemens  and  "priest"  Michal.  In 
the  intelligent  class  this  would  be  ridiculous.  The  word  "priest"  is  in  Polish  an 
honorific  title  (in  fact,  etymologically  ksiqdz  priest,  is  connected  with  ksiqze 
prince)  and  is  used  as  equivalent  of  Pan  (Mr.,  Sir).  Now,  the  words  "Mr." 
and  "Mrs."  are  never  used  when  speaking  about  one's  own  relatives,  as  they  are 
in  English,  unless  when  talking  to  very  inferior  persons  (master  to  servants). 
When  a  person  speaks  about  his  relatives  to  other  relatives,  he  uses  the  Christian 
names;  when  to  strangers,  he  uses  the  word  which  indicates  the  relation  ("my 
brother,"  "my  wife").  In  this  case  the  proper  way  would  be  to  say  simply 
"Klemens"  or  "Michal."  But  the  difference  is  significant.  It  shows  that  the 
writer  addresses  her  own  brothers  as  "priest,"  when  speaking  to  them.  This  is  a 
sign  of  the  enormous  prestige  which  a  priest  has  with  her.  She  does  not  dare  to 
assume  any  attitude  of  equality  toward  her  brothers,  although  she  is  above  the 
average  peasant  level.  A  peasant  often  does  not  dare  to  sit  in  the  presence  of  her 
brother-priest  if  strangers  are  present. 

3  The  position  of  a  priest's  housekeeper  is  envied  because  of  the  economic 
privileges,  but  particularly  because  of  the  nearness  of  the  church,  the  privileges  she 
enjoys  in  the  church  (she  has  her  own  bench  near  the  altar),  and  the  respect  she 
receives  from  the  other  women  in  the  parish. 


670  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

The  more  so  as  our  health  is  no  longer  good.  Rheumatism  especially 
prevails  in  our  whole  family.  "Old  age  is  not  a  joy."  The  priest 
Michai  is  the  youngest  and  he  was  born  in  1863;  what  shall  I 
sav  about  us  older  ones  ?  But  I  must  inform  you  about  my  children, 
that  Janek  is  still  unmarried  but  already  betrothed,  and  Jadzia, 
my  daughter,  married  a  student  of  medicine,  so  she  must  work  until 
he  completes  his  medical  studies.  It  is  only  bad  that  they  must  live 
apart,  for  he  is  in  Cracow.  If  there  w-ere  a  [Polish]  university  in 
Warsaw  it  would  be  much  easier  for  them,  and  much  better  to  be 
together.  But  probably  Mania  informed  you  about  our  family, 
that  three  brothers  are  in  Warsaw  and  sister  Wiktoria,  who  is  married. 
Stas  is  in  Riga  in  the  army,  two  brothers  are  priests  in  their  parishes, 

and  two  sisters,  myself  and  Mania,  are  wath  them 

[Emilia] 

351  Warsaw,  May  12,  1909 

My  dear,  my  beloved  Uncle:  I  received  your  letter  this  week. 
It  was  so  sad  that  it  frightened  me  and  therefore  I  write  directly  in 
order  to  share  my  thoughts  with  you.  I  regret  that  I  caused  you  pain 
without  even  knowing  it.  It  is  true  that  lately  I  did  not  give  you  any 
sign  of  life  but  believe  me,  I  was  so  ill  that  I  could  not  take  a  pen  in 
hand,  and  [brother]  Wacio  is  as  afraid  of  writing  as  a  Jew  is  of  water, 
and  moreover  nobody  can  write  for  me  as  I  write  myself.  Therefore 
I  did  not  ask  either  my  other  brothers  or  my  parents.  I  beheved  that 
I  should  die  and  then  my  parents  would  write  to  you.  Meanwhile  it 
has  turned  out  otherwise.  I  am  still  alive,  I  don't  know  for  how  long 
a  time.  In  any  case  every  letter  that  I  write  seems  to  me  the  last 
which  I  can  write.  Therefore  you  see,  dear  uncle,  in  w-hat  a  position 
I  am.  Please  don't  wonder  if  I  am  late  in  writing,  although  I  will 
try  to  avoid  it  as  much  as  possible.  You  don't  write  whether  you  are 
in  good  health.  How  are  auntie  and  my  cousins  doing?  I  know 
only  that  they  are  working  but  that  is  not  enough  for  me.  With  us 
there  is  no  news.  My  parents  and  brothers  are  in  good  health  and  in 
the  best  of  spirits.  It  is  always  so,  only  sometimes  it  changes  under 
the  influence  of  higher  forces,  but  everything  ends  happily. 

I  had  lately  the  honor  of  getting  acquainted  with  our  countr^^man 
from  Lipsk,  perhaps  you  remember  him — Mr.  Adam  Chomiczewski. 
He  deigned  to  come  to  us  because  his  cousin  Skokowska,  who  is  in 
Warsaw  for  treatment,  lives  with  us.     You  have  no  idea  what  a  man 


RZEPKOWSKI  SERIES  67 1 

he  is,  you  cannot  remember  all  the  benefits  he  has  done  to  people,  all 
the  wealth  and  relationships  he  has !  He  is  a  friend  of  the  first  persons 
in  Warsaw  and  in  the  whole  country!  He  poses  egregiously  but 
evidently  he  does  not  know  that  whoever  listens  to  him,  says,  "  Stupid 
man!"  I  like  people  from  my  country,  but  this  one  does  not  please 
me.  I  will  write  today  about  no  general  questions,  because  to  tell  the 
truth  I  am  very  sleepy.  It  is  late  already,  and  during  the  day  I  have 
no  time  to  write  because  I  am  preparing  to  go  away  next  week,  or 
some  day.  Then  there  is  nothing  of  importance.  About  personal 
questions  also  much  cannot  be  said.  I  will  write  to  you  at  length  after 
getting  to  Wyzarne;  I  shall  have  more  time  there  and  my  thoughts 
will  be  freer.  I  hope  to  live  for  those  few  weeks,  and  if  it  happens 
otherwise,  well,  then  my  parents  will  inform  you  that  your  corre- 
spondent has  removed  from  here  to  eternity.  But  I  confess  that,  if 
formerly  I  wished  to  die,  now  such  an  ending  is  displeasing  for  I 
want  to  live.  It  seems  that  I  perceived  too  late  that  life  is  beautiful 
in  spite  of  all.  I  am  curious  whether  in  dying  one  has  all  his  presence 
of  mind,  whether  he  understands  what  is  going  on  at  that  moment 
with  him  and  around  him.  If  so,  I  thank  very  much  [wish  to  be 
excused].  I  don't  wish  to  die  in  full  consciousness.  I  cannot  imagine 
what  occurs  in  the  head,  in  the  thoughts  of  the  dying  person,  what  he 
feels  and  thinks.  Do  you  know,  I  have  the  intention  of  dying  with  a 
pen  in  my  hand,  namely  to  write  what  I  feel  in  those  last  moments. 
Of  course,  if  it  is  possible  to  do  it  and  if  regret  for  the  flying  life  does 
not  oppress  me. 

I  write  as  if  I  were  already  with  one  foot  in  the  grave,  but  it  is  not 
so,  because  I  don't  even  lie  in  bed,  but  I  walk.  I  even  sew  sometimes 
with  the  sewing-machine;  only  this  "death"  persecutes  me,  and 
I  cannot  write  more  today,  because  all  my  faculties  are  covered  with 
mourning  crape.     [Greetings  and  kisses.] 

ZOCHA 

352  LiPSK,  June  20,  1909 

My  dear  Uncle:  Two  weeks  have  passed  already  since  I  left 
Warsaw,  and  not  until  today  have  I  found  time  to  write  to  you,  dear 
uncle.  I  had  to  renew  my  old  acquaintances,  and  had  other  obliga- 
tions also,  which  did  not  permit  me  to  do  until  now  what  I  should 
have  begun  with.  How  is  your  health,  dear  uncle  and  auntie  ?  Are 
my  little  cousins  in  good  health,  do  they  play  or  work  ?     I  am  curious 


(^'J2  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

how  the  weather  is,  and  the  temperature  in  America,  because  here 
it  is  bad,  not  wet,  but  very  cold.  Do  you  know,  not  all  the  potatoes 
have  yet  come  up  ?     The  summer  will  be  very  late. 

I  feel  worse  than  bad  in  my  health.  It  has  come  so  far  that 
while  5  years  ago  I  weighed  148  pounds,  now  I  weigh  scarcely  112; 
it  is  perhaps  the  smallest  weight  that  a  grown-up  person  can  have. 
I  have  httle  hope  of  living  for  a  long  time,  and  still  less  of  having  the 
health  and  strength,  which  I  need  so  much  for  work.  That  is  the 
reason  I  cannot  follow  your  advice,  dear  uncle,  about  long  walks. 
From  Wyzarne  to  Lipsk  is  6  versts;  to  Prolejki,  4  times  as  far.  It 
is  not  for  my  strength  to  walk  so  long  a  way,  since  if  I  walk  a  little 
through  the  forest  I  feel  terribly  tired.  Corsets  and  narrow  shoes  I 
don't  wear  even  in  Warsaw,  the  less  so  in  the  country.  I  take  as 
much  sour  and  sweet  milk  as  I  can  and  everything  made  from  milk.  I 
also  eat  all  vegetables,  but  what  is  the  use  of  all  this  ?  In  the  country, 
indeed,  I  get  better  during  the  summer,  and  some  pounds  are  added  to 
my  weight,  but  the  winter  takes  all  this  away  and  more  still.  How 
long  will  it  last,  and  what  kind  of  illness  is  it  ?  No  doctor  can  know  it. 
The  home  remedies,  the  so-called  old  woman's  remedies,  don't  bring 
the  desired  results  either.  I  try  everything  that  anybody  advises 
me  to  do,  and  in  vain.  Now  somebody  got  the  idea  that  it  is  a  tape- 
worm, and  they  gave  me  some  poison;  but  I  fear  to  use  it  lest  I  may 
poison  myself  in  reality.  Death  does  not  let  us  wait  very  long  for 
itself;  why  should  I  hasten  its  visit  ? 

In  Lipsk  I  found  everything  as  it  has  been  from  old;  no  changes 
reach  these  retired  places.  If  there  were  not  the  frequent,  too  fre- 
quent, emigration  to  America  and  back,  people  here  could  remain 
for  a  long  time  "as  in  God's  house  behind  the  stove"  [Proverb: 
happy  and  calm]  without  knowing  that  there  exists  a  world  besides 
Suwatki,  Grodno,  Warsaw,  and  Cz^stochowa,  and  that  in  this  world 
people  are  more  intelligent,  richer  and  better  prepared  to  live.  Here 
it  is  that  those  who  have  money  enough  sit  every  day  in  the  tavern — 
no,  it  is  not  a  tavern,  these  belong  to  the  past — but  a  "restaurant"! 
Lipsk  has  been  able  to  do  this  much  for  the  comfort  of  its  citizens. 
And  those  who  have  not  so  much  money  work  the  whole  week  in 
order  that  they  may  at  least  on  Sunday  "be  equal  to  men"  and  sit 
at  the  same  table — or  under  the  same  table.  Not  everybody  is  Uke 
this,  but  an  enormous  majority.  The  cause  of  all  this  is  the  lack  of 
schools,  and  therefore  people  who  are  a  Uttle  more  intelligent  cry 


RZEPKOWSKI  SERIES  673 

"enlightenment,"  but  their  voice  is  a  voice  calling  in  the  wilderness. 
The  rich  and  noble  are  abroad,  and  only  they  could  do  something  if 
they  would.  And  in  general  people  grow  indifferent  to  everything 
that  is  Polish  and  for  Poland — not  to  this  brilHant  and  splendid 
[Poland]  which  clinks  with  its  thousands  [of  roubles],  but  to  this  poor, 
gray,  vulgar  and  stupid  [Poland].  What  do  they  care  if  the  children 
of  hired  workmen  remain  poor  hired  workmen,  if  for  a  long  time 
still  they  will  believe  that,  by  charms  and  curses,  illness  and  different 
other  troubles  are  chased  away?  On  the  contrary,  they  endeavor 
to  maintain  as  long  as  possible  this  unnatural  state,  because  they 
know  that  when  there  is  not  a  single  illiterate,  from  this  moment  on 
the  thousands  will  no  more  flow  so  easily  as  now  to  their  bottomless 
pockets. 

Thence  comes  this  indifference  to  aU  exhibitions  which  have 
the  local  industry  in  view.  The  rich  industrial  does  not  care  for 
such  an  exhibition,  because  he  will  always  find  a  sale  for  his  products, 
if  not  here,  then  elsewhere.  And  besides,  his  clients  are  rich  people 
who  imitate  what  they  see  abroad.  What  do  they  care  for  local  in- 
dustry? And  we  poor  people,  we  disregard  [this],  and  do  you  know 
why?  Because  such  exhibitions  have  no  practical  importance.  In 
America  perhaps  they  are  as  they  ought  to  be,  but  with  us  it  is  simply 
a  "turning  of  the  head."' 

Such  "turning  of  the  head"  is,  for  instance,  our  "Association  for 
Knowledge  of  the  Country,"  to  which  you  wrote  once  asking  what 
is  the  object  of  this  Association.  If  you  thought  that  it  is  concerned 
with  the  question  of  enriching  the  country,  you  erred  greatly.  They 
travel  through  the  land,  it  is  true,  but  for  the  pleasure  of  it,  not  in 
order  to  study  what  is  done  in  this  part  or  the  other  and  what  could 
be  done  in  a  given  place.  They  care  only  for  a  nice  locality,  for  old 
ruins  of  castles,  palaces,  churches,  and  nothing  more.  All  this  is  very 
nice,  but  in  my  opinion  it  is  not  the  time  to  do  it  now;  we  have  so 
many  questions,  more  important,  concerning  the  present  and  the 
future  that  it  is  impossible  to  busy  ourselves  with  the  past.  So  our 
peasant's  reason  tells  us,  which  is  contrary  to  the  "fine  reason  of  the 

^  The  reference  is  to  a  provincial  exhibition  in  Cz^stochowa  about  which  the 
uncle  had  probably  asked,  and  which  was,  in  fact,  very  well  organized.  But  the 
girl's  letters  betray  a  general  pessimism,  probably  the  result  of  her  personal  con- 
dition— not  only  ill-health  and  fear  of  death,  but  also  the  disharmony  between  her 
general  culture  and  her  habitual  environment. 


6/4  PRIIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

lords,"  as  the  Jews  say.     In  America  people  are  more  practical, 
therefore  it  is  better  there  than  here. 

Staying  in  the  country  annoys  me  very  much,  not  because  I  am 
without  occupation — 1  have  enough  for  my  strength — but  much  time 
remains  which  in  Warsaw  I  spent  in  reading  books,  and  here  I  have 
none.  I  am  robbed  of  this  only  pleasure  that  remained,  because  I 
like  books  better  than  all  amusements  and  plays  or  society,  all  visits, 
etc.  In  Warsaw  I  surrounded  myself  with  books  like  a  true  book- 
worm ;  here  I  cannot  borrow  them  anywhere,  and  I  am  sad.  [Greet- 
ings and  kisses.] 

ZOCHA 


KALINOWICZ  SERIES 

We  have  here  an  interesting  case  of  familial  solidarity 
preserved  in  full  strength  by  the  children  after  the  death 
of  their  parents,  in  spite  of  the  usually  disintegrating 
influence  of  emigration.  Affection  seems  to  have  grown 
stronger  and  has  taken  the  place  of  the  subordination  to  the 
head  of  the  family.  In  this  way  the  moral  unity  of  the 
group  is  kept,  although  there  is  neither  a  common  economic 
basis  of  existence  nor  any  external  pressure  of  the  com- 
munity, and  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  members  are 
separated. 

The  growth  of  affection  is  shown  by  the  exaggerated 
sentimentality  in  the  letters.  The  expression  of  feelings 
in  the  peasant  is  seldom  proportionate  to  their  real  impor- 
tance, but,  when  we  find  such  an  exaltation  as  throughout 
almost  all  of  the  letters  of  the  members  of  this  family,  there 
is  certainly  a  very  real  intensification  of  the  feelings.  There 
is  also  a  very  good  opportunity  for  the  familial  solidarity 
to  manifest  itself  in  the  fact  of  the  marriage  of  one  sister. 
And,  in  general,  we  see  this  solidarity  in  its  purest  form,  free 
from  any  questions  of  money,  social  opinion,  etc. 

THE  FAMILY  KALINOWICZ 

Wladzio  (Wladysiaw)  ] 

Leon  [  brothers 

Janek  J 

Helcia 

Stasia 

Todzia  (Teodora) 

Antosia 

Kasia  Hulewiczka,  cousin 

Bronek,  Helcia's  husband 

Kasia's  husband 

An  uncle 

.  675 


'  sisters 


676  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

353-63,    TO   WLADZIO    (WLADYSLAW)    KALINOWICZ,   IN 
AMERICA,    FROM   FAMILY-MEMBERS 

353  [December  5,  1913] 

Dear  Wladzio:  We  send  you  a  kind  and  hearty  greeting,  we 
embrace  you  and  kiss  you  innumerable  times  and  we  inform  you  that, 
thanks  to  God,  we  are  in  good  health,  and  we  wish  you  also  with  our 
whole  heart  the  best  of  health.  Dear  brother,  after  a  long  waiting 
and  a  great  longing  we  received  your  letter  which  rejoiced  us  so 
much  that  we  wept  the  whole  day  from  joy  that  you  are  alive  and 
from  sorrow  that  perhaps  you  bear  there  misery,  dear  Wladzio. 
Today  it  is  December  5,  tomorrow  we  are  going  home,  and  I  think  to 
myself,  0  God,  even  if  I  had  to  work  as  hard  until  the  next  Decem- 
ber, or  even  a  year  more,  I  would  work  gladly,  if  I  could  help  our  dear 
little  brother.  But  nothing  can  be  done.'  Dear  Wladzio,  when  we 
remember  you,  we  shed  bitter  tears  and  we  think  that  there  is  nothing 
more  left  for  us  upon  this  world.     I  would  be  glad  to  go  to  you,  dear 

Wladzio Now  we  finish  these  few  words,  we  greet  you  once 

more,  kiss  you  and  embrace  you.     Perhaps  God  will  comfort  us  and 
we  shall  see  one  another  still.     When  we  get  home  we  will  write 

oftener 

T[eodor.4]  and  J[anek]  Kalinowicz 

Now  we  greet  dear  Hulewiczka  [cousin],  with  her  husband  and  son. 

354  [L^D,  end  of  January,  19 14] 

Most  beloved  Wladzio:  I,  Todzia  [Teodora]  write  to  you  these 
few  words.  First,  I  greet  you  with  my  whole  heart,  I  kiss  you  and 
embrace  you  hundreds  of  times.  Now  I  inform  you  first,  dear 
Wladzio,  about  Helcia's  w^edding.  The  wedding  was  performed  on 
January  21,  at  7  o'clock  in  the  evening.  It  was  very  beautiful,  all 
the  lights  in  the  church  shone,  rugs  were  spread  out  and  singers  sang. 
But,  dear  Wladzio,  all  this  changed  for  us  into  a  great  sorrow  and 
we  all  wept,  because  our  most  beloved  Wladzio  was  not  there. 
Dear  Wladzio,  w^e  feel  very  sad  without  you  and  we  long  for  you. 
Dear  Wladzio,  write  a  few  words  to  Bronek,  our  brother-in-law,  for  he 
is  always  very  sad;  he  imagines  that  perhaps  you  are  angry  with  him. 

'  That  is,  they  must  go  home,  for  the  Polish  season-workers  are  not  permitted 
to  stay  ui  Prussia  during  two  winter  months,  the  Prussians  fearing  that  they  will 
settle  in  the  east  provinces  and  strengthen  the  Polish  element  there. 


KALINOWICZ  SERIES  (^-jj 

Write  to  him,  dear  Wladzio,  perhaps  you  will  rejoice  him.'  Dear 
Wladzio,  we  feel  very  sad  without  you.  We  came  home  not  long  ago, 
and  we  must  go  soon  again.  Such  is  our  sad  life,  for  we  are  scattered 
about  the  world.     Now  I  greet  you  once  more,  I  embrace  you  and  kiss 

you  thousands  of  times.     Later  I  will  write  more I   remain 

longing. 

Your  sister, 

Teodora 
I  will  come  soon  to  you. 

355  [Siberia]  January  25,  1914 

Dear  Brother:  Notwithstanding  a  long  time  [spent]  in  longing 
and  awaiting  news  from  you,  I  am  obliged  to  write  a  few  words  coming 
from  the  depths  of  my  heart.  Dear  brother,  it  will  soon  be  a  year 
since  you  left  the  home,  and  during  this  whole  year  I  have  longed  and 
wished  for  news  from  you,  but  you  have  forgotten  about  me  totally. 
And  still  you  know  well  how  sad  I  feel  and  how  I  long  for  you.  Have 
you  no  brotherly  feeling  ?  Don't  you  know  how  I  long  for  you  and 
want  to  know  about  you  ?  Nobody  knows  what  is  dear  to  me,  but 
a  brotherly  heart  is  dearest  of  all,  and  I  cannot  find  it.  You  know 
that  I  have  served  2  years  and  did  not  ask  you  for  any  help,  but  1 
want  a  brotherly  heart  and  a  brotherly  love.  But  I  know  that  the 
time  passes  rapidly  for  a  man  who  lives  in  liberty  and  can  do  his  will, 
and  if  there  is  bitterness,  there  is  also  sweetness.  But  I  have  no 
sweetness  at  all,  I  am  like  a  man  in  a  penitentiary.  I  want  brotherly 
words,  I  want  a  brotherly  heart  and  remembrance.  If  I  knew  that 
I  had  been  ever  disagreeable  to  you  when  we  lived  together,  I  would 
say,  "It  is  my  fault."  But  I  loved  you  more  than  my  life  and  I  love 
you  still.  But  you,  as  soon  as  you  got  a  little  liberty,  you  forgot 
about  everything.  So  it  is  now  in  the  world;  a  brother  stabs  his 
brother,  a  sister  drowns  her  sister  for  profit's  sake.  But  please  for- 
give me  these  words,  for  I  write  them  in  longing  and  sorrow  and 
desire.  I  don't  see  anything  pleasant,  everything  which  I  love  is 
closed  and  hidden  from  me.  He  who  has  liberty  does  not  know  long- 
ing or  sorrow,  but  I  know  them  well.  For  2  months  already  I  have 
had  no  news  from  home,  neither  about  my  sisters  nor  about  my 
brothers,  so  my  heart  is  troubled,  although  my  condition  is  not  worse 

'  The  brother-in-law  feels  himself  more  or  less  an  intruder  in  the  family  until 
his  marriage  has  been  sanctioned  by  all  the  brothers  and  sisters. 


678  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

tlian  that  of  others  [my  companions].  So  I  beg  you  very  much,  dear 
brother,  if  somebody  tells  you  that  you  are  alone,  spit  into  his  eyes, 
and  remember  that  you  have  brothers  and  sisters  who  want  news 
from  you.  You  wrote  in  the  beginning  and  you  complained  about 
me,  [saying]  that  it  interested  you  and  you  wanted  to  know  about  my 
condition,  about  my  success.  And  you  think  that  I  am  not  inter- 
ested. But  I  want  very  much  to  know  about  your  health  and  success, 
to  know  where  my  dear  brothers  are.  So  I  beg  you  very  much,  write 
me  where  you  are,  how  do  you  succeed  ....  for  from  home  they 
write  me  nothing  about  you;    they  say  only  that  you  don't  succeed 

in  America.     Such  is  our  lot,  tiiat  we  don't  succeed  anywhere 

Your  brother, 

Leon 

356  February  11,  1914 

Most  beloved  Brother:  ....  Today  I  had  the  happiness  to 

receiveyourletter  which  caused  me  a  great  joy When  I  received 

it  I  could  not  eat  my  dinner You  ask  me  how  long  I  have  still 

to  serve.  I  cannot  tell  you  exactly  for  I  don't  know  it  myself.  I  was 
glad  that  the  last  year  was  coming  but  now  I  am  very  sad  ....  for 
people  say  that  there- will  be  a  war  with  Prussia  and  Austria  and 

England You  know  what  my  life  is,  far  away  from  my  dearest 

brothers  and  sisters.  I  cannot  complain  that  the  conditions  are 
bad,  but  what  about  this  slavery?  For  what  am  I  a  slave  in  these 
Siberian  mountains  ?....!  could  be  something  else  than  I  am  [not 
a  simple  soldier],  but  I  don't  want  it,  I  am  weary  of  life 

You  say  that  Helcia  is  getting  married.  Yes,  she  asked  me  for 
advice  [permission],  and  I  advised  her  also  to  do  it,  for  I  pity  her  very 
much,  that  she  remains  so  alone,  while  we  don't  know  whether  any 
one  of  us  will  ever  come  back  to  our  beloved  Poland  and  to  our  be- 
loved sisters  and  brothers.  It  seems  to  me  as  if  I  never  should  tear 
myself  out  of  this  slavery.  Your  intentions  are  very  serious  [probably 
the  brother  intends  to  take  his  family  to  America],  but  don't  worry 
about  me  as  long  as  I  am  in  service.  Wlien  I  see  that  things  are  bad 
I  shall  address  myself  to  you,  but  now  for  a  time  I  will  be  patient. 
The  service  is  easy.  [Expression  of  brotherly  feelings;  news  and 
request  for  news  about  relatives  and  friends.] 

I  remain  in  longing.  -.r       ^     •      u    ..u 

^    °  Your  lovmg  brother, 

Leon 


KALINOWICZ  SERIES  679 

357  May  19,  1914 

Most  beloved  Brother:  ....  You  ask  me  why  I  send  you 
letters  with  stamps,  whether  I  am  so  rich  in  money.  Well,  I  don't 
grudge  these  10  copecks.  Why,  I  have  90  roubles- — oh,  I  beg  your 
pardon,  90  copecks — a  month.  But  for  this  money  I  can  send  more 
letters  than  my  brother-in-law,  who  has  more  honor  [higher  position  ?] 
and  more  money  than  I.'  They  wrote  to  me  not  long  ago,  complain- 
ing that  you  don't  write  to  him.  He  says  that  he  is  often  in  despair, 
because  everybody  in  our  family,  particularly  the  brothers,  looks  at 
him  with  an  unfavorable  eye.  Stasia  and  Todzia  complained  also 
that  you  wrote  seldom  to  them.  I  told  them  to  write  more  often, 
then  they  will  receive  more  letters.  And  why  does  Helcia  not  write 
to  Hulewiczka  ?     I  will  learn  it  and  inform  you.     If  it  is  through  him 

[the  brother-in-law],  I  will  thank  him  when  I  come  back ^ 

Leon 

358  L4D,  March  22,  1914 

Dear  Wladzio:  In  our  first  words  to  you  P[raised]  b[e]  J[esus] 
Chr[istus].  We  hope  that  you  will  answer  us:  "In  centuries  of 
centuries.  Amen."     [Greetings;  health.] 

Dear  Wladzio,  we  have  written  4  letters  to  you  and  we  don't 
know  what  happened,  for  we  received  an  answer  to  none.  We  are 
very  much  pained  that  our  most  beloved  brother  forgets  about  us. 
Dear  Wladzio,  we  love  you  so  much,  I  pray  to  our  Lord  God  that  I 
may  see  you  at  least  in  a  dream,  and  you  have  forgotten  about  us. 

Dear  Wladzio,  don't  believe  Janka  that  she  is  faithful  to  you. 
She  has  already  Jozef  Balczak.  She  bought  a  ring  for  him,  and  she 
dares  to  write  to  you !     Pardon  me,  dearest  Wladzio,  for  writing  thus  to 

'  The  brother-in-law  is  required  to  become  at  once  a  member  of  the  family  in 
the  full  sense  of  this  membership. 

'  In  spite  of  the  extraordinary  efforts  to  preserve  the  familial  solidarity,  the 
brother-in-law  is  not  assimilated,  and  the  sister  is  estranged;  the  family  not 
only  does  not  acquire  a  new  member  but  is  in  danger  of  losing  one.  The  family 
Kalinowicz  is  not  held  together  by  a  community  of  economic  or  social  interests, 
but  merely  by  affection,  and  there  seems  to  be  no  immediate  relation  of 
solidarity  between  it  and  the  family  of  the  brother-in-law,  simply  because  the  family 
Kalinowicz  is  no  longer  a  complete  and  organized  family-group,  and  does  not 
count  as  such  in  the  eyes  of  the  community.  A  family  must  either  have  a  head  (or 
rather,  a  head-couple)  or  be  composed  of  married,  settled,  and  socially  mature 
members,  in  order  to  have  a  social  standing  as  a  group. 


68o  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

you,  but  we  have  a  dear  brother  and  we  want  to  have  also  a  dear 
sister-in-law,  and  that  is  the  end  of  it.  I  write  you  nothing  but  the 
holv  truth.  I  inform  you,  most  beloved  Wlaczio,  that  we  shall  go 
into  the  world  on  March  30.  We  are  very  sad  that  we  must  wander 
about  the  world,  but  nothing  can  be  helped.  God's  will  be  done, 
let  it  be  so  for  some  time.  Dear  Wladzio,  don't  be  angry  with  Helcia, 
she  grieves  very  much  that  you  have  not  written  to  her  for  so  long  a 
time.  Dear  Wladzio,  Helcia  longs  much  for  Hulewiczka,  sends  her 
a  sincere  greeting,  kisses  her  and  embraces  her  thousands  of  times  and 
begs  her  to  write.  Dear  Wladzio,  don't  be  angry  with  Helcia  for 
having  married.  She  had  nothing  else  to  expect  but  this  Prussian 
grease  [figurative  for  "season- work;"  a  particular  kind  of  grease 
is  given  to  the  season- workers  for  cooking],  and  we  don't  like  this 
Prussian  grease;  we  are  tired  of  it.  Dear  Wladzio,  Janek  is  a  good- 
for-nothing,  he  always  plays  cards,  refuses  to  listen  to  anybody,  is 
very  vulgar,  offends  everybody;  such  a  rogue  as  the  world  has  never 
seen.  Write  him  a  few  words,  dear  Wladzio,  perhaps  you  will  correct 
him  a  httle  in  this  way. 

Dear  Wladzio,  perhaps  you  are  displeased  with  me  for  describing 
everything  thus,  but  what  you  don't  like,  forgive  me.     I  wirite  you 

the  sincere  truth,  because  I  love  you  sincerely 

I  remain  your  truly  loving  sister, 

Teodor.\ 

359  May  8  [1914] 

....  Dear  Wladzio:  Don't  be  angry  with  us  for  -uTiting  httle 
to  you,  for  it  seems  to  me  that  we  have  WTitten  more  to  you  than  you, 
dear  brother,  to  us.  Believe  me,  I  never  felt  so  sad  at  home  as  this 
winter.  You  say,  dear  Wladzio,  that  we  have  a  brother-in-law  now 
and  therefore  we  forget  about  you.  It  is  not  true,  we  shall  never  for- 
get you,  for  you  are  our  most  beloved  little  brother  and  we  long  for 
you  as  a  deer  for  water,  like  earth  without  rain;  and  we  want  to  see 
you  as  soon  as  possible.  Dear  Wladzio,  if  you  knew  how  every 
letter  of  yours  rejoices  us  you  would  write  more  often,  our  beloved 
brother 

I  wrote  to  you  after  Helcia's  wedding,  but  I  don't  know 
whether  you  received  this  letter.  I  pitied  [regretted  ?]  Helcia  ver>' 
much,  I  cried  during  the  whole  festival;  the  festival  was  not  a 
festival,  but   a    sorrow   for   me    [play   of   words,  wesele,  marriage- 


KALINOWICZ  SERIES  68 1 

festival,  is  etymologically  identical  with  wesele,  joy].  I  should 
have  much  to  describe  and  to  complain  about,  but  I  pray  to  God  that 
He  may  help  me  to  see  you  and  to  relate  to  you  everything  by  words. 
Dear  Wladzio,  as  to  America,  I  want  to  go  there,  for  it  seems  to  me 
that  now  everything  will  be  different  at  home.  Dear  Wladzio,  I 
should  like  to  get  to  you  as  soon  as  possible,  for  I  long  very  much. 
Or  you  come  to  us;  then  everything  will  be  well,  for  now  we  are  true 

orphans As  soon  as  you  receive  this  letter,  answer  us  and  tell 

me  whether  I  shall  prepare  myself  for  America  and  when,  for  I  should 
like  to  as  soon  as  possible.  I  should  regret  very  much  to  leave  my 
sisters  and  all  my  beloved  ones,  but  what  can  be  done,  since  we  must 
go  asunder  for  bread  and  long  for  one  another  as  now,  when  we  are 
scattered,  everybody  elsewhere.    Dear  Wladzio,  Helcia  wrote  and 

asked  me  to  greet  you  as  well  as  her  beloved  Hulewiczka All 

our  girls  greet  you  also  [enumerates  those  who  work  with  her] 

I  was  very  glad  that  you  wrote  also  something  to  Janek,  for  he  is 
very  arrogant.  Excuse  me  for  having  written  so  much  and  so  badly, 
but  to  my  dear  brother  I  write  boldly,  for  he  will  accept  everything, 
even  if  anything  is  bad 

S[tasia],  T[eodora],  and  J[anek]  Kalinowicz 

360  [Summer,  19 14] 

Dear  Brother:  [Usual  beginning;  expression  of  fraternal  feel- 
ings.] You  ask,  dear  Wladzio,  about  Antosia.  She  is  with  Helcia. 
Up  to  the  present  she  has  nothing  to  nurse  [as  Helcia  has  no  child  yet], 
but  we  don't  know  how  it  will  be  later  on.  We  intended  to  take  her 
with  us,  she  had  even  got  the  passport,  only  we  pitied  her,  for  she 
is  still  too  young  for  such  heavy  work.  [Greetirlgs,  love  and  longing 
expressions,  etc.] 

Your  loving  sisters  and  brother. 

Stasia,  T[eodora],  and  J[anek]  Kalinowicz 

361  Siberia,  June  22,  1914 

Dear  Brother:  ....  My  time  passes  very  slowly,  I  can  com- 
pare it  to  that  which  we  all  three  spent  in  Linisberg  in  Germany.  I 
have  had  no  letter  from  home  since  Easter.  Since  Helcia  married 
she  has  written  to  me  only  twice,  and  Bolek  did  not  write  even  once. 
I  don't  know  what  it  is,  whether  they  have  no  time  because  of  work, 


6S^2  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

or  since  they  lay  dowTi  for  the  first  time  to  sleep  they  have  not  awak- 
ened up  to  the  present.  Well,  I  will  arouse  them  when  I  go  back. 
....  I  received  a  letter  from  Minsk.  They  wrote  me  that  uncle 
is  getting  married  and  they  invite  me  to  come  to  them  after  the  end 
of  my  service.  I  have  had  for  a  long  time  the  idea  of  visiting  them 
and  of  getting  acquainted  with  them,  for  they  are  very  good  people.' 
They  always  ask  whether  or  not  I  need  anything.  But  they  have  not 
sent  me  anything  up  to  the  present,  for  my  character  does  not  permit 
me  to  beg.     Everybody  knows  that  I  am  not  earning  wages,  but  in 

slavery  [and  they  ought  to  send  without  asking] 

Leon 

362  L^D,  July  13,  1914 

....  Dear  Wladzio:  Your  letter  found  us  in  good  health. 
[Wishes.]  I  beg  your  pardon  for  not  having  answered  your  first  letter, 
but  I  have  no  time  to  write  and  Helcia  does  not  want  to  write  alone. 
You  were  dissatisfied  that  I  did  not  write.  I  did  not  write,  it  is  true, 
and  you  were  angry  with  me,  it  is  a  fact.  But  you  had  no  reason.  I 
have  more  reason  [to  be  angry]  but  today  I  beg  your  pardon 
for  everything.  You  were  dissatisfied  with  us  for  not  having  written 
to  you  before  our  wedding.  But  you  know  why  we  did  not  write. 
You  did  not  write  to  me  and  therefore  I  did  not  write  to  you.^  Today 
I  write  to  you,  dear  Wladzio,  and  we  are  very  glad  that  you  don't 
forget  about  us,  and  we  don't  forget  about  you  either.  We  remember 
you  continually.  Now  I  inform  you  what  is  the  news  here.  Wacek 
is  no  more  with  us,  because  he  got  totally  spoiled.  He  attempted  to 
violate  Mania  F.  He  invited  her  to  his  room  sa}'ing  that  he  would 
show  her  the  photograph  of  the  young  manor-owner;  he  closed  the 
door  with  the  key  and  threw  her  upon  the  bed.  Only  she  cried  very 
much.     With  difficulty  people  forced  the  door.^  ....  There  was  an 

'  The  uncle  should  become  the  head  of  the  family  after  the  father's  death. 
We  see,  indeed,  that  he  shows  some  interest  for  his  nephews.  But  his  long  separa- 
tion from  this  branch  of  the  family  hinders  him  from  assuming  any  really  active  role. 

'  From  the  standpoint  of  the  family-relations,  Wladzio  was  perfectly  right 
in  being  angry,  for  his  permission  was  probably  not  asked  before  his  sister's  mar- 
riage, and  it  was  the  brother-in-law's  duty  to  write  him  first  after  the  marriage. 

3  This  Wacek  is  probably  an  overseer  in  the  manor.  The  attempt  of  \'iolation 
would  hardly  ever  happen  in  this  form  in  a  village,  and  in  general  it  is  one  of  the 
rarest  crimes.  Here  it  seems  to  be  the  result  of  the  influence  of  season-emigration 
(about  25  per  cent  of  the  population  in  this  locality  emigrate  for  the  summer)  and 
the  corresponding  loosening  of  morals. 


KALINOWICZ  SERIES  683 

accident:  one  workman  was  drowned.  He  was  bathing  on  Sunday, 
precisely  during  the  divine  service.^     [Relates  who  died;  weather.] 

Bronek 

Dear  brother,  I  greet  you  also  and  embrace  you  and  beg  your 
pardon  for  not  having  answered  you  at  once.  I  wanted  Bronek  to 
write,  but  he  let  one  day  pass  after  another.     If  you  knew  how  much 

he  works  you  would  not  wonder  at  all He  works  in  Siupca. 

He  leaves  at  4  every  morning  and  comes  back  at  10.  He  boarded 
with  Felek,  paid  him  3  roubles  a  week,  but  they  gave  him  very 
miserable  living  and  he  had  to  stop.  [News  about  friends.]  I  greet 
you,  dear  little  brother,  I  embrace  you  and  kiss  you  a  thousand  times, 
and  I  beg  you  very  much,  write  often,  for  we  long  much  for  you. 
....  Antosia  greets  you.     She  remembers  you  often  and  wishes 

you  to  come  as  soon  as  possible 

Helcia 

363  [November]  27,  1914 

Dear  Brother  and  dear  Kasia:  After  a  painful  sighing  and  a 

terrible  longing  [on  our  part]  Todzia  [Teodora]  sent  us  two  letters 

which  rejoiced  us  very  much.     Now  we  inform  you  that  we,  although 

in  great  fear  and  waiting  for  better  times  to  come,  are  still  alive  and 

healthy,  and  we  wish  you  the  same  with  our  whole  heart.     Now  we 

inform  you  that  God  gave  us  a  son.     He  is  named  Stanislaw  Jozef. 

For  the  first  time  he  greets  his  dear  uncle  and  aunt  Kasia  and  the 

other  uncle  [Kasia's  husband]  and  his  cousin.     Dear  brother,  we  pity 

you  very  much,  we  remember  you  often,  saying  that  perhaps  you  are 

hungry  sometimes,  since  your  condition  is  so  bad  ....  and  you 

have  had  no  work  for  6  months.     We  are  very  much  pained.     And 

how  does  my  dear  Kasia  succeed  ?    I  long  very  much  for  her.     Dear 

brother,  we  have  much  news,  but  all  is  sad.     Now  I  won't  write  more, 

for  the  day  is  short,  and  we  spend  these  long   evenings  in  darkness 

[no  oil  because  of  the  war]. 

[Helcia] 

[Longer  or  shorter  greetings  from  other  members  of  the  family, 
except  those  who  are  in  Prussia.] 

'  Bathing  during  the  divine  service  is  considered  the  cause  of  his  drowning — 
God's  punishment. 


WICKOWSKI  SERIES 

The  letters  depict  a  typical  economic  situation,  resulting 
partly  from  certain  traditions,  partly  from  recent  legal 
factors.  Traditionally  the  peasant  preferred  rather  to  will 
his  farm  to  one  son  than  to  divide  it.  But  it  was  not  a 
universal  custom.  In  some  cases  it  was  more  profitable  to 
divide  the  farm,  particularly  if  the  father  died  before  his 
children  were  of  age  to  be  settled.  The  development  of 
emigration  during  the  last  twenty  years  brought  a  new  and 
important  change  of  conditions.  A  season-emigrant  can  live 
and  put  money  aside  upon  the  smallest  bit  of  land  and  buy 
later  a  larger  farm,  while  if  he  has  no  land  at  all  he  is  hope- 
lessly proletarized.  Hence  division  of  land  becomes  an 
economic  necessity.  But  it  is  limited  by  the  Russian  law: 
no  new  farms  below  six  morgs  can  be  created  by  division. 
The  law  was  established  during  the  liberation  of  the  serfs, 
and  its  intention  was  to  keep  an  economically  strong  peasant 
class,  conservative  and  true  to  the  Russian  government, 
as  against  the  too  patriotic  and  revolutionary  nobility. 
The  result  was  an  enormous  and  continually  growing  country 
proletariat,  which  partly  emigrates  to  America,  and  we 
find  more  and  more  frequently  situations  like  the  one  in  the 
present  series,  where  the  heirs  live  upon  an  undivided 
property,  ruining  the  farm  or  quarreling  continually. 

In  the  present  case  there  are  four  brothers  and  two 
sisters.  One  brother,  Jozef,  is  in  America.  One  sister. 
Mania,  is  married.  The  other  brothers,  Jan,  Stanislaw, 
and  Antos,  and  their  sister  Helenka,  live  together  and  keep 
the  farm.  The  farm  was  their  mother's,  and  was  a  part  of 
the  farm  of  their  grandfather;  part  of  it  belongs  to  their 
uncle.     A   new    survey    was    made    after    their    mother's 

684 


WICKOWSKI  SERIES  685 

death,  and  now  the  place  upon  which  their  farm  buildings 
stand  belongs  to  their  uncle. 

The  family  situation  is  instructive,  particularly  if  we 
compare  it  with  that  of  the  family  Kalinowicz.  Here  we 
find  also  familial  affection  as  the  main  bond,  unifying  the 
young  generation  after  the  parents'  death.  But  this  bond 
proves  less  effective;  the  situation  requires  something 
more.  Indeed,  there  is  a  farm  left — a  common  basis  of 
the  material  existence  of  the  family-group  as  a  whole — and 
therefore  the  need  of  a  head  of  the  family  is  much  greater 
than  in  the  Kalinowicz  case;  there  are  not  only  social,  but 
also  economic,  functions  to  perform.  In  such  important 
social  events  as  the  introduction  of  a  new  member  through 
marriage,  even  a  headless  family  can  act  as  a  whole,  as  the 
Kalinowiczs  prove,  although  a  perfect  economic  co-operation 
in  such  conditions  is  impossible.  But  in  the  Wickowski 
family  there  is  nobody  to  assume  the  role  of  the  head  and 
manager.  The  brothers  are  too  old  to  accept  the  guardian- 
ship of  an  uncle,  while  none  of  them  is  able  to  take  the 
responsibility  himself.  The  oldest  (probably)  is  Jozef, 
but  he  is  in  America.  The  second,  Jan,  in  normal  con- 
ditions would  be  the  head,  but  he  is  sick  and  therefore 
unfit.  Stanislaw  is  not  yet  serious  enough,  and  Antos  is  a 
child.  Thus,  in  spite  of  the  bond  of  affection,  the  family  is 
gradually  disaggregated  as  an  economic  and  social  unit, 
because  it  is  unable  to  act  consistently  in  economic  matters 
and  to  behave  as  a  sufficiently  harmonious  whole  with 
regard  to  the  social  environment. 

THE  FAMILY  WICKOWSKI 


Jozef  (Jozio) 

Jan 

Stasiek  (Stanislaw) 

Antos 

Mania  R. 


brothers 


Tx  1     1        1  Sisters 
Helenka 


686  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

Mania's  husband 

Wladka,  his  niece  * 

Stanislaw  Wickowski,  an  uncle 

His  wife 

Wacek  his  son 

Zosia,  his  daughter 

Wladyslaw  Wickowski,  another  uncle 

Jozefa,  his  wife 

Andrzej  Wickowski,  third  uncle 

J6zef     ) 

Franek  [■  his  sons 

Wicek 


364-68,      TO  JOZEF    (JOZIO)    WICKOWSKI,   IN  AMERICA,   FROM 
FAMILY-MEMBERS 

364  GoRZKOw,  March  4,  19 14 

"Praised  be  Jesus  Christus."  .... 

[Dear  Brother  Jozef]:  ....  You  ask  whether  Antos  is 
learning.  But  we  inform  you  that  Antos  is  so  lazy  to  learn  that  there 
is  nobody  in  the  world  like  him.  Neither  beating  nor  begging  can 
help.  Although  he  knows  how  to  read  a  httle,  it  is  very  httle.  More- 
over, he  is  a  bad  boy,  disobedient,  tearing  his  clothes,  and  difficult 
to  keep  at  home,  for  he  always  loafs  about.  Uncle's  [daughter] 
Zosia,  although  nobody  compels  her  to  learn,  learns  well  herself 
because  she  is  wiUing. 

We  cannot  give  now  anything  to  our  brother-in-law  besides  this 
cow,  for  we  have  no  money.  Perhaps  later  on.  Though  we  had  a 
few  roubles,  they  have  been  spent  during,  the  carnival.  Stasiek 
spent  some  money  on  cigarettes  and  other  things,  for  he  is  not  very 
parsimonious.  Here  he  gave  a  deposit  for  a  suit,  there  he  spent 
money  during  a  wedding,  for  Wicek  A.  married  Wisniewski's  daughter 
and  went  to  Hve  with  her;  she  will  have  7  morgs  of  land.  And  Jozef 
Lisek  bought  himseh  out  of  the  mihtary  service  [was  declared  unfit 
by  bribing  the  doctor]  and  is  at  home,  but  we  don't  know  how  much  it 
cost  him,  for  he  refuses  to  tell.     Perhaps  we  shall  learn  some  day, 

then  we  will  write  you 

[Jan  Wickowski] 

Now,  dear  brother,  I  will  write  you  a  few  words.  Jozef  A.  wants 
to  rent  our  land  if  you  take  me  to  America.     He  says  that  he  will  sup- 


WICKOWSKI  SERIES  687 

port  Jan  [who  is  sick]  and  sow  the  land  as  we  agree.     He  is  exempted 

from  miHtary  service;  it  costs  him  about  350  roubles 

Your  loving  brother, 

Stanislaw  Wickowski 


365  April  II  [1914] 

....  Dear  Brother  Jozio:  We  inform  you  about  our  health. 
'We  cannot  come  to  health,  and  I  don't  know  what  will  be  with  us 

for  Antos  is  still  sick  with  his  leg It  would  be  worth  while  to 

'  take  him  to  a  doctor,  but  we  always  lack  money.  And  I  am  tortured 
'  by  this  cough  which  won't  leave  off.  It  is  difficult  to  get  health,  and 
difficult  to  die.  Miserable  is  my  hfe,  for  I  see  nothing  upon  this  world 
except  misery. 

Well,  dear  Jozio,  I  inform  you  about  our  success.  Things  go  on  in 
a  various  way,  not  very  well,  for  young  people  don't  know  how  to 
manage  as  well  as  old  people,  for  one  does  not  want  to  listen  to  the 
other.  If  mother  lived  it  would  be  different,  and  the  order  at  home 
would  be  better.  Helenka  neither  sews  nor  weaves,  but  wastes  her 
time  about  cabins  [going  to  neighbors  and  talking].  And  Stasiek 
does  the  same.  And  they  would  be  glad  to  dress,  but  they  have  not 
money  enough.  But  even  so  they  borrow  and  buy  [clothes].  And 
the  buildings  are  getting  ruined.  The  roofs  are  bad.  It  would  be 
well  worth  while  to  transfer  them,  for  even  uncle  is  not  satisfied  that 
we  don't  take  the  buildings  from  their  place.  But  what  ?  We 
cannot  do  it  ourselves,  for  money  is  needed  for  this  transferring. 
[Weather;    farm-work.] 

You   want    me    to    describe  all   the   news.     You   ask   me   why 

Franciszek,  the  blacksmith,  did  not  answer  you He  intended 

to  write  ....  but  now  in  the  spring  he  has  no  time.  He  is  not 
angry  at  all.     Why  should  he  be  ? 

And  the  J^drzejskis  when  they  came  did  not  tell  anything  bad 
about  you.  On  the  contrary  they  praised  you,  saying  that  you  work 
and  are  parsimonious  and  don't  loaf  after  girls,  as  you  loafed  here  in 
our  country  after  women  and  girls.  Only  Franek  said  that  you 
quarreled  with  Stas  so  that  it  came  to  fighting.  This  only  I  heard 
from  them 

And  now  I  inform  you  that  Helena  S.  is  marrying  immediately 
after  Easter.     The  wedding  was  to  be  at  carnival,  but  I  don't  know 


688  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

why  they  postponed  it.  But  it  will  certainly  be,  for  they  have 
already  bought  wedding-dresses  now  during  Lent.  [Other  news  about 
marriages  and  deaths.] 

Dear  brother  Jozio,  our  aunt  Stanislawowa  [Stanislaw's  v/ife] 
asked  me  to  write  you,  that  you  might  learn  about  their  [son]  Wacek. 
For  he  wrote  them  that  he  suffers  a  terrible  misery  in  America  and 
begged  his  parents  to  send  him  money  for  the  journey,  saying  that 
if  they  don't  send  it  he  would  commit  suicide,  for  he  had  terrible 
misery.  But  they  did  not  send  him  the  money,  for  they  had  none. 
The  aunt  begs  you  to  help  him,  either  to  find  some  work  for  him,  or 
to  lend  him  money  for  the  journey,  then  they  will  pay  you  back. 
The  aunt  begs  you  very  much. 

[Jan  Wickowski] 

366  June  29,  1914 

....  Dear  Brother:  ....  We  farm  as  w^e  can  and  we  eat 
what  we  have.  We  have  not  much  milk,  for  we  milk  only  one  cow. 
The  other  is  big  with  a  calf,  but  perhaps  she  will  calve  about  the  end 
of  this  month 

Wacek  will  come  here  on  July  i,  so  he  wrote Our  aunt 

annoys  us  about  taking  our  buildings  aw-ay  from  their  place  and  says 
that  you  should  send  money  for  transferring  them  if  you  intend  to 
remain  for  some  time  still  in  America.  And  perhaps  you  have  no 
intention  of  coming  and  farming  here  at  all.  Then  Stasiek  would  • 
marry  and  transfer  the  buildings.  Now  he  does  not  know  what  to  do, 
for  to  remain  together  thus  is  bad.  The  buildings  are  getting  ruined, 
and  lumber  is  dearer  here  every  year;  now  a  sqg  of  lumber  costs 
20  roubles.  So  decide.  Either  send  the  money  for  transferring  the 
buildings,  or  come  yourself  and  begin  to  farm.     [News  about  friends.] 

Jan  Wickowski 

367  Orchowice,  June  20,  1914     I 

Dear  Brother:  [Complaints  of  his  not  writing  news  about 
farm-work,  weather,  health,  etc.]  When  you  receive  this  letter  from 
us  and  when  you  write  to  us,  write  us  a  few  words  whether  you 
intend  to  come  now,  within  a  short  time,  or  not.  For  now  man\- 
people  come  from  America  and  say  that  in  America  things  are  bad, 
and  we  don't  know  what  is  your  condition.     If  you  come  back  to 


WICKOWSKI  SERIES  689 

our  country  now  you  could  marry  well  enough,  if  you  wished,  for  my 
sister  from  Plaskowice  wishes  you  to  come  and  to  marry  Wladka. 
[Greetings.] 

Your  well-wishing  brother-in-law  and  sister, 

M.  R. 

368  BoROW,  March  28,  19 14 

....  [Dear  Nephew]:  I  am  very  much  pained  that  you  have 
sent  me  no  letter  during  3  years.  Why,  I  wrote  you  so  many  letters 
about  every  stage  of  your  mother's  illness  and  at  last  about  her  death, 
and  you  did  not  even  thank  me 

I  thank  you  first  for  having  sent  the  money  to  pay  me  off  [his  part 
of  the  inheritance  which  up  to  then  had  not  been  divided  among  the 
writer,  his  brother  and  sister,  the  latter  the  nephew's  deceased 
mother].  Now  we  are  at  last  free  of  this  straitness,  everybody  has 
his  own  property.  I  won't  write  you  who  remained  in  Gorzkow,  for 
you  know  it  yourself.  I  have  sold  my  land  in  Gorzkow  and  Tarnogora 
and  bought  15  morgs  here,  and  I  made  400  roubles  [personal]  debt  and 
pay  besides  it  36  roubles  a  year  to  the  bank.  I  keep  4  head  of  cattle 
and  one  horse  for  which  I  gave  90  roubles.  Moreover,  I  had  to  buy 
a  plow,  a  harrow,  a  cart,  and  so  on.  I  had  24  kop  of  wheat 
[i  kopa  =  60  sheaves]  and  now  2^  morgs  are  sown,  and  i|  morgs 
prepared  for  potatoes,  and  so  on.  Now,  as  you  know,  I  have  some 
debts,  but  if  our  Lord  God  gives  good  crops  there  will  be  enough  to 
pay  the  debt.  So  I  would  ask  you,  if  you  have  money,  send  me  about 
100  roubles,  and  I  will  send  you  a  note;  I  will  write  it  and  sign  it  and 
add  interest.  When  you  come  home  and  when  you  want  it,  I  will 
pay  you  back.  In  the  same  way  Andrzej's  [sons]  Jozef,  Franek,  and 
Wicek  sent  300  roubles  to  their  cousin,  and  they  sent  him  notes. 
You  ought  not  to  be  afraid,  for  I  don't  borrow  for  Hquor  and  cards. 

If  100  is  too  much  for  you,  send  at  least  50 

Your  uncle  and  aunt, 

Wladyslaw  and  Jozefa 


SERCZYNSKI  SERIES 

We  have  here  a  third  type  of  situation  in  which  the 
children  are  left  alone  after  their  parents'  death.  The  legal 
guardians  do  not  seem  to  perform  their  duty  conscientiously. 
The  two  older  brothers  are  in  America.  Otherwise  it 
would  be  their  normal  function  to  care  for  the  younger 
children.  So  there  remain  the  two  married  sisters,  each  of 
whom  wants  to  take  care  of  the  three  youngest  orphans. 
It  is,  of  course,  their  famihal  duty,  but  the  curious  struggle 
which  breaks  out  between  the  two  married  couples  discloses 
other  motives  besides  familial  solidarity.  There  is  prob- 
ably some  economic  background.  The  Slawinskis  as  well  as 
the  Puchalskis  hope  that  the  brothers  who  are  in  America 
will  send  money  for  the  children,  and  keeping  the  latter  may 
thus  prove  a  good  business.  Perhaps  also  Puchalski  hopes 
to  win  in  this  way  the  favor  of  his  brothers-in-law  and  get 
a  ship-ticket  from  them  for  himself.  But  these  considera- 
tions are  evidently  too  uncertain  and  would  hardly  be  a 
sufficient  motive  to  explain  the  whole  situation.  The 
fundamental  reason  (besides,  in  the  case  of  the  Puchalskis, 
some  real  affection  and  pity)  is  the  consideration  of  public 
opinion.  The  community  will  certainly  praise  the  couple 
which  shows  its  feelings  of  familial  sohdarity  by  keeping  the 
children,  and  it  will  no  less  certainly  blame  the  other 
couple.  And  we  must  add  that  the  popular  feeling,  always 
appreciative  of  famihal  solidarity,  is  particularly  strong 
where  orphans  are  concerned. 


690 


SERCZYIsISKI  SERIES  69 1 

THE  FAMILY  SERCZYNSKI 

Two  brothers  Serczynski  in  America 
Tadeusz  (Tadzio) 


Maryan  j  their  brothers 

Maryanna  (Mania)  1 

Anna  (Andzia)  [  their  sisters 

Janina  J 

Franciszek  Puchalski,  Anna's  husband 

Slawinski,  Maryanna's  husband 

369-72,  TO  THE  BROTHERS  SERCZYNSKI,  IN  AMERICA, 
FROM  FAMILY-MEMBERS  IN  POLAND, 

369  November  6  [1913] 

"Praised  be  Jesus  Christus."  .... 

And  now  I  write  to  you,  dear  brothers,  about  our  condition,  and 
I  beg  you  to  have  pity  upon  us,  and  I  beg  you  to  send  me  [money] 
for  clothes,  because  we  have  nothing  to  put  upon  us  and  nothing  to 
eat.  They  have  sold  our  beds  and  we  have  nothing  to  sleep  upon; 
we  must  sleep  upon  the  bed  of  Andzia.  [A  part  of]  our  bedding  is 
with  Siawinska.  I  have  been  there  more  than  once  asking  her  to 
give  me  this  bedding  back.  But  Mania  told  me  to  go  to  service  in 
Slupca;  but  I  told  her,  "Have  you  ever  been  going  around  from 
service  to  service  ?  I  won't  go  to  service."  And  she  said  that  she 
won't  give  me  the  bedding.  So  advise  me,  dear  brothers,  what  shall 
I  do,  whether  I  have  to  go  to  service  or  not.  I  beg  you  very  much, 
dear  brothers,  don't  forget  about  us,  the  orphans,  and  send  us  [money] 
for  clothes  because  they  are  worn  out.  The  money  which  you  sent, 
Siawinska  took  it  and  refuses  to  give  it  back.  She  told  me  that  there 
is  no  money  at  all,  and  moreover  she  beat  me.  I  cried  so  much  that 
I  could  not  walk.  And  that  letter  which  Andzia  wrote,  that  you  did 
not  answer  at  all,  she  wept  very  much  [sic].  And  now,  dear  brothers, 
I  have  nothing  more  to  write,  but  I  greet  you. 

Your  sister, 

Janina  [about  14  years  old] 

oiTQ  C14ZEN,  February  16,  1914 

....  Dearest  Brothers:  ....  I  shall  describe  to  you  now 
the  pain  of  my  heart  which  was  caused  by  you,  dear  brothers.  I 
see  today  that  I  am  deserted  by  you,  but  I  am  not  astonished,  because 


692  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

I  guess  that  we  are  slandered  by  Slawinska,  and  you  believed  her  false 
words.  But  I  call  God  to  be  my  witness  that  I  have  been  an  open- 
hearted  sister  to  you,  and  today  I  remain  with  the  same  heart  toward 
the  younger  children  as  I  have  had  toward  you.  When  Slawiiiska  said 
that  these  small  children  ought  to  be  given  away  to  service  my  heart 
pained  me  and  I  took  them  to  me,  I  feed  them  and  clothe  them. 
You  sent  some  roubles  to  Slawiiiska,  I  don't  know  even  how  much. 
Sav,  dear  brothers,  how  ungratefully  you  reward  me!  I  'WTOte  a 
letter  to  you,  to  which  I  had  no  answer  at  aU.  Do  you  remember, 
dear  brothers,  how  I  wanted  you  to  be  able  to  get  to  America;  and 
now  I  am  not  worthy  to  receive  a  letter  from  you.  I  asked  you,  as 
my  dear  brothers,  to  give  us  your  advice  because  my  husband  intends 
to  go  to  America.  I  did  not  ask  you  to  send  him  a  ship-ticket,  because 
he  would  go  on  his  own  money;  he  wanted  only  to  come  to  you. 
But  you  are  so  cold  that  you  don't  even  deign  to  give  us  advice. 
Oh,  believe  me,  dear  brothers,  my  heart  pains  me  heavily,  because  for 
my  sisterly  love  you  repay  me  so  ungratefully.  We  inform  you, 
dear  brothers,  that  we  are  moving  to  Konin.  I  want  to  place  these, 
our  Httle  brothers,  because  if  I  let  them  go  from  under  my  care  a 
great  misery  awaits  them,  since  the  family  is  so  careless.  If  I 
took  three  children  to  me,  if  I  feed  them  and  clothe  them,  ought 
they  not  to  have  beds  on  which  to  sleep?  But  the  beds  are  with 
Sta\\anska,  and  we  are  crowded.  But  the  family  does  not  care  how 
the  children  sleep.  So  I  foresee  that  if  I  let  them  go  from  under  my 
care  misery  awaits  them.  So,  dear  brothers,  I  would  be  very  satis- 
fied if  you  could  take  Tadeusz  the  soonest  possible  to  you.  We 
planned  so,  that  if  you  sent  a  ticket  to  Tadzio,  and  if  you  advise  my 
husband  to  come,  they  would  journey  together.  But  you,  dear 
brothers,  you  are  so  incited  by  Slawihska  and  so  Hed  to  by  her  that 
you  don't  dare  even  to  send  a  letter.  But  I  am  astonished  that 
you  don't  deign  to  investigate  it.  You  could  send  a  letter  to  some 
strange  person,  then  you  would  learn  on  which  side  is  the  truth. 
BeUeve  me,  dear  brothers,  you  will  learn  yet  on  which  side  the  false- 
ness is,  because  my  husband  will  yet  come  to  America — only  not 
until  he  places  the  children  well.  And  when  you  get  acquainted  with 
my  husband  I  hope  that  you  will  respect  him  otherwise  than  your 
first  brother-in-law,  because  my  husband  cares  for  the  children 
better  than  their  own  father  did 

Franciszek  [and]  Axna  Puch.a.lski 


SERCZYl^SKI  SERIES  693 

371  April  24  [1914] 

Dear  Brother:  I  write  you  some  words  on  the  anniversary  of 
our  loving  father.  Just  a  year  ago  I  had  the  great  sorrow.  Today 
our  loving  father  came  to  me  in  a  dream,  and  I  write  you  these 
few  words,  because  I  intended  not  to  write  to  you  any  more,  for  I 
am  very  much  grieved  by  your  views.  You  listen  to  what  that 
scoundrel  Koninski  [  =  from  Konin]  writes  to  you,  and  you  don't  beHeve 
the  truth  which  I  write;  but  if  it  is  true,  the  thing  which  people  say 
now,  then  you  will  be  persuaded.  I  heard  that  you  had  sent  a 
ship-ticket  for  Tadeusz,  and  that  he  [Puchalski,  the  brother-in-law 
from  Konin]  got  it  and  went  to  America — that  lazy  fellow.  He  had 
intended  to  go  for  a  long  time  but  he  had  no  money  for  the  journey. 
Now  he  has  not  been  at  home  for  5  days;  he  is  to  sit  4  weeks  in  a 
prison.  The  man  who  smuggled  him  through  the  frontier  said  that 
some  sort  of  ship-ticket  had  come  from  America  and  that  he  [the 
brother-in-law]  was  going  with  this  ship-ticket.  When  I  heard  it, 
I  sent  a  boy  to  Slupca  for  Tadeusz  asking  him  to  come.  When  he 
came,  I  told  him  how  it  happened  and  what  people  were  saying. 
She  [the  sister  Andzia]  got  the  money-order  also  and  wanted  this 
money-order  to  be  signed  [probably  by  the  guardians],  but  they  did 

not  sign.     I  persuaded  Tadeusz  to  go  to  her  and  to  ask But 

when  Tadeusz  went  to  her  dear  Andzia  [ironically]  directly  influenced 
him,  and  my  eyes  did  not  see  him  again.  He  went  with  her  to  the 
post-office  for  money.  People  say  that  even  if  there  was  no  money, 
but  only  the  ship-ticket,  she  could  have  cheated  Tadeusz.  He 
[her  husband]  is  perhaps  concealed  abroad,  and  she  can  send  him  this 
ship-ticket.  If  it  happens  so,  then  it  will  be  your  own  fault,  because 
it  could  have  been  sent  for  Tadeusz,  but  to  my  address.  Did  you 
think  that  I  should  bite  away  a  piece  of  the  ticket  ?  I  am  very  much 
astonished  that  the  thief  from  Konin  has  more  of  your  confidence 
than  I. 

Now  I  will  teU  you  also  about  Maryan.  I  wrote  that  he  was  with 
me,  and  he  was  for  4  weeks.  Then  Staskiewicz  took  him  and  there 
he  went  to  school  up  to  the  hoHdays.  He  came  to  me  at  the  holidays 
and  was  here  one  day.  The  next  day  Janina  came  three  times  asking 
him  to  go  to  them.  He  did  not  want  to  go,  but  [the  brother-in-law] 
himself  saw  him  and  asked  him  positively  to  go  to  his  house.  If  he 
were  with  me  he  would  go  to  school  again.     He  [the  brother-in-law] 


604  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

is  showing  off  with  those  children.  He  thought  that  you  would  send 
him  50  roubles  every  month  [for  them]. 

Your  loving  sister, 

Maryanna 

372  April  26,  1914 

Dearest  Brothers:  In  the  name  of  God  I  speak  to  you  with 
these  godly  words,  "Praised  be  Jesus  Christus!"  .... 

....  I  am  in  good  health,  thanks  to  God,  only  I  have  hard  work, 
because  I  am  an  apprentice  with  a  baker,  Smigielski,  so  I  must  work 
hard  and  without  pay. 

I  am  obliged  to  describe  to  you  our  situation.  After  the  death 
of  our  dear  father  we  remained  orphans  forever,  only  our  brother- 
in-law  Puchalski,  and  no  one  else,  cared  for  us.  The  guardians  rented 
our  land,  sold  everything  in  the  house,  even  the  furs  [sheepskins], 
after  our  father's  death,  and  we  were  left  without  any  support.  So 
the  family  wanted  to  give  us  into  service,  but  brother-in-law  Puchalski 
prevented  it  and  became  our  father.  He  is  certainly  as  good  as  a 
father,  because  he  found  this  apprenticeship  for  me;  he  clothed  me; 
when  winter  came,  he  had  his  own  sheepskin  coat  made  over  for  me. 
He  feeds  and  clothes  the  smaller  children,  and  so  we  can  feel  gratitude 
toward  him  for  being  our  true  guardian  and  father.  If  he  is  falsely 
slandered,  and  you  believe  it  you  will  find  it  out  later.  Surely  we 
shall  see  one  another  in  America  soon,  and  you  will  learn  that  he  is 
not  like  Slawinski. 

And  now,  dear  brothers,  I  send  you  my  brotherly  thanks  for  the 
15  roubles  which  you  sent  us.  Andzia  assisted  in  getting  this  money 
from  the  post.  We  bought  a  suit  for  me  which  cost  6  roubles,  a  dress 
for  Janina  which  cost  4  roubles,  a  dress  for  Maryan,  3  roubles;  2  roubles 
were  left,  but  we  are  without  shoes,  so  brother-in-law  Puchalski  adds 
from  his  money  and  will  have  shoes  made  for  us  all.  They  will  cost 
10  roubles  or  more,  because  shoes  are  very  expensive  here.  WTien 
Janina  went  to  first  confession,  brother-in-law  Puchalski  spent  more 

than  1 2  roubles  for  her  dress Did  the  family  take  any  interest 

in  buying  anything  ?  You  sent  one  time  some  roubles  to  the  address 
of  Slawinska,  but  we  have  not  been  clothed  from  this  money.  I  am 
today  in  an  apprenticeship,  but  they  [the  appointed  guardians]  don't 
think  about  clothing  me,  only  dear  brother-in-law  Puchalski  comes  to 
see  me  every  week  and  cares  for  me. 


SERCZYISTSKI  SERIES  695 

Now  I  hear,  dear  brothers,  that  I  shall  receive  a  ship-ticket  from 
you.  Oh,  what  a  happiness  for  me,  that  I  shall  be  able  to  see  you! 
Oh,  I  see,  dear  brothers,  that  your  brotherly  love  is  not  extinguished, 
since  you  intend  to  send  me  a  ship-ticket.  I  beg  you  heartily  for  it. 
But  it  will  be  difficult  for  me  to  go  alone.  Brother-in-law  wrote  in 
his  former  letter  to  you'  that  he  intends  to  go  to  America,  but  you  did 
not  answer  anything,  dear  brothers.     How  agreeable  and  pleasant  it 

would   be   if   I   could   go   with   brother-in-law Surely,   dear 

brothers,  if  you  knew  Puchalski  ....  you  would  try  to  have  him 
in  America;  but  you  believe  false  letters  and  you  think  him  to  be  a 
beast.  Dear  brothers,  when  you  answer  me,  send  the  letter  to 
Slupca,  to  the  name  of  Smigielski,  because  brother-in-law  is  moving 
to  Konin  in  order  to  send  the  younger  children  to  school ^ 

Tadeusz  Serczynski 

'  The  letter  is  evidently  largely  inspired  or  dictated  by  Puchalski. 


TERLECKI  SERIES 

The  familial  situation  is  rather  complicated.  The  father 
of  the  family  went  many  years  ago  to  America  and  took  later 
his  son  Michal,  to  whom  these  letters  are  written.  Then 
he  died.  His  wife,  Apolonia,  married  Dobrowolski.  Her 
oldest  daughter  from  the  first  marriage,  Zofia,  married 
Michal  Skrzypek;  they  live  with  the  husband's  parents. 
The  second  daughter.  Stasia,  married  Fijalkowski  and  went 
with  his  parents  and  her  son  Antos  to  America.  The  third, 
Aurelia,  stays  with  her  mother.  The  latter  rents  a  manorial 
garden  on  the  estate  of  the  Godlewskis.  The  familial  rela- 
tions of  other  members  (Rozia,  Aleksandra,  etc.)  cannot  be 
exactly  determined. 

The  disintegration  of  the  family  is  the  most  complete 
which  we  find  in  the  present  collection.  There  is  not  a  single 
member  of  the  family  who  does  not  quarrel  with  some  other 
member.  This  disintegration  cannot  be  completely  ex- 
plained by  the  emigration  and  subsequent  death  of  the 
father,  head  of  the  family;  we  have  seen  other  series  in 
which  the  death  of  the  parents  destroys  indeed  partly  the 
familial  unity,  but  not  the  reciprocal  affection  of  the  members 
and  a  certain  solidarity  among  them.  The  mother's  second 
marriage  evidently  brought  a  new  factor  of  disintegration, 
but  again  it  does  not  suffice  to  explain  the  actual  situation. 
We  should  have  expected  indeed  the  mother's  complete 
isolation  as  against  a  relatively  stronger  solidarity  of  the 
children  from  the  first  marriage,  as  in  other  similar  cases; 
but  the  ties  of  affection  between  the  mother  and  the  chil- 
dren are  still  perhaps  the  strongest  ties  remaining.  ]\Iore- 
over,  a  dissolution  of  the  familial  life  is  marked  also  in 
collateral  branches  of  the  family  (Aleksandra;  Rozia).     We 

696 


TERLECKI  SERIES  697 

must  therefore  fall  back  on  a  more  general  factor  of  dissolu- 
tion, and  this  is  found  in  the  fact  that  the  whole  young 
generation  here  is  the  second  generation  of  peasants  estab- 
lished in  a  town.  (The  situation  is  similar  in  itself  to, 
although  different  in  its  origin  from,  that  in  the  Borkowski 
series.)  The  traditional  social  elements  of  the  familial 
organization  are  lost,  and  in  consequence  of  this  the  familial 
connection  is  reduced  to  the  elementary  and  universal  rela- 
tions between  individuals — maternal  feeling,  sexual  attrac- 
tion, friendship,  economic  calculation.  Wherever  these 
factors  fail,  there  is  no  longer  any  basis  of  familial  unity. 
The  failure  of  maternal  love  brings  a  break  of  relations 
between  the  mother  and  Zofia  Skrzypek;  the  failure  of 
sexual  attraction  leads  to  the  behavior  of  Fijalkowski, 
Aleksandra,  Rozia;  the  failure  of  friendship  causes  the 
quarrel  between  Michal  T.  and  Stasia;  the  failure  of  eco- 
nomic solidarity  between  the  stepfather,  Dobrowolski,  and 
his  wife's  family  causes  his  attitude  in  the  matter  of  the 
inheritance  (in  which  his  wife  would  have  no  share)  after 
the  death  of  his  wife's  first  husband.  The  reason  for  the 
lack  of  traditional  elements  is  the  relatively  rapid  dissolution 
of  the  old  peasant  traditions  in  country  people  transplanted 
into  a  town  and  having  had  no  time  to  adapt  themselves 
to  a  different  set  of  traditions  still  alive  in  a  provincial  town. 

THE  FAMILY  TERLECKI 

Apolonia,  widow  of  Terlecki,  by  second  marriage  Dobrowolska 

Dobrowolski,  her  second  husband 

Michal,  her  son 

Zofia  (Zosia)  Skrzypek 

Stasia  (Stanislawa)  Fijalkowska  \  her  daughters 

Aurelia  (Lola)  J 

Bronisia  (Bronislawa,  Bronia,  Bronka),  Michal's  wife 

Michal  Skrzypek,  Zofia's  husband 

His  parents 

Roman,  his  brother 


698  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

Fijalkowski,  Stasia's  husband 

His  parents 

Antos,  son  of  Stasia  and  Fijalkowski 

R6zia 


Aleksandra 

Mautycy 

Aleksander 


relatives 


373 

Only  don't  show  it  to  Roman! 

Lublin,  April  i,  191 1 

Dear  Bronisia  and  Michal:  We  inform  you  that  we  are  in  good 

health We  did  not  write  to  you  for  so  long  a  time  because 

.  .  .  .  ,  to  tell  the  truth,  we  had  no  time.  Because  since  we  bought 
the  linen-press,  we  have  never  had  time,  and  when  there  is  no  tim.e, 
there  is  no  head  to  think  about  anything  else.  And  now  we  sold  it, 
because  we  did  not  get  on  well  even  with  it;  although  we  earned  a 
few  zloty  and  sometimes  a  few  roubles,  all  this  means  nothing  when 
lodging  is  expensive  ....  and  living  is  also  very  expensive  here. 
....  And  father  [SkrzN-pek]  works  in  a  starch-factory.  He  earns 
20  roubles  a  month,  and  this  can  hardly  sufiice  to  live,  even  very 

modestly We  heard  from  mother  that  Roman  is  getting  on 

very  well,  that  he  earns  enough,  and  on  the  other  hand,  we  heard  that 
he  is  tempted  and  intends  to  leave  his  employment  because  he  will  get 
another  here  in  the  cement-factory.  He  ought  not  to  be  tempted  to 
come  back  to  the  old  misery  when  he  is  getting  on  better.  He  should 
rather  take  his  wife  and  children  there,  because  in  our  country  life 
is  very  hard  for  poor  people — not  for  those  belly-gods  whom  the 
devils  won't  take.  If  we  knew  that  it  would  be  easier  to  Kve  there, 
we  should  also  risk  going  ourselves.  But  we  are  afraid  to  do  as  we 
once  did  already  when  we  went  beyond  Warsaw  and  lost  some  hundred 
roubles,  and  now  it  is  as  difi&cult  to  live  as  after  a  fire;  we  must  earn 
back  [what  we  lost].  It  is  easy  to  lose  but  too  difficult  to  come  back 
to  the  lost  fortune.  Dear  Bronisia  and  Michal,  you  write  to  have 
your  mother  learn  about  the  inheritance  after  your  father.  But  it  is 
in  vain,  because  how  can  mother  learn  it  ?  She  won't  learn  it  here, 
evidently,  but  she  must  go  there  [to  the  village  from  which  the  father 
came],  and  this  old  man  [stepfather]  will  give  her  no  money,  and  your 
mother  has  no  money  of  her  own.     If  she  had  she  could  go  against  hie 


TERLECKI  SERIES  699 

will.  If  you  saw  how  your  mother  now  lives  I  am  sure  that  you  would 
be  very  much  pained.  If  you  saw  the  lodging  where  she  lives !  Only 
poles  with  which  the  ceiling  is  supported  keep  it  from  falling  upon 
their  heads;  otherwise  they  would  not  know  where  and  when  to  fly. 
Lola  is  going  to  a  laundry,  but  it  does  not  go  on  very  well  because  her 
eye  hinders  her.  Stasia's  husband  intends  to  go  to  America,  but  the 
whole  misfortune  is  that  he  has  no  money  for  the  journey.  Whatever 
he  earns  he  spends  on  drinking,  and  if  not  on  drinking,  then  on  girls. 
Therefore  what  he  earns  is  not  enough  for  him,  and  he  is  dug  [sunk] 
into  debts  up  to  his  ears.  Fijalkowski  is  such  an  orderly  man  that 
when  he  leaves  the  factory  after  his  work  at  6  o'clock  in  the  evening 
he  does  not  even  go  home  to  wash  himself.  She  sees  him  sometimes 
the  next  morning  at  2  or  3  after  midnight,  and  if  not,  then  at  7  o'clock 
in  the  morning  when  he  is  going  to  the  factory.  His  companion  went 
to  America  last  year;  now  he  is  writing  letters  to  him  asking  him  to 
send  a  ship-ticket.     Then  he  would  go. 

Sister  [probably  cousin]  Aleksandra,  whose  husband  is  in  America 
— her  father  [or  father-in-law?]  cannot  manage  her  at  all.  He 
beats  her  as  if  she  were  mud,  but  all  this  is  of  no  avail.  She  became 
acquainted  with  a  married  man  who  had  lived  already  16  years  with 
his  wife.  He  left  his  wife,  she  left  her  father  and  those  two  children 
whom  she  had  with  her  husband.  She  stole  30  roubles  from  her  father 
and  fled  with  this  peasant. 

[MiCHAL  and  Zofia  Skrzypek] 

Dear  Bronisia  and  Michal,  now  I  shall  write  for  myself,  that  I  got 
married,  which  you  know  already.  The  marriage  was  celebrated  on 
August  15.  Up  to  the  present  we  are  with  [my  husband's]  mother, 
so  it  is  somewhat  easier,  but  I  don't  know  how  long  it  will  be  so. 
Meanwhile  I  won't  write  you  more  because  I  have  nothing  particular, 
only  I  beg  you  to  answer  us  soon.  Then  in  another  letter  I  will 
address  myself  to  you  with  a  request.  I  don't  know  whether  you 
will  refuse  me  or  not,  I  am  not  sure  of  myself  [hardly  dare  to  ask]. 

[Stasia] 

374  [No  date] 

Dear  Bronisia  and  Michal:  If  you  believe  that  it  would  be 
easier  for  us  to  live  there  than  in  our  country  and  we  should  not  be  a 
burden  to  you,  we  should  be  glad  to  come  nearer  to  you.  But  we 
should  like  to  come  all  of  us.     Perhaps  we  could  have  there  some 


;oo  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

occupation  in  a  factory,  myself,  father  and  mother.  We  kept  that 
linen-press;  it  was  hard  for  us.  Mother  then  bought  3  pigs  which 
we  kept  for  6  months.  When  they  grew  up,  one  died,  and  we  have 
kept  the  other  2  since  October.  Up  to  the  present  they  cost  34 
roubles,  and  they  will  give  me  at  the  fair  40  roubles.  [Another  page 
about  the  pigs,  pig-keeping  being  now  a  bad  business.]  Mr.  Do- 
browolski  [the  stepfather]  said  this,  that  if  he  wants  to,  he  can 
spoil  everything  that  is  left  after  your  father.  He  can  write  that  his 
wife  is  from  Warsaw  and  born  in  Warsaw,  because  you  treat  him  in 
your  letters  as  if  he  were  some  manor-servant  and  rascal.  You  don't 
know  who  he  is.  He  is  not  a  first  best  man,  because  he  was  born  in 
Warsaw  and  baptized  in  the  cathedral  of  Warsaw.  If  he  does  not 
want  you  to  get  anything  you  won't  get  anything! 

The  old  Fijalkowskis  are  tr\'ing  by  aU  means  to  seU  their  house 

and  to  go  to  America  in  the  autumn 

MiciL\L  Skrzypek 

375  September  16,  191 1 

Dear  Children:    With  your  approaching  name-day,  dear  son 

and  daughter-in-law,  I  send  you  wishes I  don't  know  why 

you  do  not  write,  whether  you  are  offended  because  I  don't  inform 
you  about  this  property.  I  have  been  more  than  once  in  the  lawyer's 
office,  but  I  did  not  find  him.  But  evidently  the  fortune  is  best 
which  we  earn  ourselves.  And  therefore,  dear  son,  pray  to  God  that 
you  may  earn  a  fortune  yourself.  I  pray  for  you  at  every  mass. 
And  now,  dear  children,  I  inform  you  that  Stasia,  with  the  old 
Fijalkowskis,  is  coming  to  you,  in  spite  of  my  good  advice.  She 
won't  listen  to  me,  and  perhaps  she  will  regret  it,  as  you  do.  I  beg 
you  very  much  when  she  comes  to  you  treat  her  in  a  brotherly  manner. 
And  now  with  us  there  is  no  news.  The  crops  were  abundant,  but 
prices  are  going  up.  Bread  is  i  copeck  a  pound  dearer,  meat  costs 
15  copecks  for  a  pound  of  beef,  and  hogs  have  got  much  cheaper,  so 
that  it  is  not  worth  keeping  them,  because  potatoes  cost  2  roubles  a 
korzec  [about  4  bushels]  and  in  autumn  they  will  go  up  perhaps  up 
to  3  roubles.  As  to  myself,  this  year  my  garden  failed,  and  every- 
thing gets  on  badly  with  me.  I  don't  know  what  to  begin  with, 
because  I  don't  know  whether  I  shaU  remain  long  in  this  garden;  we 

live  worse  than  dogs  in  a  kennel And  now  I  have  nothing 

interesting  to  write  you.     As  to  Rozia,  she  is  not  worth  the  pen  and 


TERLECKI  SERIES  70 1 

ink  [to  write  about  her];  you  can  guess  the  rest  yourself.  In  the 
spring  I  advised  her  to  move  nearer,  then  she  could  have  earned  a 
living,  because  5  women  are  working  steadily  with  me  and  I  pay  them 
2  zioty  each,  and  in  the  spring  8  or  10  worked.  But  she  excused 
herself  on  account  of  caring  for  her  children,  and  not  letting  them 
loaf  around  uncared  for,  and  meanwhile  she  amuses  herself  by  receiving 
guests. 

And  now,  dear  brother  and  sister-in-law  [I,  your  sister  write]. 
I  send  you  my  wishes;   I  should  like  to  see  you  as  soon  as  possible, 

but  circumstances  don't  permit  it Perhaps  we  shall  never 

see  one  another  until  the  divine  judgment.  It  is  difhcult  to  describe 
openly  what  I  suffer  here.  And  now  I  have  nothing  to  write  you, 
only  I  beg  you  for  a  speedy  answer,  at  least  this  letter  will  comfort  me. 

Your  truly  loving  mother, 

Apolonia  Dobrowolska 

I  send  you  flowers.     Answer  me  as  soon  as  possible,  I  beg  you, 

don't  afflict  my  aching  heart. 

And  your  sister, 

A[urelia]  Terlecka 

I  have  no  time  to  write  you  more,  because  it  is  already  midnight, 
and  we  must  go  to  the  cow  which  is  calving. 

376  December  10,  191 1 

Dear  Son  :  With  the  approaching  holidays  I  send  you  my  wishes, 
whatever  you  wish  yourself  from  God  the  Highest,  and  also  to  my 
dear  grandchildren.  In  sending  this  consecrated  wafer  I  want  to 
see  you  awake,  not  in  my  thoughts  and  dreams,  as  I  see  you  very  often. 
And  now,  dear  son,  I  don't  know  why  you  do  not  answer  my  letter 
and  prayers.  Perhaps  something  displeased  you  in  it,  or  perhaps 
somebody  told  you  false  tales  again.  But  I  beg  you  once  more, 
whether  she  [Stasia]  is  alive  or  not,  inform  me  and  appease  my 
maternal  heart.  And  if  she  is  alive,  divide  with  her  this  consecrated 
wafer  in  my  name.  The  third  month  has  begun  already  [since  her 
departure],  and  I  don't  know  what  is  going  on,  because  you  all 
abandoned  me  and  perhaps  you  don't  even  think  how  your  mother 
lives  in  ceaseless  labor  and  moreover  in  torments.  You  refuse  me 
even  this,  that  I  may  receive  a  few  words  from  you.  I  wait  for  your 
letter  as  for  the  best  thing,  because  nobody  comes  to  me  any  more.     I 


702  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

dropped  totally  [relations]  with  the  Skrzypeks  [daughter  and  son-in- 
law]  since  Stasia  left;  probably  they  won't  stand  behind  my  threshold 
any  more.  And  now,  dear  children,  I  have  nothing  important  to 
write  you,  except  that  the  winter  oppressed  us  early  and  the  old 
Godlewski  [estate-owner]  died  on  December  2.  I  cannot  give  you 
more  information,  because  I  could  not  tear  myself  away  from  home 

for  the  funeral,  although  the  funeral  was  on  December  6 

Your  loving  mother, 

DOBROWOLSKA 

yj*j  '  March  25,  191 2 

Dear  Children:  I  received  your  letter  for  which  I  am  grateful 
to  you  and  I  thank  you  for  your  memory  and  %\'ishes;  only  I  don't 
like  you  to  write  me  so  Httle,  upon  postcards,  because  I  don't  even 
know  whom  I  have  to  thank,  because  nobody's  name  was  signed. 
Dear  son,  I  beg  you  only,  in  the  name  of  ever}^thing,  to  advise  me 
how  to  do  that  it  may  be  well,  besides  criticizing.  You  know  that 
everything  cannot  be  perfect  at  once.  In  the  beginning  you  yourself 
did  not  get  on  so  well  as  you  do  now.  And  moreover  nobody  knows 
what  will  happen  in  our  country,  because  people  murmur  secretly, 
and  around  Lubhn  kettles  are  built  [metaphor]  and  people  say  that 
the  explosion  vAW  happen  soon,  and  perhaps  we  shall  also  perish.  But 
you  know  more  than  we  do.  [Allusions  to  the  preparation  for  an 
Austro-Russian  war  and  for  a  Polish  insurrection,  in  191 2.] 

Dear  Bronia,  I  address  myself  as  a  loving  mother  to  you,  and 
I  beg  you,  if  Antos  [Stasia's  son]  is  with  you,  take  care  of  him. 
Although  Michal  says  that  Antos  was  educated  in  a  forest,  yet  he 
himself,  while  born  in  the  same  Lublin,  had  more  defects,  even  in  his 
later  years,  than  Antos  has,  but  he  does  not  remember  them.  And 
now  he  [Michal]  did  not  know  that  this  criticism  would  be  painful  to 
his  [Antos']  grandmother  [to  me],  because  this  is  my  most  beloved 
grandson.  Although  the  others  are  equally  dear  to  me,  yet  they  did 
not  work  with  me,  as  he  did  during  his  whole  days. 

[Apoloxia  Dobrowolska] 

To  my  sister  it  is  written  upon  this  side  [of  the  sheet].  Dear 
Stasia,  I  beg  you  very  much  to  write  me  a  few  words  yourself,  because 
I  know  nothing  about  you  except  through  the  hands  of  other  people. 
In  spite  of  your  promises  that  you  would  write  you  don't  keep  your 


TERLECKI  SERIES  703 

word  to  anybody,  because  even  Mr.  Czepinski  came  to  me  in  the  gar^ 
den  in  order  to  learn  the  truth,  whether  you  arrived,  because  different 
rumors  have  been  spread.  Your  thick  aunt  said  that  you  were  sent 
back  and  that  you  Hve  in  Rury  in  a  farmer's  house.  Maurycy  came 
to  the  garden  to  learn  [the  truth]  because  Stepniak  said  that  Alek- 
sander  was  drowned.  Therefore  I  beg  you,  write  at  least  to  Czepinski 
and  satisfy  his  curiosity.  I  don't  feel  angry  and  don't  claim  any- 
thing, although  you  promised  me  to  write,  and  different  other  things. 
I  know  that  probably  you  long  there  for  us  as  we  long  for  you.  When 
you  gather  much  money  and  there  is  peace  in  our  country,  then  come 

^^^^ [AURELIA  TeRLECKA] 

378  [1912] 

Dear  Brother  and  Sister-in-law:  [Usual  beginning,  health 
and  wishes.]  Dear  brother,  you  write  me  that  you  would  take  me 
to  you,  but  not  so  that  I  should  suffer  misery.  But  have  I  a  delight- 
ful life  in  my  country?  I  suffer  perhaps  a  worse  misery  because  I 
must  work  heavily  and  I  receive  no  good  word,  and  I  hear  reproaches 
for  every  bit  of  bread  which  I  eat.  Believe  me,  dear  Michal,  I  would 
fly  I  don't  know  where.  Although  this  is  my  native  country  I  have 
no  near  persons  in  this  country  except  mother.  And  even  mother  is 
very  often  harsh  to  me,  and  all  this  through  the  instigation  of  our 
stepfather,  from  whom  I  never  have  a  good  word.  He  pours  curses 
upon  me,  whatever  ones  exist  in  that  world  of  God,  so  that  my  tears 
never  wait.  Formerly  at  least  Stasia  was  here;  I  had  somebody  to 
whom  I  could  go,  complain,  comfort  myself,  but  now  I  have  nobody 
to  go  to.  I  won't  go  to  Zosia,  because  she  said  that  if  I  came  to  her 
she  would  drive  me  away  with  a  broom.  And  still  less  will  I  go  to 
my  aunt,  since  she  dared  to  say  to  my  eyes  that  mother  and  I  will  soon 
sit  before  the  church  [beg].  But  perhaps  God  the  Highest  won't  let 
this  come,  and  her  ugly  eyes  won't  see  it. 

And  now,  dear  brother,  you  order  me  to  learn.  Learning  is  good. 
Above  all,  not  everybody  can  be  alike,  because  if  everybody  wanted 
to  work  easily  who  would  be  left  for  the  heavy  work  ? 

Dear  brother,  pity  our  poor  mother  and  don't  afflict  her  poor  heart, 
lessen  her  tears,  because  poor  mother  weeps  continually  and  expects 
every  day  a  letter  from  you.  I  beg  you  once  more,  answer  us  as  soon 
as  possible.  And  when  you  write  to  me,  write  upon  a  separate  sheet, 
that  it  may  not  be  together.  [Aurelia  Terlecka] 


704  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

379  October  22,  1912 

Dear  Children:  I  received  your  letter  ....  which  caused  me 
a  great  pleasure,  but  at  the  same  time  a  great  wound  in  my  heart. 
Because  if  you  believed  such  a  lie,  I  will  never  believe  [anything],  and 
1  implore  you  and  adjure  you  by  the  ashes  of  your  dead  father,  don't 
believe  it.  Although  it  does  not  matter  much  to  me,  yet  I  want  to 
know  who  carried  such  a  false  tale  to  you,  because  I  want  to  know  the 
truth.  All  the  children  are  good  [dear]  alike  to  a  mother.  In  the 
same  way  I  have  wept  for  many  days  for  you,  particularly  when  I 
learned  that  you  wanted  to  return  from  the  frontier.  In  the  same 
way  I  weep  now  for  her  and  I  shall  not  be  comforted  soon.  In  the 
same  way  as  you  did  not  want  to  listen  to  me  when  I  advised  you  not 
to  leave,  so  did  she  also.  As  always,  a  good  mother  would  like  to 
press  all  the  children  to  her  bosom,  but  not  all  of  them  will  listen. 
Indeed,  as  you  say,  in  the  second  and  third  years  I  could  possibly  not 
have  received  all  your  letters,  because  my  address  was  not  fixed. 
From  the  manor  I  received  some  letters  opened,  so  anything  could 
happen  that  I  did  not  receive  those  letters.  But  it  was  not  as  you 
write,  that  Stasia  would  have  taken,  torn,  and  burned  those  letters, 
because  they  were  of  no  consequence  to  her.  She  got  what  she  was 
to  get,  but  you  would  not  have  got  it,  because  she  received  [a  legacy] 
from  her  godmother.  After  the  death  of  the  latter  her  godfather 
put  100  roubles  in  the  bank.  If  I  had  learned  that  you  were  in  so 
critical  a  position  I  would  have  eaten  no  bread  for  a  month  and  given 
none  to  the  other  children,  but  saved  you.  But  I  knew  that  you  went 
to  your  father  [in  America]  and  that  he  would  not  let  you  be  wronged. 
[The  father  had  died  in  the  meantime.]  But  you  are  after  all  a  man 
and  you  ought  to  have  more  strength  and  energy,  and  she  is  a  woman. 
I  don't  require  from  you,  dear  son,  to  spend  money  on  her  and  to 
make  expenses  for  yourself.  Only  if  she  needs  it,  help  her  with  your 
advice,  as  an  older  brother  and  a  man  who  has  Hved  there  for  a  longer 

time As  to  the  Skrzypeks,  you  are  free  not  to  write  at  all, 

because  since  Stasia  left  I  have  dropped  all  relations  with  them, 
totally,  because  they  stood  like  a  bone  in  my  throat.  [Proverb.  They 
annoyed  me  too  much.]  She  complained  also  about  you  that  she 
wrote  two  letters  and  you  didn't  answer,  that  if  she  sent  you  10  or 
15  roubles  then  you  would  answer.  And  perhaps  you  sent  to  their 
address  that  letter  where  you  complained  that  you  were  in  such  a 
difficult  position  ? 


TERLECKI  SERIES  705 

And  now,  dear  Bronka,  I  address  myself  to  you  with  this  request. 
As  a  woman,  you  have  more  feeling  and  experience.  I  don't  say  that 
you  should  do  any  detriment  to  yourself  for  her  sake,  but  in  a  given 
case,  in  a  critical  situation,  please  help  her  to  find  some  employment 
or  simply  some  service.  I  did  not  want  to  let  her  go,  but  she  stub- 
bornly resolved  to  go,  saying  that  if  she  is  to  serve  here,  she  prefers  to 
do  it  there.  And  now,  dear  children,  answer  everything  as  soon  as 
possible  and  inform  me  whether  she  is  alive  and  healthy  and  where 
she  is. 

Dear  son  and  daughter-in-law,  and  my  dear  grandchildren,  I 
send  you  my  heartiest  wishes  and  kisses,  and  kiss  my  Antolek  in  my 
name  when  he  comes  to  you.     Did  he  bring  an  apple  for  each  of  you  ? 

We  end  already  our  letter.  I  [your  sister]  think  that  it  is  enough 
from  me,  because  I  want  to  sleep.  The  hour  is  late.  I  would  write 
something  more  but  I  am  afraid  to  sit  longer,  because  the  dogs  begin 
to  bark  and  the  pigs  to  squeal,  and  I  fly  to  sleep. 

Your  truly  loving  mother  and  sister, 

Apolonia  [Dobrowolska  and]  Aurelia  Terlecka 


RACZKOWSKI  SERIES 

These  letters  show,  in  a  very  detailed  and  varied  manner, 
the  influence  of  emigration  upon  family  hfe.  We  see  that 
every  individual  undergoes  a  different  evolution,  but  that 
there  are  always  factors  explaining  these  differences. 

In  general,  emigration,  as  should  be  expected,  by  isolat- 
ing the  individual  from  the  family  and  from  the  community, 
provokes  individualization  and  weakens  the  control  of  the 
primary  group;  we  have  found  it  already  in  some  of  the 
preceding  series.  But  the  degrees  and  varieties  of  indi- 
vidualization are  numerous. 

First  of  all,  as  we  have  mentioned  in  the  Introduction, 
the  nature  of  indi\ddualization  depends  upon  the  way  in 
which  the  individual  adapts  himself  to  the  new  conditions. 
In  this  respect  we  find  here  such  instructive  differences  as 
those  between  Adam  Raczkowski,  Lud\^dk  Wolski,  Helena 
Brylska,  and  Aleksander  Wolski.  The  first  adapted  himself 
rapidly  to  American  life  and  succeeded  without  difiticulty  in 
attaining  a  material  position,  which,  when  measured  by  the 
peasant  standard,  must  have  seemed  to  him  almost  brilliant. 
He  gradually  ceases  to  consider  it  his  duty  to  help  his 
family,  but  he  does  not  break  the  familial  ties,  and  occasion- 
ally— partly  from  generosity,  partly  from  the  desire  to 
manifest  his  personal  importance — responds  to  the  appeals 
of  other  members.  Ludwik  Wolski,  who  was  finalh'  also 
successful  but  must  have  passed  through  a  rather  difficult 
experience  before  he  got  his  position  (the  conditions  in 
Russia  being  unfavorable  for  the  advance  of  the  lower 
classes) ,  feels  the  familial  ties  as  a  hea\y  burden  and  profits 
from  the  first  opportunity  to  break  them  com])letely. 
Probably  he  has  not  reached  the  standpoint  that  familial 

706 


RACZKOWSKI  SERIES  707 

affection  may  exist  without  an  obligation  of  help,  and  the 
familial  relation  still  seems  to  him  indissolubly  connected 
with  economic  solidarity,  so  he  sacrifices  the  first  to  get  rid 
of  the  second.  And  the  sacrifice  was  not  difficult,  because  of 
other  factors.  Helena  Brylska  was  not  particularly  success- 
ful in  her  adaptation.  Apparently  she  adapted  herself 
rapidly  to  a  certain  narrow  circle  of  American  life,  changed 
her  attitudes  just  enough  to  fit  this  circle,  and  for  the  rest, 
remained  stationary.  Certainly  in  important  familial  prob- 
lems her  attitudes  remain  traditional,  and  it  seems  probable 
that  her  estrangement  from  her  children  is  due,  not  to  an 
extensive  change  in  her  attitudes,  but  to  an  element  of 
asperity  in  her  temper  and  the  difficult  American  conditions 
which  made  it  impossible  for  her  to  prevent  her  boys  from 
following  the  natural  impulse  to  vagabondage.  (See  note 
to  No.  418.)  As  to  Aleksander,  except  for  his  rather  in- 
significant economic  success  he  remains  completely  mis- 
adapted,  and  his  familial  attitudes  do  not  change  at  all 
during  the  year  covered  by  his  letters.  They  may  of 
course  change  later. 

The  facility  and  range  of  adaptation  depend,  not  only 
upon  the  conditions  which  the  individual  finds  in  his  new 
environment,  but  also  upon  the  individual  himself — upon 
(i)  his  practical  abihty  and  intelligence  and  (2)  his  habits 
and  traditions.  We  have  analyzed  the  first  point  in  the 
introduction  to  the  Kanikula  series,  and  on  the  second  we 
find  data  in  the  present  series.  Generally  speaking,  the 
younger  the  individual  the  more  rapidly  he  adapts  himself. 
Children  adapt  themselves  very  rapidly,  but  not  always 
fortunately,  as  we  see  in  the  case  of  the  children  of  Helena. 
Franciszek  Glow,  who  came  to  America  as  an  elderly  man, 
father  of  two  grown  daughters,  was  unable  to  adapt  himself 
at  all.  But  in  addition  to  age  and  its  decreasing  i)lasticity 
the  question  of  the  traditions  in  which  the  individual  grew 


7o8  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

up — how  numerous  and  powerful  they  were — is  certainly 
very  important.  The  relatively  easy  adaptation  of  Adam 
Raczkowski  and  Teofil  Wolski  is  evidently  due  to  the 
fact  that  their  famihes  had  never  been  very  united. 
Raczkowski's  mother  was  dead,  his  father  did  not  Hve  with 
his  second  wife,  his  older  brother  and  sister  were  in  America. 
As  to  Wolski,  his  parents  were  probably  dead  long  ago,  his 
brothers  separated.  Moreover,  both  Adam  and  Teofil 
had  served  in  the  army  before  coming  to  America,  and  thus 
the  influence  of  all  the  social  traditions  was  more  or  less 
weakened.  Meanwhile,  Aleksander  Wolski  had  always  hved 
in  the  same  village  with  his  parents,  and  so  all  the  traditional 
attitudes  were  strongly  implanted  in  him. 

This  series,  particularly  the  case  of  Adam,  illustrates 
also  the  eft'ect  of  economic  conditions  on  the  expansion  and 
development  of  the  personality.  Economic  success  is  one 
of  the  main  sources  of  the  feeling  of  personal  importance,  and 
therefore  this  feeling  is  found  almost  universally  among 
American  immigrants.  It  develops  also  in  Poland  under 
the  same  influence.  (In  the  autobiography  which  forms 
the  fourth  part  of  this  work  we  see  tlie  ups  and  downs  of  the 
feehng  of  personal  importance  as  a  function  of  the  economic 
condition  of  the  writer  at  a  given  moment.)  But,  generaUy 
speaking,  the  feeling  of  personal  importance  can  never 
develop  so  rapidly  and  to  such  a  degree  under  the  influence 
of  a  merely  economic  progress  in  Poland  as  it  does  in 
America;  it  is  hindered  by  many  social  traditions.  The 
social  standing  of  the  peasant  wathin  the  community  cannot 
rise  very  much  through  his  economic  progress  if  his  famih* 
does  not  progress  economically  at  the  same  time.  This 
Hmitation  partly  disappears  with  the  dissolution  of  the  old 
family,  but  another  tradition  is  incomparably  more  difficult 
for  an  individual  to  rid  himself  of — the  old  hierarchy 
of  classes.     This  is  more  and  more  supplanted  by  the  new 


RACZKOWSKI  SERIES  709 

social  organization  on  the  basis  of  the  middle-class  principle, 
but  it  still  has  strength  enough  to  make  an  individual  of  the 
lower  class  feel  at  every  moment  his  social  inferiority  through 
the  infinitely  numerous  and  various  details  in  which  the 
principle  of  hierarchy  has  expressed  itself  during  the  many 
centuries  of  its  dominance. 

Finally,  even  within  the  new  social  organization  mere 
economic  progress  is  not  sufficient  to  give  the  individual 
the  full  feeling  of  personal  importance,  because  the  new 
hierarchy  is  not  exclusively  based  upon  economic  differences, 
but,   even  more,  upon  differences  of  intellectual  culture. 

Now,  in  America  these  obstacles  do  not  exist,  at  least  not 
to  such  an  extent.  The  individual  is  isolated  almost  com- 
pletely from  the  family-group.  The  traditional  class- 
distinctions,  even  if  they  exist,  are  neither  old  nor  important 
enough  to  make  themselves  felt  by  the  lower  classes.  The 
new  class-organization  is  based  mainly  upon  economic 
differences,  and  thus  economic  progress  seems  the  only 
test  of  individual  value.  The  cultural  criteria  are  developed 
in  particular  groups,  but  do  not  pervade  the  society  as  a 
whole.  Finally,  the  immigrant  has,  as  a  background  for 
his  own  personahty,  not  only  American  life,  but  the  life  in 
the  old  country,  and  it  is  the  comparison  with  his  own 
previous  condition  and  the  condition  of  his  people  at  home 
which  makes  him  feel  his  personal  importance  in  so  strong 
and  exaggerated  a  way. 

Another  important  problem  raised  in  this  series  is  the 
relation  between  parents  and  children  among  Polish  immi- 
grants in  America.  The  state  of  things  about  which  Helena 
so  often  complains  in  her  letters — the  impossibihty  of 
controUing  the  children — is  very  general,  and  is  probably 
more  serious  among  the  Poles  than  in  any  other  nationality. 
While  the  external  factors  of  emancipation  are  the  same 
for  the  children  of  every  race,  we  must  understand  exactly 


71 0  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

the  social  conditions  which  make  the  Poles  react  differently 
to  these  factors.  To  be  sure,  the  problem  is,  how  far  the 
parents  will  be  able  to  oppose  their  authority  to  the  disin- 
tegrating influences  of  the  environment,  and  this  depends 
upon  the  adaptation  of  the  means  of  control  to  the  circum- 
stances. In  Polish-peasant  hfe  this  adaptation  is  sufficient. 
We  have  seen  in  the  Introduction  that  the  parental  author- 
ity finds  there  its  foundation  in  the  whole  organization  of 
the  family  and  in  the  social  opinion  of  the  community;  the 
family  and  the  community  have  a  sufficient  power  of 
sanction  to  prevent  any  revolt  of  the  child  and  at  the  same 
time  to  hold  the  parents  responsible  for  any  abuse.  The 
parental  authority  in  the  eyes  of  the  child  seems  not  only 
sacred  and  all-powerful,  but  also  just,  and  raised  above 
individual  caprice. 

If  we  contrast  now  the  conditions  at  home  with  those 
which  the  emigrants  meet  in  America,  we  see  that  a  loss  of 
control  over  the  child  is  inevitable  if  the  parents  do  not 
develop  new  means  as  substitutes  for  the  old  ones.  First, 
there  is  in  America  no  family  in  the  traditional  sense; 
the  married  couple  and  the  children  are  almost  completely 
isolated,  and  the  parental  authority  has  no  background. 
(In  a  few  cases,  where  many  members  of  the  family  have 
settled  in  the  same  locality,  the  control  is  much  stronger.) 
Again,  if  there  is  something  equivalent  to  the  community  of 
the  old  country,  i.e.,  the  parish,  it  is  much  less  closed  and 
concentrated  and  can  hardly  have  the  same  influence.  Its 
composition  is  new,  accidental,  and  changing;  moreover, 
it  is  composed  of  various  elements,  influenced  each  sepa- 
rately and  each  somewhat  differently  by  the  new  environ- 
ment, and  has  consequently  a  rather  poor  stock  of  common 
traditions.  Further,  the  members  of  the  new  generation, 
brought  up  in  this  new  environment,  are  more  likely  to 
show  a  solidarity  with  one  another  as  against  the  parents 


RACZKOWSKI  SERIES  711 

than  a  solidarity  with  the  parents  as  against  the  younger 
members  of  the  family.  Finally,  economic  independence 
comes  much  earlier  than  in  the  old  country  and  makes  a 
revolt  always  materially  easy.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
parents'  authority  ceases  also  to  be  controlled,  except  by 
the  state  in  the  relatively  rare  cases  of  a  far-going  abuse. 
The  traditional  measure  of  its  exertion  is  lost;  the  parents 
have  no  standard  of  education,  since  the  old  social  standard 
is  no  longer  valid  and  no  new  one  has  been  appropriated. 
The  natural  result  is  a  free  play  given  to  individual  caprice, 
excessive  indulgence  alternating  with  unreasonable  severity. 
Thus  the  moral  character  of  parental  authority  in  the  eyes 
of  the  children  is  lost. 

The  immigrant  can  therefore  control  his  children  only 
if  he  is  able  to  substitute  individual  authority  for  social 
authority,  to  base  his  influence,  not  upon  his  position 
as  representative  of  the  group,  but  upon  his  personal  superi- 
ority. But  this,  of  course,  requires  a  higher  degree  of 
individual  culture,  intellectual  and  moral,  than  most  of  the 
immigrants  can  muster.  The  contrary  case  is  more  fre- 
quent, where  the  children  assume  a  real  or  imagined 
superiority  to  the  parents  on  account  of  their  higher  instruc 
tion,  their  better  acquaintance  with  American  ways,  etc. 

The  same  problems  confront  country  people  moving  to  a 
Polish  town;  there,  however,  the  break  in  the  social  control 
of  family  life  is  neither  so  rapid  nor  so  complete,  the  change 
of  the  young  generation  is  not  so  radical,  and  there  are  often 
time  and  opportunity  enough  to  substitute  a  sufficient 
amount  of  individual  authority  for  the  lost  part  of  social 
authority. 


PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 


THE  FAMILY  RACZKOWSKI 


Raczkowski,  a  retired  farmer 
Wawrzonkowa,  his  second  wife 
Franciszek 


Franciszek's  children 


.  ,  ,  his  sons 

Adam 

Telfilal^^'^^^shters 

Franciszek's  wife 

Her  mother 

Helcia 

Stanislawa 

Wladzia 

Mania 

Janek 

Kostusia 

Zoiia,  Adam's  wife 

Wiadek  Brylski  (deceased),  Helena's  first  husband 

Rykaczewski,  his  cousin 

Stas  (Stach)  ] 

Joziek  (Jozef)  [  Helena's  sons  by  Brydski 

Maniek  (Maryan)  J 

Jozef  Dq.browski,  Helena's  second  husband 

Their  children 

Antoni  Wolski,  Teofila's  husband 

Olesiek  (Aleksander)  1 

Julek  [  his  children 

Aniela  J 

Teofil  Wolski     1  , 

Ludwik  Wolski /^"^^^^''^•■^t^^^^ 

Malgorzata,  Ludwik's  wife 

Bronislawa,  Antoni's  sister 

Franciszek  Olow,  a  cousin  of  the  Raczkowskis 


RACZKOWSKI  SERIES  713 

380-445.  380-81,  from  franciszek  raczkowski,  in 
america,  to  his  brother  adam,  in  poland;  382-402, 
from  franciszek  and  adam,  in  america,  to  their 
sister  teofila  wolska,  in  poland;  403-25,  from 
helena  brylska-dabrowska,  in  america,  to  her 
sister  teofila  wolska,  in  poland;  426-28,  from 
ludwik  wolski,  in  russia,  to  his  brother  antoni 
and  his  sister-in-law  teofila,  in  poland;  429, 
from  teofila  wolska,  widow  of  antoni  wolski,  to 
ludwik  wolski;  430-36,  from  aleksander  wolski 
(nephew  of  Helena),  in  America,  to  his  mother, 
teofila  wolska,  in  poland;  437-45,  from  teofil 
wolski,  first  in  russia,  then  in  america,  mainly 
to  his  brother  and  sister-in-law,  in  poland 

380  Ansonia,  July  10  [1903] 

Dear  Brother  Adam:  [Usual  greeting.]  I  received  [your] 
letter  which  I  answer  at  once.  We  are  in  good  health,  thanks  to 
our  Lord  God,  and  we  wish  to  you  the  same.  Dear  brother,  you  say 
that  I  do  not  answer  your  letters;  I  answer  every  letter.  I  received 
from  you  one  letter  from  the  army;  then  I  did  not  answer,  because 
the  address  was  bad,  but  I  sent  money  to  father  and  father  sent  it  to 
you.  If  you  had  written  a  letter  directly  when  you  came  to  father 
I  should  have  sent  you  money  and  you  would  have  got  it  already. 
Now  it  is  too  late,  you  would  not  receive  it  soon  enough.  So  when 
you  get  to  the  army,  write  me  a  good  address,  Russian  or  Polish, 
and  then,  whenever  you  need  [money]  I  will  send  it  to  you.  Write 
to  me  in  what  company  and  squad  and  regiment  [you  serve].  Dear 
brother,  nothing  rejoices  me  more,  neither  money  nor  anything,  since 
I  have  neither  dear  mother  nor  father  in  the  world,  only  you,  dear 
brother.'     I  learned  two  weeks  ago  what  a  death  my  father  died,  in 

'  He  has  two  sisters,  Teofila  Wolska  and  Helena  Brylska.  He  does  not  mention 
the  first  because  of  her  alleged  bad  behavior  toward  their  father,  but  it  is  difficult 
to  determine  why  he  excludes  Helena,  and,  contrary  to  custom,  uses  her  family- 
name,  Brylska,  as  if  she  were  a  stranger.  They  had  been  quarreling,  as  we  learn 
from  Adam's  letters,  but  are  now  on  relatively  good  terms,  since  Franciszek  gives 
her  letters  from  home,  as  he  says  at  the  close  of  this  letter.  Normally  when 
relatives  quarrel  they  have  no  communication  while  the  quarrel  lasts,  and  when  it 
is  over  they  bear  no  resentment.  In  the  present  case  the  situation  is  prol)ably 
to  be  explamed  by  the  isolation  of  the  two  family-members.     No  gradation  of 


714  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

a  pigsty,  from  hunger.  Such  food — a  pot  of  gruel — under  his  bed, 
which  people  threw  away  after  his  death!  A  good  daughter !  When 
father  worked  and  gave  away  everything  he  had  then  he  was  good. 
Without  a  priest  and  alone  he  died  in  a  pigsty!  Let  her  expect  the 
same — to  die  in  a  pigsty.  And  let  her  children  in  the  house  not  come 
to  her.' 

Dear  brother,  if  you  have  no  money  for  the  journey,  borrow 
from  anybody,  and  I  will  send  it  back  to  him  with  thanks.  Write 
to  me  from  whom  you  borrowed. 

When  father  wrote  to  me,  as  he  had  nothing  to  eat,  I  sent 
[money]  to  him.  Helena  Brylska  Hves  two  versts  away  from  me,  I 
give  her  every  letter. 

I  have  nothing  more  to  write,  I  wish  you  health  and  good  success. 

With  respect, 
Both  Raczkowskis  [Franciszek  and  Wite] 


381  February  15  [1904] 

....  Dear  Brother  Adam,  and  also  dear  Sister  and 
Brother-in-law  and  your  Children:  We  are  in  good  health, 
thanks  to  our  Lord  God,  and  we  wish  to  you  the  same. 

Now,  dear  brother,  I  think  well  [intentions  are  good]  about  you. 
If  work  were  good  you  would  already  be  in  America.  I  have  had  no 
work  for  four  months  now,  and  I  wait  for  better  conditions.  If 
the  conditions  don't  improve  by  Easter,  we  will  go  back  to  our 
country,  and  if  they  improve  and  I  get  work,  I  wall  immediately  send 
you  a  ship-ticket,  and  you  will  come.  There  will  probably  be  hard 
times  in  America  this  year  because  in  the  autumn  they  will  elect 
the  president.  If  the  same  remains  who  is  now,  tlien  all  will  be 
well,  but  if  they  elect  a  democrat,  then  there  will  be  hard  times 
in  America,  and  those  who  have  money  enough  will  go  back  to  their 


intimacy  is  possible  between  two  indi\aduals  so  long  as  they  remain  integrate  mem- 
bers of  the  same  family;  the  famUy  relationship  demands  a  certain  degree  of  inti- 
macy; it  determines  the  relation.  But  in  isolation  their  relation  becomes  merely 
personal  and  admits  of  any  gradation  possible  between  individuals. 

'  The  father  lived  with  Teofila  Wolska.  This  false  report  about  his  death 
was  sent  by  his  second  wife,  the  writer's  stepmother,  Wawrzonkowa  (cf.  letters  of 
Helena  Brylska),  who  evidently  hates  Teofila.  Probably  the  reason  of  this  hate 
is  that  the  old  man  left  her  and  went  to  live  with  his  daughter. 


RACZKOWSKI  SERIES  715 

country.'  You  will  learn  [all]  in  another  letter.  Hold  out  a  little, 
until  I  bring  you  to  me  or  until  I  come  myself  to  you,  and  then  we  shall 
suffer  together.  Inform  me  about  your  health  and  success,  and 
what  kind  of  winter  you  have,  because  we  have  great  cold  and  snows. 
I  have  nothing  more  to  write,  I  send  my  good  wishes  and  low  bows  to 
brother  and  to  the  Wolskis.     With  respect, 

Your  brother, 

Raczkowski  [Franciszek] 

Helena  Brylska  is  working  and  earning  well.  I  beg  you,  don't 
refuse  me  but  inform  yourself,  you  Wolskis,  or  you  Adam,  what  is 
the  news  about  my  wife's  mother  and  how  she  is,  because  I  don't 
know  what  it  means.  We  wrote  three  letters  and  we  have  an  answer 
to  none.  I  request  you,  let  somebody  go  to  mother  and  tell  her  that 
her  daughter  begged  you  to  get  information  as  to  how  mother  is,  and 
tell  me  about  mother,  and  what  is  the  news  in  our  country. 

382  Wilmington,  Del.,  June  25  [1904] 

Dear  Sister:  [Usual  greeting  to  sister  and  brother-in-law; 
generalities  about  health  and  success.]  I  am  already  with  my 
brother,  thanks  to  God  and  to  God's  Mother.  As  to  work,  I  don't 
hope  to  work  sooner  than  autumn,  because  brother  also  has  no  work 
since  Christmas  and  cannot  get  work,  because  all  factories  are  stopped 
and  there  is  no  work  until  they  elect  the  president  in  autumn.  Then 
perhaps  we  shall  get  work.  And  at  present  brother  has  no  pleasure 
in  life  either,  because  there  are  five  of  them  and  I  make  the  sixth,  and 
all  this  means  spending  money.  And  you  know  that  when  I  left 
you,  I  had  neither  clothes  nor  shirts;  so  when  I  came  to  them,  sister- 
in-law  and  brother  gave  me  at  once  clothes  of  theirs  and  we  all  three 
went  to  the  city  and  bought  clothes,  one  suit  for  working  days  and 
another  for  hohdays,  and  everything  in  the  way  of  clothes.  So 
you  can  understand  that  when  we  bought  everything,  it  cost  them 
about  80  roubles.  The  watch  and  the  suit  for  church  cost  alone 
60  roubles.^     I  have  nothing  more  to  write,  only  I  bid  you  goodbye, 

^This  connection  of  hard  times  with  democratic  government  is  a  dogma 
among  the  Polish  immigrants. 

2  Franciszek  R.  and  Helena  Brylska  have  divided  between  themselves  the 
expense  burden  of  bringing  Adam  to  America.  Helena  paid  for  the  ship-ticket, 
Franciszek  supports  Adam  untU  he  gets  work.    This  is  still  famUial  solidarity. 


71 6  PRBIARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

dear  sister  and  brother-in-law.  WTien  I  get  work  I  won't  forget  you. 
Remain  with  God.  Both  Raczkowskis  with  their  children  send  also 
their  bows.     I  beg  you,  answer  the  soonest  possible. 

[Adam  Raczkowski] 

383  August  15,  1904 

Dear  Sister:  ....  And  now  I  write  to  you  a  second  letter, 
because  when  I  came  to  America  I  wrote  you  a  letter  but  I  have 
no  tidings  from  you.  I  don't  know  what  it  means,  whether  you  did 
not  write  or  my  letter  did  not  reach  you;  so  please,  sister,  answer 
me,  and  please,  sister,  tell  me  what  is  the  news  in  our  country,  and 
whether  they  have  called  me  to  military  ser\ace  or  not.  And  please, 
sister,  tell  me  what  is  the  news  about  war  in  our  country.  As  to  the 
work,  we  are  not  working  yet,  because  now  they  are  gathering  votes 
for  the  new  president,  so  all  factories  are  closed  and  don't  work  at 
all  till  the  president  is  elected.  So  when  I  work  I  will  not  forget  you, 
sister  dear  and  brother-in-law.  And  as  to  Wladkowa  [Helena  B.] 
she  is  earning  well  and  the  factory  where  she  works  is  going  well. 
Wladkowa  got  married  [second  marriage]  on  August  17.  She  married 
a  Pole.  And  I  request  you,  sister,  inform  me,  how  is  the  weather 
in  our  country,  and  how  are  the  crops,  how  are  you  getting  on? 
Here,  at  the  end  of  July  and  in  the  beginning  of  August  we  had  terrible 
heat,  and  rain  and  thunderstorms.  And  I  request  you,  sister,  greet 
the  Kaliszeskis  and  their  daughter  from  me.  And  tell  me  who  reads 
your  letters  to  you  and  answers  [them].  And  I  beg  you  very  politely, 
be  so  kind  and  go  to  Imnielski.  Let  him  give  you  the  address  of  his 
daughter  Weronika,  who  is  in  Warsaw,  and  send  me  this  address, 
because  I  want  to  write  her  a  letter.  And  I  beg  very  politely  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Imnielski  to  give  me  the  address  of  their  daughter  Weronika. 
I  have  nothing  more  to  write,  only  I  send  lowest  bows  to  you,  sister 
and  brother-in-law,  and  I  salute  also  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Imnielski  and 
their  daughters.     Remain  with  God. 

Respectfully, 

Adam  Raczkowski 

384  September  23,  1904 

Dear  Sister:  ....  I  received  your  letter  and  I  thank  you 
heartily  for  answering  me.  As  to  what  you  write,  sister,  that  I  may 
greet  Brylska  for  you,  well,  I  wrote  her  three  letters  and  she  wrote 


RACZKOWSKI  SERIES  717 

me  one  and  sent  us  her  photograph  when  she  got  married.  As  soon 
as  I  came  to  America,  I  saluted  her  poHtely.  But  brother  and  sister- 
in-law  related  to  me  how  she  remembered  [forgot]  her  children  and 
how  she  began  to  behave  as  soon  as  she  came  to  America.  And  she 
complained  to  us  that  sister-in-law  was  not  good  to  her!  She  behaved 
so  that  if  it  had  been  I,  I  should  not  have  kept  her  [in  the  house]  24 
hours.  As  it  was,  they  were  patient  and  kept  her,  and  brother  tried 
to  find  work  for  her.  And  about  her  writing  letters  to  Wawrzonkowa 
[their  stepmother]  and  sending  money  to  her,  well,  I  shall  bow  to 
her  [to  Brylska]  more  profoundly  [I  will  despise  her  for  it  still  more] 
because  if  Wawrzonkowa  were  lying  under  a  hedge  and  if  I  were 

passing  by,  I  would kick  her,  but  would  not  give  my  hand  to 

her  [assist  her].^    [Usual  greetings.] 

Adam  Raczkowski 


385  February  13  [1905] 

Deas  Sister:  ....  And  now  I  inform  you  that  I  have  very 
good  work.  I  have  been  working  for  3  months.  I  have  very  good 
and  easy  work.  I  earn  $8 .00  a  week.  Brother  has  work  also.  And 
as  to  Brylska,  I  don't  know  how  she  is  getting  on,  and  I  don't  think 
about  her  at  all.  Inform  me  what  is  going  on  in  our  country,  who 
has  come  to  America  and  who  got  married,  and  what  is  the  talk  in 
our  country  about  revolution  and  war,  because  I  have  paid  for  a 
newspaper  for  a  whole  year  and  the  paper  comes  to  me  twice  a  week,^ 
so  they  write  that  in  our  country  there  is  misery.  They  say  in 
Warsaw  and  Petersburg  there  is  a  terrible  revolution  and  many  people 
have  perished  already.    As  to  the  money,  I  cannot  help  you  now, 

'  Adam's  behavior  toward  his  sister  who  had  helped  him  to  come  to  America 
and  had  done  him  no  personal  wrong  seems  to  be  mean  ingratitude  and  would  be 
this  if  their  relation  had  been  merely  personal.  But  Adam  evidently  occupies 
not  the  individual  but  the  familial  standpoint.  He  condemns  Brylska  impersonally 
for  her  alleged  lack  of  familial  feelings  toward  her  own  children,  toward  Franciszek 
and  his  wife,  and  from  this  standpoint  the  act  of  solidarity  in  sending  Adam  a 
ship-ticket  cannot  counterbalance  those  alleged  offenses  against  the  spirit  of  the 
family.  The  familial  standpoint  becomes  still  more  marked  when  Adam  reproaches 
Helena  for  her  solidarity  with  Wawrzonkowa,  the  stepmother.  The  latter  is  for 
hun  not  only  not  a  member  of  the  family  but  an  element  hostile  to  the  family. 

^  This  mention,  trifling  in  itself,  is  a  significant  expression  of  the  multiplication 
of  contacts  which  will  result  in  a  more  and  more  intense  feeling  m  the  man  of  his 
own  personality,  as  we  shall  see  in  his  later  letters. 


7iS  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

sister.  You  will  excuse  me  yourself;  I  did  not  work  for  five  months, 
so  I  owed  for  living  alone  $70.00  and  for  the  ship-ticket  $50.00  and 
for  the  clothes  I  borrowed  $45  .00.  I  still  have  $109  of  debt,  but 
I  hope  in  God  that  by  June  I  shall  get  rid  of  my  debt.  I  request  you 
sister,  inform  me  who  married  among  the  young  people,  which  girls 
got  husbands  and  which  boys  got  wives,  and  please  inform  me  about 
Wawrzonkowa. 

I  have  nothing  more  to  write,  only  I  bid  farewell  to  you  sister  and 
brother-in-law,  and  I  leave  you  with  respect,  and  I  salute  you, 
Mr.  Teacher  and  Mrs.,  your  wife,  and  I  leave  you  with  respect, 

Adam  Raczkowski 

386  June  27,  1906 

Dear  Sister:  ....  I  received  your  letter  on  June  26  and  I 
answered  you  directly  on  June  27,  and  I  ask  you  whether  you  received 
the  money  that  I  sent  you  or  not,  because  they  sent  me  a  receipt  from 
the  post-ofl&ce  that  you  received  the  money  on  March  26,  and  you 
did  not  say  in  your  letter  that  you  received  the  money.  So  I  request 
you  to  tell  me  which  month  you  received  the  money.  And  as  to  the 
work,  I  am  working  in  the  same  factory,  and  brother  also  is  working  in 
the  same  factory,  where  he  was  working  formerly.  And  as  to  our 
country,  brother  says  he  will  not  return,  because  there  is  nothing  to 
return  for.  He  has  no  property  there,  and  it  is  better  for  him  in 
America,  because  in  our  country  he  could  not  even  earn  enough 
for  a  loaf  of  bread.  And  I  also  do  not  know  whether  I  shall  return 
or  not.  If  I  can  return  then  perhaps  I  shall  return  some  day  or 
other,  and  if  not  I  don't  mind,  because  I  do  ten  times  better  in 
America  than  in  our  country.  I  do  better  today  than  brother, 
because  I  am  alone.  As  to  Borkowianka,  I  don't  know  whether 
she  came  to  America  or  not,  because  I  sent  her  neither  a  ship-ticket 
nor  money.  So  I  beg  you,  sister,  be  so  kind  and  learn  from  the 
Borkowskis  whether  she  thinks  of  coming  or  not,  because  if  she  does 
not  come  then  I  will  marry  in  the  autumn  or  during  carnival.^  As 
to  what  you  write  to  me  about  the  photograph,  I  will  send  you  my 
photograph  in  August,  and  brother  with  the  whole  family  [also]. 

'  There  is  no  question  of  love.  There  has  been  mention  of  Weronika,  and  prob- 
ably under  the  influence  of  his  sister  he  is  thinking  of  Borkowianka.  He  siraply 
wants  to  marry  in  general.     Cf.  a  similar  situation  in  the  Butkowski  series. 


RACZKOWSKI  SERIES  719 

And  as  to  the  money  I  will  send  it  to  you  together  with  the  photo- 
graph. And  about  Brylska  I  do  not  know  anything;  she  wrote  to 
me  at  Easter,  and  since  then  I  have  no  tidings  whatever. 

And  now,  sister-in-law  and  brother  are  speaking  to  you:  Be 
so  kind  and  learn  where  is  the  mother  of  sister-in-law  and  with 
whom  she  lives.  Answer  us,  and  I  will  tell  you  more  in  another  letter. 
[Usual  greetings.] 

Adam  Raczkowski 


387  August  6,  1906 

[Printed  greetings.] 

And  now  I  inform  you,  dear  brother  [cousin-in-law],  Teofil,  that 
I  intended  to  send  you  a  ship-ticket,  but  I  wrote  to  an  agent  and  the 
agent  answered  me  that  now  it  is  too  late  to  send  a  ship-ticket, 
because  a  ship-ticket  takes  at  least  5  weeks  or  6  weeks  to  get  to  our 
country  and  now,  from  September  15,  they  intend  to  admit  no  more 
emigrants  to  America.  So  if  I  sent  you  a  ticket  perhaps  you  would 
not  get  to  the  water  soon  enough.  Meanwhile,  a  letter  takes  at 
most  1 5  days  to  go  to  our  country,  so  if  you  wish  to  come  to  America, 
as  soon  as  your  receive  this  letter,  get  ready  at  once,  take  money 
and  leave,  so  you  will  perhaps  land  before  September  15.  Within 
this  letter  you  have  an  order  for  all  steamship-lines  enclosed,  you  can 
buy  a  ticket  for  any  ship  you  wish,  because  this  order  was  sent  to  me 
by  the  agent.  And  don't  think,  dear  brother  Teofil,  that  perhaps 
I  don't  wish  to  send  you  [a  ship-ticket].  I  wish  you  to  come  to 
America,  dear,  brother,  because  up  to  the  present  I  am  doing  very  well 
here,  and  I  have  no  intention  of  going  to  our  country,  because  in  our 
country  I  experienced  only  misery  and  poverty,  and  now  I  live  better 
than  a  lord  in  our  country.  I  work  my  9  hours  and  I  have  peace ;  I 
have  enough  to  drink  and  to  dress  well,  and  I  have  money.  I  wish 
you  also  to  come;  and  on  the  way  to  America  explain  that  you  are 
going  to  a  cousin  [exactly:  brother,  son  of  an  uncle].  If  they  ask 
you  how  long  I  have  been  in  America,  say  10  years  and  married,' 
and  bring  so  much  money  that  after  landing  you  will  have  at  least 
$10.00  and  during  the  voyage  remember  not  to  spend  money.  From 
Castle  Garden  send  me  a  telegram.  Then,  if  they  won't  admit  you, 
I  will  get  you  out  from  Castle  Garden;  even  if  it  should  cost  me  $xoo 

'  This  applies  to  the  older  brother. 


720 


PRIIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 


I  would  not  allow  them  to  send  you  back.'     I  have  nothing  more  to 
write,  only  I  leave  you  with  respect.     May  God  grant  it.     Amen. 

Adam  Raczkowski 

388  '  January  28,  1907 

Dear  Sister:  ....  As  to  work,  I  work,  but  very  little,  because 
the  factory  where  we  worked  with  brother  was  burned  on  Saturday, 
January  19,  at  7  o'clock  in  the  evening,  and  brother's  carpenter's 
tools  were  all  burned.  He  lost  $50 .00.  And  now  I  inform  you  about 
my  old  Miss  Borkowska,  whom  nobody  wants.  I  don't  care  any- 
thing about  her — such  an  old  maid!  I  wrote  to  her  only  in  jest, 
because  I  have  in  America  girls  enough  and  much  better  than  she, 
and  even  to  them  I  don't  pay  compliments.  I  care  as  much  for  her 
as  for  an  old  torn  shoe.  Today  I  don't  need  the  favor  of  anybody 
except  God.  May  God  continue  to  give  me  such  health  as  he  gives 
me  up  to  the  present  day.  I  don't  want  the  favors  of  anybody  except 
God.  As  to  Teofil,  I  don't  know  what  he  means,  and  why  he  will 
take  to  himself  such  a  shepherd's  bitch.  There  is  no  place  in  America 
for  her,  because  in  America  they  don't  keep  sheep.  Does  he  want  to 
keep  sheep,  and  to  breed  rams,  and  to  become  a  shepherd?  The 
stupid,  where  is  his  reason,  since  in  America  there  are  girls  enough.^ 

As  to  money,  I  won't  send  you  any  now,  because  we  have 
expenses  ourselves,  but  I  will  send  you  for  the  holidays  some  more 
roubles;  you  may  expect  it.  You  ask,  sister,  about  the  children. 
Will  you  inform  me  where  is  that  youngest  one,  Maryan,  and  with 

'  Besides  a  familial  feeling  and  certainly  personal  attachment,  there  is  much  of 
showing  off  in  .\dam's  helping  Teofil  to  come,  and  in  this  whole  lettc"  he  is  proud 
of  being  able  to  be  a  benefactor.  This  is  one  of  the  t\^ical  attitudes  assumed  by 
the  peasant  when,  under  the  influence  of  a  growing  isolation  from  the  old  social 
groups,  the  claims  of  solidarity,  put  forward  by  the  family  or  the  community,  cease 
to  be  considered  as  natural  and  naturally  satisfied. 

^  This  abuse  is  evidentlj^  the  effect  of  resentment,  particularly  as  the  girl  seems  to 
have  shown  a  preference  for  Teofil.  (Borkowska  is  another  name  for  the 
Borkowianka  whom  he  has  previously  mentioned.)  But  it  shows  mainly  the  degree 
of  self-conceit  which  the  man  has  already  reached.  The  feeling  of  personal  impor- 
tance and  exaltation,  based  on  economic  success,  is  here  mixed  with  a  feeling  of  inde- 
pendence, whose  source  lies  probablj'  in  the  progressive  liberation  from  the  bonds 
of  social  tradition,  including  family  and  traditional  attitudes  toward  marriage, 
power  of  the  community,  and  probably  also  power  of  the  state,  which  he  had 
experienced  during  military  service.     Cf.  391,  note. 


RACZKOWSKI  SERIES  721 

whom  he  is?  If  you  see  some  misery  on  him,  take  him  to  yourself; 
I  will  reward  you,  and  I  will  send  you  money  for  his  clothes,  and  you 
will  have  still  a  profit  from  him,  because  I  pity  him;  the  child  is 
guilty  of  nothing.  Please,  sister,  write  to  me  how  old  he  is.  If 
someone  is  coming  to  America,  then  write  to  me,  please.  Perhaps  he 
could  bring  him  with  him  to  me.  I  would  send  either  money  or  a 
ship-ticket  for  him  and  I  would  take  him  to  me.' 

Expect  another  letter  from  your  brother  soon.     [Usual  ending.] 

Adam  Raczkowski 


389  [June?]  3,  1907 

Dear  Sister:  ....  I  received  your  letter  on  May  29.  I 
received  it  at  same  time  with  Teofil,  because  on  the  same  day  I 
called  on  Teofil  and  I  read  his  letter,  and  when  I  came  home  I  received 
also  such  a  "joyous"  letter  from  you.  As  to  the  work,  brother  is 
working  steadily  and  since  the  factory  was  burned  I  have  had  work 
for  a  month  and  for  another  month  I  have  had  no  work.  During  the 
two  years  I  worked  steadily  in  the  same  factory  I  had  money,  and 
now  I  earn  hardly  enough  to  live.  I  am  working  in  the  same  factory 
as  brother.  I  do  carpenter's  work  and  earn  $2  .00  a  day.  The  work  is 
good  and  well  paid,  but  only  if  you  work  steadily.  May  God  let 
me  work  this  year  during  the  summer  in  that  factory  and  earn  at 
least  enough  to  live.     Then  by  winter  I  shall  have  steady  work. 

This  letter,  which  I  received  from  you,  grieved  me  and  brother 
terribly.  Dear  sister  and  brother-in-law,  you  write  to  us  to  hold  our 
hands  out  to  you  [help  you].  It  is  true  that  a  misfortune  befell  you, 
that  a  misery  from  God  happened  to  you,  and  you  have  not  a  piece 
of  bread  to  put  in  your  mouth  at  times,  but  with  us  also  it  is  not  easy. 
Before  we  earn  that  cent  in  the  sweat  of  our  brow  and  get  it  into  our 
hands,  see  here,  an  expense  is  waiting  for  it.  I  don't  need  to  explain 
everything  to  you,  because  you  know  yourself  what  expenses  are. 
But  in  such  misfortune  we  will  not  refuse  you,  and  not  send  you  any 
money,  but  we  will  not  send  it  now.  We  will  send  it  to  you  on 
June  15,  because  we  cannot  do  it  sooner.  I  will  not  write  to  you  how 
much  until  a  second  letter.     Expect  a  second  letter  soon  after  you 

•  Sincere  feeling  toward  the  boy,  connected  probably  with  a  desire  to  manifest 
his  own  superiority  over  the  boy's  mother  Helena,  and  to  express  his  personality 
and  magnificence. 


'J22  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

receive  this  one.  I  will  write  also  to  Teofil  in  Philadelphia.  Inform 
me  whether  you  have  the  same  horses  as  when  I  was  there,  or  other 
ones;  tell  me  this.  And  send  me  the  address  of  sister,  because  she 
does  not  write  to  me  and  I  have  not  her  address.  I  have  nothing 
more  to  write,  only  I  bid  you  goodbye  myself,  and  brother  with  his 
wife  and  children.  And  brother's  daughter,  who  came  into  the  world 
May  21,  salutes  you.  I  send  low  bows  to  the  Imnielskis  and  to  their 
daughters.  Inform  me  whether  Weronika,  Imnielski's  daughter,  got 
married.  Inform  me,  how  are  the  crops  in  our  country,  and  what 
success,  and  who  got  married  among  the  young  people,  and  whether 
my  companions  came  back  from  the  army  or  not.  I  leave  you  witli 
respect  and  beg  for  a  speedy  answer.^ 

Adam  Raczkowski 

390  January  24,  1907  [1908] 

Dear  Sister  [printed  introduction]:  We  are  in  good  health, 
thanks  to  our  Lord  God,  and  we  wish  the  same  to  you — health  and 
good  success  and  everything  that  you  wish  for  yourself  from  otur  Lord 
God.  And  now  I  inform  you  about  work.  Work  is  now  very  bad. 
Since  Christmas  I  have  worked  only  three  days  in  the  week,  and 
perhaps  they  will  send  me  away  entirely.  Brother  still  works  but 
he  expects  every  day  to  be  sent  away.  Some  works  have  stopped 
entirely  and  some  people  have  nothing  more  to  live  on,  and  the 
city  is  feeding  some  people  already.  As  to  sister,  I  don't  know 
anything,  because  she  doesn't  write  to  me  and  I  don't  write  to  her 
and  we  don't  know  anything  about  each  other,  I  don't  know  how  she 
lives  and  she  doesn't  know  how  I  live.  And  as  to  the  cold,  we  haven't 
had  any  cold  yet — but  it  often  rains. 

And  now  I  beg  you,  my  sister,  myself  and  brother  with  his  wife, 
to  be  so  gracious  and  inform  us  where  is  the  mother  of  our  sister-in- 
law,  whether  in  Przasnysz  or  in  Bartulty.  If  you  see  her  ask  her, 
please,  whether  she  received  20  roubles  or  not.  Let  her  write  to  us. 
And  inform  me  who  has  married  among  the  young  people,  and  whether 
the  daughters  of  Imnielski  have  married  or  not.     Dear  sister,  I  will 

'  The  whole  tone  of  the  letter  shows  a  certain  lowering  of  the  feeling  of  personal 
importance,  to  be  explained  probably  by  (i)  worse  economic  conditions,  (2)  a 
certain  revival  of  old  memories,  which  is  shown  by  the  interest  manifested  in  the 
persons  and  conditions  of  the  "old  country,"  and  which  brings  the  man  back  to  his 
earlier  attitude. 


RACZKOWSKI  SERIES  723 

tell  you  about  myself,  how  I  am  doing  in  America.  I  have  not  yet 
experienced  poverty  in  America;  on  the  contrary,  I  am  my  brother's 
support.  But  I  am  tired  of  walking  about  unmarried.  Although 
I  could  give  my  wife  enough  to  live,  still  I  fear  lest  poverty  should 
look  me  in  the  eyes.  Were  it  not  for  the  money  I  have  put  in  my 
brother's  house,  which  he  bought,  I  could  do  nothing  during  a  year 
and  live  with  my  wife  like  a  lord.  But  now  I  postpone  it  for  a  longer 
time.  You  write  to  me  that  I  don't  answer  you.  I  answer  every 
letter.  I  sent  you  a  letter  on  Christmas,  on  the  same  day  you  sent 
me  one,  and  I  don't  know  whether  you  received  it  or  not. 

I  have  nothing  more  to  write,  only  I  send  you  low  bows  and  I 
remain  respectfully, 

Adam  Raczkowski 

And  I  ask  you  for  a  speedy  answer. 

May  God  allow  us  to  live  till  Easter,  and  after  Easter  I  will  write 
to  you  what  girl  I  shall  marry,  and  I  will  send  you  a  photograph  as 
soon  as  I  leave  the  altar.  My  girl  is  a  cousin  of  my  sister-in-law; 
her  mother  and  my  sister-in-law  are  born  sisters.  They  are  per- 
suading me  to  marry  her,  but  I  still  doubt  whether  it  will  be  so. 

Adam  Rakoski  \sic 


3gi  March  2,  1908 

Dear  Sister:  ....  As  to  Teofil  I  do  not  know  where  he  is, 
because  he  was  with  me  before  Christmas  and  was  out  of  work  then, 
and  he  intended  to  go  to  the  mines.  So  I  don't  know  whether  he 
went  or  not,  because  in  mines  it  is  this  way:  One  goes  there  and 
finds  money,  another,  death.  He  wanted  to  go  to  the  mines,  so 
probably  he  went,  because  he  has  not  written  to  me.  As  to  work,  I 
haven't  worked  for  four  weeks.  There  is  no  work.  Brother  still 
works  but  is  not  doing  well,  because  almost  all  factories  are  closed. 
Times  are  so  good  in  America  that  people  are  going  begging.  As  to 
sister,  I  don't  know  anything  about  her,  because  she  does  not  write  to 
me,  and  I  do  not  write  to  her  either.  In  that  [former]  letter  wc 
asked  you  to  inform  us  where  is  the  mother  of  our  sister-in-law,  and 
whether  she  received  20  roubles.  Let  us  know,  please,  where  she  is, 
why  she  does  not  write  to  them. 

You  advise  me  to  marry  Ksi?zak6wna.  Besides  Ksi?zak6wna 
I  have  others  [here]  even  more  stately  and  I  do  not  bestir  myself  very 


7J4  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

much  about  them.'  As  to  Imnielsczanka  [daughter  of  Imnielski], 
send  her  to  me,  and  I  will  marry  her  and  send  you  the  money  for  the 
ship-ticket  back.^  Now  is  not  a  very  good  time  to  marry,  because 
work  is  bad  and  bad  times  are  coming  now. 

Tell  us  about  your  success,  how  you  are  getting  on.  Have  you 
still  a  debt,  or  did  you  pay  it  off?  And  please  write  your  letters 
more  distinctly,  because  I  cannot  read  what  you  write.  All  the 
letters  are  covered  with  ink;  it  is  impossible  to  make  out  what  those 
letters  are.     [Usual  ending.] 

Adam  Raczkowski 

392  March  8  [Probably  1908] 

....  Dear  sister,  you  write  me  that  for  a  year  you  received 
no  letter  from  me.  But  I  sent  you  three  (3)  letters  and  I  received  no 
answer  till  I  sent  you  a  fourth  letter,  and  only  then  I  received  an 
answer.  And  about  Teofiil  I  don't  know  anything.  It  is  a  year 
since  he  called  on  me,  and  then  he  intended  to  go  to  the  mines  for 
work.  I  don't  know  whether  he  went  there  or  not,  because  some 
three  months  after  he  had  intended  to  go  there  those  mines  fell  in 
completely,  and  not  a  single  man  got  out  alive.  And  moreover  there 
were  fire  and  water  which  took  the  rest.  So  I  cannot  tell  you  whether 
he  worked  there  or  not,  because  if  he  worked  there  under  the  surface 
then  probably  he  is  also  lying  there  in  the  ruins.  And  as  to  sister, 
I  don't  know  how  she  is  doing,  because  she  doesn't  write  to  me  and 
I  don't  write  to  her;  I  don't  know  where  she  is.  Sister  dear,  you 
write  me,  "  Shall  we  ever  see  each  other  again  ?  "  You  know  yourself 
that  I  will  not  go  to  our  country  because  I  fear  the  Russian,^  and 

'  A  curious  example  of  an  attitude  remaining  superficially  the  same  while  the 
social  background  is  completely  changed.  As  long  as  the  boy  is  more  a  member  of 
a  family,  the  familial  dignitj^  requires  him  not  to  show  too  much  eagerness  in  his 
courtship — to  hesitate,  really  or  apparently,  to  make  his  choice  slowly  and  from 
among  many  girls.  WTien  the  individual  is  isolated,  we  should  expect  an  easier 
and  more  rapid  decision  and  more  place  for  personal  preferences.  And  normally 
this  is  so.  But  here  the  feeling  of  personal  importance  takes  the  place  of  the 
demands  of  familial  dignity,  and  the  old  behavior  is  kept  up  while  its  psycho- 
logical factors  are  quite  new. 

'  Compare  the  careless  and  protective  way  in  which  he  speaks  about  the 
girl  here  with  the  humility  used  three  years  before  in  asking  the  Imnielskis  for  the 
address  of  their  daughter  (No.  383). 

3  He  would  be  considered  a  deserter  because  he  did  not  go  when  the  reserves 
were  called  during  the  Japanese  war. 


RACZKOWSKI  SERIES  725 

brother  also  won't  go  because  he  has  no  health,  and  even  if  I  sent  you 
a  ship-ticket  that  you  might  come  to  us  it  would  be  difficult  for  you 
to  come  to  us,  to  leave  the  household  and  the  children,  it  would  be 
a  great  ruin  for  you  in  the  home.  But  if  you  wish  to  come,  then 
come  for  three  months  at  least.  We  do  not  mind  the  few  dollars. 
The  photograph  I  will  send  you  after  Easter  certainly — brother  with 
his  family  and  myself.  As  to  marriage,  I  intend  to  marry  after 
Easter,  but  I  don't  know  yet.  I  cannot  find  a  girl  for  me.  I  don't 
require  her  to  be  pretty  and  rich,  but  I  seek  a  girl  with  a  good 
nature.  As  to  fortune,  [in  my  opinion]  God  has  still  more  than  He 
spent  [Proverb].' 

Inform  me  how  is  my  mother  [stepmother]  Wawrzonkowa,  and 
inform  me  who  among  the  young  ones,  boys  and  girls,  got  married.  I 
have  nothing  more  to  write ^^^^^  Raczkowski 

393  [Probably  summer  1908] 

Dear  Sister:  ....  I  don't  know  what  it  means,  whether  you 
are  all  dead,  that  I  have  no  letter  from  you  for  three  months.  I  sent 
you  a  letter  before  Easter,  and  I  have  no  word  from  you.  I  request 
you  to  answer  me.  In  this  letter  I  tell  you  nothing,  because  I  have 
no  word  from  you,  only  I  beg  you  be  so  good  and  go  to  Bogate,  to  the 
church,  and  when  the  service  is  over  go  to  the  priest  and  get  my 
birth-certificate  and  send  it  to  me,  because  I  will  need  it  presently.  I 
have  nothing  more  to  write,  only  I  bid  you  goodbye.  In  another 
letter  I  will  tell  you  everything.  j^^^^  Raczkowski 

394  January  30  [Probably  1909] 

Dear  Sister:  I  received  every  one  of  your  letters,  and  the  letter 
which  you  sent  to  me,  and  the  receipt  I  received  on  January  26. 
You  were  not  to  send  me  the  receipt,  and  now  I  send  you  the  receipt 
back.  I  was  in  the  post-office  and  I  gave  them  another  address. 
They  are  searching  for  that  money  and  they  say  that  you  must  receive 
it  there,  and  if  you  don't  receive  it,  it  will  l)e  returned  to  the  same 

» The  indifference  to  dowry  which  characterizes  the  immigrant  is  due  mainly 
to  the  fact  that  it  is  not  indispensable  here  as  it  was  in  peasant  life— that  the  man 
earns  more  than  his  old  standard  of  life  required.  "  (iod  has  more  than  He  spent," 
because  there  are  new  and  unlimited  economic  possibilities.  Evidently  also  the 
man  in  America  is  not  in  a  position  to  undertake  the  routine  of  selecting  and 
negotiating  which  is  normal  at  home. 


726  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

city  from  which  it  was  sent.  It  cannot  be  lost  when  sent  through 
the  post.  And  if  you  receive  it  answer  me  at  once  whether  you  did 
receive  it  or  not. 

As  to  sister,  I  don't  write  to  you  because  I  have  no  word  from  her 
at  all  since  the  time  when  you  sent  me  that  letter  and  asked  me  to 
send  it  to  sister.  Since  that  time,  when  I  sent  that  letter,  I  have 
had  no  word  from  her  at  all.  And  as  to  work,  during  the  whole 
month  of  January  work  is  such  that  we  hardly  earn  enough  to  live. 
And  as  to  what  you  wrote  me,  that  I  might  send  you  about  30  roubles 
for  horses,  we  can  speak  about  that  later.  I  cannot  refuse  it  to  you. 
After  Easter  I  will  send  you  more,  but  now  I  cannot,  because  I 
intended  to  marry  during  the  carnival  and  I  spent  some  money,  about 
S40 .  00  on  account  of  the  wedding,  and  I  gave  this  up  because  I  did 
not  like  the  girl.  Tell  me  who  has  been  married  among  the  young 
people,  because  one  girl  wrote  two  letters  to  me  and  I  have  the  wish 

to  bring  her  to  me.     She  lives  near  the  manor 

A.  R. 

395  June  i,  1909 

Dear  Sister:  ....  And  now,  please,  inform  me  how  do  you  do. 
As  to  work,  I  am  working  still,  but  it  is  hardly  enough  to  live  on.  All 
the  iron  foundries  are  closed.  Poverty  in  America  is  getting  worse 
than  in  our  country,  living  is  dear,  and  generally  ever>^thing  gets 
dearer.  Please,  sister,  advise  me  about  what  I  ask,  because  I  had 
intended  to  marry  in  June,  but  I  intend  now  to  go  to  our  country. 
I  think  that  I  shall  not  be  punished  severely  for  going  to  America.  I 
did  not  run  away  from  the  regiment;  they  just  sent  me  back  to 
recover.  So  I  went  home,  but  neither  father  nor  mother  was  alive  and 
I  had  no  property  to  Hve  on  in  our  country.  I  had  a  brother  in 
America,  who  had  been  there  10  years.  I  %^T-ote  to  him,  he  sent  me  a 
ship-ticket,  and  I  went  to  America.  I  think  that  for  anything  like 
this  I  should  not  be  punished  much. 

I  have  nothing  more  to  write,  only  I  bid  you  goodbye  and  ask 

for  a  speedy  answer.  a  t^ 

^      ^  Adam  Raczkowski 

396  July  17,  1909 

De.\r  Sister:  ....  We  received  your  letter,  for  which  we  thank 
you  heartily.  And  now  we  inform  you  about  our  health  and  success. 
Sad  is  our  success  dear  sister  and  brother-in-law;   we  shall  not  forget 


RACZKOWSKI  SERIES  727 

this  sorrow  up  to  the  grave.  Our  Lord  God  gave  us  a  daughter, 
StanisJawa,  who  rejoiced  our  whole  household,  and  our  Lord  God 
took  her  to  Him.  We  buried  her  on  July  i.  Today  in  our  home  we 
have  room  enough,  but  without  her  everywhere  it  is  empty.  When- 
ever we  look  at  her  clothes,  every  dress  we  wet  with  tears.  She  came 
to  us  as  if  on  a  visit,  rejoiced  us,  and  went  away.  She  was  two  years 
old.  Sister  dear,  if  we  should  tell  you  about  her,  a  whole  newspaper 
would  not  be  sufficient — how  graceful  and  clever  she  was.  Sister 
dear,  excuse  me  for  not  writing  you  a  letter  for  so  long  a  time.  After 
her  death  I  wished  to  write  a  letter,  but  I  could  not  from  sorrow. 
[To  this  point  written  by  Adam,  but  evidently  dictated  by  the  older 
brother,  father  of  the  girl.] 

As  to  work,  we  both  have  no  work  since  July  i.  As  to  Glow, 
you  praised  him  as  a  carpenter,  and  as  long  as  he  was  with  brother  he 
worked,  but  when  they  sent  him  alone  into  a  car  to  work,  he  stood  as 
stupid  as  an  ass,  and  yet  he  was  angry  and  swore  when  we  taught 
him  how  to  work.  He  got  $2  .  50  a  day.  Then  he  went  away  from  us 
and  got  work  on  July  15  in  an  iron-foundry.  He  carts  earth  with  a 
wheelbarrow.  He  gets  $1 .  50  a  day  and  works  like  an  ox  in  America.' 
I  am  working  in  a  gabbarnia  [  ?].  I  get  $10 .00  a  week  and  work  only 
5^  days  in  a  week.  As  to  my  marriage,  I  will  marry  in  August.  I 
have  a  girl  from  Plock;  she  came  from  our  country  not  long  ago.  She 
is  a  poor  girl,  because  she  has  still  about  $50.00  of  debt  that  I  must 
pay  back  for  her.  As  to  what  you  say  about  money,  I  will  send  you 
some,  but  not  now,  because  brother  spent  all  his  for  this  funeral 
and  it  cost  me  also  some  $10 .00  or  $20 .00.  In  another  letter  I  will 
tell  you  more Adam  Raczkowski 

ggy         *  December  18,  1909 

Dear  Sister:  ....  I  received  your  letter  on  December  15,  and 
I  answer  this  letter,  thanking  you  heartily  for  answering  me.  As  to 
work,  I  have  had  no  work  for  2  months,  since  they  had  a  strike.  It 
means  that  they  do  not  want  to  work  for  the  same  money,  but  they 
want  more  wages.  Perhaps  I  shall  begin  to  work  in  February.  As 
to  the  ship-ticket,  I  would  have  sent  it  to  her  if  she  had  not  married, 

'  016w  is  a  cousin  of  Adam,  older  and  married.  He  was  at  first  docile,  owing 
to  his  unfamiliarity  with  America,  but  later  resented  the  show  of  superiority  on 
the  part  of  Adam,  particularly  as  married  men  are  accustomed  to  a  certain  defer- 
ence from  the  unmarried. 


-jS  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

but  now  I  don't  want  to  hear  anything  about  it.  You  ask  me,  sister, 
to  send  you  money.  I  have  some  dollars  with  me,  but  now  I  have  no 
work,  and  I  am  also  looking  around  me  [I  am  careful]  because  I  do 
not  know  what  will  become  of  me  during  the  carnival.  Perhaps  I 
shall  marry,  and  then  I  shall  need  money  myself.  As  to  those  several 
hundred  dollars  that  I  have  with  brother,  on  that  house  which  he 
bought,  he  will  not  give  them  back  at  once  because  he  has  no  money 
now.  And  as  to  the  money  that  you  gave  to  Olow,  he  did  not  tell 
me  anything  about  it.  Let  me  know  how  much  money  he  got  from 
you,  because  Tryc  wrote  to  him  also  about  money,  asking  him  to 
send  back  what  he  borrowed  from  Tryc.  You  write,  sister,  that 
people  repay  you  with  wrong  for  your  goodness  and  that  therefore 
you  will  be  ruined.  If  you  [think  that  you]  got  ruined  through  me, 
through  what  I  have  taken  from  you,  then  calculate  how  much  I 
owe  you  and  for  what,  and  I  will  send  it  to  you,  even  if  it  is  two 
hundred  dollars,  but  don't  blame  me.'  As  to  the  photograph,  I  will 
send  it  to  you  after  the  New  Year.  And  as  to  sister,  she  does  not 
write  to  me  and  I  do  not  write  to  her  either;  I  do  not  even  know 
where  she  is.  And  now  you  write,  sister,  that  Olesiek  [Aleksander] 
intends  to  come  to  America  in  the  spring.  Well,  you  can  send  him 
if  he  is  a  good  carpenter  or  blacksmith  or  handworker  of  any  kind. 
Then  he  can  find  work  and  good  money.  But  if  he  knows  only  farm- 
labor,  then  let  him  work  on  his  farm;  he  will  be  better  oflf.  You 
have  already  sent  us  one  and  we  have  too  much  of  this  one  "well- 
trained"  carpenter.  Don't  be  angry  with  me,  dear  sister,  for  answer- 
ing you  with  those  words,  but  people  come  from  our  land  to  America 
and  say  that  you  are  not  in  such  misery  as  you  write  to  me.  I  don't 
forget  you  yet  I  will  send  you  some  dollars  some  day  or  other. 
Answer  me,  did  Weronika  Imnielsczanka  marry  or  not  ?     I  want  to 

^^°^  ^^ Adam  Raczkowski 

398  February  25,  1910 

....  Dear  Sister:  ....  I  received  your  letter  on  Christmas, 
but  I  did  not  answer  you  at  once,  because  I  intended  to  marry,  and 
therefore  I  waited  with  the  letter,  even  too  long.     Excuse  me,  dear 

^  There  is  a  traditional  fear  of  blame,  especially  from  a  person  wronged,  con- 
nected on  one  hand  with  the  dependence  of  the  individual  upon  social  opinion,  on 
the  other  hand  with  the  idea  of  a  harmful  magical  influence  in  words  expressing 
ill-will.  At  the  same  time  we  have  here  also  the  feeling  of  personal  importance  as 
background  of  generosity. 


RACZKOWSKI  SERIES  729 

sister  and  brother-in-law;  don't  be  angry  with  me.  At  last  I  now 
inform  you,  that  I  am  married.  My  wedding  was  on  January  24. 
I  have  a  wife  from  the  government  of  Plock,  from  Sierpc,  beyond 
Mlawa.  And  now  we  send  you  this  letter  and  the  wedding- 
photograph.  I  am  in  this  photograph  and  my  wife.  After  Easter 
brother  will  send  you  also  his  own  with  his  family.  He  will  send  you 
none  now  because  his  wife  is  not  able  to  go  to  the  photographer.  I 
describe  my  wedding  in  another  letter.  At  present  I  will  mention 
only  this,  that  this  wedding  cost  me  $180.  The  wedding  dress 
alone  cost  me  $30.00,  and  about  the  rings  and  other  things  I  shall 
not  write  you.  I  took  her  as  rich  as  she  walked  [having  nothing]. 
I  paid  $85  .00  back  for  her  ship-ticket.  In  another  letter  I  will  tell 
you  everything  that  is  going  on  in  America,  and  everything  in  general. 
I  have  nothing  more  to  write,  only  I  send  you  my  greetings,  I  embrace 
you  and  kiss  you  innumerable  times,  and  my  wife  also  salutes  sister 
and  brother-in-law,  embraces  and  kisses  sister  and  brother-in-law, 
and  remains  with  respect,  Zofia  Raczkowska. 

And  I  ask  you  for  a  speedy  answer,  when  you  receive  the  photo- 
graph. 

Adam  Raczkowski 


399  July  25,  1910 

Dear  Sister:  ....  We  received  your  letter  on  July  21  for 
which  we  thank  you  heartily.  And  now  I  inform  you  that  I  send 
you  my  photograph  with  my  whole  family  on  July  25.  Expect  it 
to  arrive,  and  when  you  receive  it,  answer  whether  you  received  it  or 
not.  And  I  beg  you,  be  so  good  and  send  us  your  photograph,  that 
I  may  have  you  at  least  on  the  lifeless  paper.  I  request  you  to 
answer  me  and  tell  me  what  that  Olow  says  when  he  gets  home; 
because  he  will  boast  there;  so  spit  in  his  eyes  as  you  would 
to  a  witch.'  If  he  came  to  America  again  and  begged  even  on  his 
knees  he  would  not  get  back  the  work  he  was  doing.  When  he  had  work 
he  ought  to  have  held  it  with  his  hands  and  his  feet,  and  in  America 
he  could  have  carried  money  in  a  bag  on  his  back  [if  he  had  held  the 

-  Spitting  is  primarily  an  old  Slavic  counter-charm  or  spirit-scarer;  secondarily, 
an  expression  of  contempt.  The  Russians  spit  after  meeting  a  Russian  priest  on 
the  street,  because  meeting  a  priest,  a  pop,  is  considered  in  Russia  a  bad  omen. 
Since  the  Russian  conquest  the  Poles  have  imitated  this  gesture,  but  with  them  it 
is  an  expression  of  contempt,  not  a  counter-charm. 


730  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

work],  but  not  so  in  our  country.  As  to  the  work,  I  have  work, 
because  this  factory  where  I  am  working  will  not  stop  at  all  during 
this  year,  but  I  will  stop  work  now  at  least  for  a  month,  because  I 
am  tired  of  work.  As  to  brother,  in  the  beginning  he  did  not  do 
very  well,  but  now  everything  is  going  very  well  with  him.  His  wife 
keeps  8  persons  boarding  in  her  home  and  he  earns  $2  .  50  a  day.  He 
does  piece-work.  In  the  autumn  I  shall  take  him  with  me,  and  let 
him  learn  the  same  work  I  am  doing,  and  he  will  also  earn  well.  As 
to  the  weather,  up  to  the  present  it  is  very  good  with  us,  there 
are  frequent  showers  and  thunderstorms.  The  heat  is  not  very 
great. 

And  now  I  only  name  [enumerate]  my  family:  My  oldest  [daugh- 
ter] Helcia,  Wladzia,  Mania,  Janek,  and  Kostusia,  my  youngest. 

[Usual  ending.] 

Frakciszek  Raczkowski 


400  May  6,  191 2 

Dear  Sister:  ....  We  received  your  letter,  which  afflicted  us 
very  much.  We  learned  about  the  misfortune  that  befell  you,  and 
we  send  you  two  letters  together,  one  registered  and  the  other  an 
ordinary  one.  For  two  years  we  did  not  receive  any  letter  from  you, 
and  only  now  we  have  received  one  through  Helena  and  we  learned 
about  your  trouble.  We  don't  know  for  what  reason  you  did  not  write 
to  us.  It  seems  to  us  that  we  did  not  do  you  any  WTong.  WTiy  did 
you  not  write  to  us  for  so  long  a  time?  WTiy  did  you  not  even 
inform  us  when  brother-in-law  was  sick  ?  We  spoke  every  day  about 
you  both.  WTiy  do  you  not  write  to  us  ?  We  wrote  to  you  more  than 
a  dozen  letters  and  did  not  receive  any  answer.  It  was  perhaps  that 
humpbacked  fellow  who  slandered  us  to  you.  If  so,  it  is  not  our 
fault,  sister,  that  you  listened  to  his  words  and  don't  write.  If  we 
behave  so,  sister,  and  if  we  listen  to  such  scoundrels,  death  will  take 
us  all  and  we  shall  not  know  anything  about  one  another.  When  I 
married  my  wife  had  a  brother,  a  scoundrel  like  Olow.  When  marry- 
ing I  paid  to  that  brother  S50.00  for  her,  for  her  ship-ticket;  later 
on  I  paid  him  $30 .  00  more.  I  gave  him  back  S80 .  00  for  her  ship- 
ticket,  and  he  claimed  S35.00  more,  saying  that  I  owed  it  to  him. 
We  had  a  lawsuit,  which  God  helped  me  to  win,  and  today  he  needs 
my  favors,  not  I  his.  Now  I  let  wife's  mother  come  from  the  old 
country;  she  is  with  me,  and  today  her  whole  family  calls  on  me  and 


RACZKOWSKI  SERIES  73 1 

[begs]  my  favor.'  As  to  health,  brother,  with  his  wife  and  children,  is 
in  good  health  enough  and  is  working,  and  I,  with  my  wife  and  child, 
am  in  good  enough  health,  and  I  have  good  success,  but  I  don't 
know  how  God  will  help  me  further.  As  to  our  meeting,  if  you  wish, 
sister,  to  see  us,  you  can.  Neither  myself  nor  brother  will  go  to  our 
country,  but  you  can  come.  And  when  you  answer  us  then  we  will 
tell  you  more ^ 

Your  brothers,  loving  you, 

Adam  and  Franciszek  Raczkowski 

401  May  6,  19123 

In  the  first  words  of  our  letter  wt  speak  to  you,  dear  sister  .... 
[Usual  greetings  and  wishes.]  We  received  a  letter  from  you  on 
May  5,  because  of  which  we  wrung  our  hands  that  such  a  misfortune 
happened  to  you.  You  write,  sister,  that  we  don't  write  letters  to 
you.  We  wrote  to  you  some  letters,  but  to  none  we  received  any 
answer.  When  Otow  went  home,  brother  sent  you  at  once  his  photo- 
graph with  his  whole  family,  and  a  letter,  and  we  received  from  you 
no  answer.  Did  you  receive  the  photograph  and  the  letter,  or  not  ? 
Why  should  we  write  to  you,  since  you  don't  answer  ? 

You  wrote  to  us,  sister,  that  Olow  was  coming  to  America  to  us, 
that  we  should  meet  him  as  our  brother.  We  did  it  at  your  request; 
we  gave  him  what  a  brother  could  expect  from  a  brother.  And  how 
did  he  pay  us  back  for  our  goodness  ?  I  asked  him  to  come  to  my 
wedding,  he  did  not  come.  Brother  invited  him  to  a  christening. 
He  did  not  come  then  either. t  He  went  away  to  our  country,  and  he 
did  not  even  come  to  bid  us  farewell.  When  he  intended  to  go  to  our 
country  brother  asked  him  to  come  and  bid  us  farewell,  and  said  he 
would  give  him  a  gift  for  our  sister;    and  brother  bought  a  gold 

1  Pride  in  this  situation  would  be  foreign  to  the  peasant  in  the  old  country. 
There  the  young  expect  help  from  the  old  for  a  time.  The  element  of  pride  here 
expressed  is  another  factor  in  the  waiving  of  the  dowry  in  America. 

2  The  letter  is  very  cold  for  a  letter  of  condolence.  The  coldness  is  partly 
an  intentional  reaction  to  the  fact  that  the  sister  did  not  write  for  so  long  a  time 
and  thus  almost  broke  the  familial  relation. 

3  This  is  the  letter  referred  to  in  the  last  as  sent  on  the  same  date. 

*  This  neglect  is  in  itself  a  great  offense  to  familial  and  individual  honor,  but 
in  addition,  the  man  who  assists  at  a  wedding  or  a  christening  is  traditionally 
obliged  to  contribute  to  the  "collection,"  and  not  to  come  is  a  proof  of  stinginess 
or  hostility. 


/6- 


TRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 


ring  for  vou  and  intended  to  hand  it  over  to  him  that  he  might  give 
it  to  you  when  he  arrived  in  our  country.  But  he  went  away,  and 
we  did  not  even  know  when;  he  only  said  to  people  that  he  came  to  us 
to  get  some  money  that  we  owed  him!  Sister,  when  he  tells  you 
about  us  don't  believe  him,  because  he  is  a  first-rate  liar — this  Prus- 
sian gooseman !  In  our  home  somebody  recognized  him  as  the  same 
man  with  whom  he  had  driven  geese  to  Prussia.  Then  he  was  so 
angry  that  he  seized  a  whip,  but  the  other  still  said  that  it  was  true. 
Write  to  us,  sister,  did  you  receive  the  photograph  of  brother  or 
not,  because  if  you  did  not  receive  it  we  will  send  you  another.  And 
you  can  write  letters  to  us  as  often  as  every  week;  we  will  answer 
every  letter.  We  send  you  two  letters  [one]  registered,  so  if  you  do 
not  receive  this  letter,  you  will  receive  the  registered  one.  And 
describe  to  us  how  long  he  was  sick,  and  what  he  died  of,  and  how  did 
he  safeguard  you  with  that  property,  and  tell  us  how  old  are  your 
oldest  and  your  youngest.  Do  you  intend  to  farm  yourself  or  to 
rent  ?  We  request  you,  answer  us  about  everything.  Answer  us  the 
soonest  possible. 

[Adam  and  Franciszek  Raczkowski] 

402  November  28  [191 2] 

....  Dear  Sister:  You  write  to  us  and  ask  us  to  send  you  a 
ship-ticket  for  your  boy.  We  advise  you  to  let  him  wait  until  spring, 
because  it  is  not  certain  how  work  will  be  in  the  spring  for  now  they 
have  elected  a  democrat  president  and  when  a  democrat  is  president 
everybody  expects  misery  to  come.  Let  him  wait  until  March, 
because  only  from  March  on  this  president  will  begin  to  govern,  and 
we  shall  see  how  work  goes  when  he  governs,  whether  well  or  ill. 
Now  work  is  bad.  Brother  worked  for  9  years  in  the  same  factory, 
and  this  year  he  has  not  worked  since  spring,  because  work  is  stopping. 
We  neither  advise  you  nor  dissuade.  Sister  intends  to  send  him  a 
ship-ticket.^  If  he  suffers  misery  he  will  not  complain  about  us. 
We  also  would  send  him  a  ship-ticket  very  gladly  but  we  have  also 
hard  times.  Brother  has  work  but  it  is  not  even  sufficient  for  him 
to  live  on,  and  as  to  myself,  my  health  is  completely  broken.  During 
November  I  am  not  working  at  all,  because  I  am  sick  and  sit  at  home. 

'  The  personal  feelings  of  women  are  never  so  completely  subordinated  to  the 
forms  of  social  solidarity  as  are  those  of  the  men,  and  on  the  disintegration  of  a 
family  the  individual  affection  of  women  is  less  likely  to  disappear  than  the  group- 
solidarity  of  the  men. 


RACZKOWSKI  SERIES  733 

I  do  not  know  what  is  the  matter,  whether  I  am  getting  consumption, 
because  I  look  very  sick,  and  I  do  not  know  myself  what  is  the  matter. 
And  please  inform  us  where  is  Teofil,  because  we  don't  know  about 
him.  Send  us  his  address.  Dear  sister,  if  we  had  to  describe  to  you 
our  troubles,  we  should  have  to  write  you  five  letters  at  least 

Adam  and  Franciszek  Raczkowski 


403  Union  City,  Conn.,  October  26  [1902] 

"Praised  be  Jesus  Christus."  .... 

Dearest  Sister:  I  received  your  letter,  for  which  I  thank  you 
kindly  and  heartily.  And  now  I  inform  you  [generalities  about 
health].  I  inform  you  that  I  am  not  with  my  brother,  because  I 
could  not  get  work  there,  so  I  left  that  [city],  but  I  did  not  go  far 
away;  so  we  can  see  each  other.  And  now  I  ask  you,  my  dear  [ones], 
to  answer  me,  because  I  am  very  curious  to  know  how  that  happened, 
whether  a  lawyer  defended  our  suit,  or  whether  they  judged  it  them- 
selves, and  whether  they  called  me  as  a  witness  or  not.  I  beg  you,  dear 
sister  and  brother-in-law,  inform  me  about  all  this,  because  I  am 
very  curious,  and  I  will  reward  you  soon  for  everything,  so  I  hope  in 
God.'  And  as  to  what  brother  wrote  about  my  intention  to  marry — 
I  will  not  marry,  I  will  never  marry  such  a  scoundrel,  let  him — with 
all  his  fortune.  As  to  my  children,  I  beg  you  all,  you  know  yourself 
what,  because  I  am  a  mother  and  my  heart  pains  me.  I  will  pay  you 
back  everything,  that  you  spend;  may  they  only  not  suffer  any 
wrong.^  And  I  beg  you,  inform  me  whether  father  received  those 
30  roubles  which  I  sent  him  or  not,  because  I  have  no  word  at  all. 
Did  Bukoski  give  you  back  the  umbrella  that  I  took  from  home 
because  I  sent  it  back  from  the  frontier  ?  If  you  wish,  give  the  fur 
[sheepskin  cloak]  back  to  Helena  [illegible  name] — just  as  you  will. 
I  have  nothing  more  to  write,  only  I  send  you  my  lowest  bows. 

Your  truly  loving  sister, 

Helena  Brylska 

May  God  grant  it.     Amen. 

'  The  lawsuit  is  about  a  farm  left  after  the  death  of  Rykaczewski,  a  relative 
of  Helena's  first  husband,  and  her  children  are  entitled  to  it. 

^  Helena,  after  the  death  of  her  first  husband  Brylski,  went  to  America,  leaving 
her  three  boys  temporarily  with  her  sister  Teofila  Wolska. 


-^A  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

404  June  7,  1903 

Now  I,  vour  sister  H.  Brylska,  wTite  to  you,  dear  sister.  [Usual 
greetings  and  wishes,  printed.] 

And  now,  dear  sister,  I  have  been  informed  about  the  death  of  our 
belov.ed  father,  that  he  ended 'his  temporal  life,  and  that  he  had  such 
nursing,  that  he  even  had  no  place  with  you  d[ear]  sister,  in  your 
house,  but  you  turned  him  out  into  the  pigsty,  and  there  our  beloved 
father  ended  his  life  without  confession  and  without  the  Holy  Sacra- 
ments. So  have  you  paid  him  [dear]  sister,  for  the  bloody  sweat  that 
he  shed,  caring  for  us  that  we  might  not  suffer  hunger  and  that 
vermin  might  not  eat  us.  And  you  did  not  even  know,  d[ear]  sister, 
when  father  ended  his  temporal  life.  You  cursed  me,  d[ear]  sister, 
because  father  asked  me  for  a  letter,  and  I  did  not  get  any  letter 
[from  him].  I  wrote  3  letters  [to  him]  and  had  no  answer.  So  now 
perhaps  I  will  not  return  again  to  our  country,  because  I  have  nobody 
to  return  to.  I  sent  2  photographs,  one  for  mother  and  the  other — 
if  you  will  and  have  the  wish,  you  can  take  it.  And  I  inform  you, 
d[ear]  sister,  that  I  send  money  for  the  holy  mass  to  the  memory  of 
father  and  mother  and  of  my  husband  and  the  remaining  money  for 
my  children's  dresses. 

I  have  nothing  more  to  write,  only  I  salute  you  and  greet  you 
kindly  and  heartily.     May  God  grant  it.     Amen. 

Your  sincerely  well-uishing  sister, 

H.  Brylska 

I  ask  for  an  answer.^ 

'  This  letter  practically  breaks  ofE  the  relation  because  of  Teofila's  supposed 
behavior  toward  their  father.  Two  points  are  essential  in  this  respect:  Helena's 
saying  that  she  had  no  longer  anyone  to  return  to  m  the  old  country,  and  the 
manner  in  which  she  puts  the  question  of  the  photograph.  The  form  of  the  begin- 
ning and  ending  is  in  striking  contrast  with  the  real  content  of  the  letter.  The 
generally  moderate  style  is  perhaps  partly  due  to  the  fact  that  Helena's  children 
are  with  her  sistersand  she  fears  to  make  her  too  angrj^,  but  at  the  same  time  it  is 
traditional.  We  have  not  a  single  really  violent  letter  in  our  whole  collection  of 
family-letters,  while  among  the  letters  written  to  the  papers,  particularly  in 
America,  there  are  many  excessively  violent  ones.  And  in  general,  hard  swearing 
and  violent  expressions  are  much  more  seldom  found  among  the  peasants  than 
among  the  lower  city  classes.  This  fact  seems  due  to  the  particularly  strong 
and  refined  feelmg  of  the  value  of  words  which  we  find  among  peasants,  and  which 
results  evidently  from  the  fixed  character  of  expressions  in  all  those  social  relations 
which  are  organized  by  tradition.  Withm  such  a  fixed  philological  system  the 
slightest  shading  of  an  expression  is  immediately  felt  and  reacted  upon;   there  is 


RACZKOWSKI  SERIES  735 

405  July  8,  1903 

....  Dear  Sister  and  Brother-in-law:  I  inform  you  that  I 
received  your  letter  on  July  6,  which  found  me  in  good  health,  and  for 
which  I  thank  you  very  much.  Now,  dear  sister,  I  am  very  much  as- 
tonished at  your  writing  that  I  do  not  write  letters  to  you.  I  do  write 
letters,  I  have  always  written  to  you  all,  and  I  also  wrote  two  letters 
to  you,  dear  sister,  and  now  you  tell  me  that  I  don't  write  letters  to 
you.  Dear  sister,  you  write  to  me  that  you  wept  over  that  letter  which 
I  wrote  to  you,  but  I  had  to  write  so,  because  I  wept  myself  also  heartily 
when  I  received  such  a  letter  [from  stepmother],  because  my  heart 
pained  me  very  much.  It  is  not  true  that  I  believe  mother  in  every- 
thing; I  understand  everything  myself;  you  don't  need  to  write  me 
this;  I  have  some  sense  myself.  But  why  do  you  [plural]  grieve 
me  with  such  letters?  Instead  of  rejoicing  after  receiving  a  letter, 
one  must  grieve. 

And  now,  dear  sister,  I  heard  from  Niedzwiecki  of  Przasmysz 
that  this  land  left  by  Rykaczewski  is  lying  fallow.  I  beg  you,  get 
advice  from  the  lawyer  Cybulski  what  to  do  with  it,  whether  to  rent 
it,  because  if  it  lies  so  for  some  time  the  government  will  take  it  for 

taxes  and  you  will  have  nothing  from  it 

Your  well-wishing  sister,  with  respect, 

Helena  Brylska 

406  July  13,  1903 

....  And  now,  dear  sister,  I  beg  your  pardon,  don't  be  angry 
with  me,  for  writing  you  such  a  letter.  It  is  not  my  fault,  if  I  received 
a  letter  from  our  country  and  very  bad  things  were  written  in  it. 
Then  out  of  impatience  and  sorrow  I  wrote  to  you,  dear  sister,  a  letter 
which  was  also  bad.  And  about  the  photograph  I  wrote  because  of 
not  sending  it  to  you,  but  I  wrote  also  that  if  you  wished  you 
could  take  one.     You  write,  dear  sister,  that  you  did  not  see  the 


no  necessity  of  using  strong  words.  This  explains,  for  example,  the  apparently 
trifling  causes  of  many  offenses  and  enmities.  The  slightest  innuendo  means  very 
much  when  the  feeling  of  measure  in  expression  is  traditionally  developed.  We 
must  also  take  into  consideration  the  general  dependence  of  thought  and  feeling 
upon  words,  which  has  been  mentioned  elsewhere.  The  proportion  is  lost  com- 
pletely whenever  the  peasant  gets  into  a  new  set  of  interests  and  attitudes  whose 
expression  has  not  been  determined  for  him  traditionally.  Cf.  Vol.  I,  Introduction 
to  the  Peasant  Letter. 


736  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

way  before  you  out  of  this  sorrow.  I  believe  you,  dear  sister,  because 
I  suffered  the  same  when  I  received  that  letter  from  our  country.' 
So  I  believe  you,  dear  sister,  but  I  can  do  nothing.  I  am  not  guilty. 
Pardon  me  all  this,  I  will  not  write  you  such  letters  any  more.  For- 
get, dear  sister,  about  all  that  has  happened;  let  us  forget  about  it 
and  live  as  we  lived. 

And  I  beg  you,  dear  sister,  take  care  of  my  children  and  inform 
me  about  everything.     I  will  remember  you  also.' 

Your  sincerely  well-wishing  sister, 

Helena  Brylska 
In  another  letter  I  will  tell  you  more. 

407  '  '""  '        March  3  [1904] 

[Dear  Brother  Adam]  :....!  received  from  you  the  letter  in 
which  you  wrote  about  the  ship-ticket,  so  I  gave  money  to  brother 
and  asked  him  to  send  you  [the  ticket],  because  I  was  ill  and  I  could 
not.  If  brother  did  not  send  it  to  you  then  perhaps  sister  will  give 
you  money  for  the  journey.  If  she  does  not  then  wait  a  little;  per- 
haps brother  will  send  you  the  ticket;  because  I  gave  him  money 
to  send  [it]  to  you.  And  when  you  leave  go  to  brother  in  Ancona, 
and  when  you  travel  say  everywhere  the  same — that  you  are  going 
to  your  brother.  On  the  way  to  IHowo  wear  clothes  which  you  can 
throw  away  when  they  disinfect  them,  and  take  good  clothes  in  a 
valise,  because  they  do  not  disinfect  clean  clothes.  To  live  on,  take 
some  smoked  meat  and  dry  cheese,  and  try  hard  to  cross  the  frontier, 
because  if  they  catch  you  they  will  consider  you  as  a  deserter  and 
will  take  you  directly  to  the  war;  for  we  have  bad  tidings,  we  receive 
newspapers  every  day  which  say  there  is  a  great  w^ar  and  many  people 
perish  on  the  water,  because  ships  are  wrecked.  At  the  end  of 
April  and  the  beginning  of  May  there  will  be  a  great  war  because 
Warsaw  collected  more  than  a  dozen  millions  for  war.  And  with  us 
it  is  also  bad.     We  have  no  work,  for  there  is  none  any^vhere. 

And  now  I  WTite  to  you,  dear  sister,  that  I  have  sent  you  20 
roubles.  Buy  for  the  children  what  you  think  necessary.  Are 
you  angry  with  me,   that  you  don't  write?     I  have  written  and 

'  She  seems  to  consider  her  o\vn  pain  as  a  kind  of  a  compensation  for  the  pain 
which  she  caused,  even  if  the  first  was  not  brought  upon  her  by  the  same  person. 
(See  also  preceding  letter.)  This  is  a  very  frequent  attitude  and  probably  purely 
naive,  but  possibly  influenced  by  the  Christian  idea  of  suffering  as  objectively 
valuable  and  propitiating. 

^  "Remember"  usually  means  "send  money." 


RACZKOWSKI  SERIES  jt^j 

receive  no  answer.  Tell  me  about  this  Stas  Brylski  who  married 
Wisniewska,  whether  you  were  at  the  wedding  and  how  are  they  ?  I 
send  to  you  and  to  my  sons  my  kindest  salutations.  Are  my  sons 
in  good  health?  With  respect, 

Helena  Brylska 

408  April  8  [1904] 

....  Dear  Sister:  I  am  working  in  the  same  place  where  I  was 
working,  and  I  live  nearer  the  factory,  so  my  address  will  be  different, 
I  have  sent  you  money,  20  roubles,  and  I  have  no  word  whether  you 
received  it  or  not.  I  don't  know  what  it  means.  I  have  sent  a 
ship-ticket  for  brother  [Adam]  and  I  don't  know  either  what  it 
means  that  I  have  no  word.  Has  he  left  already  or  not?  What 
does  it  mean  that  you  don't  answer  me?  Since  Christmas  I  have 
no  word  from  you.  What  does  it  mean  ?  Are  you  angry  with  me  ? 
I  don't  know  what  is  going  on,  whether  you  got  angry,  or  you  don't 
wish  to  write  to  me,  or  perhaps  the  address  is  bad?  I  beg  you, 
dear  sister,  inform  me  about  my  children,  because  I  think  about  them 
very  much  and  I  long  for  them  more  than  in  the  beginning,  because 
here  in  America  there  are  rumors  that  there  is  war  in  our  country.^ 
We  know  from  the  papers;  papers  come  every  day  and  we  know  about 
everything.  Answer  me,  dear  sister  and  brother-in-law,  about 
your  health  and  success,  tell  me  about  everything,  whether  good  or 
bad,  because  brother  now  is  far  away  from  me,  he  went  to  his  wife's 
family.  The  ticket  in  one  direction  costs  $7.00  and  the  second 
[brother],  if  he  left  for  America,  I  shall  not  see  him  either,  because 
he  had  a  ship-ticket  bought  to  them.*  Perhaps  I  shall  go  to  them 
in  about  half  a  year Helena  Brylska 

'  The  reason  of  the  growing  longing  is  probably  not  the  one  given.  We  see 
the  longing  growing  continually  until  the  children  come,  without  reference  to  any 
question  of  war  or  any  other  cause  of  anxiety.  In  the  beginning  the  relative  novelty 
of  the  practical  situation  in  which  she  found  herself  and  the  necessity  of  adapting 
herself  to  the  new  conditions  left  no  place  for  remembrance  and  sentiment.  The 
more  settled  the  situation  becomes,  the  more  normal  the  life,  the  greater  the  margin 
left  for  representation  of  the  past  and  dreams  of  the  future.  And  wc  see  from  many 
examples  that  for  the  fundamentally  practical  peasant  type  recollection  is  essential 
to  the  arousing  of  a  pure  sentiment,  and  how  much  isolation  from  the  disturbances 
of  practical  life  this  recollection  requires.  Cf.  Introduction:  "Theoretic  and 
Aesthetic  Interests." 

^  The  longing  is  not  only  for  the  children,  but  for  the  family  and  the  old 
country  in  general.     She  begins  to  feel  lonely. 


738  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

409  [No  date] 

....  Dear  Sister:  You  ask  me  to  send  you  money.  I  answer, 
that  now  I  can  send  none,  because  the  factories  are  going  bankrupt; 
it  means  they  are  stopping  work.  So  I  fear  that  if  I  send  money  | 
home  and  the  factories  stop  I  shall  remain  without  work  and  without 
money.  I  shall  see  later  on;  perhaps  I  shall  send  you  some  when 
work  gets  better.  I  work  in  the  same  factory.  And  now  I  salute 
you,  dear  brother,  and  I  request  you  not  to  send  your  photograph. 
I  know  you  well,  and  why  should  you  spend  money  ?  Buy  your- 
self rather  something  else.  And  now  you  write  me  that  you  receive 
few  letters  from  me;  but  I  WTite  letters  to  you  very  often.  And 
now  I  beg  you,  dear  sister  and  brother-in-law,  send  my  children  to 
school,  and  let  their  eyes  be  rubbed.^  .... 

Helena  Brylska 

410  November  5,  1904 

Dear  Sister:  ....  This  is  the  fifth  letter  that  I  am  writing 
and  I  have  no  word.  I  don't  know  what  it  means,  whether  you  are 
angry,  or  what  else?  For  me  it  is  so  difficult  to  write  letters,  and 
I  have  no  time,  and  still  I  WTite  to  you,  and  you  who  have  more  time, 
do  3'ou  find  it  so  difficult  to  write  an  answer  ?  I  beg  you  very  much, 
answer  me,  whether  good  or  bad.  I  beg  your  pardon,  perhaps  youi 
will  be  offended  by  this  that  I  "WTite,  but,  dear  sister  and  brother-in-' 
law,  don't  wonder,  because  I  expect  with  impatience  a  letter  from 
you  every  day. 

And  please,  inform  me  about  my  children,  how  are  they?  I 
should  like  to  bring  the  oldest  boy  to  me,  so  please,  answer  me, 
whether  I  may  bring  him  to  me.  I  beg  you,  dear  sister  and  brother- 
in-law,  answer  me  the  soonest  possible,  in  order  that  I  may  kno.-- 

what  course  to  take 

Helena  Brylsica 

'  As  after  sleep,  so  that  they  may  see  clearly.  This  is  a  very  good  express!- 
of  the  peasant  woman's  attitude  toward  learning,  when  this  is  appreciative.  I. 
struction  is  good  because  it  makes  brighter  in  a  general  way,  not  because  it  makes 
more  fit  for  any  practical  purpose.  It  is  perhaps  the  consequence  of  the  fact  that 
the  appreciation  of  women  is  in  general  more  subjective,  bearing  on  the  personalii>- 
rather  than  objective,  bearing  on  work.  At  the  same  time  the  peasant  man  ofti  i 
shares  the  same  attitude,  which  was,  indeed,  our  own  former  attitude  towart 
"academic  culture,"  the  "polished  man,"  and  the  girls'  "finishing  school." 


RACZKOWSKl  SERIES  739 

411  December  20  [1904?] 

Dear  Sister:  .  .  .  .1  received  a  letter,  dear  sister,  from  you, 
and  a  scapulary,  a  little  cross  and  a  [sacred]  picture.  I  thank  you 
very  much  for  these  tokens.  Now,  dear  sister,  I  sent  you  20  roubles 
for  my  children  for  clothes.  You  asked  me  to  send  a  ship-ticket  for 
them,  and  said  you  would  bring  them.  So  we  send  a  ship-ticket 
for  the  two  [older]  boys,  and  you  will  bring  them.  Meanwhile, 
dear  sister,  I  send  you  this  letter  [saying]  that  I  sent  some  money  for 
the  children.  You  will  have  the  ship-ticket  soon.  Some  days  after 
this  letter  you  will  receive  another  letter  [saying]  for  what  ship  the 
ship-ticket  is  sent.  Prepare  them  as  best  you  can  and  care  for  them 
as  for  your  own  children.  When  you  write  me  a  letter,  I  will  send 
more  money  for  them.  Add  the  remainder,  what  you  think  necessary, 
and  I  will  give'you  back  everything,  because  I  did  not  expect  that  all 
this  would  happen  so  soon.  Please  bring  me  a  large  shawl.  I  have 
nothing  more  to  write.  I  send  low  bows.  In  another  letter  I  will 
tell  you  everything,  how  it  ought  to  be  and  how  you  ought  to 
behave  on  the  way,  but  now  I  only  inform  you  that  the  ship-tickets 
are  sent. 

Please  answer  me,  how  you  think  [about  it]. 

With  respect, 

Helena  Brylska 


412  December  31  [1904?] 

Dear  Sister:  ....  I  have  already  sent  ship-tickets  for  Jozio 
and  Stas.  Let  the  person  who  comes  with  them  buy  a  ticket  for 
herself  on  the  same  ship  for  which  this  ticket  is  sent.  She  can  say 
that  she  must  take  care  of  the  children  and  go  with  them  on  the 
same  ship. 

The  ship-ticket  is  paid  from  Illowo  up  to  my  house;  no  need  to 
pay  anything  anywhere  for  my  children.  Dear  brother-in-law, 
when  you  leave  if  you  have  any  baggage,  I  mean  any  large  trunk  or 
large  bag,  you  can  give  it  up,  but  don't  give  it  into  anybody's  hands 
without  a  receipt.  If  you  have  a  receipt  the  baggage  will  not  be  lost. 
Until  you  take  the  steamer  there  will  be  a  receipt  for  baggage  with  the 
ship-ticket  or  written  on  the  ship-ticket,  and  when  you  leave  the 
steamer  they  will  take  those  receipts  and  give  iron  ones.  Without 
an  iron  receipt  don't  give  up  your  baggage,  because  it  would  be  lost, 


740 


PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 


and  that  would  be  a  pity,  as  when  mine  was  lost.  And  give  every- 
where the  same  names,  that  there  may  not  be  any  trouble  about 
names.  Please,  if  you  come,  bring  me  a  large  shawl,  and  bring  a 
stone  against  hernia.  Try  to  buy  it  somewhere  in  a  pharmacy  or 
to  get  it  from  somebody,  because  here  such  a  stone  does  not  exist  at 
all,  and  it  is  almost  as  necessary  as  the  eye  in  the  head.  If  the 
person  who  brings  the  children  spends  some  more  money  on  them, 
let  her  tell  me  or  write  to  me  on  arrival;  I  will  at  once  give  or  send 
everything  back,  with  my  thanks.  Prepare  them  as  well  as  you  can, 
as  your  own,  that  everything  may  be  well 

Helena  Brylska 

413  January  23,  1905 

....  Dear  Sister  and  Brother-in-law:  We  received  your 
letter  this  month  and  we  answer  you  at  once,  and  we  answer 
your  request.  You  ask  for  a  ship-ticket  for  brother-in-law  Wolski 
and  for  the  children.  But  I  cannot  satisfy  all  this.  I  w^ish  with 
my  whole  heart  and  soul  I  could  bring  my  children  to  me,  but  nothing 
is  to  be  done.  I  could  economize  for  [the  ticket  of]  the  children,  but 
so  much  I  cannot.  We  wrote  to  you  in  our  last  letter  that  we  sent  a 
ship-ticket  for  the  children,  but  it  was  a  mistake,  because  a  ship-ticket 
cannot  be  sent  for  children  alone;  it  is  necessary  to  send  one  for  an 
older  person  also.  And  so  I  cannot.  This  money  which  was  intended 
for  the  ship-ticket  was  sent  in  the  name  of  brother-in-law  Wolski; 
there  are  78  roubles.  This  [is  to  be  used]  if  it  is  possible  to  send  the 
children  with  somebody.  And  if  it  is  impossible  then,  perhaps  later 
on,  if  our  Lord  God  helps  us,  we  will  send  more,  either  money  or  a 
ship-ticket  for  brother-in-law,  for  now  we  cannot.  And  further, 
you  ask  about  brother  Adam.  I  don't  know  much  about  him  because 
I  did  not  see  him  at  all  \\'ith  my  eyes;  he  went  to  our  older  brother 
Franciszek  and  they  are  there  together.  And  about  me,  for  my 
goodness  [in  sending  him  a  ticket]  he  does  not  mind  much,  because 
when  he  wrote  me  a  letter,  I  wept.  He  thanked  me  for  my  goodness 
by  not  calhng  me  sister,  but  madam.  xAnd  how  is  he  doing,  I  don't 
know.  [Usual  ending,  with  greetings  for  all  relatives  and  acquaint- 
ances "without  exception."] 

Helena  and  Jozef  D^browski' 

'  If  there  is  an  earlier  mention  of  Helena's  second  marriage  the  letter  contain- 
ing it  is  missing  from  our  series. 


RACZKOWSKI  SERIES  741 

414  April  5  [1905  ?] 

....  Dear  Sister  and  Brother-in-law:  We  are  both  in 
good  health,  thanks  to  our  Lord  God,  and  we  wish  you  the  same.  I 
received  the  letter,  and  Adam  wrote  to  me  and  told  me  that  when  he 
has  money  he  will  send  it  [to  you]  for  now  he  can  scarcely  earn  for  his 
living.  I  wrote  to  him  that  he  might  come  to  me,  and  he  did  not  come. 
I  also  don't  send  you  money,  because  I  was  ill.  I  spent  much  money 
and  I  don't  work;  I  cannot. 

As  to  the  children,  there  is  Fadajeski  from  Dobrzankowo  coming 
with  his  daughter.  They  could  bring  them,  because  we  are  living 
quite  near  to  the  Sadlowskis,  and  they  wrote  to  the  Sadlowskis  that 
they  will  go  to  them.  I  know  everything,  because  I  am  living  quite 
near  to  the  Sadlowskis.  Jazoski  from  Leszno  is  coming  also,  so  he 
wrote  to  Smiglowski  and  he  could  also  bring  them.  If  not  the  one 
then  the  other,  because  they  are  all  coming  to  this  city  where  I  am 
living.  I  long  terribly  for  the  children ;  almost  every  day  I  look  out 
to  see  if  they  are  not  coming.  My  dear  sister  and  brother-in-law, 
let  either  the  one  or  the  other  bring  me  my  children;  I  know  exactly 
[that  they  are  coming  to  America].  Perhaps  you  will  not  give  them 
all  up.  Then  send  me  at  least  one  of  them  through  somebody, 
because  I  long  for  them  terribly.  I  have  nothing  more  to  write,  only 
I  bow  to  you,  my  sister  and  brother-in-law,  and  to  your  children,  and 
I  kiss  my  children  and  I  bow  to  them  and  I  wish  them  every  happi- 
ness. I  beg  you,  dearest,  take  care  of  my  children  as  of  your  own, 
because  I  don't  know  either  what  is  happening  to  them  or  what  will 
become  of  me.     I  am  longing  so  terribly  for  them. 

Dear  sister  and  brother-in-law,  if  you  cannot  send  them  all, 
send  at  least  one  of  them,  the  older,  and  if  you  can,  I  beg  you  send 
me  them  all.  If  you  wish,  you  can  do  it,  because  many  people  are 
coming  to  America,  to  this  city  where  I  am,  and  I  know  they  would 
bring  the  children  to  me. 

I  request  you,  write  to  me  about  the  [step]mother,  how  does  she 
do.     Is  she  alone  or  with  her  sons  ?  With  respect 

Both  D^browskis 

415  June  12  [1905?] 

....  My  dear  Sister:  I  wrote  a  letter  and  I  have  no  answer. 
I  don't  know  what  it  means,  whether  you  are  angry  or  you  don't 
wish  to  write  letters  to  me  at  all  ?    Perhaps  you  are  angry,  because  I 


742  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

wTOte  you  those  rather  disagreeable  words.  But,  my  sister,  you  ought 
to  pardon  me,  because  as  your  soul  pains  you  for  your  children,  so  does 
mine.  I  want  to  see  them,  I  don't  know  [can't  express]  how  much, 
because  my  soul  aches  for  them.  You  probably  got  angry  with  me,  as 
I  have  no  letter  from  you.  Well,  I  can  do  nothing;  when  it  passes, 
then  answer  me,  dear  sister. 

Can  they  come  to  me  this  year  or  not?  Because  if  they  don't 
come  this  year,  I  must  buy  a  whole  ship-ticket  for  Stas,  because  when 
he  is  II  years  old  a  whole  ship- ticket  is  necessary  and  he  can  travel 
alone. 

I  haven't  written  any  letter  to  mother,  and  mother  is  angry  that 
I  don't  send  them  money  and  they  must  keep  my  children.  WTiether 
I  send  money  or  not  my  children  must  work  with  uncle.  Let  them 
send  the  children  to  me;  I  don't  want  anything  else.  With  me  it  is 
also  hard.  I  am  not  working  myself,  and  in  America  it  is  not  as  it 
was.  If  they  believe  that  they  are  wronged  let  them  send  the  children 
to  me  and  I  will  take  them.  And  I  don't  wish  to  take  the  children  at 
their  expense,  but  at  mine.  I  will  not  pay  money  in  addition  to  the 
work  of  my  children.  I  know  [everything  about  them],  because 
many  people  with  whom  I  am  acquainted  come  here,  and  just  now 
KaUszewiak  came  to  America  and  called  on  me  and  told  me  about 
everything.  I  have  nothing  more  to  write,  only  I  send  you  my  lowest 
bows  and  wishes  for  every  good. 

Both  Helena  and  Joseph  D4BROWSK1 

416  October  12,  1906 

....  Dear  Sister:  ....  Further,  we  have  heard  that  brother 
Teofil  wishes  to  come  to  America.  He  wrote  about  it  to  Adam  and 
the  latter  wrote  to  me.  If  it  is  true,  then  answer,  and  we  will  send 
him  a  ship-ticket.  Let  him  come  and  bring  my  children,  because 
brother  Adam  wrote  that  he  cannot  send  a  ship-ticket  to  him  because 
all  the  money  he  had  he  lent  to  our  older  brother  for  his  house.  He 
cannot  send  a  ship-ticket  and  he  requested  me  to  take  up  this  ques- 
tion. 

So  we  have  nothing  more  to  write,  only  we  beg  your  pardon. 
Don't  be  angry  with  us.     Be  good  and  kind.     We  send  you  low  bows 
and  good  wishes.    Your  well-wishing  sister  with  husband  and  Httle  son, 
Helena,  Jozef,  and  Franciszek  D^browski, 

With  respect  forever 


RACZKOWSKI  SERIES  743 

417  April  19  [1907?] 

....  You  write,  dear  sister,  that  Joziek  is  ill  with  his  eyes.  It 
would  be  terribly  painful  for  me  if  you  should  not  send  him,  dear 
sister.  And  [their  stepjfather  would  be  terribly  angry  and  terribly 
grieved,  if  they  all  may  not  come.  He  says,  "  I  strive  and  strive  and 
wish  that  they  may  come  to  us.  Although  I  am  not  their  own  father 
I  care  for  them  as  for  my  own  [children],  and  God  will  not  punish  me 
as  [he  would  do]  if  I  did  not  wish  to  have  anything  to  do  with  them." 
So  I  beg  you  very  much,  sister  dear,  send  him,  because  I  have  heard 
and  shall  have  to  hear  from  my  man,  "Why  should  you  not  have  them 
all  with  you  ?  Later  on  any  of  them  could  say  to  himself  that  through 
his  stepfather  he  became  an  orphan  and  does  not  see  his  mother."' 
So  send  him.  If  he  is  so  terribly  ill  they  will  send  him  back  from 
Itlowo,  but  I  do  not  think  that  they  will  send  him  back.  They  are  on 
ship-ticket  and  he  goes  to  his  mother,  so  I  do  not  think  that  it  will  be 
so.  Only  send  him,  dear  sister,  and  they  will  surely  let  him  through. 
I  beg  you,  Mr.  Wisniewski,  very  much,  don't  be  anxious  and  afraid 
that  you  will  have  many  dilhculties.  And  at  the  frontier  if  you  strike 
a  bargain  with  a  smuggler  he  can  get  ten  persons  through  the  frontier. 
And  I  will  reward  you  for  this.     If  he  does  not  come  it  will  be  a 

'  The  stepfather's  motive  in  having  the  children  brought  is  not  affection  for 
the  children,  whom  he  does  not  know,  and  is  something  more  than  attachment 
to  his  wife.  We  have  here,  in  fact,  a  good  insight  into  the  nature  of  the  feeling 
of  moral  obligation  in  the  peasant.  It  is,  first,  the  religious  fear  of  God;  second,  the 
fear  of  a  possible  blame  and  reproach  of  the  wronged  persons.  If  there  is  the 
usual  fear  of  public  opinion,  it  is  not  expressed  and  certainly  not  very  strong,  since 
the  man  lives  almost  completely  isolated  from  his  community,  while  in  normal 
peasant  life  this  fear  of  public  opinion  is  universally  connected  with  the  feeling  of 
moral  obligation.  We  have  here  a  good  proof  that  the  crisis  brought  by  emigration 
or  any  disintegration  of  communal  life  does  not  lead  necessarily  to  a  disintegration 
of  morality.  The  explanation  of  the  various  results  brought  by  the  dissociation  of 
the  community  (or  family)  in  this  respect,  is  probably  to  be  found  in  the  fact  that 
social  appreciation  is  not  the  only  sanction  for  the  peasant,  but  is  mdissolubly 
connected,  in  various  proportions,  with  self-appreciation,  and  in  certain  conditions 
and  for  certain  individuals  this  element  of  self-appreciation  may  develop  strongly 
enough  to  substitute  itself  completely  for  the  social  appreciation.  Thus,  as  we 
have  seen  in  Adam  Raczkowski,  self-appreciation  in  the  form  of  a  feeling  of  per- 
sonal importance,  by  substituting  itself  for  familial  solidarity,  changes  altruism 
from  a  duty  into  an  expression  of  the  personality.  Here  self-appreciation  assumes 
the  form  of  the  feeling  of  righteousness  before  God  and  man.  The  source  of  the 
fear  of  the  blame  of  the  person  wronged  is  not  the  same  as  that  of  the  fear  of  social 
blame;  m  the  first  a  magical  background  is  still  noticeable,  while  nothing  like 
this  can  be  detected  in  the  second. 


744  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

terrible  sorrow  and  trial  for  us,  and  a  large  expense,  because  they  will 
not  <^ive  us  the  money  for  this  ship-ticket  back;  and  I  shall  ever 
bear  a  grief  in  my  heart,  that  I  endeavored  to  have  this  child  and 
have  it  not.  Remember,  dear  sister,  send  him  to  me,  I  beg  you  for 
the  love  [of  God?].  And  now  you  wrote  that  you  will  send  me  a 
shawl,  but  don't  make  any  trouble  about  it  for  yourself  and  for  the 
[man]  who  comes.  May  only  all  my  children  come;  I  don't  wish 
anything  more.  As  you  grieve  about  your  children,  so  I  grieve  about 
mine.  And  I  beg  you  once  more,  send  me  all  the  children,  because 
the  ship-tickets  are  sent  for  all  of  them  in  order  that  they  may  all 
come.  We  salute  you  all  and  we  wish  you  every  good.  Both  of  us  beg 
for  all  the  children.  We  will  reward  you  for  it.  Mr.  Wisniewski,  if 
they  ask  you  during  the  journey  about  anything,  say  only  this,  that 
you  bring  children  to  their  parents.  That  is  all;  you  don't  need  any 
other  explanations.  And  now  again,  if  God  leads  you  happily  through 
the  water  perhaps  they  will  require  somebody,  mother  or  father,  to 
come  and  meet  you  in  New  York;  then  they  wall  ask,  "Is  it  your 
father  or  mother?"  Let  them  [the  children]  say,  "It  is  our  mother 
or  father."  And  say  Mr.  Wisniewski  is  my  brother.  Then  all  will  be 
well,  only  don't  give  any  other  explanation  than  such  as  we  request 
you  to  give.  And  now,  dear  sister,  you  write  that  perhaps  they  will 
send  him  back  from  Illowo.  Well,  then  nothing  can  be  done.  It 
would  be  the  will  of  God;  he  would  be  an  orphan  until  his  death  and 
would  never  more  see  his  mother.  O  my  God,  what  a  sorrow  for  me! 
But  perhaps  God  will  grant  him  to  be  let  through.  Prepare  them  all 
[for  the  journey],  dear  sister,  I  hope  that  he  will  get  through. 

Your  well-wishing  and  loving, 

D4BROWSKIS 

418  June  6  [1908?] 

....  Dear  Sister  :  ....  I  have  not  written  to  you  for  a  long 
time,  so  that  I  feel  a  longing.  Is  it  true,  dear  sister,  that  you  are 
angry  with  me — I  don't  know  for  what  reason.  Dear  sister,  let  us 
forgive  each  other,  because  our  Lord  God  orders  us  to  forgive  one 
another,  and  we,  so  far  away  in  the  world,  should  we  not  forgive? 
Our  Lord  God  suffered  more  without  guilt  and  forgave  us  sinners; 
should  we  not  forgive  each  other?  Let  us  forgive  each  other  all 
griefs,  dear  sister.  Write  me  a  letter  about  your  health  and  success. 
It  is  true  that  I  did  not  write  you  any  letter  for  a  long  time,  but  you 


RACZKOWSKI  SERIES 


745 


did  not  write  either  for  a  still  longer  time,  so  that  I  could  wait  no 
longer  for  your  letter.  What  is  the  news  with  you,  my  dear  [ones], 
are  you  in  good  health  ?  How  are  you  succeeding  ?  I  hope  that  you 
will  answer  me  in  a  brief  letter  after  receiving  my  letter;  I  will  hope 
this. 

Dear  sister,  I  write  as  to  a  sister  and  I  complain  as  to  a  sister  about 
my  children  from  the  old  country — those  three  boys.  I  did  not  have 
them  with  me,  and  I  grieved  continuously  about  them;  and  today 
again,  on  the  other  hand,  my  heart  is  bleeding.  They  will  not  listen 
to  their  mother.  If  they  would  listen,  they  would  do  well  with  me. 
But  no,  they  wish  only  to  run  everywhere  about  the  world,  and  I  am 
ashamed  before  people  that  they  are  so  bad.  They  arrived,  I  sent 
them  to  school,  because  it  is  obligatory  to  send  them;  if  you  don't  do 
it  the  teacher  comes  and  takes  them  by  the  collar.  So  they  have  been 
going,  but  the  oldest  was  annoyed  with  the  school:  "No,  mama,  I 
will  go  to  work."  I  say,  "Go  on  to  school."  But  "No!"  and  "No!" 
Without  certificates  from  the  school  they  won't  let  them  work.  I 
got  certificates  for  the  two  oldest  ones:  "Go,  if  you  wish."  They 
worked  for  some  time,  but  they  got  tired  of  work.  One  went  with  a 
Jew  to  ramble  about  corners  [trading  or  amusing  himself?],  and  for 
some  days  was  not  to  be  seen;  I  had  to  go  and  to  search  for  him. 
The  worst  one  of  them  is  Stach;  the  two  others  are  a  little  better. 
They  were  good  in  the  beginning  but  now  they  know  how  to  speak 
English,  and  their  goodness  is  lost.  I  have  no  comfort  at  all.  I  com- 
plain [to  you]  as  to  a  sister,  perhaps  you  will  relieve  me  at  least  with  a 
letter,  if  you  write  me  some  words,  dear  sister.^ 

'  In  this  letter  we  have  the  whole  tragedy  of  the  breakdown  of  old  sentimental 
habits.  There  must  have  been  a  complex  process  of  weakening  relations  between 
mother  and  children,  due  to  the  facts  that  in  the  mother  there  evidently  coexist 
more  or  less  independently  the  old  sentimental  habits  and  some  new  ones,  acquired 
in  America  and  in  her  second  marriage,  while  in  the  children  there  is  a  rapid  and 
more  or  less  complete  evolution  from  the  old  familial  life  to  an  individual  inde- 
pendence. We  shall  find  elsewhere  (letters  of  Aleksander  Wolski)  the  proof  that 
the  children  were  disappointed  in  their  expectations  when  they  came  to  their 
mother;  there  were  in  her  some  new  features  which  made  her  appear  almost  a 
stranger  to  them.  On  the  other  hand,  the  children  lost  their  primitive  attitudes 
even  more  rapidly  and  completely,  and  after  some  time  the  mother,  from  the  stand- 
point of  her  old  sentimental  attitudes,  began  to  see  strangers  in  them.  Probably 
this  disintegration  of  the  family  was  hastened  by  the  lack  of  a  father.  At  any 
rate,  the  result  is  that  the  mother  feels  the  old  set  of  her  sentimental  attitudes  to 
a  large  extent  objectless,  and  the  disappointment  with  her  children  makes  her 
cling  more  eagerly  than  ever  to  her  sister— the  only  person  of  her  whole  family  who 


746  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

Salutations  from  us  both  and  from  our  children  to  you,  sister  and 
brother-in-law,  and  to  your  children.     We  ask  for  an  answer. 

We  remain,  well-wishing, 

H.  J.  D^BROWSKIS 

419  January  10  [1909,  1910,  or  191 1] 

....  Dear  Sister:  ....  I  received  the  letter  with  the  wafer 
and  I  thank  you  for  thinking  of  me,  dear  sister.  Now,  dear  sister 
and  brother-in-law,  don't  be  angry  if  I  don't  write  to  you  very  often, 
but  I  don't  know  how  to  write  myself  and  before  I  ask  somebody 
to  write  time  passes  away,  but  I  tr}^  to  answer  you  sometimes  at 
least.  You  ask  me  how  much  my  boys  and  my  man  earn.  My  man 
works  in  an  iron-foundry,  he  earns  9,  10,  12  roubles  [dollars]  some- 
times, and  the  boys  earn  4  or  5  roubles.  My  dear,  in  America  it  is 
no  better  than  in  our  country:  whoever  does  well,  he  does,  and  who- 
ever does  poorly,  suffers  misery  everywhere.  I  do  not  suffer  misery, 
thanks  to  God,  but  I  do  not  have  much  pleasure  either.  Many  people 
in  our  country  think  that  in  America  ever\'body  has  much  pleasure. 
No,  it  is  just  as  in  our  country,  and  the  churches  are  like  ours,  and  in 
general  everything  is  alike.  I  wish  to  know  with  which  son  grand- 
mother is.  Write  me.  And  who  is  farming  on  that  land  after 
Rykaczewski?  Perhaps  we  shall  yet  meet  some  day  or  other,  dear 
sister.  I  should  like  to  see  you,  and  my  native  country.  I  have 
nothing  more  to  write,  I  kiss  you  both  and  your  children.  I  msh  you 
a  happy  and  merry  and  good  New  Year.  May  this  New  Year  bring 
you  the  greatest  happiness  possible.  We  wish  it  to  you  from  our  heart. 
The  children  kiss  auntie  and  uncle  and  their  cousins. 

We  remain,  well-wishing, 

H.  J.  D4BROWSKIS 

My  children,  thanks  to  God,  are  not  the  worst  now.' 


is  still  a  real  link  with  her  old  life.  This  proves  at  the  same  time  how  much 
stronger  the  old  sentimental  habits  are  as  compared  ^vith  the  new  ones,  and  how 
much  more  difiicult  is  the  adaptation  to  new  conditions  for  a  woman  than  for  a 
man.     Compare  her  brothers. 

'  The  process  of  readaptation  between  mother  and  children  begins,  but  it 
will  never  be  complete:  the  mother  cannot  get  rid  of  her  old  desire  of  authority 
and  tendency  to  a  complete  unity  of  familial  life,  while  the  children,  after  their 
period  of  wildness,  can  neither  come  back  to  the  traditional  familial  attitudes  of 
the  old  country  nor  yet  develop  a  new  organization  of  their  familial  life  in  which 
individualism  and  solidarity  would  be  harmoniously  unified. 


RACZKOWSKI  SERIES  747 

If  perhaps  you  have  some  new  [question],  write  the  soonest 
possible;   perhaps  something  about  that  property.     [Salutations.] 

Dear  sister,  somebody  writes  your  letters  very  indistinctly. 
Your  boy  knows  how  to  write;  he  can  always  write  your 
letters. 

I  would  ask  you  for  something  which  I  need  very  much;  please 
send  it  to  me  the  soonest  possible.  It  is  the  birth-certificates  of  my 
boys  which  I  need.  Get  them  from  the  priest  for  5  copecks  and  send 
them  to  me,  I  shall  be  very  grateful  to  you  for  it,  and  later  on  I  will 
tell  you  all,  why  I  need  them.  But  I  beg  you  very  much,  send  the 
soonest  possible  the  birth-certificate  of  Stach.  I  wish  to  know  how 
old  he  is.  Perhaps  he  will  still  be  a  man.  I  will  give  him  to  the 
school,  perhaps  he  will  do  better  afterward,  when  he  learns  to  be  some 
kind  of  craftsman.  Later  on  he  can  do  better.  But  I  want  his 
birth-certificate.     Please  send  me  one  for  5  copecks. 


420  April  5  [1910  or  191 1] 

....  Dear  Sister:  ....  I  received  your  letter  from 
Brodowska.  She  said:  "  Mrs.  [Wolska],  your  sister,  told  me  something, 
but  I  don't  remember  what  it  was  she  said,"  and  she  gave  me  the 
letter.  I  send  you  hearty  thanks  for  remembering  me,  for  your  being 
so  good  and  gracious  and  remembering  about  us  and  our  affairs. 
May  God  help  you,  dear  sister,  in  everything;  God  will  help  you  for 
your  good  and  true  heart.  Now,  dear  sister,  as  to  that  property, 
we  beg  you  very  much,  dear  sister,  go  to  the  notary  and  ask  the 
notary  to  explain  to  you  exactly  how  it  is  and  what  consequences 
can  come  from  it.  Try  to  set  aside  the  decision,  and  strive,  dear  sister, 
that  they  may  do  nothing.  They  took  father's  [my  first  husband's] 
life  away  from  him,  let  them  do  penance  for  it.  I  have  suffered  misery 
enough  with  my  children  without  a  father,  let  them  suffer  now  with 
this  their  property.  If  they  were  good  they  would  come  to  you  and 
say:  "Why  should  we  destroy  one  another  endlessly,  Madam?  Let 
us  reconcile  ourselves  conscientiously  with  one  another.  Write  to 
your  sister  and  we  will  be  reconciled,  and  then  perhaps  God  will 
pardon  us."  They  could  say,  "We  will  give  what  we  can,  be  it  more 
or  less,  but  let  there  be  a  holy  concord."  They  don't  wish  to  do  it. 
Do  your  best,  dear  sister  and  brother-in-law,  let  them  be  able  to  do 
nothing,  let  it  be  so  till  the  minors  come  to  their  majority,  let  it  be 


748  PRniARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

for  the  glory  of  God,  and  let  them  have  nothing  of  it/  Dear  sister, 
if  the  notary  says  that  you  have  no  right  to  make  a  claim  because 
you  have  no  power  of  attorney,  then  we  will  send  you  a  paper  which 
will  be  vaUd,  if  you  need  it.  Now,  dear  sister,  I  wish  very  much  to 
go  to  our  country,  but  it  is  too  difficult  for  me,  because  the  children 
are  Uttle.  Perhaps  I  shall  come  some  day  or  other,  at  least  to  see 
you,  if  God  sends  us  health  and  long  hfe.  Now,  dear  sister  and 
brother-in-law,  if  you  manage  that  they  shall  not  waste  it  [the  prop- 
erty], when  our  children  come  of  age  we  can  send  you  a  power  of 
attorney  and  you  can  get  [a  part  of  it]  for  your  trouble  and  toil. 
Offer  [a  part]  for  the  glory  of  God,  and  give  [the  remaining]  to  them 
[to  my  children].  If  not  yourself,  then  your  children  can  live  long 
enough  and  take  it,  but  give  nothing  to  them  [the  adverse  party]. 
They  have  much  to  lose  and  [still]  they  do  not  wish  to  make  peace 
in  a  godly  manner.  If  they  -wished  it  they  would  make  peace  in  a 
godly  manner,  but  they  do  not  wish  it;  so  don't  let  them  cheat  you 
out  of  anything  on  any  pretext  [technicality].  Tell  me  everything, 
how  and  what  the  notary  speaks.  Even  if  we  should  come  now  to  our 
country  it  would  not  pay  us  to  go  with  small  children  for  this  piece  of 
land.  Perhaps  we  shall  come  later  on,  after  some  years,  when  the 
children  grow  larger  and  I  can  take  them  to  our  country  with  me. 
As  to  the  children,  two  of  them  are  very  good  children.  One  is  work- 
ing and  gives  his  money  [to  me],  the  other  is  going  to  school,  and  learns 
well,  but  the  third  is  not  at  home  at  all.  Stach  has  been  bad,  is  bad, 
and  will  be  bad.  So  long  as  he  was  smaller,  he  remained  more  at 
home.  I  begged  him,  "Stach,  remain  at  home  with  your  mother." 
No,  he  runs  away  and  loafs  about.  Well  let  him  run.  I  had  his 
eyes  wiped  [had  him  instructed]  as  well  as  I  could;  he  can  read,  write, 
and  speak  English,  quite  Hke  a  gentleman.  You  say,  "Beat."  In 
America  you  are  not  allowed  to  beat;  they  can  put  you  into  a  prison. 
Give  them  to  eat,  and  don't  beat — such  is  the  law  in  America. 
Nothing  can  be  done,  and  you  advise  to  beat!  Nothing  can  be  done; 
if  he  is  not  good  of  himself,  he  is  lost. 

■  Typical  attitude.  The  members  of  Helena's  husband's  family  who  sue  her 
have  by  the  fact  of  this  suit  taken  the  standpoint  of  strangers  and  enemies,  and 
merit  not  the  slightest  regard,  while  if  they  had  tried  to  settle  the  matter  in  a 
conciliator>-  way,  they  would  have  put  themselves  in  the  same  familial  group, 
and  thus  the  family  solidarity  would  have  become  a  principle  of  the  division  of  the 
property.  By  the  lawsuit  all  ties  of  group-solidarity  are  broken,  at  least  for 
the  time. 


RACZKOWSKI  SERIES  749 

I  have  nothing  more  to  write.  We  wish  you  a  merry  holiday 
of  Easter,  we  wish  you  every  good.  The  address  of  our  brothers  is 
the  same;  you  can  write  to  them.  I  also  have  letters  from  them 
seldom.  Hearty  thanks,  sister,  for  the  sacred  things,  medals  and 
pictures.  I  regret  that  I  took  the  children  from  our  country  so  soon. 
In  our  country  perhaps  they  would  have  had  some  misery,  and  in 
America  they  have  none,  and  because  of  this  many  become  dissolute. 
In  America  children  have  a  good  life;  they  don't  go  to  any  pastures, 
but  to  school,  and  that  is  their  whole  work.'  .... 

H.  J.  D4BROWSKIS 

421  August  7,  1911 

....  Dear  Sister:  ....  Now,  dear  sister,  I  don't  know  what 
it  means  that  you  did  not  deign  to  answer  my  letter.  Perhaps  I  wrote 
you  something  disagreeable.  It  seems  to  me  that  nothing  disagree- 
able was  written,  but  it  is  long  since  I  have  had  a  letter  from  you, 
and  you  wrote  me,  dear  sister,  that  you  would  tell  me  more  in  another 
letter.  I  am  waiting  and  waiting,  and  I  don't  receive  any  news  from 
you,  so  I  beg  you  very  much  for  an  answer.  Perhaps  you  found 
something  disagreeable  in  my  letter.  Then  I  beg  you,  excuse  me. 
And  perhaps  you  did  not  receive,  dear  sister,  that  letter  at  all;  but 
if  you  have  for  a  long  time  no  letter  from  me  you  could  write  some 
words  just  the  same.  Your  children  know  how  to  write,  so  it  is  not 
difficult  for  you.  Dear  sister,  write,  how  much  is  this  property 
worth  which  the  children  inherit,  and  how  dear  are  farms  at  this 
time;  perhaps  we  shah  come  some  day  or  other.  I  beg  you,  my  dear, 
write  me  about  this  property;  perhaps  there  is  some  news,  perhaps 
they  are  cheating  us  there.  I  will  also  answer  you  what  I  intend  to 
do  about  all  this,  whether  we  shall  come  or  not.  And  now,  dear 
sister,  as  to  my  children,  I  gave  Maniek  away  to  a  school  for  2  years. 
If  he  is  good,  I  will  take  him  [then],  if  he  is  not  good,  he  will  remain 
there  till  his  twenty-first  year.  If  he  does  his  best  and  listens  to  what 
they  tell  him  to  do  they  will  let  him  go  sooner.     If  he  does  not  listen, 

'  The  failure  to  control  children  in  America,  owing  to  the  loss  of  social  author- 
ity by  the  parents  and  the  failure  to  develop  an  individual  authority,  have  been 
discussed  page  709.  Helena's  statement  is,  however,  a  good  illustration  of  the 
changed  conditions  under  which  the  parental  authority  is  weakened.  In  Poland 
the  children  do  light  farm-work  under  the  eye  of  theu  parents,  while  the  American 
school  is  certainly  a  factor  of  emancipation. 


750  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

they  will  not  let  him  go  until  his  twenty-first  year.     I  gave  him  away, 

dear  sister,  because  he  would  not  go  to  school  and  listen.     I  have 

always  had  trouble  with  him.     I  had  to  send  him  there,  and  perhaps 

he  will  become  a  [good]  man.     They  teach  reading  and  writing  and 

different  kinds  of  work.     WTien  he  is  older  he  will  not  suffer  misery. 

I  call  on  him  frequently.     He  feels  well.     If  he  suffered  misery  there 

I  would  not  allow  this.     The  oldest  is  not  with  me,  the  second  is  not 

with  me,  I  feared  this  one  would  run  away  from  me,  and  I  gave  him 

away.     He  will  the  sooner  learn  to  be  reasonable,  and  he  can  become 

a  man 

H.  J.  D4BROWSKIS 

422  December  18,  1911 

Dear  Sister  axd  Brother-in-law:  ....  I  received  your  letter 
with  the  Christmas  tokens  for  which  I  thank  you  very  heartily.  We 
divide  the  wafer  among  ourselves,  we  wish  you  a  Merry  Christmas. 
May  God  grant  us  to  live  until  the  next  year.  I  beg  your  pardon 
if  m}'-  letter  arrives  too  late  for  Christmas;  it  was  written  too  late,  my 
dear.  I  don't  know  myself  how  to  write,  so  I  cannot  write  when  I 
wish,  but  when  that  person  who  writes  my  letters  has  time  to  spare. 
Now,  my  dear  sister  and  brother-in-law,  you  ask  my  advice  about  the 
boy.  It  would  be  very  well  to  give  him  the  school  [instruction], 
because  the  school  is  a  great  fortune,  but  will  it  not  be  too  burdensome 
for  you  ?  Do  what  you  consider  right,  my  dear.  If  he  learns  well 
and  is  willing,  try  to  give  him  the  school.  It  is  not  necessary  for  him 
to  become  a  priest;  he  can  be  something  else.  The  duties  of  a  priest 
are  hard  and  difficult,  and  it  is  better  to  be  a  good  peasant  than  a 
bad  priest.^  Do  what  you  consider  right  and  what  your  strength 
suffices  for,  my  dear.  Now,  you  will  send  your  oldest  son  to  America. 
He  is  a  Httle  too  young,  and  in  America  work  is  hard  and  now  the 
times  are  bad.  In  America  there  are  different  kinds  of  v/ork,  heavy 
and  Hght,  but  a  man  from  our  country  cannot  get  the  fight  one,  because 
he  does  not  know  the  language.  A  light-headed  person  can  soon  be 
corrupted  in  America,  especially  a  young  man.  I  don't  write  it  about 
your  son,  God  forbid!  Perhaps  your  children  are  not  so  bad.  Well, 
my  sister  and  brother-in-law,  if  you  wish,  send  him  to  America.  We 
wiU  try  to  find  work  for  him,  we  will  care  about  him,  if  he  fistens 

'  This  reflection  shows  the  influence  of  .\merican  democratism.  Perhaps  it 
does  not  come  from  Helena  herself,  but  from  her  husband. 


RACZKOWSKI  SERIES  75 1 

to  us.  I  would  care  for  him  as  for  my  own  child.  If  he  wishes,  let 
him  come.  Do  what  is  the  best  for  you.  My  children  are  sometimes 
good  and  sometimes  not  good.  As  to  that  property  about  which 
you  write,  let  it  be  quiet  for  some  time;  I  will  see  later  on.  Now, 
my  dear,  I  expect  a  woman's  illness,  I  don't  know  how  God  will 
deHver  me.  If  I  am  in  good  health  I  will  write  you  something 
more. 

I  kiss  you,  little  sister,  and  your  man  and  children.  I  wish  you 
good  success.  Your  boy  wrote  the  letter  well  enough.  He  can  at 
least  write  himself.     From  our  brothers  I  have  sometimes  a  letter. 

We  remain,  well-wishing, 

D4BROWSKIS 

I  ask  for  an  answer.  You  weep  more  than  once,  dear  sister,  and 
I  also  weep  more  than  once. 


423  May  6,  191 2 

....  Dearest  Sister,  with  Children:  I  received  from  you 
a  letter,  but  what  a  letter!  With  a  great  regret  and  sorrow  and  woe! 
I  shed  tears  and  I  could  not  calm  myself  from  the  grief  and  woe  and 
sorrow  which  came  upon  you,  dear  sister.  O  my  God,  my  God,  what 
a  misfortune  has  befallen  you!  At  so  young  an  age  your  husband 
left  you  a  widow,  a  lonely  orphan,  with  your  children!  O  my  dear, 
whenever  I  think  of  it  I  shed  tears,  I  grieve,  but  how  can  I  help  you  ? 
I  cannot  help  you.  I  know  what  a  sorrow  and  misery  it  is,  because 
I  was  a  widow  myself.  Oh,  that  is  a  burden — an  indescribable  woe. 
But,  my  dear  sister,  I  beg  you,  don't  grieve.  There  is  nothing  to  do. 
It  is  God's  will,  God  governs  us,  not  ourselves.  God  took  from  you 
a  husband,  a  friend,  a  guide,  and  the  father  of  your  children.  Con- 
form yourself  to  the  will  of  God,  adjust  yourself  the  best  you  can, 
pray  for  your  father,  and  you,  sister,  for  your  husband,  and  God  will 
love  you  and  bless  you,  if  you  conform  yourself  to  the  will  of  God. 
So  I  request  you,  don't  grieve,  don't  despair,  I  beg  you  very  much. 
Could  I  help  and  comfort  you  I  would  hasten  at  the  same  moment  to 
do  it,  but  I  cannot.     I  grieve  only  about  your  bad  fortune. 

You,  children,  I  request  you,  respect  your  mother  and  listen  to 
her,  because  God  left  you  only  a  mother  as  guide  and  took  your  father 
to  Him.  Listen  to  your  mother,  respect  her  and  behave  yourselves 
well.     Especially  you,  oldest  son,  listen  to  your  mother  and  respect 


752  PRBIARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

her.  God  forbid  that  you  should  cause  her  any  sorrow.  I,  your 
auntie,  beg  you,  children,  very  much  to  do  it.'  I  wrote  directly 
a  letter  to  our  brothers  and  I  requested  them  to  write  a  letter 
to  you. 

Myself,  dear  sister,  I  walk  a  httle  already.  My  health  is  weak, 
but  I  ought  to  thank  God  the  Merciful  for  this  great  grace  that  I  am 
still  alive  for  the  sake  of  my  orphans.  But  I  shall  nevermore  be  so 
well  as  before.  From  Christmas  till  Easter  I  did  not  leave  my  bed 
and  I  could  not  turn  myself  in  bed.  Now  I  am  walking  again,  but 
feebly.  I  ask  you  for  an  answer  as  to  how  you  are  getting  on  after 
the  death  of  your  husband,  and  whether  you  received  a  letter  from 
our  brothers.  I  hasten  to  comfort  you  at  least  with  a  letter.  Remem- 
ber, don't  grieve.  I  kiss  you  and  your  children.  Live,  you  orphans, 
with  God.     God  bless  you. 

I  remain  in  sorrow  for  you,  dear  sister, 

H.  J.  D-^ROWSKIS 

I  ask  vou  for  an  answer. 


424  June  12  [1912  ?] 

....  Dear  Sister:  ....  You  ask  me  whether  I  shall  come 
to  our  country  and  when.  My  dear,  I  will  not  come  to  our  country, 
because  I  have  nothing  to  come  for.  I  wrote  you  what  a  misfortune 
I  had  with  my  illness.  My  illness  and  the  funeral  [of  the  child]  cost 
me  much,  and  in  America  everything  is  expensive.  Mine  [my  man] 
did  not  work  for  a  long  time  when  I  was  ill,  so  I  exhausted  all  my 
money.  My  illness  and  [illegible  word],  and  my  children  ruined 
me.  They  could  earn  now,  but  they  went  away  from  me.  Is  it  not 
a  sorrow  ?  I  brought  them  here  and  all  this  cost  me  you  know  how 
much.  Well,  I  will  not  tell  you  much,  because  it  is  hard  for  me. 
And  you  wrote  me,  dear  sister,  to  lend  you  [money].  But  have  I 
money?  If  I  had,  certainly  I  would  lend  it  to  you,  from  my  soul,  but 
I  cannot.  You  have  property,  you  can  find  some  way,  and  myself, 
what  I  don't  earn  here  I  have  not.     And  you,  my  dear,  you  can  find 

'  From  this  and  the  preceding  letter  it  is  evident  that  Helena  keeps  unchanged 
the  familial  attitude,  both  in  matters  of  solidarity — in  deciding  to  take  her  nephew, 
and  in  the  sincere  s>Tnpathy  she  expresses  with  her  sister — and  in  matters  of  author- 
ity, when  she  demands  beforehand  that  her  nephew  shall  listen  to  her  when  he 
comes,  and  when  she  exhorts  all  the  sister's  children  to  listen  to  their  mother  after 
their  father's  death. 


RACZKOWSKI  SERIES  753 

some  way;  I  cannot  possibly  lend  you.  Don't  be  resentful.  I  will 
not  come  to  our  country.  Some  day  perhaps,  but  not  soon.  Do  the 
best  you  can.  I  have  no  health  and  shall  never  have;  I  hardly  walk 
about  the  house.  If  I  had  health  I  should  go  and  earn,  but  I  cannot. 
One  man  works  for  all  our  household;  you  know  yourself  how  it  is 
possible  to  live  [in  such  conditions],  and  you  ask  me  to  help  you.  I 
cannot.  I  know  that  you  can  work  and  find  a  good  way.  You  have 
property,  you  suffer  no  misery  and  cannot  suffer  it.  If  only  your 
children  are  good  you  can  farm.  You  are  doing  better  than  I  here 
in  America,  because  I  must  Uve  from  hand-work. 

We  greet  you,  all  your  household.  Be  in  good  health  and  manage 
well.  Take  care  of  yourself.  I  kiss  you.  I  pity  you,  but  how  can 
I  help  ?     Please  answer. 

With  respect, 

H.  J.  D4BROWSKIS 

425  December  i  [191 2] 

....  Dear  Sister,  with  Children:  ....  I  received  your 
letter,  my  dear,  and  I  will  help  you  in  this  matter  of  a  ship-ticket  for 
your  son.'  My  dear,  I  wrote  directly  to  our  brothers,  as  you  wrote 
to  them,  about  this  ticket  and  the  brothers  wrote  me,  that  they 
answered  you  also.  You  know  what  they  wrote  you,  and  to  me  they 
answered  that  they  cannot  send  a  ship-ticket.  So  I  answer  you  at 
once:  If  he  wishes  it  and  if  you  wish  it,  sister,  I  will  send  him  a  ticket 
[but]  only  for  the  water-passage;  and  through  Prussia  and  from  the 
ship  to  me,  let  him  pay  himself.  Give  him  money,  because  even  if  it 
is  paid  from  place  to  place  they  nevertheless  demand  money.  Though 
everything  was  paid  for  my  children  the  man  who  brought  them 
had  to  pay  nevertheless,  and  so  they  exacted  some  dollars  for  nothing. 
Now,  dear,  you  are  probably  not  without  a  cent.  He  wants  to  come. 
Give  him  money  and  let  him  leave  as  soon  as  you  receive  this  letter. 
It  would  be  the  best,  because  he  would  come  sooner.  Now  work  is 
good,  and  later  on  we  don't  know.  When  he  comes  he  can  send  you 
the  money  back  in  a  short  time.  Then  we  will  provide  for  him.  Let 
him  only  be  willing  to  listen  and  be  good.  I  have  not  sent  the  ship- 
ticket  [but  wait]  until  I  receive  your  answer  to  this  letter. 

[Helena] 

"  Aleksander  Wolski,  whose  letters  are  included  in  this  series. 


754 


PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 


426  [St.]  Petersburg,  October  7,  1905 

"Praised  be  Jesus  Christus!"   [etc.] 

Dear  Brother  [Antoni]  :  [Generalities  about  health.]  I  received 
your  letter,  but  I  could  not  answer,  because  I  had  no  time.  The 
young  lady  [daughter  of  a  Russian  aristocrat  whom  he  is  serving] 
came  and  remained  for  some  weeks,  and  I  don't  know  how  to  write 
Polish  myself.^  As  to  Teofil,  I  spoke  to  him  when  he  was  with  me. 
I  told  him  something  quite  different.  I  advised  him  to  go  to  Prussia, 
to  earn  some  money  there,  and  only  then  to  go  to  America,  not  so 
[as  he  intends].  He  has  got  accustomed  to  travel  in  trains  and  would 
like  to  travel  more,  but  on  whose  money?  I  had  some  mone}',  but 
I  went  to  the  country,  then  to  Warsaw.  I  had  to  feed  him  and  myself 
for  some  time.  Whence  can  I  get  so  much  money  ?  My  money  is 
exhausted.  I  have  been  without  money  myself,  particularly  during 
this  year  when  I  have  spent  some  hundred  roubles  in  travel  alone. 
And  what  about  living  and  clothes  ?  I  must  buy  everything  for  my 
own  money.  My  lord  and  lady  are  not  here.  They  don't  give  me 
money  [for  living].  In  Petersburg  money  is  easily  spent;  it  is  not 
hke  the  country.  We  have  nothing  more  to  write,  we  send  hearty 
wishes  to  you,  brother,  sister-in-law,  Teofil,  and  children. 

Your  well-wishing  brother  and  sister-in-law, 

L.  WOLSKIS 

You  could  write  a  letter  to  America,  to  your  family,  in  order  that 
they  may  send  him  a  ship-ticket.  He  would  be  better  considered 
then.  There  is  a  man  here,  with  whom  I  am  acquainted,  who  said 
that  this  would  do  very  well — better  than  money.  He  would  be 
more  respected  and  would  get  work  more  easily. 

LUD^AaK   WOLSKI 

Greetings  to  sister  Bronislawa.  Inform  me  how  she  is  getting  on, 
because  vou  never  write  me  about  her. 


427  February  13,  191 2 

Dear  Brother:  I  received  your  letter,  but  I  had  no  time  to 
answer,  and  the  time  passes  so  you  don't  notice  it.  I  am  very  much 
grieved  that  you  feel  so  sick.     You  ask  me  to  come,  but  notwith- 

'  This  shows  that  he  either  emigrated  to  Russia  as  a  young  boy  or,  more 
probably,  stayed  there  after  his  military  service. 


RACZKOWSKI  SERIES  755 

standing  all  my  wishes  I  cannot  now,  because  I  am  in  service.  If 
God  grants  you  to  live  till  summer,  then  perhaps,  but  even  so  I  cannot 
say  certainly  because  I  don't  know  what  will  be.  I  should  Uke  very 
much  to  see  you,  you  know  it,  but  nothing  can  be  done;  I  don't 
depend  upon  myself  [but  on  my  master].  I  am  not  in  very  good 
health  either.  I  hve  as  I  lived,  nothing  new.  I  had  a  letter  from 
Teofil;  he  is  in  good  health,  thanks  to  God,  and  is  doing  well;  nothing 
new  or  particular. 

We  have  had  very  cold  weather  during  this  whole  time  for  three 
months.  I  wish  you  to  bear  at  least  your  illness  easily.  It  is  neces- 
sary to  agree  with  the  will  of  God.  We  shall  all  be  in  that  other 
world  sooner  or  later;  even  the  rich  cannot  buy  himself  off  from 
sickness  and  death,  and  so  it  is  necessary  to  agree  with  God's  will. 
Perhaps  God  will  still  allow  us  to  see  one  another,  but  it  would  be  vain 
to  think  of  it  beforehand,  because  things  never  go  on  as  you  wish 
them.  I  wish  you  every  good;  I  don't  find  words  to  relieve  you. 
We  send  to  everybody  greetings  and  our  best  wishes.  Dear  brother, 
we  don't  have  any  anger  against  you,  how  can  you  think  it!  I  kiss 
and  embrace  you  most  heartily,  dear  brother. 

We  remain,  your  loving  and  well-wishing. 

Brother  Ludwik  and  Sister-in-law  Malgorzata  Wolski 


428  April  8,  191 2 

Dear  Brother  and  Sister-in-law:  We  received  your  letter  and 
we  are  very  much  grieved  that  you  had  to  spend  such  sad  holidays, 
but  it  is  necessary  to  submit  to  everything.  It  is  the  will  of  God. 
We  shall  all  die;  nothing  can  be  done  against  it.  Notwithstanding 
all  my  desires  and  wishes,  I  cannot  come.  If  my  letter  still  finds 
brother  alive,  please,  sister-in-law,  explain  to  him  that  I  cannot  leave 
my  place  to  go.  I  should  not  help  him  in  doing  it;  death  will  come  in 
any  case  as  it  is  destined.  To  us  it  is  very  hard  and  painful  and  we 
feel  it  very  much,  but  we  can  be  of  no  help.  We  kiss  him  and  bid 
him  farewell,  because  probably  we  shall  see  him  no  more.  You  write 
and  despair,  sister-in-law,  that  you  will  be  left  with  your  children. 
But  the  children  are  big  and  they  can  work  themselves,  and  you  have 
a  farm.  Other  widows  remain  and  not  a  copeck  is  left  after  their 
husbands,  and.  still  they  find  some  way;  and  you  have  a  farm.  You 
need  only  to  work  and  not  to  be  lazy;   there  will  be  enough  to  live  on. 


yx^e  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

Your  son  Aleksander  writes  that  he  does  not  know  what  to  do  when 
his  father  dies,  and  asks  me  to  advise  him.  But  I  do  not  know  what 
sort  of  a  farm  you  have,  how  many  cattle  and  everything.  I  could 
give  you  advice  only  if  I  knew  how  you  succeed  [in  your  farming]. 
And  when  you  write  a  letter,  sister-in-law,  request  somebody  to  write 
it,  because  it  is  impossible  to  understand  what  is  written;  it  is  without 
sense  and  one  and  the  same.  I  wrote  in  the  other  letter  that  I  will 
not  come  and  now  you  repeat  the  same  things  to  me.  Please  tell 
brother  that  I  and  my  wife  have  not  any  grievance  against  him;  let 
him  rest  easy.  We  send  to  you  all  our  good  wishes  on  occasion  of 
the  past  holidays.  Submit  to  the  will  of  God.  And  I  want  to  know 
whether  you  have  been  away,  sister-in-law,  because  as  long  as  brother 
was  in  good  health  you  gave  no  word  of  yourself  and  now,  after  four 
years,  you  have  spoken.  I  received  letters  from  brother  and  from 
his  children,  but  you  were  as  if  you  had  never  been.  It  is  very  dis- 
agreeable to  me.  Probably  you  acted  just  so  with  brother;  you  could 
not  take  care  to  lengthen  his  life.  As  to  my  coming,  I  cannot  come 
now.  When  I  am  free  I  will  come;  only  I  don't  know  when,  and 
whether  during  this  year.  With  us  everything  is  as  of  old.  We  are 
sick  a  little,  but  for  the  time  being  it  is  nothing.  I  remind  you  once 
more,  request  somebody  to  write  your  letters,  and  longer  [ones].  It 
is  not  necessary  to  register  them,  letters  arrive  so.  We  wait  for  your 
answer  and  we  send  greetings  to  everybody.^ 
We  remain,  well-wishing. 

Your  Brother  Ludwik  and  Your  Sister-ix-law  Wolski 

'  This  letter  is  a  plain  endeavor  to  get  rid  of  any  familial  claims,  to  isolate 
himself  completely  from  the  familial  group.  While  Ludwok  does  not  dare  to  break 
completely  the  relation  with  his  brother  individually,  he  declines  completely  any 
future  participation  in  the  life  of  the  brother's  wife  and  children.  His  sister-in-law 
and  his  nephew,  according  to  the  tradition,  want  him  to  be  morally  the  guardian 
after  Antoni's  death.  He  declines  absolutely  to  accept  this  role.  At  the  same 
time,  cruelly  rebuking  the  woman,  and  trying  to  place  the  blame  on  her — pretending 
that  the  reason  of  his  coldness  is  the  fact  that  she  had  not  written  to  him  for  four 
years,  while,  as  we  see  from  other  series,  it  is  sufficient  for  one  member  of  the 
family  to  write  in  order  to  keep  the  familial  relation  between  the  group  and  the 
absent  individual.  This  is,  in  fact,  the  only  example  we  have  of  the  complete  and 
conscious  severing  of  familial  relations  unjustified  by  any  quarrel.  The  only 
plausible  explanation  is  the  influence  of  Russian  life.  We  had  to  make  the  same 
supposition  in  attempting  to  explain  the  rapid  disintegration  of  the  Barszczewski 
family.  In  Ludwik  the  influence  is  still  more  marked  because  he  has  probably 
lived  for  many  years  in  isolation  among  the  Russians.  Besides  the  lack  of  familial 
unity  in  Russian  life,  there  may  be  also  other  factors — the  latent  or  manifest  hos- 


RACZKOWSKI  SERIES  757 

429  December  20, 191 2 
"Praised  be  Jesus  Christus!"  .... 

Dear  Brother  [Ludwik]  and  Sister-in-law:  We  inform  you 
about  our  success.  Our  success,  you  know  brother,  is  very  sad. 
Dear  kindred,  you  complain  about  your  misery.  But  nobody  writes 
to  our  country  such  things  as  you  write.  Him  [my  son]  strange 
people  will  take,  at  their  expense  they  take  him.  He  will  molest 
you  no  more.  He  will  be  there  in  any  case,  and  you  will  not  see  him 
again.  Because  you  don't  want  to  see  us.  May  God  pay  you  [with 
good]  even  for  this.  Farewell,  dear  brother,  for  the  last  time,  with 
your  family.     With  tears,  for  the  last  time. 

Teofila  Wolska 

I  divide  with  you  a  wafer  through  this  Ufeless  paper.  Because 
surely  we  shall  meet  no  more.  Nor  my  children  either.  Remain 
with  God.^ 

430  [Union  City,  Conn.]  July  14  [1913] 

[Usual  greetings  and  wishes.] 

Now  I  inform  you,  dear  mother,  that  I  brought  everything  with 
me,  I  did  not  lose  even  the  smallest  thing.  I  got  here  with  $13 .  00  and 
I  have  bought  me  a  suit  and  shoes.  Of  the  $44.00  that  auntie  sent 
for  the  ship-ticket,  she  intends  to  make  me  a  present  of  one  half  and 
I  have  to  work  back  the  other  half.  I  will  work  hard  now  in  order 
that  I  may  be  able  to  send  you  some  10  or  20  dollars.  Now  I  am 
very  sorry,  because  it  is  harvest  time  there  [with  you],  and  [I  don't 
know]  how  you  can  manage  it,  mother;   and  you  have  no  money .^ 


tility  between  Russians  and  Poles  in  general,  the  difference  of  social  conditions, 
traditions,  etc. — while  the  greater  sociability  of  the  Russians  as  compared,  e.g., 
with  that  of  the  Americans  and  the  greater  facility  which  the  Pole  has  in  learning 
the  language  makes  the  assimilation  of  the  immigrant  easier,  particularly  as  there 
are  no  large  Polish  centers  in  Russia  as  in  America.  In  this  case  the  particular 
egotism  of  the  man  and  the  demoralizing  life  of  a  butler  may  have  played  a  role. 

'  Complete  breaking  of  the  familial  relation,  as  reaction  to  Ludwik's  hardness. 
The  contrast  between  the  gentle  and  sorrowful  form  and  the  content  is  interesting, 
particularly  as  compared  with  the  brutal  form  of  Ludwik's  letters. 

^  The  boy  is  evidently  young,  perhaps  eighteen,  but  he  has  already  the  attitude 
of  the  head  of  a  family,  mixed  with  respect  for  his  mother  and  even  some  fear  of 
her.  (Cf.  No.  436.)  There  is  a  seriousness  m  him  hardly  ever  found  in  a  boy  of 
the  same  age  whose  father  is  alive.  At  the  same  time  there  is  an  interesting  con- 
trast between  his  familial  attitude  and  the  individualism  of  his  cousins.     The 


758  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

0  dear  mother,  I  grieve  more  than  you.  Often  I  weep  secretly,  and 
not  an  hour  passes  without  my  thinking  about  home.  Nothing 
rejoices  me  in  America.  May  our  Lord  God  give  me  health  that  I 
may  get  our  affairs  in  order  and  return  to  our  country  the  soonest 
possible.  I  pay  aunt  only  for  board,  for  nothing  more — $3.00  a 
week,  because  living  is  very  expensive.  Aunt  gave  $2,700  for  this 
house.  She  borrowed  S700.  And  those  boys  whom  auntie  brought 
from  our  country,  they  did  harm.  Uncle  bought  them  every- 
thing that  they  wanted,  and  they  did  not  want  to  work,  although 
they  could  already.  And  then  they  simply  went  away.^  Stasiek 
went  away  two  years  ago,  and  Jozef  went  away  after  Stasiek,  and 
since  then  uncle  and  auntie  have  not  seen  them.  I  did  not  see  them 
either,  but  they  are  not  far  away;  by  street-car  from  Waterbury  it 
costs  only  10  cents.  And  auntie  gave  Maniek  away  to  a  farm-school; 
it  is  so  called.  It  is  a  sort  of  a  prison  where  they  learn  and  work. 
And  those  who  are  there  are  not  allowed  to  speak  to  one  another. 
He  has  already  been  there  for  2  years.  If  aunt  wishes  he  will  remain 
there  till  his  twenty-first  year.  So  I  have  not  seen  him  either, 
because  [the  fare]  to  him  costs  half  a  dollar.  I  inform  you,  dear 
mother,  how  many  hours  a  day  I  work  and  how  much  a  week  I  earn. 

1  work  in  an  iron-foundry  10  hours  a  day.  Now,  in  the  beginning,  I 
have  hght  work.  I  choose  different  irons  out  [classify],  which  are 
good  and  which  not,  because  now  it  is  terribly  hot.  Later  on  I  shall 
try  other  work.     [End  missing.]  [Aleksander  Wolski] 

431  July  28  [1913] 

[Usual  greetings  and  wishes.] 

Now  I  write  to  you,  mother,  about  the  address  of  uncle  in  America; 
I  would  have  written  it  from  memory,  but  I  do  not  know  the  number. 


difference  is  probably  due  to  a  number  of  factors:  (i)  Helena's  boys  came  to 
America  while  still  children,  and  thus  the  familial  attitude  was  not  developed  and 
the  individualizing  influences  had  a  free  field;  (2)  Helena  had  married  for  the 
second  time  and  this  hindered  the  development  of  any  real  familial  solidarity 
between  her  and  her  children;  (3)  Aleksander  is  the  heir  of  his  father's  farm,  and 
land  is  the  economic  nucleus  around  w^hich  the  family  would  remain  grouped  in 
this  case,  at  least  until  the  moment  of  its  division. 

'  The  boy's  view  of  his  cousins'  behavior  is  evidently  influenced  bj'  his  aunt. 
At  the  same  time  he  fully  shares  his  aunt's  standpoint  of  appreciation,  which  is 
that  of  familial  solidarity.  There  is  no  contradiction,  as  we  shall  see,  between 
this  letter  and  No.  435,  where  he  takes  the  side  of  his  cousins. 


RACZKOWSKI  SERIES  759 

Now  mother,  you  want  me  to  write  letters  more  often.  What  shall 
I  write  ?  I  will  only  answer  every  one  of  your  answers.  This  costs 
you  enough,  and  it  costs  me  doubly,  when  I  send  [the  letter]  and  when 
one  comes.'  Dear  mother  inform  me,  please,  whether  the  weather 
during  the  harvest  is  good  or  not,  whether  all  the  crops  were  good, 
what  others  came  to  America  after  me.  Please  describe  all  this  to 
me.  And  now  I  inform  you  that  I  have  a  terrible  longing  and  never 
can  I  forget  our  country.  What  help  can  you  give  me  ?  As  soon  as 
I  recall  [our  country],  tears  come  to  my  eyes  every  time,  and  also 
because  I  have  no  friend.  Aunt  also  is  not  very  good.  When  I 
come  from  the  shop  in  the  evening,  if  only  I  do  not  help  her  in  anything 
she  gets  directly  angry,  and  so  she  scolds  and  calls  God's  wrath  down 
on  her  husband  and  me  for  every  trifle.  I  have  never  heard  this  at 
home.^  In  the  beginning  she  said  I  had  to  "work  back"  for  half  the 
debt  [for  the  ship-ticket],  but  now  she  says  for  the  whole.  Four  weeks 
more  and  I  shall  work  it  back.  May  God  only  give  me  health,  and 
I  will  never  forget  you  and  I  will  further  try  to  behave  the  best  I  can. 
I  don't  smoke,  I  don't  drink.  There  are  two  boarding  with  aunt. 
They  have  been  in  America  ten  years,  are  unmarried  and  work  every 
day,  and  they  have  not  a  cent  in  their  pocket.  I  will  not  do  as  they 
do,  so  that  I  may  earn  money  and  return  home.^  Let  Bronislaw 
Tkaczyk  come  if  he  wishes;  different  works  are  going  well  everywhere. 
When  the  days  get  cooler  I  will  try  harder  work;  now  it  is  too  hot. 
I  will  do  such  work  as  uncle  does.  I  am  nearly  as  [strong  as]  uncle. 
And  you,  Julek,  write  to  me,  whether  they  [the  boys]  beat  you 
there  in  my  absence.  When  I  was  there  many  feared  me.  For 
myself,  I  don't  suffer  misery  here  in  America,  but  you  do  there  in  our 
country.     I  have  nothing  more  to  write.     I  send  only,  and  we  all 

'  As  in  Russia,  letters  are  often  lost,  the  Polish  peasants  usually  send  them 
without  stamps,  because  double  postage  is  then  collected  from  the  receiver,  and 
the  government  safeguards  the  letter  with  formalities  which  are  equivalent  to 
registration.  Registration  is  safer,  but  in  addition  to  dread  of  the  formality,  the 
peasant  does  not  like  to  go  to  any  office. 

"  Helena's  character  may  have  become  embittered  through  her  experiences 
with  her  children,  but  probably  she  has  always  been  more  despotic  and  quarrelsome 
than  her  rather  meek  sister. 

3  His  temperance  is  not  the  result  of  moral  considerations,  but  simply  that  of 
the  seriousness  of  his  attitude  toward  life  and  his  estimation  of  the  task  which  he 
has  to  accomplish.  This  is  perfectly  typical.  In  spite  of  the  efforts  of  the  clergy 
there  is  never  any  moral  reaction  toward  intemperance  as  toward  something  bad 
in  itself,  but  merely  as  toward  an  obstacle  in  tending  to  some  end. 


760  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

send,  hearty  greetings  to  you  and  to  our  acquaintances.     May  God 
grant  this.     Amen. 

And  that  accordeon  I  brought  with  me  is  not  spoiled  at  all.     On 
Sundays  I  amuse  myself,  and  it  plays  like  a  new  one. 

[Aleksander  Wolski] 


432  September  i  [1913] 

....  Now,  dear  mother,  I  write  you  once  more.  Send  me, 
please,  the  address  of  my  uncle  [Teofil]  in  America.  Dear  mother,  I 
have  already  worked  back  for  the  ship-ticket,  now  I  will  work  for 
you  [to  send  you  money],  for  digging  the  potatoes  in  the  autumn. 
We  are  both  working  with  Ososki  from  Bartniki ;  we  do  the  same  work 
one  near  another.  He  greets  his  brother  in  Leszno.  We  both  long 
terribly  for  our  country.  He  left  his  wife  and  children  on  his  farm, 
and  we  say  to  each  other,  "How  they  are  suffering  there  alone." 
When  he  came  from  our  country  2  months  ago,  he  got  at  first  good 
work  in  another  city,  in  Naget.  From  Union  City  to  Naget  is  one 
verst.  But  that  factory  stopped  for  a  month,  so  now  we  are  working 
together.  When  it  starts,  if  it  goes  well,  we  shall  both  go  there  to 
work.  We  say  to  each  other  that  when  we  earn  some  money  we  will 
soon  return  to  our  country,  because  now  it  is  terribly  hard  in  America; 
everything  is  dear,  and  it  is  difficult  to  get  work.  So  I  work  as  hard 
as  I  can  in  order  to  return  soon  to  our  country.  I  long  terribly  for 
my  country;  nothing  gives  me  pleasure  in  America.  We  must  be 
very  attentive  in  our  work,  every  hour,  because  if  anything  is  bad  we 
are  without  work.'  We  went  once  with  auntie  to  Waterbury  to  her 
boys,  to  those  farms  where  they  are,  but  we  could  not  see  them;  on 
Sunday  we  walked  about  for  half  a  day  asking  for  them,  but  we 
could  not  find  o'^  where  they  are.  In  August  terrible  rains  fell,  and 
thfc  mornhi^G  are  cold  now. 

[Aleksander] 

'  It  is  not  without  significance  that  he  mentions  working  conditions  imme- 
diately after  speaking  of  his  longing  for  home.  The  adjustment  to  hired  factory- 
work  is  one  of  the  most  difficult  which  the  immigrant  has  to  make.  In  this  case 
the  boy  is  sustained  by  the  expectation  of  success  and  a  return  home,  but  in  cases 
where  the  children  of  immigrants  are  compelled  to  hand  to  their  parents  their  total 
earnings  (which  is  the  usual  practice),  they  frequentlj^  decline  to  be  promoted  to 
work  paying  more.  No  factory-work  is  stimulating,  and  a  new  adjustment  is 
felt  as  an  extra  burden. 


RACZKOWSKI  SERIES  761 

Kow,  dear  sister,  you  ask  why  do  I  not  write  to  you,  you  say  that 
I  am  angry  with  you.  I  am  not  angry.  I  have  nothing  to  be  angry 
about,  and  we  speak  often  among  ourselves  of  how  much  you  must 
suffer  alone.  You  have  nobody  with  you  now  in  our  country;  you 
are  quite  alone,  hke  a  single  stump  in  the  field.  Dear  sister,  you 
have  a  good  son  in  America.  I  also  have  begun  farming,  but  in  the 
beginning  it  is  difficult.     I  lack  money  for  everything. 

[Helena] 

433  November  2,  19 13 

....  Dear  Mother:  Everything  rejoices  me  very  much  in 
the  letter  in  which  you  described  everything  to  me.  It  was  probably 
Julek  who  wrote,  because  I  could  not  read  many  words;  letters  were 
omitted,  others  were  not  written  distinctly.  You  wrote  that  you 
intended  to  get  lumber.  I  don't  know  what  for.  Or  perhaps  have 
someone  come  to  help  you?  It  was  not  distinctly  written.  As  to 
what  you  wrote  me  to  do,  I  will  do  everything  gladly  a  little  later, 
because  I  have  not  all  [the  money  needed].  Don't  be  afraid  about 
me,  I  am  trying  to  have  everything  come  out  as  well  as  possible.  I 
cannot  cease  thinking,  not  an  hour  passes  without  my  thinking  about 
home.  I  have  ever  in  my  head  this  [idea] — hov/  does  everything 
go  on  there?  I  don't  drink,  I  don't  smoke,  I  deprive  myself  of  it 
more  easily  than  in  our  country.  Nor  do  I  go  anywhere.  I  come 
from  work,  I  wash  myself,  eat  supper  and  sit  down  or  I  help  aunt  do 
something,  and  I  go  to  sleep.  In  the  morning  I  must  rise  at  half- 
past  five,  and  get  ready  for  work.  During  the  recent  holidays 
[All-Saints,  November  i,  and  All-Souls  days]  we  worked.  Only 
during  English  holidays  the  factory  stops  and  we  do  not  work.  Now 
I  would  go  to  uncle,  but  I  cannot,  because  in  other  cities  work  does 
not  go  very  well;  many  people  are  paid  off.  Therefore  one  must 
keep  the  work  he  has,  because  many  people  are  standing  near  the 
factories  and  begging  for  work,  so  one  must  hold  on  to  his  work. 

I  should  not  be  so  sad  if  aunt  did  not  scold  and  quarrel  about  every 
trifle;  therefore  I  am  so  sad.  If  it  gets  worse  and  worse  I  will  not 
live  there. 

And  now  I  request  you,  Julek,  and  you,  Aniela,  listen  well  to 
mother,  to  what  she  says  and  what  she  orders  you  to  do.  Learn  well, 
because  I  am  thankful  to  mother  that  I  know  at  least  how  to  write 
and  to  read  a  httle.     May  mother's  hands  become  golden  in  reward 


762  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

for  it,  for  forcing  me  to  learn.^  It  cannot  at  all  be  described  how 
well  it  is  in  the  world  when  you  know  how  to  read  and  to  write  your- 
self and  you  can  write  down  everything  that  you  think. 

Aunt  keeps  some  nice  ducks  and  hens,  and  she  has  some  pigeons 
left  by  her  boys.  There  were  50  ducks.  She  keeps  7  for  breeding, 
and  she  has  80  hens.  They  are  doing  well,  and  she  has  10  pigeons, 
but  in  comparison  with  ours  they  are  ugly.  You,  Julek  and  Aniela, 
remember  well  about  mine.  Close  the  opening  at  night  so  that 
something  may  not  devour  them.  You  can  sell  some  young  ones, 
Julek,  but  leave  a  pair  of  the  young  ones,  because  otherwise  they 
would  be  played  out,  if  any  of  the  old  ones  were  lost.  Write  to  me 
whether  the  old  pairs  are  both  doing  well,  and  don't  sell  the  old  ones 
to  anybody.  And  write  me,  whether  Jozef  Sobiraj  finished  being 
sick  [got  well]  or  not,  and  does  he  work  with  his  mother  or  is  he  hired 
somewhere.  If  he  would  come  to  America  in  the  spring  they  would 
get  on  better.     I  have  nothing  more  to  write.     [Usual  greetings.] 

[Aleksander] 

434  December  8,  1913 

....  Now  I  inform  that  I  have  sent  65  roubles.  I  would  send 
more,  mother,  but  we  have  a  slack  in  America;  many  people  are 
everywhere  without  work.  Our  factory  has  worked  5  weeks  for 
5  days  a  week.  We  don't  work  on  Saturdays,  and  on  some  days  we 
don't  work  during  some  hours.  This  Ososki  from  Bartniki,  brother 
of  that  one  in  Leszno,  who  worked  with  me,  was  paid  off  from  one 
factory  and  has  not  worked  for  a  week.  He  went  everywhere,  but 
he  could  not  find  work.  I  am  working  in  the  same  place  where  I 
began.  After  New  Year  perhaps  it  will  get  better.  I  shall  not  see 
uncle  soon,  because  I  must  keep  terribly  close  to  my  work,  and  it  is 
far;  the  journey  to  him  and  back  will  cost  $5 .  00  and  the  city  is  large 
and  it  will  be  very  difficult  to  find  him.     That  letter  rejoiced  me 

'  "Hands,"  because  she  did  so  by  beating  him.  The  attitude  of  superiority 
which  the  boy  assumes  here  toward  his  younger  brother  and  sister  is  another  sign 
that  he  considers  himself  the  head  of  the  famUy.  \\'hen  he  tells  them  to  listen  to 
their  mother,  his  expression  is  exactly  the  same  as  that  of  a  father.  We  have  here 
one  proof  more  that  the  old  familial  solidarity  excludes  anj^thing  like  a  particular 
solidarity  of  the  younger  generation  against  the  older,  but  is  a  kind  of  hierarchical 
solidary  organization,  particularly  when  there  is  a  material  basis  of  the  existence 
of  the  group  which  calls  for  a  manager. 


RACZKOWSKI  SERIES  763 

awfully;  it  is  as  if  I  had  seen  you.  And  you,  Julek  [I  thank]  for 
writing  me  about  everything.  You  wrote  this  letter  very  distinctly. 
I  am  trying  to  manage  so  that  we  may  all  be  together  soon.  And 
please,  write  me  about  this  Zielazczak,  whether  he  helps  [you]  or  not, 
and  whether  he  does  something  bad,  for  there  was  nothing  written 
about  him.  Please  write  me  which  boys  went  to  the  army,  which 
others  came  to  America,  whether  Jozef  Sobiraj  got  rid  of  his  sickness 
or  not,  and  about  those  neighbors  who  Hve  near  to  us,  which  of  them 
annoys  you.  Please,  mother,  write  me,  describe  to  me  what  is  of 
interest.  Here  it  has  rained  during  the  whole  autumn.  On  All  Saints 
Day  we  had  a  frost  which  covered  the  windows,  but  now  no  more 
frost,  only  rains  are  falUng.  And  about  aunt  I  have  nothing  to  write, 
no  news.  They  have  three  children  [by  second  husband].  Two  are 
going  to  the  school.  I  go  nowhere  myself;  we  remain  together  in  the 
evening,  we  talk  and  laugh  all  together.  [A  man]  from  uncle's 
country  is  also  boarding  with  aunt.  He  is  30  years  old  and  unmarried. 
If  I  want  to  buy  something  he  leads  me  everywhere.  I  have  nothing 
more  to  write,  I  send  you  only  hearty  salutations  and  wish  you  a 
Merry  Christmas.     May  God  grant  it.    Amen. 

[Aleksander] 

435  January  11,  1914 

....  And  now  I  inform  you  that  on  Christmas  I  saw  Jozef 
[son  of  Helena].  He  came  to  us  from  the  farm  for  the  first  time.  I 
saw  him  at  home,  at  dinner.  If  it  had  not  been  at  home,  I  should 
not  have  recognized  him.  He  has  grown  tall,  a  little  taller  than  I  am, 
and  terribly  thin  and  lean.  His  voice  has  also  changed.  He  said 
also  he  would  not  have  recognized  me.  We  were  terribly  glad,  both 
of  us.  He  was  two  days  with  us,  and  we  both  went  everywhere. 
The  church  is  near,  so  we  were  both  in  the  church.  He  related 
everything  to  me,  and  I,  everything  to  him.  He  left  his  mother 
two  years  ago  and  had  not  seen  her  since.  He  regretted  my  father 
very  much.  He  did  not  know  that  he  was  dead;  he  will  see  his  uncle 
[the  writer's  father]  no  more.  He  told  me  how  his  uncle  accom- 
panied him  to  the  frontier,  and  how  he  himself  wanted  neither  to  go 
away  from  his  uncle  nor  to  remain  anywhere  else;  and  tears  gushed 
from  his  eyes.  He  was  very  sorry  for  you,  working  there  alone  and 
nobody  with  you  at  home.  He  said  that  he  loved  his  uncle  and  auntie 
[the  writer's  parents]  better  than  his  own  mother,  because  when  he 


764  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

came  to  his  mother  she  neither  looked  at  him  nor  knew  him.  He 
wept,  and  I  also  shed  tears.  His  mother  would  have  nothing  to  do 
with  him.  He  said  that  if  anybody  gave  him  money  he  would  at 
once  go  to  his  auntie,  to  our  country,  and  help  his  auntie;  if  not,  he 
will  go  with  me  to  our  country  in  the  spring  after  next,  and  will 
remain  with  us  until  the  call  for  military  service;  and  after  the 
service,  if  God  lets  him  live,  he  will  take  that  land  back.  He  says 
there  are  few  of  us  in  our  country,  so  we  will  work.^  When  he  went 
away  from  us  and  said  goodbye  to  his  mother,  his  mother  would  not 
tell  him  goodbye.  So  he  went  away,  but  nearly  fainted  from  sorrow, 
and  I  wept  as  never  [before].  I  went  with  him  to  the  street-car. 
We  went  beyond  the  city,  the  street-car  came,  and  he  bade  me 
farewell.  He  wept  about  me  and  I  wept  about  him,  as  never  yet  I 
wept.  Never  had  I  such  a  sorrow  as  then.  When  I  returned  home 
I  could  not  walk  from  sorrow.  In  our  country  one  does  not  realize 
what  family  is,  but  in  the  world,  when  one  sees  somebody,  it  can  be 
neither  described  nor  told.  I  wept  from  dinner  until  evening,  and 
when  they  asked  me  at  home  why  I  wept,  I  could  not  speak  from 
sorrow,  till  I  got  a  headache.  I  long  terribly,  because  I  have  no 
friend  with  whom  I  may  rejoice.  Bojarski  from  Gustkowo  has  been 
in  this  city  about  20  years,  Maiika  Leleniewianka  from  Gustkowo 
came  to  him  at  the  end  of  carnival.  It  will  be  two  years  since  she 
came.  Sometimes  on  Saturdays  I  go  to  them.  I  have  nothing  more 
to  write,  only  I  send  you  hearty  salutations  and  ask  you  for  an  answer. 

[Aleksander] 

'  Jozef  retains  the  old  attitudes  in  spite  of  the  evolution  he  has  undergone  in 
America,  and  though  these  old  attitudes  were  not  exclusive  enough  to  allow  him 
to  remain  with  his  mother.  It  is  a  case  of  psychological  dissociation  or  stratifica- 
tion; the  new  characters  are  simply  superimposed  on  the  old  ones  without  modify- 
hig  them  essentially.  The  same  feature  is  found  in  persons  of  peasant  origin  who 
have  had  American  college  instruction.  The  cultural  life  is  here  connected  with 
the  English  language  and  the  American  environment,  while  the  Polish  language 
and  the  Polish  environment  suggest  merely  the  associations  which  are  inclosed 
within  the  sphere  of  the  peasant  interests  and  traditions.  These  two  strata  do 
not  interfere  with  each  other  and  the  same  person  is  at  one  moment  a  cultivated 
American,  when  speaking  English,  at  another  moment  a  Polish  peasant,  when 
speaking  Polish.  Evidently,  this  situation  is  possible  only  because  the  peasant 
immigrants  were  almost  completely  cut  off  from  the  higher  culture  in  Poland.  In 
the  present  case  the  dissociation  is  probably  due  to  the  lack  of  any  strong  link 
connecting  the  previous  life  with  the  new  one;  the  only  link  is  the  mother.  It  is 
very  probable  that  Jozef  had  lived  during  the  past  two  years  without  much  reflec- 
tion on  the  past,  absorbed  in  the  actual  conditions,  and  that  only  the  meeting  with 
his  cousin  and  the  talk  of  the  latter  brought  the  old  attitudes  to  consciousness 
again. 


RACZKOWSKl  SERIES  765 

436  February  22  [1914] 
....  Dear  Mama,  I  inform  you  that  I  am  very  sad.     She  has 

always  cried  out  on  me,  but  never  refused  me  board,  and  now  she  has 
refused  me  board  and  I  have  gone  to  board  with  strange  people.  On 
the  same  day  I  found  board  elsewhere,  and  I  swear  by  the  love  of  God 
that  I  have  paid  everything  as  it  ought  to  be.  And  aunt  came  to  me 
for  30  roubles  more.  Such  a  conscience  she  had!  But  I  have  paid 
her  already  40  roubles  more,'  and  I  swore  by  God  and  beat  my 
breast.^  Even  strange  people  wondered  that  she  has  such  a  con- 
science, that  she  thinks  out  untruths  and  says  them  to  the  people. 
I  swear  by  God  that  I  have  paid  everything,  and  moreover  she 
cheated  me.  She  was  that  good  to  me!  I  almost  burst  open  with 
grief.  When  auntie  writes  anything,  don't  believe  a  single  word.  I 
write  you  the  whole  truth.  Probably  she  will  also  levy  on  my  wages, 
but  I  don't  know.  I  shall  write  to  uncle  and  perhaps  go  [to  him  ?]. 
Now  I  am  at  work  and  have  32  dollars.  How  it  will  be  further,  I 
don't  know.  I  had  never  such  a  grief  as  I  have  now.  I  cannot 
describe  all  this.  I  shall  not  forget  it.  My  head  is  almost  bursting 
from  it.3  I  did  not  get  the  letter  from  you,  because  I  went  away  and 
the  letter  came  to  them;  sf  they  did  not  give  it  to  me.  From 
Traczyk  also  I  have  no  lettf,r.  I  have  nothing  more  to  write,  only 
I  send  you  hearty  salutations.  Another  time  I  will  tell  you  more. 
She  reminded  me  also  about  this  old  man  Wisniewski,  who  brought 
her  those  children,  that  she  buried  him  at  her  own  expense,  and  she 
also  made  allusions  to  myseK  and  to  you  in  connection  with  him. 

[Aleksander] 

437  NowY  Peterhof,  June  30,  1904 

[Greetings  and  wishes.] 

And  now  I  inform  you,  dear  brother  and  sister-in-law,  about  my 
[mis]fortune  and  the  distress  that  awaits  me.  We  are  now  destined 
to  the  war.     So  now  we  shall  soon  go  away  to  the  war,  only  I  do  not 

■  Probably  there  has  been  no  conscious  cheating  on  either  side,  but  simply 
some  miscalculation,  always  possible  in  the  complex  form  which  economic  relations 
often  assume  between  peasants  when  the  matter  is  not  mere  buying  or  borrowing. 

^  Beating  the  breast  is  a  gesture  of  asseveration.  It  is  used  as  a  sign  of  con- 
trition in  the  church  and  in  confession. 

3  The  incoherence  of  the  letter,  contrasted  with  the  usually  elaborated  form 
of  his  letters,  shows  how  completely  the  boy  is  upset,  and  the  enormous  importance 
of  even  such  a  partial  breaking  of  the  familial  relations. 


766  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

know  on  what  day  and  in  which  month.  Dear  brother  and  sister- 
in-law,  I  expected  a  letter  from  you,  because  I  wrote  to  you,  but  I  don't 
know  what  has  become  of  you.  I  want  at  least  to  receive  one  letter 
from  you,  to  speak  [communicate]  with  you  before  my  death,  because 
I  don't  know  the  will  of  God,  whether  our  Lord  Jesus  will  allow  me  to 
return  or  not;  I  don't  know  it.  And  now  I  beg  you,  dear  brother  and 
sister-in-law,  be  so  gracious  and  answer  me.  I  don't  know  whether 
you  are  angry  with  me,  because  I  wrote  you  a  letter  and  I  have  no 
answer.  I  expect  your  letter  every  day  and  every  hour  and  every 
minute  in  vain,  and  my  heart  is  anxious,  because  I  should  be  glad 
to  speak  with  you,  at  least  by  letters,  before  my  parting  [half  a  page 
more  about  expecting  letters  and  asking  for  letters].  Dear  brother 
and  dear  sister-in-law,  I  beg  your  pardon,  perhaps  I  did  you  sometime 
some  wrong,  so  I  ask  for  your  pardon.  Forgive  me,  because  I  go  so 
far  away,  as  to  death.  But  I  do  not  lose  my  hope  in  God,  because 
our  Lord  Jesus  remembers  us  better  than  we  remember  our  Lord 
God,  and  therefore  I  pray  our  Lord  God  and  this  God's  Mother  of 
Cz^stochowa.  May  our  Lord  Jesus  allow  me  to  return,  and  God's 
Mother  of  Cz^stochowa.  I  offer  myself  to  [rely  on]  the  will  of  God 
and  let  it  be  as  our  Lord  Jesus  and  this  God's  Mother  of  Cz^stochowa 
will  turn  me  [decide  about  me].  I  am  satisfied  with  everything, 
because  our  Lord  Jesus  sends  me  such  fortune,  and  nothing  can  be 
done  against  it.  And  now  I  bid  you  farewell,  dear  brother,  I  kiss  you 
innumerable  times,  and  I  bid  you  farewell,  dear  sister-in-law,  and  I 
kiss  you.  Let  our  Lord  Jesus  help  you  for  my  prayer.  And  I  bid  you 
farewell,  little  brother  Aleksander,  and  you,  Wladyslaw,  and  you, 
sister,  and  the  whole  household.' 

I,  your  truly  lo\'ing  brother, 

Teofil  Wolski 

'  The  letter  has  the  purely  traditional  form  of  a  farewell  before  death;  it  is  a 
substitute  for  a  spoken  farewell.  At  the  same  time  it  shows  the  particular  kind 
of  fatalism  of  the  Polish  peasant,  which  is  closely  connected  with  the  magical- 
religious  system.  Since  in  magic  there  is  no  continuity  between  cause  and  effect, 
the  inability  to  calculate  with  certainty  the  effects  of  a  cause  and  the  almost 
unlimited  range  of  possible  events  in  a  given  situation  open  a  wide  field  for  fatalism. 
Man  should  do  what  he  knows  with  certainty  to  be  right  in  this  situation,  and  then 
commit  himself  to  the  will  of  God  but  without  any  certainty  of  the  results,  because 
he  never  could  have  done  everything  necessary. 

There  was  no  place  for  fatalism  in  the  old  naturalistic  religion,  and  the  fatalistic 
attitude  becomes  more  and  more  formal  when  magic  loses  its  influence  and  the 
modem  practical  attitude,  based  upon  the  continuity  of  cause  and  effect,  takes 
its  place.    The  peasant,  when  stating  a  plan,  still  adds  some  words  about  the  will 


RACZKOWSKI  SERIES  767 

438  November  i  [1904] 

In  the  first  words  of  my  letter  I  say:  "Praised  be  J.  C."  and  I 
inform  you,  dear  brother  and  sister-in-law,  that  I  received  your  letter 
on  November  i,  and  I  was  very  glad  when  I  learned  that  you  are  in 
good  health,  thanks  to  the  highest  favor  of  our  Lord  God.  For  myself, 
up  to  the  present  I  am  still  alive  and  in  health,  thanks  to  Lord  God 
the  highest  and  to  God's  Mother.  And  as  to  my  success  and  how  I 
am  living,  I  inform  you  that  up  to  the  present,  thanks  to  God,  all  is 
well.  We  have  had  no  hunger  yet  up  to  the  present  and  we  haven't 
now,  only  now  it  is  already  a  little  cold;  little  morning  frosts  happen 
already,  but  this  is  no  misery  yet.  May  only  God  and  God's  Mother 
grant  that  it  does  not  become  worse. 

And  as  to  the  war,  I  should  have  much  to  describe,  but  I  cannot 
write  you  much  about  it.  I  inform  you  only  that  we  have  been  in 
battle  for  four  days,  and  now  we  are  in  camp  for  some  days.  What 
will  be  further,  God  alone  knows,  when  and  what  will  be  the  end  of  all 
this.  It  doesn't  seem  at  all  that  it  will  end  soon,  on  the  one  or  on 
the  other  side.  Our  Lord  God  alone  knows  what  end  will  result  from 
it.  It  is  God's  will.  As  God  Almighty  grants,  so  will  it  be.  Let 
us  only  beg  our  Lord  God  and  the  miraculous  Mother  of  God  to  give 
us  health  and  to  guard  us  from  every  misfortune,  and  commit  every- 
thing to  the  will  of  God. 

I  inform  Brodowski  that  his  son  is  also  alive  and  healthy,  thanks 
to  our  Lord  God.  I  will  try  to  inform  him  as  soon  as  possible  and  to 
repeat  to  him  those  few  words,  which  you  have  written  to  him. 
I  saw  them  not  long  ago,  Brodowski  and  also  Rykaczewski.  They 
are  also  in  good  health,  thanks  to  God  the  Almighty.  [Bows  for  the 
whole  family  and  wishes  for  good  health.]  Teofil  Wolski 

439  January  i,  1905 

....  And  I  inform  you  that  now  we  stand  in  camp.  We  digged 
pits  for  ourselves,  as  we  do  in  Poland  for  potatoes,  and  we  are  sitting 
inside.     We  have  no  great  fighting  now,  only  skirmishes  happen; 


of  God,  the  weakness  of  man,  etc.,  but  mainly  as  a  manifestation  of  humility. 
There  seems  to  be  a  half-conscious  fear  that  if  he  does  not  do  it,  God  may  punish 
him  for  his  presumption,  by  destroying  his  plans.  But  in  the  matters  of  death 
and  sickness,  which  remain  the  last  refuge  of  magic,  and  sometimes  in  matters  of 
marriage,  where  also  magical  practices  persist  even  on  a  higher  level  of  culture, 
fatahsm  is  still  powerful,  because  precisely  in  those  lines  the  continuity  of  cause 
and  effect  is  the  most  difficult  of  prevision. 


^68  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

they  are  firing  one  against  another  every  day,  but  not  much.  But 
presently  we  expect  a  great  fight,  and  nobody  knows  what  God  will 
send.  The  air  [weather]  here  up  to  the  present  is  very  good;  no 
snow  as  yet,  but  frost  began  almost  two  months  ago,  and  we  have 
frost  every  day,  not  great,  io°  or  more  [Reaumur],  sometimes  it 
reaches  20°.  Yes,  my  dear  brother  and  sister-in-law,  up  to  the 
present,  thanks  to  our  Lord  God  the  Highest  and  to  God's  Mother, 
we  have  not  yet  suffered  great  misery,  although  you  know  yourself 
that  it  is  no  pleasure;  but  in  the  position  in  which  we  find  ourselves, 

up  to  the  present  we  have  but  little  to  complain  of 

Now  it  is  going  badly  with  you  also,  as  you  write  to  me,  dear 
brother,  that  they  are  calling  the  reservists.  God  forbid  them  to 
take  you  also.  I  advise  you,  dear  brother,  if  you  feel  anything  bad, 
[apprehension],  don't  tarry  long  but  direct  yourself  according  to  your 
thoughts  [fly].  Teofil  Wolski 

A   SOLDIER   ON   WAR' 

After  a  long  and  dark  night,  at  last  it  began  to  dawn.  The  day's 
apparition  was  so  sad  that  the  heart  began  to  weep. 

The  sun,  arising  from  behind  the  mountains,  threw  to  us  sad 
rays;  and  we  remained  in  intrenchments,  watching  the  shadows  of 
the  enemy. 

We  remained  there  and  we  turned  our  eyes  to  heaven,  appealing 
for  help  from  there,  after  so  many  days  spent  in  hunger  and  so  man}- 
tedious  nights  without  sleep. 

Everybody  sends  a  prayer  to  God.  May  He  help  us  to  crumble 
the  enemy  and  to  return  healthy  after  so  long  and  heavy  sufferings. 

Suddenly  a  crash  interrupted  the  sepulchral  silence — the  crash 
of  the  enemy's  shrapnel  which  burst  in  our  intrenchment,  not  missing 
its  mark. 

I  saw  before  me  a  column  of  dark  smoke  rising  up  to  the  clouds. 
Oh,  what  a  mark  it  left  and  what  a  blow  it  cast  upon  us! 

I  saw  before  me  my  companions  lying,  without  hands  or  feet,  and 
others  in  the  moments  preceding  their  death,  gave  sad  and  terrible 
groans. 

There  a  surgeon  binds  up  the  wounds  of  the  injured,  others  take 
them  to  the  hospital,  and  so  companions,  helping  their  companion, 
save  at  last  his  life. 

'  Poetry,  without  rhythm  but  with  some  rhyme.     Doubtful  whether  written 

by  himself  or  another  soldier. 


RACZKOWSKI  SERIES  769 

Suddenly  on  the  right  the  Japanese  attack  us.  We  went  joyfully 
with  bayonets;  we  went  to  meet  them  with  a  cry  of  joy,  to  attain 
sooner  our  end. 

But  the  will  of  God  was  contrary  to  us,  we  were  obliged  to  leave 
the  spot  in  order  to  hold  the  honor  of  the  regiment,  to  save  the  banner 
and  our  life. 

Under  a  hail  of  enemies'  bullets,  bombs,  grenades,  and  shrapnel, 
we  withdrew  from  our  positions.     Oh,  what  losses  we  had! 

At  every  step  I  took,  a  dead  body  lay  or  a  severely  wounded 
groaned.  I  went  along  the  road  with  sorrow  in  my  heart,  thinking : 
"Up  to  the  present  I  am  saved." 

At  last  this  great  tumult  ceased,  and  I  went  also  with  slower  steps. 
I  looked  back  at  the  smoke  rising  up  to  the  clouds.  And  I  said  then 
with  a  subdued  voice,  looking  at  the  blood  streaming  on  the  ground : 

"Deign,  O  Lord,  to  give  them  eternal  rest,  and  let  the  light  of 
glory  shine  upon  them  in  [centuries  of  centuries.     Amen]." 

[Teofil] 

[Letter  of  January  25,  1905,  with  news  of  health  and  safety  omitted.] 

440  April  20,  1905 

....  And  as  to  my  success,  I  am  alive  and  in  health,  thanks  to 
our  Lord  God  the  Highest,  and  that  is  all  my  success. 

Everything  is  well,  thanks  to  our  Lord  God.  We  are  retiring  in 
order  toward  Harbin.  We  walk  slowly  and  rest.  Only  one  day, 
i.e.,  on  March  12,  near  Mukden,  the  Japanese  gave  us  such  a  beating 
that  we  fled  77  versts  without  stopping.  And  I  have  nothing  more 
to  write  you.  If  God  grants  me  health  and  allows  me  to  come  back 
safely,  I  shall  have  much  to  relate  to  you;  but  what  I  could  write 
in  a  letter,  you  can  write  me  the  same.  As  you  write,  so  it  is.  We 
fight  well,  only  it  is  unfortunate,  that  we  must  fly  [conscious  irony]. 
[Half  a  page  about  letters  received  and  sent.] 

And  I  inform  you  about  Rykaczewski,  that  he  is  lost  during  our 
retreat  without  any  tidings.  And  Brodowski  is  alive  and  healthy, 
thanks  to  our  Lord  God T.  W. 

441  April  27,  1905 

....  I  am  in  good  health,  thanks  to  our  Lord  God,  and  my  suc- 
cess is  also  [good],  glory  be  to  God.  Now  we  are  ciuiet,  we  are  in 
camp.     On  April  25  a  priest  visited  us  and  we  were  at  holy  confession, 


y-jo  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

all  the  Catholics.  Up  to  the  present,  thanks  to  our  Lord  God  and 
to  God's  ]Mother,  all  is  well  with  us.  As  to  the  war,  I  have  nothing 
to  write  you,  because  you  know  ever}'thing  there.  WTiat  you  say, 
having  learned  from  papers  and  letters,  so  it  is,  and  I  can  write  you 
nothing  else.  If  God  gives  me  health  and  allows  me  happily  to  return, 
1  shall  have  much  to  relate,  but  it  is  impossible  to  write  all  this.  The 
fight  that  lasted  for  12  days  near  Mukden  was  terrible  and  obstinate; 
we  fought  in  it  from  the  beginning  to  the  end.  And  the  end  was  that 
we  had  to  retire,  because  a  little  more  and  we  should  have  nowhere  to 
fly;  the  Japanese  encircled  us  so  that  only  a  narrow  passage  remained 
through  which  we  fled  and  the  Japanese  fired  upon  us  with  guns. 
You  know,  when  we  fled  thus  it  could  not  be  without  losses;  there 
remained  much  of  everything  for  the  Japanese.  Myself,  thanks 
to  our  Lord  God,  I  got  out  safe  and  healthy,  and  I  did  not  throw  away 
my  efi'ects,  which  I  need. 

You  wrote  that  we  cannot  dream  about  attacking,  because  as 
soon  as  we  attack  we  fly  still  faster.  That  we  fly  is  true,  but  not  so 
fast  as  you  say.  We  beat  them  as  we  like,  but  they  are  stubborn 
and  will  not  give  way;  so  when  we  are  bored  with  beating  them,  then 
we  fly.  But  perhaps  we  shall  fly  no  more,  because  we  hear  that  the 
Japanese  have  cut  us  off  from  Harbin,  and  we  are  not  so  stupid  as 
to  fly  to  Japan. ^ 

Now  I  inform  you  that  I  received  on  April  21a  letter  and  a  pack- 
age from  brother  [Ludwik]  of  Petersburg.     In  this  packet  were  shoes, 

sugar,  tobacco,  and  a  shirt.     I  have  nothing  more  to  write 

Teofel  Wolski 

442  June  28,  1905 

....  With  us  now  it  is  calm.  We  have  been  camping  for  some 
weeks  at  the  same  place  and  nobody  disturbs  us;  we  walk  about  all 
the  mountains,  wherever  we  like,  and  we  are  occupied  with  learning. 
We  learn  how  to  attack  the  Japanese.  We  do  also  some  gymnastics 
in  order  to  make  our  bones  flexible,  which  are  stiffened  from  sleeping 
on  the  naked  ground.  We  got  some  fun  and  training  from  these  occu- 
pations, so  that  now  we  don't  fear  much  even  the  Japanese  [irony]. 

'  An  enormous  amount  of  satire  developed  among  the  Russian  and  Polish 
soldiers  during  the  Japanese  war.  With  the  Russians  it  was  an  expression  of  their 
habit  of  satirizing  their  owti  nation,  particularly  in  matters  connected  with  the 
state  of  government.  With  the  Poles,  as  in  this  case,  it  was  the  expression  of  a 
latent  and  open  hostility  to  Russia. 


RACZKOWSKI  SERIES  771 

We  have  no  true  news  at  all;  what  the  soldiers  say — you  hear 
every  moment  something  new.  It  is  impossible  to  make  anything 
out  of  our  Manchurian  papers  which  we  read  every  day.  From  the 
news  of  these  papers  and  from  the  soldiers'  tales  [one  would  think 
that]  in  one  hour  the  war  will  end,  and  then  again  the  fight  is  begin- 
ning and  the  war  going  on.  So  we  cannot  believe  what  we  hear;  we 
hope  in  our  Lord  God  that  the  war  will  end  soon,  but  up  to  the  present 
we  have  no  [certain]  tidings.  What  is  the  news  with  you  about  the 
war?  Please  inform  me,  I  am  very  curious.  [More  about  the 
uncertain  news,  and  about  weather.] 

As  to  your  hunts,  about  which  you  write  me,  I  heard  also  some- 
thing, and  that  the  big  game  is  chased  and  will  fall  into  nets,  and  with 
the  big  game  the  small  will  surely  have  to  suffer,  because  when  the 
hunter  is  chasing  hares  and  meets  partridges,  he  surely  will  not  let 
them  go.^  If  God  grants  that  the  war  is  over  and  helps  me  to  get 
out  of  this  slavery  I  don't  know  where  to  turn  myself.  My  attach- 
ment and  wishes  attract  me  to  my  family,  but,  as  it  seems,  with  you 

it  is  no  worse  [no  better]  than  with  us 

Teofil  Wolski 

443  Philadelphia,  Pa.,  April  8,  1907 

....  Dear  Walcia:  And  now  I  write  you,  my  dear,  an  answer 
to  your  letter.  Some  things  in  this  letter  are  good,  and  some  things 
of  little  worth,  because  of  this:  If  you  come  to  your  brother,  I  will 
come  and  get  you  and  we  could  marry,  remain  for  some  years  and 
return  with  something  [some  money]  to  our  country,  so  that  later  we 
might  not  be  obliged  to  earn  [as  hired  laborers].  If  I  should  return 
in  the  autumn  I  should  not  have  much.  It  was  only  during  the  holi- 
days that  I  sent  back  the  money  for  the  ship-ticket,  and  by  autumn  I 
shall  have  about  200  roubles.  The  journey  100,  the  remainder  for 
the  wedding,  and  what  then?  Go  again  to  America?  That  is  no 
business  for  me,  to  work  and  to  throw  to  the  winds.  Therefore  I 
write  to  you  the  exact  truth:  If  you  don't  come  and  don't  wait  for 
me  longer  it  means  that  you  will  not  be  mine,  because  I  won't  return 
sooner  than  perhaps  on  the  next  holiday  of  Easter;  by  no  means 
can  I  sooner.  And  you  write  that  you  will  wait  only  till  autumn,  and 
so  the  one  disagrees  with  the  other.  Therefore,  I  request  you, 
answer  me,  what  will  become  of  us,  whether  you  will  come  or  not, 

^  Allusion  to  the  revolution.  The  hunters  are  the  Russian  authorities  and 
the  game  the  revolutionists — or  the  contrary. 


-J-] 2  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

or  perhaps  you  will  wait  a  year  still.  And  now  I  will  write  you 
further  tliat  you  have  done  a  stupid  thing  by  sending  that  letter  to 
Kowalski.  He  is  a  brute,  not  a  man,  he  was  not  even  worth  receiving 
that  letter,  and  not  worth  what  I  have  paid  for  two  letters  from  him 
which  I  received,  because  he  wrote  to  me  now  and  was  quarreling  and 
blustering,  as  if  anybody  were  afraid  of  him,  and  all  this  because  of 
you.  You  ought  not  to  wear  your  cloak  on  both  shoulders  [practice 
duplicity].  I  sent  [that  letter]  to  you  in  order  that  you  might  know, 
and  you  sent  it  back  to  him.  Now  he  writes  silly  things  to  me.  I 
don't  praise  this  in  you.  But  now  no  matter;  it  is  done  and  cannot 
be  undone,  so  I  bid  you  goodbye.  I  embrace  you  and  kiss  you. 
Embrace  everybody  in  my  name.^    Now  goodbye. 

Loving  you, 

Teofel  Wolski 

444  December  12,  1909 

My  dearest  Brother  and  Sister-in-law:  ....  I  don't  know 
what  it  means  that  you  forgot  so  soon  about  me,  orphan  [that  I  am]. 
How  can  I  call  myself,  if  not  an  orphan  ?  You  know  from  your  own 
experience  that  everybody  among  you  is  in  his  own  country  and  on  his 
own  piece  of  land  and  defends  himself  against  his  poverty  with  God's 
help.  But  what  do  you  think  about  me?  What  pleasure  have  I? 
As  soon  as  God  helped  me  to  grow  a  little  they  took  me  in  that  far 
world,  and  what  I  suffered  there  I  have  related  to  you  already  [when 
I  saw  you],  and  I  will  not  write  about  it,  because  no  writer  could 
describe  all  my  ups  and  do\\Tis.     Then  I  came  here  to  this  America. 

^  The  letter  is  a  very  good  example  of  the  typical  relation  between  love  and 
economic  considerations.  We  see  these  factors  equilibrated  more  or  less  without 
the  subordination  of  either  of  them.  The  love  is  strong  enough  to  make  the  man 
wait  indeiinitely  for  the  girl  and  not  to  consider  dowTy,  but  considerations  of  the 
future  economic  situation  put  a  determined  limit  to  the  sacrifice  which  he  is  ready 
to  make.  This  equilibration  in  various  proportions  is  found  in  most  of  the  mar- 
riages in  Poland.  But  in  the  old  country,  marriage  is  conditioned  by  social  factors 
more  than  by  individual  considerations,  and  the  relation  between  the  economic 
and  the  sentimental  motives  is  never  so  plain  and  isolated  as  it  is  here.  Teofil  is, 
at  the  time  when  this  letter  is  written,  almost  completely  outside  of  his  family 
and  his  native,  social  environment — more  so  than  his  cousin  Adam  Raczkowski, 
because  of  his  longer  military  service,  his  participation  in  the  war,  and  his  solitude 
in  .\merica.  Therefore  social  considerations  cease  to  play  any  determining  part 
in  his  attitude  toward  marriage,  and  the  individual  factors — economic  welfare  and 
personal  preference — remain  alone  to  determine  his  choice. 


RACZKOWSKI  SERIES  773 

Well,  here  it  is  all  right,  although  it  is  also  sad,  because  the  land  is 
strange,  the  language  is  strange,  and  it  is  difficult  to  converse.  And 
so  I  live  and  pass  my  age,  and  when  I  remember  my  nearest,  that  is 
you,  my  dear  little  brother,  and  you,  sister-in-law,  that  you  have 
forgot  about  me  already,  my  heart  bursts  open  with  regret  and  woe. 
I  do  not  know  what  I  have  done,  why  God  the  Highest  punishes  me 
so  much.  And  this  punishment  is  precisely  your  forgetfulness  about 
me,  poor  pilgrim.  But  nothing  can  be  done;  evidently  such  is  my 
fortune,  coming  from  God,  not  from  anybody  else.  But  at  any  rate, 
please  answer  at  least  this  letter,  and  inform  me  whether  you  received 
a  letter  from  me  and  a  photograph  which  I  sent  you,  I  don't  know 
how  long  ago.  Now,  with  me  nothing  new  has  happened.  I  live 
simply,  according  to  God's  will.  And  just  now  I  send  you  this  sheet 
of  paper  and  I  send  you  also  my  heartiest  wishes  for  this  solemn 
holiday,  i.e.,  Christmas,  and  I  divide  with  you  this  great  token,  i.e., 
this  piece  of  wafer,  and  may  God  bless  you.^  .... 

Teofil  Wolski 

445  March  18  [1914] 

My  dear  Brother  and  Sister-in-law:  ....  And  now  further, 
my  dearest,  I  do  not  know  how  it  is,  but  it  is  strange  that  you  forgot 
me  so  soon  and  you  don't  even  wish  to  write  a  letter  to  me.  I  do 
not  merit  this.  I  should  willingly  do  everything  for  you,  but  now  it 
is  difficult;  I  cannot  help  you  at  all.  Therefore  I  am  not  even  willing 
to  write  this  letter,  because  I  would  indeed  help  you  a  little,  but  there 
is  no  possibility.  It  is  now  so  difficult  to  earn  a  Httle  money — God 
forbid  [help  us!].  It  is  already  the  second  year  since  everyone  is 
trying  only  to  save  his  own  life  and  there  are  many  people  who  die 
from  hunger.     I  feel  so  ill  myself  that  I  don't  know  what  to  do.     If 

'  A  purely  sentimental  manifestation  of  the  familial  attitude.  Familial  affec- 
tion seems  to  be  here  as  in  other  examples  (Kalinowicz  and  Wickowski  series)  the 
last  substitute  for  a  disappearing  familial  solidarity.  It  is  either  the  most  persistent 
element  of  solidarity,  or  the  new  form  which  familial  connection  assumes  when  a 
process  of  individualization  has  destroyed  the  primitive  unity  of  the  group.  The 
second  supposition  seems  more  probable  if  we  remember  the  evolution  which 
familial  attitudes  undergo  when  the  married  couple  with  children  becomes  isolated 
from  the  rest  of  the  family,  and  further  that  there  are  few  signs  of  affection  within 
the  family  in  the  primitive  sense,  that  affection  is  not  necessary  to  produce  the 
familial  unity,  as  is  shown  by  the  rapid  assimilation  of  new  members,  and  that  the 
relation  between  members  of  the  family  is  determined  by  the  degree  of  kinsliip,  not 
by  individual  selection. 


774 


PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 


I  had  money  enough  I  would  return  to  my  country,  but  for  the  time 
being  it  is  difficult  to  gather  so  much  money,  and  therefore  I  must 
suffer  poverty  for  some  time.  God  only  knows  how  long  this  will  last. 
We  know  only  that  when  this  man  who  now,  since  the  4th  of  March, 
is  on  the  throne,  became  president,  we  all  were  glad  that  there  would 
be  work  enough.  Meanwhile  it  turns  out  otherwise,  because  for 
poor  people  the  times  are  getting  worse  than  before.  All  the  prices 
increase  and  work  is  paid  less  than  formerly,  and  moreover  this  work 
cannot  be  got.  And  then  in  our  papers  it  is  written  that  there  in  our 
country  some  mean  agents  are  going  around  and  claiming  that  in 
America  now  work  is  better  than  ever  before.  These  agents  persuade 
the  people  to  go  and  everybody  leaves  his  last  possibility  of  earning 
his  life,  sometimes  even  robs  his  family  and  comes  here,  but  why,  he 
does  not  know  himself.  Perhaps  he  seeks  his  owti  hunger-death,  as 
many  cases  happen  where  in  the  morning  corpses  are  found  lying  in 
the  streets  and  after  cutting  them  open  [physicians]  come  to  the  con- 
clusion that  they  died  from  hunger.  So  don't  listen  to  these  "catch- 
people."  They  are  sent  by  the  ship-companies,  and  are  well  paid  to 
gather  passengers  who  will  pay  such  high  rates  for  the  tickets.  You 
must  know  that  a  ticket  now  costs  about  $60,  i.e.,  120  roubles. 
Those  agents  know  that  people  enough  went  to  America,  but  they  do 
not  know  how  [otherwise]  to  take  this  hard-earned  money  away  from 
those  poor  people  and  therefore  they  use  such  means.  Let  nobody 
listen  to  anybody  but  only  to  his  relatives  whom  he  has  here,  in  this 
golden  America. 

Now  I  request  you  to  inform  me  what  is  the  news  in  your  country. 
How  is  the  winter  there  ?  With  us  it  is  very  light.  And  what  about 
the  young  men  and  girls  who  got  married  ?     WTio  is  dead,  who  lives  ? 

When  I  receive  a  letter  from  you  I  will  send  you  my  photograph. 
Now  we  say  goodbye  to  you,  dear  brother  and  sister-in-law,  and  we 
embrace  and  kiss  millions  of  times  yourselves  and  your  children. 
Your  brother,  loving  to  the  grave, 

T.  WoLSKi  and  Stefan  Kuczborski^ 

'A  friend,  who  signs  as  a  means  of  "sending  his  regards." 


REMBIENSKA  SERIES 

We  have  here  a  case  of  famihal  attitudes  quite  untouched 
by  emigration.  The  writer  seems  to  represent  as  perfectly 
as  possible  the  ideal  of  a  peasant  girl  according  to  the 
traditional  norms.  There  is  scarcely  anything  in  her 
behavior  that  could  be  blamed  from  the  traditional  stand- 
point, but  also  hardly  any  tendency  to  go  beyond  this 
traditional  standpoint.  Compare  her  in  this  respect  with 
the  more  self-conscious  Frania  Osinska 

THE  FAMILY  REMBIENSKI 

Rembienski 

His  wife 

Aleksandra  1  ,  .    ,       , 

Stasia  I  his  daughters 

Julka,  sister  of  Rembienski's  wife 

Kubarz,  her  husband 

Olcia,  their  daughter 

Karolska,  sister  of  Rembienski  (or  of  his  wife) 

Her  husband 

Manka,  a  cousin  of  Aleksandra 

446-48,    ALEKSANDRA   REMBIENSKA,    IN   AMERICA,   TO 
FAMILY-MEMBERS   IN   POLAND 

446  Brooklyn,  N.Y.,  October  14  [191 1] 

My  dear  Family:'  In  the  first  words  "Praised  be  Jesus 
Christus."  .... 

And  now,  dear  parents,  I  inform  you  that  I  am  in  good  health, 
thanks  to  God,  which  I  wish  you  also  with  my  truest  heart.  And  now 
I  am  on  duty  [a  maidservant]  and  I  do  well,  I  have  fine  food,  only  I 
must  work  from  6  o'clock  in  the  morning  to  10  o'clock  at  night  and  I 

'The  use  of  the  word  "family"  instead  of  "parents"  may  be  cither  a  pro- 
vincialism or  an  individual  expression,  but  certainly  it  has  no  particular  meaning 
with  regard  to  the  conception  of  the  family. 

775- 


776  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

have  $13  a  month.  And  now,  dear  parents,  I  implore  you  don't 
grieve  about  me,  thinking  that  I  am  without  money.  When  I  read 
those  letters — because  there  came  four  letters  in  a  single  week,  2  from 
Auntie  Karolska,  2  from  you  dear  parents,  on  the  same  day — so  when 
I  read  those  letters  I  became  very  sad,  that  there  in  our  country  is 
trouble  between  you,  my  parents,  and  the  Karolskis.  Why  do  you 
mind  what  I  say  to  her  ?  She  urged  me  to  send  money  to  her,  and 
not  to  you  and  so  I  sent  it  to  her,  but  not  my  last  money,  only  that 
which  I  sent.  I  had  still  some  10  or  20  roubles,  but  I  wrote  intention- 
ally to  auntie  [that  the  money  I  sent  was  my  last].  And  you  thought, 
dear  parents  that  I  sent  my  last  money  away.^  But  you  know  your- 
selves that  I  cannot  remain  without  a  cent,  because  I  am  in  the 
world  [among  strangers].  I  almost  laughed  about  your  sorrow.  As 
it  is  I  have  spent  more  than  50  roubles  on  myself  for  the  coming  winter, 
and  nevertheless  I  am  not  so  beautifully  dressed  as  all  the  others. 
Only  I  regret  to  spend  money,  I  prefer  to  put  it  away  rather  than  to 
buy  luxurious  dresses,  like  Olcia  Kubaczowna  who  buys  herself  a 
new  dress  every  week  and  doesn't  look  at  money  and  doesn't  think 
what  can  happen.  She  thinks  only  how  to  dress  and  says  she  does 
not  need  to  think  about  anything  more.  But  I  am  not  of  the  same 
opinion;  I  think  about  my  home.  I  have  brothers  and  sisters  and  I 
intend  to  help  them  all  to  come  to  America.^  First  I  will  take  Stasia, 
let  her  hope  to  come  in  the  early  spring,  about  Easter,  and  let  her  be 

'  She  had  to  send  the  money  to  her  aunt  and  uncle  first  because  she  had 
borrowed  it  from  them  to  pay  for  her  journey.  The  difference  in  her  behavior 
toward  her  aunt,  whom  she  tells  that  she  cannot  send  any  more  because  it  is  her 
last  money,  and  toward  her  parents,  whom  she  asks  not  to  be  anxious  because 
she  has  still  a  little  money  left  shows  very  well  the  different  degrees  of  nearness  in 
the  familial  relation.  We  see  the  eagerness  mth  which  the  girl  desires  the  good 
relations  between  her  parents  and  her  aunt  and  uncle  to  be  re-established,  and  we 
find  later  that  her  affection  toward  her  aunt  is  very  real.  And  further,  the  fact 
that  the  parents  have  quarreled  with  the  aunt  because  they  think  that  their 
daughter  has  wronged  herself  to  fulfil  her  aunt's  desire,  is  a  proof  that  the  familial 
affection  of  parents  to  children  is  closer  than  that  between  brothers  and  sisters. 
This  is  the  traditional  situation.  Only  recently  we  find  contrary  cases.  (Cf., 
for  example,  Krupa  series.)  On  the  other  hand,  if  the  girl  had  neglected  her 
familial  duties  toward  her  aunt,  the  parents  would  certainly  have  sided  vnih  the 
aunt;  this  is  also  traditional,  and  we  find  also  only  recently,  as  a  result  of  another 
process  of  evolution,  the  complete  isolation  of  the  marriage-group  as  against  the 
rest  of  the  family. 

^  An  instructive  contrast.  The  cousin  Olcia  is  already  partly  Americanized. 
Her  parents  have  lived  for  a  long  time  in  BrookljTi  and  own  a  house  there. 


REMBIENSKA  SERIES  yj-J 

patient  and  wait.  I  would  take  her  now,  but  in  winter  there  is  no 
such  work  as  in  spring.  And  now,  dear  parents,  you  may  hope  that 
I  will  send  you  for  Christmas  lo  roubles.  I  would  not  send  them  but, 
thanks  to  God,  I  have  some,  and  I  have  work,  so  every  month  money 
comes  to  me.  I  only  ask  our  Lord  Jesus  for  health,  and  then  no  bad 
fortune  will  overtake  me.  I  go  dressed  like  a  lady  only  I  am  sad, 
because  I  must  remain  at  home  and  cannot  go  outside  at  all.  I  am 
not  far  away  from  Uncle  and  Auntie  Kubacz,  but  I  cannot  see  them 
more  than  twice  a  month.  Olcia  is  in  service  like  me  and  also  can  see 
nobody  more  than  twice  a  month;  but  she  is  far  away,  she  must  come 
on  the  street-car.  When  we  meet  together  a  young  man  comes 
directly  to  us.  Now,  dear  parents,  for  girls  there  is  work  in  America, 
but  not  for  men.  Manka  wrote  to  me  a  letter  also  and  she  wrote  to 
[illegible  name]  that  they  had  sent  him  a  ship-ticket.  But  I  once 
heard  Manka  say  [perhaps  jestingly]  that  Aunt  Julka  is  in  the  habit 
of  having  a  good  time  with  other  men,  and  so  maybe  Manka  is  a 
mischief-maker.^ 

Now,  dear  parents,  I  write  to  you,  that  you  may  give  nobody 
my  address.  When  you  receive  my  letter,  hide  it,  in  order  that 
nobody  may  catch  the  address.  And  I  request  you,  tell  auntie  not  to 
give  my  address  to  anybody.^ 

Dear  parents,  I  am  very  sorry;  are  you  indeed  angry  with  Aunt 
Karolska?  What  is  the  trouble?  Tell  me,  do  you  visit  them? 
Now  I  beg  you,  there  is  no  reason  for  you  to  be  angry;  you  can  call 
on  them,  and  I  will  be  more  than  glad  to  hear  that  you  are  not 
angry. 

And  now,  dear  parents,  I  will  write  you  that  I  have  an  opportunity 
to  be  married.  I  have  a  fine  boy,  because  uncle  and  auntie  have 
known  him  for  3  years.  He  is  good,  not  a  drunkard,  he  does  not 
swear,  as  others  often  do.  From  him  I  have  not  yet  heard  a  single 
bad  word  or  oath;  he  has  not  this  habit.  I  don't  know  whether  T 
shall  marry  this  year  or  not— just  as  you  advise  me,  my  parents.  He 
wishes  that  it  may  be  now,  and  he  begs  uncle  and  auntie  because  he 
is  boarding  with  them.     I  don't  like  in  him  that  he  is  as  small  as 

'  The  passage  is  not  clear.  The  general  meaning  is  that  Manka  is  a  joker  and 
that  she  perhaps  wrote  this  also  as  a  joke  and  the  man  thinks  it  is  true. 

^  It  is  not  clear  why  she  does  not  want  her  address  to  be  known.  Perhaps  being 
a  maidservant,  she  does  not  want  anybody  to  come  to  her,  and  perhaps  she  does  not 
want  any  "boys"  to  write  to  her  in  view  of  her  prolxible  marriage  and  the  possible 
jealousy  of  the  man. 


jyS  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

Antek  Lada.  He  is  pretty,  that  is  true.  Wait  a  little;  for  Christ- 
mas we  will  send  you  a  photograph;  then  you  wiU  see  him.  As  to 
what  I  wrote  about  your  photograph,  you  need  not  send  it,  because 
it  will  be  very  expensive.  And  now,  dear  parents,  I  beg  you  so  very 
much,  let  nobody  learn  that  I  am  going  to  be  married  and  that  I  have 
a  young  man.  Let  only  my  family  [yourselves]  know  everything,  no 
other  people,  neither  brothers  nor  sisters.  I  beg  you,  let  nobody 
know  what  I  wrote  in  this  letter.  Say  only  "She  wrote  nothing; 
all's  well,"  and  let  that  be  all.  Don't  say  anything  about  this 
matter.  And  when  I  send  the  photograph,  hide  it  also,  please,  so 
that  nobody  may  see  it.^ 

And  now  I  have  nothing  more  to  write,  and  I  bow  to  you,  dear 
family,  and  I  wish  you  every  good.     May  God  grant  that  this  letter 

finds  you  in  good  health,  and  I  ask  you  for  a  quick  answer 

Aleksandra  Rembienska 

And  I  request  you,  dear  parents,  send  letters  with  stamps,  because 
I  have  great  difficulties.     A  letter  with  a  stamp  arrives  sooner, 

447 

0  DEAR  Family  [Parents],  I  write  this  letter  to  you  on  November 
20,  and  I  got  your  letter  on  November  20,  and  I  begin  this  letter 
with  the  words  [usual  greeting].  And  now,  dear  family,  I  inform 
you  that  I  am  in  good  health,  thanks  to  our  Lord  God,  and  I  wish 
to  you  also  happiness,  health,  and  good  success.  And  now,  dear 
family,  I  let  you  know  that  in  October  I  did  not  work  for  two  weeks 
because  I  did  not  like  to  work  for  nothing,  and  I  left  this  place  because 

'  Her  whole  attitude  in  this  matter  of  marriage  shows  a  slight  modification  of 
the  tradition,  but  just  to  the  degree  necessitated  by  the  changed  conditions  of  life. 
She  asks  for  her  parents'  "advdce"  as  to  the  time  when  she  should  marry,  and 
expresses  her  readiness  to  comply  with  their  wish,  but  she  does  it  with  some  con- 
sciousness of  her  independence  and  assumes  that  the  parents  will  not  object  to  her 
marrying  as  soon  as  she  wishes.  As  to  her  choice,  evidently  her  parents,  not  knowing 
the  man,  cannot  control  it  personally,  and  she  does  not  ask  them  literally  for  permis- 
sion to  marry  this  man;  but  she  tries  to  justify  her  choice  and  appeals  to  the  opinion 
of  her  uncle  and  aunt,  who  under  the  circumstances  are  better  representatives  of  the 
will  of  the  family  than  the  parents.  Her  wish  to  keep  the  engagement  secret  is 
justified  by  the  changed  conditions  of  courtship.  While  in  the  old  country  the 
whole  process  of  courting  is  necessarily  a  pubUc  afi'air  and  leads  to  a  certain  degree 
of  social  obligation  to  keep  the  engagement,  here  this  process  is  going  on  abnost 
privately,  the  engagement  may  be  broken  at  any  moment  without  important  con- 
sequences, and  therefore  the  girl  does  not  like  to  have  it  known  beforehand. 


REMBIElSrSKA  SERIES  779 

they  wouldn't  pay  me  more  than  $12.  And  now  I  am  in  another 
place,  only  far  away  from  uncle,  for  it  is  necessary  to  travel  an  hour 
to  uncle;  but  uncle  comes  to  meet  me  every  second  Sunday.  I 
am  well  enough,  I  receive  now  $16  for  this  month.  I  don't  feel  lone- 
some, because  there  are  two  of  us  girls  in  this  household.  The 
master  and  mistress  are  Polish.  We  are  near  a  church  and  they  send 
us  every  Sunday  at  6  o'clock  in  the  morning  to  the  mass.  We 
have  every  day  18  rooms  to  clean,  and  to  cook  and  to  wash  linen.  It 
is  myself  who  wash  every  week  about  300  pieces  of  linen,  and  iron  it. 
But  I  have  easy  washing  because  I  don't  wash  with  my  hands;  the 
machine  washes  alone,  I  only  cover  the  linen  with  soap  and  put  5  pieces 
into  the  machine  at  once.  After  15  minutes  I  take  them  out  and  put 
in  new  ones,  and  so  by  noon  I  wash  all  the  300  pieces.  I  iron  4  days, 
from  6  [a.m.]  to  8  p.m.  I  do  nothing  but  iron  for  those  4  days.  Dear 
parents,  you  admonish  me  so  severely  to  be  on  my  guard.  But 
I  cannot  and  do  not  walk  about  the  city.  I  cannot  even  go  out  before 
the  house  for  a  while.  I  am  in  America  and  I  do  not  even  know 
whether  it  is  America,  only  it  seems  to  me  as  if  there  were  only  a 
single  house  in  the  whole  world  and  nothing  more,  only  walls  and 
very  few  people.  Now  you  ask  about  this  young  man  about  whom 
I  wrote,  whether  he  is  a  Catholic.  Well,  he  has  been  boarding  with  the 
Felikses  for  probably  2  years,  and  when  I  was  with  them  I  have  seen. 
He  says  his  prayer  and  wears  a  cross  on  his  breast.  I  hope  I  am  not 
yet  so  stupid  as  not  to  know  with  whom  I  have  to  speak.  He  is 
even  from  a  country  not  far  away  from  ours,  government  and  district 
of  Lomza.  And  now,  dear  [sister]  Stasia,  don't  think  that  I  will 
hurry  and  have  the  wedding  the  soonest  possible;  perhaps  there  will 
be  no  wedding  at  all.  Don't  forget  to  get  ready  and  come.  It 
will  be  more  lively  when  we  are  both  together.  You  ask  for  my 
photograph.  I  have  none  ready.  I  will  send  you  one  in  December. 
I  will  go  soon  to  a  photographer.  And  now,  dear  parents,  don't  think 
that  I  am  with  nobody  to  care  about  me.  I  have  a  good  uncle  and 
auntie;  I  did  not  expect  they  would  be  so  good.  They  care  about 
me  as  about  their  own  child;  they  will  allow  nobody  to  do  me  any 
wrong.  When  I  go  to  them  I  am  as  bold  and  grateful,  as  in  my  own 
parental  home,  but  still  more  so.  If  you  don't  believe  me,  then, 
dear  family,  please  ask  uncle  and  auntie.  They  will  tell  you  that 
it  is  true. 

•  And  now,  dear  family,  I  have  nothing  more  to  write,  but  only  I 
send  you  low  bows  and  wish  you  every  good. 


780  PRIMARY-GROUP  0RG.\NIZAT10N 

I  have  received  the  photograph,  for  which  I  thank  you  very 
heartily,  and  I  will  send  you  soon  an  American  one,  with  this  young 
man.  And  now  I  have  nothing  to  write,  only  I  greet  you,  parents,  and 
brothers  and  sisters,  and  I  wish  you  all  health  and  happiness.  I 
greet  also  Aunt  Karolska  and  ask  and  beg  her  pardon.  Let  her  not 
be  angry  with  me,  but  I  had  no  time  to  WTite  another  letter  particu- 
larly to  auntie.  Be  so  good,  auntie,  and  accept  from  my  parents  this 
same  letter,  because  I  should  wTite  to  you  the  same  as  to  my  parents. 
I  have  nothing  more  to  write,  only  I  ask  you,  auntie,  for  a  speedy 
answer,  and  I  beg  you  once  more,  auntie,  let  nobody  know  from  these 
letters  about  the  young  man.     I  request  you,  dear  parents,  give  this 

whole  letter  to  auntie  to  read. 

[Aleksandra  Rembeensk.^] 

448  Year  191 2 

0  DEAR  x\untie:  I  received  your  letter  on  February  20  and  I 
write  you  on  February  25.  Dear  auntie,  you  wrote  3  letters  and  I 
know  nothing  about  them;  I  received  only  this  one.  0  dear  auntie, 
you  write  to  me  that  I  either  don't  wish  to  write  or  that  I  have  for- 
gotten [you].  0  dear  auntie,  I  will  not  forget  until  my  death.  I 
write  letters,  one  to  auntie  and  the  other  to  my  parents.  Perhaps 
somebody  has  intercepted  those  letters  at  the  post-office  and  does  not 
give  them  to  you.  Now,  dear  auntie,  I  inform  you  that  I  am  in  good 
health,  thanks  to  our  Lord  God,  which  I  wish  also  to  you,  dear  auntie. 
May  God  help  you  the  best;  may  I  always  hear  that  you  are  doing 
well;  I  shall  be  very  glad  then.  And  now  dear  auntie,  I  inform  you 
that  I  am  in  the  same  place  in  service  with  an  English[-speaking] 
master  and  mistress  who  don't  know  a  word  of  Polish,  and  I  don't 
know  English;  so  we  communicate  with  gestures  and  I  know  what  to 
do,  that's  all.  I  know  the  work  and  therefore  I  don't  mind  much  about 
the  language.  But,  dear  auntie,  I  went  intentionally  into  an  English 
household  in  order  that  I  may  learn  to  speak  English,  because  it  is 
necessar}^,  in  America,  as  the  EngHsh  language  reigns.  I  am  in  good 
health,  only  I  am  a  little  ill  with  my  feet,  I  don't  know  what  it  is, 
whether  rheumatism  or  something  else.  I  walk  very  much,  because 
from  6  o'clock  in  the  morning  till  10  o'clock  in  the  evening  I  have 
work  and  I  receive  S22  a  month,  and  I  have  7  persons,  and  16  rooms 
to  clean,  and  I  cook;  everything  is  on  my  head.  And  now,  dear 
auntie,  you  wrote  to  me  about  Stas  Filinak  that  he  wished  to  know 


REMBIEl^SKA  SERIES  781 

my  address;  you  can  give  it  to  him.^  You  wrote  to  me  that  he  said 
that  our  Lord  God  punished  him  because  he  did  not  take  me.  It 
is  not  true.  He  did  not  do  me  any  wrong,  I  pity  him  very  much. 
You  ask  me  whether  my  address  is  the  same.  It  is  the  same  and  it 
will  never  change,  and  secondly,  the  Kubaczs  have  lived  already  10 
years  at  the  same  place  and  the  address  is  the  same.  And  now,  dear 
auntie,  please  don't  be  angry  with  me  for  not  answering  directly,  for 
I  have  no  time,  neither  in  the  day  nor  the  evening.  I  am  always 
busy.  And  now,  dear  auntie,  I  thank  you  very  much  for  the  news, 
for  now  I  know  everything.  You  ask  about  that  young  man,  what 
happened.  Nothing  happened,  only  it  is  so  that  I  did  not  wish  to 
marry  him,  because  I  don't  wish  to  marry  at  all;  I  will  live  alone 
through  this  my  life  to  the  end.  He  is  a  good  fellow,  nothing  can  be 
said,  his  name  is  Tomasz  Zylowski.  He  wants  it  to  be  in  summer, 
after  Easter,  but  I  don't  think  about  marrying,  I  will  suffer  alone  to 
the  end  in  this  world.^  O  dear  auntie,  I  write  you  that  I  have  nothing 
to  write,  only  I  ask  you  for  a  quick  answer.  And  now  I  beg  you, 
auntie,  write  me  what  happened  with  [two  illegible  names  of  boy  and 
girl].  I  wish  you  a  merry  holiday  of  Easter  time.  O  dear  God,  why 
cannot  I  be  with  auntie  and  divide  the  egg  together  with  parents  and 
brothers  and  sisters!  When  I  recall  all  this,  I  would  not  be  sorry  if 
I  had  to  die  right  now.  Dear  auntie,  Maiika  wrote  to  me  a  letter; 
Jabloiiska  with  [illegible  masculine  name]  will  come  to  the  Kubaczs. 

[Aleksandra  Rembienska] 

'  Because  her  relation  with  the  other  suitor  is  interrupted. 
"  A  typical  momentary  reaction  to  a  disappointment.     See  her  allusion  to 
dying  at  the  end,  where  this  disappointment  is  combmed  with  the  feeling  of  loneli- 


BUTKOWSKI  SERIES 

We  have  here  another  example  of  traditional  attitudes 
almost  perfectly  preserved  in  emigration — this  time  in  a 
young  man.  In  this  case,  as  in  that  of  Rembienska,  the 
familial  relations  at  home  were  particularly  strong,  and  this 
is  evidently  the  main  reason  why  the  dissolution  comes  so 
slowly.  (Cf.  introduction  to  the  Raczkowski  series.)  We 
notice  also  that  the  familial  feelings  seem  a  little  weaker 
in  Antoni  than  in  Konstanty.  As  we  have  no  further  data 
as  to  their  past  we  may  conjecture  that  the  difference  is 
one  of  individual  character. 

449-61,   KONSTANTY  AND   ANTONT  BUTKOWSKI,   IN 
AMERICA,   TO   THEIR   PARENTS,    IN   POLAND 

449  South  Chicago,  December  6,  1901 

Dear  Parents:  I  send  you  my  lowest  bow,  as  to  a  father  and 
mother,  and  I  greet  you  and  my  brothers  with  these  words:  ''Praised 
be  Jesus  Christus,"  and  I  hope  in  God  that  you  will  answer  me,  "For 
centuries  of  centuries.     Amen." 

And  now  I  wish  you,  dearest  parents,  and  you  also,  dearest 
brother,  to  meet  the  Christmas  eve  and  merry  holidays  in  good  health 
and  happiness.  May  God  help  you  in  your  intentions.  Be  merry-,  all 
of  you  together.  [HeaUh  and  success;  letter  received.]  I  could  not 
answer  you  at  once,  for  you  know  that  when  one  comes  from  work  he 
has  no  wish  to  occupy  himself  with  writing  [particularly]  as  I  work 

always  at  night I  sent  you  money,  100  roubles,  on  November  30. 

I  could  not  send  more  now,  for  you  know  that  winter  is  coming  and  I 
must  buy  clothes.  I  inform  you  that  Marta  has  no  work  yet.  She 
will  get  work  after  the  holidays,  and  it  may  happen  that  she  will 

marry I  inform  you  about  Jasiek,  my  brother,  that  he  wrote 

me  a  letter  from  Prussia  asking  me  to  take  him  to  America,  but  he 
is  still  too  young.  Inform  me  about  Antoni,  how  his  health  is,  for 
in  the  spring  I  will  bring  him  to  me.  I  will  send  him  a  ship-ticket,  if 
God  grants  me  health.     [Greetings  for  family  and  relatives.] 

[Konstanty  Butkowski] 
782 


BUTKOWSKI  SERIES  783 

450  January  i,  1902 

Dear  Parents:  ....  I  send  you,  my  dear  parents,  my  photo- 
graphs, 5  copies.  So  please,  give  my  aunt  Klemensowa  that  one  in 
which  I  am  with  Marta,  and  leave  the  other  with  yourself.  From 
these  3  [where  I  am  alone]  give  one  to  the  Butkowski's  [uncle],  the 
other  to  whom  you  wish,  and  keep  the  third.  For  perhaps  we  shall 
see  one  another  soon,  and  perhaps  not,  so  you  will  have  me  at  least 
upon  this  dead  paper.  But  please  don't  grieve  about  me;  perhaps  I 
have  saddened  your  heart  with  this  letter  [the  preceding  sentence],  but, 
thanks  to  God  we  are  still  alive.  I  beg  you,  father  and  mother, 
give  [money]  for  a  holy  mass,  for,  as  you  know,  in  America  everything 
is  hypocritical  [the  priests  and  their  prayers].  As  to  the  apparition, 
about  which  you  wrote,  that  in  America  our  Lord  Jesus  manifested 
Himself,  don't  believe  in  it.  Whoever  tells  you  it  you  may  spit  into 
his  eyes  [as  a  liar].  It  is  not  true.  Those  images  which  are  repro- 
duced in  your  country — don't  care  for  them,  for  it's  not  true.  So 
don't  believe  in  it,  because  it  is  not  valid,  it  is  invented  by  people. 
Why,  we  in  America  would  know  it  better  than  they  know  there  in 
our  country.  It  happened  only  thus,  that  in  one  town,  in  a  church, 
upon  an  image  above  the  altar  dew  appeared.  This  image  was  painted 
red,  so  people  who  came  to  the  church  early  in  the  morning  said  that 
it  was  blood,  while  it  was  not  blood,  only  dew.^  .... 

KONSTANTY   BUTKOWSKI 

451  February  17,  1902 

Dearest  Parents:  ....  I  inform  you  that  I  have  sent  a  ship- 
ticket    for    Antoni Expect    to    receive    it   soon And 

remember,  Antoni,  don't  show  your  papers  to  anybody,  except  in 

•  The  man  is  very  religious  (cf.  letter  No.  454,  where  he  asks  for  scapularies, 
rosaries,  etc.)  and  his  unbelief  with  regard  to  the  alleged  miracle  is  not  the  result 
;  of  any  critical  attitude  toward  miracles  in  general,  but  merely  the  negation  of  a 
particular  fact  which  might  have  happened  elsewhere  at  some  other  moment.  The 
background  of  this  negation  is  clearly  the  idea  that  no  such  miracle  can  happen  in 
America  where  "everything  is  hypocritical."  For  the  same  reason  he  asks  for  a 
mass  to  be  said  in  Poland,  not  in  America.  The  underlying  assumption  is  that  the 
efficiency  of  religious  values  depends  upon  the  moral  perfection  of  the  men  who 
manipulate  them.  This  attitude  corresponds  to  the  moral-religious  system  as 
against  the  magical  one.  (Cf.  Introduction:  "Religious  and  Magical  Attitudes.") 
It  is  the  attitude  which  makes  possible  the  whole  "Zaranie  movement,"  to  be 
treated  in  Part  II. 


784  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

places  where  you  must  show  them And  if  you  receive  the 

ticket  soon,  don't  wait,  but  come  at  once.  And  if  you  receive  it  a 
week  or  so  before  Easter,  then  don't  leave  until  after  the  holidays. 

But  after  the  holidays  don't  wait;    come  at  once And  send 

me  a  telegram  from  the  Castle  Garden.  You  won't  pay  much,  and  I 
shall  know  and  will  go  to  the  railway-station.  Take  15  roubles  with 
you,  it  will  be  enough,  and  change  them  at  once  for  Prussian  money. 
As  to  the  clothes,  take  the  worst  which  you  have,  some  three  old 
shirts,  that  you  may  have  a  change  on  the  water.  And  when  you 
come  across  the  water  happily,  then  throw  away  all  these  rags. 
Bring  nothing  with  you  except  what  you  have  upon  yourself.  And 
don't  bring  any  good  shoes  either,  but  everything  the  worst.  As  to 
living,  take  some  dry  bread  and  much  sugar,  and  about  half  a  quart 
of  spirits,  and  some  dry  meat.     You  may  take  some  onions,  but  don't 

take  any  cheese And  be  careful  in  every  place  about  money. 

Don't  talk  to  any  girls  on  the  water Learn  in  Bzory  when 

VVojtek  will  come,  for  he  comes  to  the  same  place  where  I  am,  so  you 
would  have  a  companion.  And  about  Jan  Plonka,  if  he  wants  to 
come,  he  is  not  to  complain  about  [reproach]  me  for  in  America  there 
are  neither  Sundays  nor  holidays;  he  must  go  and  work.  I  inform 
[him]  that  I  shall  receive  him  as  my  brother.     If  he  wishes  he  may 

^'^^^ [KONSTANTY  BUTKOWSKi] 

452  November  11  [1902] 

Dearest  Parents  :  ....  Now  I  inform  you  about  Antoni,  that 
he  is  working  in  Chicago;  it  costs  15  cents  to  go  to  him.  He  is  board- 
ing, as  well  as  Marta,  with  acquaintances,  with  IMalewski.  He  has 
an  easy  and  clean  work,  but  he  earns  only  enough  to  live,  for  he  is 
unable  to  do  hea\y  work.  I  see  them  almost  every  evening.  I  go  to 
them.  And  Marta  works  in  a  tailor-shop,  but  she  refuses  to  listen 
to  me,  else  she  would  have  been  married  long  ago.  So  I  inform  you 
that  I  loved  her  as  my  own  sister,  but  now  I  won't  talk  to  her  any 
more,  for  she  refuses  to  listen.  Family  remains  family  only  in  the 
first  time  after  coming  from  home,  and  later  they  forget  and  don't 
wish  any  more  to  acknowledge  the  familial  relations;  the  American 
meat  inflates  them. 

I  have  nothing  more  to  write,  except  that  we  are  all  in  good  health. 
Moreover,  I  declare  about  your  letters,  give  them  to  somebody  else 
to  write,  for  neither  wise  nor  fool  can  read  such  writing.     If  such 


BUTKOWSKI  SERIES  785 

writers  are  to  write  you  may  as  well  not  send  letters,  for  I  won't  read 
them,  only  I  will  throw  them  into  the  fire,  for  I  cannot  understand. 
I  beg  you,  describe  to  me  about  our  country,  how  things  are  going  on 
there.  And  please  don't  be  angry  with  me  for  this  which  I  shall 
write.  I  write  you  that  it  is  hard  to  live  alone,  so  please  find  some 
girl  for  me,  but  an  orderly  [honest]  one,  for  in  America  there  is  not 
even  one  single  orderly  girl.'  .... 

KONSTANTY  BUTKOWSKI 


453  December  21  [1902] 

I,  your  son,  Konstanty  Butkowski,  inform  you,  dear  parents, 

about  my  health I  thank  you  kindly  for  your  letter,  for  it 

was  happy.  As  to  the  girl,  although  I  don't  know  her,  my  companion, 
who  knows  her,  says  that  she  is  stately  and  pretty,  I  believe  him,  as 
well  as  you,  my  parents.  For  although  I  don't  know  her,  I  ask  you, 
my  dear  parents,  and  as  you  will  write  me  so  it  will  be  well.  Shall  I 
send  her  a  ship- ticket,  or  how  else  shall  I  do?  Ask  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Sadowski  [her  parents],  what  they  will  say.  And  I  beg  you,  dear 
parents,  give  them  my  address  and  let  them  write  a  letter  to  me, 
then  I  shall  know  with  certainty.     And  write  me,  please,  about  her 

'  Although  it  is  not  entirely  clear,  even  to  themselves,  what  immigrants  mean 
when  they  say  that  Polish  girls  "get  totally  spoiled"  in  America,  that  they  are  not 
"orderly,"  etc.,  the  main  point  is  probably  the  more  or  less  clear  consciousness  that 
the  girls  lose  the  character  which  they  ought  to  possess  in  conformity  with  the 
family  spirit — that  they  are  too  much  individualized.  This  implies  more  than 
mere  emancipation  from  the  supremacy  of  man  and  more  than  is  implied  in  the 
explicit  reproaches  of  the  men — a  tendency  to  amusement,  to  infidelity,  to  finery, 
etc.,  though  it  implies  these  features  also. 

At  this  point — in  the  allusion  to  Marta,  to  illegible  letters — and  in  the  earlier 
allusion  to  the  corruption  of  religion  in  America,  the  writer  shows  an  exasperation 
not  adequately  expressed  in  the  translation.  It  is  the  result  of  the  awakened 
consciousness  of  the  disharmony  between  the  man's  present  individualistic  and  his 
former  familial  environment.  The  feeling  of  loneliness  must  be  particularly 
strong  in  a  man  of  his  psychology  when  removed  from  the  family-group,  and  mar- 
riage appears  here  as  a  substitute  for  the  family  in  its  primitive  form  and  not,  as  it 
is  in  the  old  country,  a  widening  of  the  primitive  family-group.  In  Poland  the  sub- 
stitution of  the  marriage-group  for  the  family-group  goes  on  much  more  slowly, 
and  mainly  in  city  Ufe.  The  internal  evolution — loss  of  the  sentiment  of  familial 
solidarity — keeps  pace  with  the  slower  evolution  of  the  external  conditions.  But 
in  America  the  change  of  external  conditions  is  always  in  advance  of  the  change 
of  attitudes,  and  therefore  in  the  present  case  the  substitution  of  the  marriage- 
group  for  the  family-group  is  not  accompanied  by  the  loss  of  familial  feelings. 


786  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

age  and  about  everything  which  concerns  her.  I  don't  need  to 
enumerate;  you  know  yourselves,  dear  parents.  For  to  send  a  ship- 
ticket  it  is  not  the  same  as  to  send  a  letter  which  costs  a  nickel;  what 
is  done  cannot  be  undone.  So  I  beg  you  once  more,  as  my  loving 
parents,  go  into  this  matter  and  do  it  well,  that  there  may  be  no 

cheating I  shall  wait  for  your  letter  with  great  impatience, 

that  I  may  know  what  to  do ^         Konstanty  Butkowski 

Please  inform  me,  which  one  is  to  come,  whether  the  older  or  the 
younger  one,  whether  Aleksandra  or  Stanislawa.     Inform  me  exactly. 

454  February  14,  1903 

Dearest  Parents:  ....  As  to  the  Sadowskis,  I  wrote  them  a 
letter,  and  I  inform  you  that  I  shall  send  her  a  ship-ticket,  for  they 
wrote  me  a  letter  and  all  this  pleased  me  very  much.  So  in  March 
I  will  send  her  a  ship-ticket,  but  I  will  wait  until  you  answer  this  letter, 
my  parents.  I  will  send  the  ticket  to  her  address.  As  to  the  money 
for  the  journey,  they  could  give  it  to  her,  and  if  not,  I  will  send  it 
for  her,  but  to  your  address.  As  to  Jasiek,  I  inform  you,  let  him  not 
risk  coming,  for  he  is  still  too  young.     Here  in  Chicago  work  is  very 

hard Even  Antoni  scarcely  earns  for  his  living,  and  you  write 

me  to  take  that  one.  Let  him  wait  at  least  2  years,  for  Antoni  has 
not  worked  during  the  whole  winter.  He  would  work  for  3  days  and 
sit  for  a  month.  For  you  know  that  here  in  America  one  must  always 
work;   there  is  no  rest.     He  has  time  enough. 

And  now  I  inform  you  that  if  she  comes  to  me  let  her  bring  a  belt 
consecrated  to  St.  Franciscus,  one  scapulary  consecrated  to  the 
Immaculate  Conception  of  Mary  and  two  consecrated  to  God's 
Mother  of  Sorrows,  and  one  koronka  [arrangement  of  prayers  differ- 
ing from  the  rosary]  consecrated  to  the  Immaculate  Conception.  And 
let  her  bring  also  one  of  those  booklets  with  flower-patterns  for 

^^^ KONSTANTY   BuTKOWSKI 

'  In  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  parents  are  to  select  the  girl,  the  marriage  is  here 
no  longer  the  familial  matter  it  was  traditionall3^  Its  aim  is  here  purely  individual. 
The  parents  are  required  to  select  in  view  of  their  son's  personal  happiness,  and  the 
girl,  who  by  emigrating  will  be  isolated  from  her  family,  is  taken  into  consideration 
rather  as  an  individual  than  as  a  family-member.  We  find  here  the  intermediary 
type  between  familial  and  properly  individual  marriage;  the  form  remains  familial 
but  the  content  is  already  individualistic.  In  selecting  a  stress  is  put  upon  the 
family  from  which  the  girl  comes,  not  because  the  alliance  with  this  family  is  more 
or  less  desired,  but  mainly  because  the  nature  of  the  family  forms  a  basis  for  con- 
clusions as  to  the  character  of  the  individual. 


BUTKOWSKI  SERIES  787 

455  March  28,  1903 

Dear  Parents:  ....  I  sent  the  ship-ticket  on  March  26,  and 
I  sent  to  you,  father,  20  roubles  of  money,  so  you  may  give  her  some 
for  the  journey.  So  I  commit  myself  to  you,  father  and  mother, 
for  I  don't  know  her.  I  inform  you,  dear  parents,  that  not  one,  but 
thousands  of  girls  come  here  to  America,  get  married,  live  a  month 
or  a  year  or  two,  and  then  some  scoundrel  persuades  her  and  she 
runs  away  with  him  into  the  world.  Thousands  of  such  cases  happen. 
So  my  dearest  parents,  I  commit  myself  to  you.  I  embrace  you  and 
kiss  your  hands  and  I  beg  your  pardon,  dear  parents,  and  you,  dearest 
brothers,  and  my  whole  family  for  hazarding  myself  in  such  an 
undertaking.  I  don't  know  how  God  and  the  Holiest  Mother  will 
help  me,  for  it  is  neither  for  a  year  nor  for  two,  but  for  my  whole 
life.  Don't  think,  father  and  mother,  that  when  I  marry,  I  shall 
forget  you.  Oh  no!  Whenever  I  can  I  will  always  help  you  in  any 
case. 

As  to  Sadowska,  I  have  described  in  my  letter  to  her  how  she 

should  arrange  everything And  if  they  ask  her  to  whom  she 

is  going,  let  her  answer,  to  her  brother  ....  Konstanty  Butkowski. 
[Similar  advice  to  his  brother.] 

Konstanty  Butkowski 

456  June  13  [1902] 

Dearest  Parents:  ....  Konstanty  works  in  the  same  factory 
as  before  and  earns  $2  a  day.  I  have  yet  no  work,  but  don't  be  anxious 
about  me,  dear  parents  ....  for  I  came  to  a  brother  and  uncle, 
not  to  strangers.  If  our  Lord  God  gives  me  health,  I  shall  work 
enough  in  America.  [News  about  friends  and  relatives.]  Now  I 
inform  you,  dear  parents,  about  Wtadyslawa  Butkowska  [cousin]. 
She  lives  near  us,  we  see  each  other  every  day.  She  is  a  doctor's 
servant.  And  this  doctor  has  left  his  wife  in  Chicago  and  came  to 
South  Chicago.  She  cooks  for  him,  and  she  is  alone  in  his  house,  so 
people  talk  about  her,  that  she  does  not  behave  well.  He  pays  her 
$5  a  week.     I  don't  know  whether  it  is  true  or  not,  but  people  talk 

thus  because  he  has  left  his  wife ' 

[Antoni  Butkowski] 

'  In  Poland  the  girl  would  not  venture  to  take  or  keep  such  a  jjlace  in  the  face 
of  public  opinion. 


y8S  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

4517  Chicago,  December  31,  1902 

Dear  Parents:  ....  If  Konstanty  wrote  you  to  send  him  a 
"irl  answer  him  that  he  may  send  a  ship-ticket  either  to  the  one  from 
Popow  or  to  the  one  from  Grajewo.  Let  the  one  come  which  is 
smarter,  for  he  does  not  know  either  of  them,  so  send  the  one  which 
pleases  you  better.  For  in  America  it  is  so:  Let  her  only  know  how 
to  prepare  for  the  table,  and  be  beautiful.  For  in  America  there  is 
no  need  of  a  girl  who  knows  how  to  spin  and  to  weave.  If  she  knows 
how  to  sew,  it  is  well.  For  if  he  does  not  marry  he  will  never  make  a 
fortune  and  will  never  have  anything;  he  wastes  his  work  and  has 
nothing.  And  if  he  marries  he  will  sooner  put  something  aside.  For 
he  won't  come  back  any  more.  In  America  it  is  so:  Whoever  does 
not  intend  to  return  to  his  country,  it  is  best  for  him  to  marry  young; 
then  he  will  sooner  have  something,  for  a  bachelor  in  America  will 
never  have  anything,  unless  he  is  particularly  self-controlled.'  [Greet- 
ings, wishes,  etc.] 

Antoni  Butkowski 

458  South  Chicago,  April  21,  1903 

Now  I,  Antoni,  your  son,  my  dearest  parents,  and  my  uncle  and 
the  whole  family,  we  inform  you  that  your  son  Konstanty  is  no  longer 
alive.  He  was  killed  in  the  foundry  [steel-mills].  Now  I  inform  you, 
dear  parents,  that  he  was  insured  in  an  association  for  $1,000.^  His 
funeral  will  cost  $300.     And  the  rest  which  remains,  we  have  the 

'  The  emphasis  by  Antoni  of  the  business  side  of  marriage  is  probably  an 
individual  feature.     Konstanty  does  not  mention  the  economic  side  at  all. 

'  The  immediate  passage  from  the  news  of  death  to  business  seems  to  show  a 
particular  coldness  in  the  brother.  But  it  is  probably  rather  a  lack  of  tact  in  letter- 
writing,  due  to  his  youth.  The  letter  is  written  on  the  second  day  after  Konstanty's 
death,  and  this  day  was  probably  mainly  devoted  to  business  conferences  of  the 
family;  so  the  business  problems  are  put  first.  At  any  rate,  it  is  not  a  proof  of 
egotism,  since  Antoni  has  no  personal  benefit  to  expect.  Further,  we  find  here  in 
an  exaggerated  form  a  typical  peasant  attitude.  No  grief,  however  great,  inter- 
feres for  a  long  time  with  the  peasant's  practical  activity.  This  is  a  consequence 
of  the  fact  that,  as  we  have  noted  more  than  once,  the  peasant's  psychologj'^  is 
essentially  practical;  reflection  or  sentimental  brooding  always  requires  a  particular 
effort  and  particularly  favorable  external  circumstances,  and  therefore,  in  whatever 
situation,  it  is  the  practical  side,  the  point  from  which  activity  can  start,  which 
naturally  tends  to  occupy  the  first  place.  Finally,  there  is  for  the  peasant  nothing 
mean  or  low  in  economic  questions  in  comparison  with  other  and  higher  interests. 
Cf.  Osinski  series,  letters  of  Baranowski. 


BUTKOWSKI  SERIES  789 

right  to  receive  this  money.  So  now  I  beg  you,  dear  parents,  send 
an  authorization  and  his  birth-certificate  to  my  uncle,  Piotr  Z.,  for 
I  am  still  a  minor  and  cannot  appear  in  an  American  lawsuit.  When 
he  joined  his  association  he  insured  himself  for  $1,000  ....  and 
made  a  will  in  your  favor,  dear  parents.  But  you  cannot  get  it  unless 
you  send  an  authorization  to  our  uncle,  for  the  lawsuit  will  be  here, 
and  it  would  be  difficult  for  you  to  get  the  money  [while  remaining]  in 
our  country,  while  we  shall  get  it  soon  and  we  will  send  it  to  you,  dear 
parents.  So  now,  when  you  receive  this  letter,  send  us  the  papers 
soon.     Only  don't  listen  to  stupid  people,  but  ask  wise  people 

Now  I  inform  you,  dear  parents,  that  strange  people  will  write 
to  you  letters.  Answer  each  letter,  and  answer  thus,  that  you  com- 
mit everything  to  Piotr  Z.  For  they  will  try  to  deceive  you,  asking 
to  send  the  authorization  to  them.  But  don't  listen  to  anybody 
....  only  listen  to  me,  as  your  son;  then  you  will  receive  money 
paid  for  your  son  and  my  brother.  [Repeats  the  advice;  wishes  from 
the  whole  family.] 

Now  I  beg  you,  dear  parents,  don't  grieve.  For  he  is  no  more,  and 
you  won't  raise  him,  and  I  cannot  either.  For  if  you  had  looked  at 
him,  I  think  your  heart  would  have  burst  open  with  sorrow  [he  was 
so  mutilated].  But  in  this  letter  I  won't  describe  anything,  how  it  was 
with  him.     It  killed  him  on  April  20.^     In  the  next  letter  I  shall 

describe  to  you  everything  about  the  funeral Well,  it  is  God's 

will;  God  has  wished  thus,  and  has  done  it.  Only  I  beg  you,  dear 
parents,  give  for  a  holy  mass,  for  the  sake  of  his  soul.  And  he  will 
be  buried  beautifully,  on  April  22. 

[AnTONI  BUTKOWSKi] 

459  April  26  [1903] 

Now  I,  Antoni  Butkowski,  speak  to  you,  dearest  parents,  and  to 
you,  my  brothers,  with  these  words:   "Praised  be  Jesus  Christus." 

Now  I  inform  you,  dearest  parents,  and  you,  my  brothers,  that 
Konstanty,  your  son,  dearest  parents,  and  your  brother  and  mine, 
my  brothers,  is  no  more  alive.  It  killed  him  in  the  foundry,  it 
tore  him  in  eight  parts,  it  tore  his  head  away  and  crushed  his  chest 
to  a  mass  and  broke  his  arms.  But  I  beg  you,  dear  parents,  don't 
weep  and  don't  grieve.  God  willed  it  so  and  did  it  so.  It  killed  him 
on  April  20,  in  the  morning  and  he  was  buried  on  April  22.     He  was 

■  For  the  use  of  "it"  in  this  connection,  of.  Jackowski  series,  No.  254. 


790  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

buried  bcautifull}'.  His  funeral  cost  S225,  the  casket  $60.  Now 
when  we  win  some  [money]  by  law  from  the  company,  we  will  buy 
a  place  and  transfer  him  that  he  may  lie  quietly,  we  will  surround  him 
with  a  fence  and  put  a  cross,  stone,  or  iron  upon  his  grave.  This  will 
cost  some  $150.  For  his  work,  let  him  at  least  He  quietly  in  his  own 
place.  It  is  so,  dear  parents:  Perhaps  we  shall  receive  from  the 
[insurance]  society  $1,000,  and  from  the  company  we  don't  know  how 

much,    perhaps    2,000,    perhaps    3,000,    and   perhaps    1,000 

Whatever  we  receive,  after  paying  all  the  expenses  I  will  send  you 

the  rest,  dear  parents,  and  I  will  come  myself  to  my  country 

And  let  Aleksandra  not  come  now,  let  her  send  the  ship-ticket  back 
and  we  will  send  her  the  money  which  he  promised  her.  And  don't 
give  her  these  20  roubles.  Once  more  I  tell  you,  dear  parents,  don't 
Usten  to  anybody,  to  any  letters  which  anybody  will  write  to  you, 
but  Hsten  to  me,  your  son.  I  cannot  close  the  door  myself  before 
law\^ers.  Some  advise  well,  others  still  better,  but  I  have  a  wise 
man.  And  now  I  tell  you,  dear  parents,  read  this  note,  which  is  cut 
out  of  a  paper;  you  will  know  who  is  guilty  of  his  death.  But  nothing 
can  be  done,  dear  parents.  Don't  weep,  for  you  won't  raise  him 
any  more.     For  if  you  had  looked  upon  him,  I  don't  know  what 

would  have  become  of  you.^  .... 

Antoni  Butkowski 

460  May  20  [1903] 

Dearest  Parents  and  Brothers:  ....  I  received  your  letter 
on  May  18,  for  which  I  thank  you  kindly  and  heartily,  for  I  learned 
at  least  about  your  health,  that  you  are  all  in  good  health.  For 
when  I  received  that  letter  by  telegram,  I  grieved  much  when  you 
wrote  that  you  were  losing  your  reason.  But  I  beg  you,  dear  parents, 
don't  grieve  and  don't  weep,  for  you  won't  raise  him  any  more.  We 
regret  him  and  grieve  stiK  more,  for  we  have  looked  at  him  during  3 
days,  and  now  still  at  whatever  we  look,  that  was  left  after  him  our 
heart  fills  with  grief.  About  his  funeral  I  cannot  describe  everything, 
but  he  was  buried  beautifully.  Now  I  inform  you,  dear  parents,  that 
Stefan  Zal.  went  back  to  our  country.  When  he  comes  there  tr>- 
to  meet  him,  and  he  will  relate  to  you  everything,  for  Konstant>- 

'  In  this  letter  the  disproportion  between  the  sentimental  and  the  business 
part  is  not  so  great  as  in  the  preceding  one;  the  recurring  idea  is  resignation  to  the 
fact  which  cannot  be  changed  and  cannot  be  any  basis  of  practiall  activity. 


BUTKOWSKI  SERIES  791 

had  boarded  with  him  for  a  month.  And  if  God  gives  me  health, 
perhaps  in  the  autumn  I  shall  come  to  our  country  and  tell  you  every- 
thing  As  to  the  company  in  which  Konstanty  worked,  we 

don't  know  how  it  will  be.     If  they  give  us  $2,000  by  good  will,  we 

!  will  agree,  but  if  not,  we  intend  a  lawsuit  But  I  won't  wait  for  the 
end  of  the  suit,  for  in  America  a  suit  may  last  5  or  7  years.  And  for  a 
killed  man  the  company  cannot  be  sued  for  more  than  $5,000.     Then 

i  the  lawyer  will  take  one  half,  and  will  give  the  other  half  to  us,  for 

.  such  are  the  laws  in  America 

And  about  Sadowska,  let  her  not  come,  for  when  she  comes  to 
New  York  they  will  send  her  back.     For  now  it  is  so,  that  when  any- 

;  body  comes  to  New  York  he  must  send  a  telegram  to  the  person  to 

''  whom  he  is  going.     And  now,  when  he  is  dead,  they  won't  admit  her. 

I  They  know  already  that  he  is  dead,  for  we  have  been  in  that  ship- 

i  agent's  office,  wanting  to  return  the  ticket.     But  it  was  already 

delivered.     The  agent  told  us  that  she  should  not  come.     If  she 

wants  it  absolutely,  let  her    ome;  but  it  will  be  in  vain,  for  she  will 

be  sent  back.     And  if  she  does  not  come,  let  her  send  the  ship-ticket 

I  back  to  us 

Antoni  Butkowski 

461  July  23  [1903] 

Dearest  Parents  and  Brothers:  ....  I  inform  you  that  we 
have  received  already  the  money  from  the  association  on  July  22,  and 
on  the  same  day  we  sent  you  800  roubles.  As  to  the  rest,  we  had  to 
give  the  lawyer  $100,  and  uncle  took  $300  for  the  funeral,  and  the 
rest  remained  with  me.  I  inform  you,  dear  parents,  that  they  did 
not  want  to  pay  the  money,  only  we  had  to  take  a  lawyer.  As  to 
the  company,  we  gave  the  affair  up  to  a  lawyer,  for  we  could  not 
come  to  an  understanding.     They  offered  us  only  $300  by  good  will, 

while  by  law  they  must  pay  some  thousands But  I  won't 

wait;  I  think  that  on  August  25  I  shall  be  at  home 

Antoni  Butkowski 


I 


RADWANSKI  SERIES 

In  this  series  the  process  of  individualization  goes  on 
rapidly  in  Janek  Radwanski,  much  more  slowly  in  his 
brother  Antoni,  and  probably  does  not  touch  the  third 
brother,  who,  contrary  to  the  behavior  of  so  many  others 
(cf.,  for  example,  Michal  Osinski),  returns  home  after  a 
short  time  to  do  his  military  service.  Otherwise  he  could 
never  return,  and  the  attraction  of  the  old  country,  family, 
and  community  proves  stronger  than  the  fear  of  military 
service  and  the  hope  of  a  career  in  America. 

462-68,  ANTONI  RADWANSKI,  IN  AMERICA,  TO  HIS 
PARENTS,  IN  POLAND 

462  [Second  part  of  a  letter.     Date  cannot  be 

determined,  probably  end  of  191 2.] 

And  further,  dear  parents,  we  answer  your  parental  request,  where 
you  ask  us  to  send  you  money.  All  right,  dear  parents,  we  are  glad 
to  fulfil  your  request  at  every  moment  and  at  every  hour,  everything 
that  you  ask  us  for,  because  you  have  brought  us  up  from  childhood, 
and  we  have  leaned  upon  your  favor.  The  example  you  gave  us  in 
our  younger  years  we  keep  in  our  older  years,  as  God  ordered.  Dear- 
est parents,  to  whom  shall  you  appeal  for  help,  if  not  first  to  God  the 
Highest  and  to  God's  Mother  of  Cz^stochowa,  Queen  of  heaven  and 
earth,  asking  for  health  for  you  and  your  loving  children,  and  then  to 
us  for  help  ?  We  will  help  you  at  any  time,  if  only  God  helps  us  and  the 
Holy  Virgin  Mary.^     So   we   send  you   money,   403   roubles,   four 

^  The  moral  character  of  this  familial  attitude  is  already  a  sign  of  a  beginning 
disintegration  of  the  familial  group.  Indeed,  there  is  no  question  of  moral  obliga- 
tion and  even  little  consciousness  of  the  attitude  in  the  really  primitive  familial 
solidarity;  the  relation  of  the  individual  to  the  group  is  not  a  moral  but  a  social 
relation,  accepted  as  a  matter  of  fact.  The  relation  assumes  a  moral  form  when 
it  is  not  the  only  one  psychologically  possible,  and  the  number  and  variety  of 
possible  relations  grow,  together  with  the  progress  of  individualization.  Thus, 
the  moral  norm  appears  as  a  substitute  for  the  immediate  solidarity  when  the 

792 


RADWAlsrSKI  SERIES  793 

hundred  three  roubles.  The  three  roubles  give  for  a  holy  mass. 
And  further,  dear  parents,  we  inform  you,  buy  yourselves  a  cow  as 
dear  as  you  wish.  Of  this  money  Bronek  sends  300  roubles,  and 
Janek  100  roubles.  Myself,  Antosiek,  I  do  not  send  you  now,  dear 
parents,  because,  first,  I  have  no  money  on  me,  but  in  the  bank, 
and  then  I  will  send  you  for  another  time.  And  you,  dear  sister,  we 
thank  you  for  your  good  wishes  and  for  your  obedience  to  our  parents. 
Listen  well  to  the  parents,  then  we  will  send  you  money  for  a  good 
dress.     [Usual  salutations  and  ending.] 

Antoni  Radwanski 

463  Bayonne,  N.J.,  January  18,  19 13 

[Usual  greetings  and  wishes]:  And  now  I  inform  you,  dear 
parents,  I,  Antosiek,  that  I  send  you  money,  250  roubles,  and  I 
request  you,  dear  parents,  very  politely,  as  soon  as  you  receive  this 
money,  leave  for  yourselves  as  much  as  you  need  for  your  household, 
and  put  the  rest  where  you  think  it  the  best,  either  in  a  bank  or  some- 
where for  the  case  of  any  misfortune.  I  inform  you,  dear  parents, 
I,  Antosiek,  about  my  work.  I  am  working  near  the  fire  [furnace],  as 
before.  I  earn  $2 .  50  a  day.  Ask  Grabowski,  he  will  tell  you, 
what  sort  of  work  it  is.     [Salutations  for  the  whole  family.] 

[Antoni] 

464  April  9,  1913 

....  If  you  want  money,  dear  parents,  write,  and  we  will  send 
you  for  your  needs.  And  now  we  write  to  you  dear  parents,  that  this 
Stasiek  [the  son],  of  our  Szymon  Krasnosielski,  is  a  clever  boy,  so  if 
the  news  in  America  is  better  we  will  send  him  a  ship-ticket,  if  he 
wishes  to  come,  because  now  work  is  somewhat  bad.  Tell  this  to 
Szymon  and  his  wife,  and  let  them  not  regret  [what  happened].  Per- 
haps he  will  get  them  out  of  this  [situation],  if  he  is  willing  to  work. 

And  now  I,  Antosiek,  write  to  you,  dear  parents,  how  do  you 
advise  me,  whether  to  come  to  our  country  or  not  ?     Because  I  have 


traditional  unity  of  the  familial  group  is  changed  into  a  personal  connection  of  its 
members.  In  the  present  case  the  familial  disorganization  is  only  beginning;  there- 
fore the  moral  norm  is  fully  and  gladly  acknowledged  for  a  time,  but  finally  these 
demands  become  "too  much."  In  other  cases,  as  we  have  seen,  the  duty  becomes 
gradually  more  painful  until  it  is  finally  avoided. 


;i)4  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

now  good  work  and  I  would  like  to  marry,  and  now  I  don't  know 
what  to  do.' 

And  now,  dear  parents,  Bronek  asks  what  is  the  date  of  his  call 
to  military  service.  He  is  curious  and  wants  to  know  whether  it  was 
in  the  past  autumn  or  in  the  next,  or  after  the  next.  He  thinks 
of  going  back  to  our  country,  only  does  not  yet  know  when.  He  and 
Janek  work  together  in  one  plant  and  I  work  in  another.     [Usual 

ending.] 

Antoni  Radwanski 

465  June  25,  1913 

....  And  now  we  inform  you  that  Czeslawa  [Czesia]  Jankowska 
from  Karwacz  came  and  related  to  us  about  your  success  and  health, 
and  we  were  very  glad  that  you  are  all  in  good  health.  She  gave  us  the 
gift  that  you  sent  us,  3  cheeses.  So  we  will  send  you  also  a  gift,  but 
don't  know  what  kind  of  a  gift  you  wish  from  us.  Now  further,  dear 
parents,  you  asked  us  for  our  photographs;  so  I,  Antosiek,  send  you 
my  photograph,  and  some  other  time  we  will  send  you  perhaps  all 
three,  because  we  could  not  now.  Janek  went  to  another  city,  and 
Bronek  says  you  saw  him  not  long  ago.  Dear  parents,  could  you 
send  me  your  photograph  ?  I  would  send  you  money,  as  soon  as  you 
write.  Only,  dear  parents,  Czesia  Jankowska  told  me  that  you  don't 
allow  me  to  marry  but  [ask  me]  to  return  home.  So  I  intend  to 
return  home,  but  I  do  not  know  when,  because  now  I  have  good  work 
and  wages,  $75  a  month.  Therefore  I  will  still  work.*  [Usual  salu- 
tations and  ending.] 

[Antoni] 

466  December  2,  1913 

[Usual  greetings  and  Christmas  wishes;  letter  from  parents 
received;  thanks.]  And  another  letter  I  received  from  Brother 
Bronislaw,  in  which  he  writes  me  to  come  back  to  our  country.  But 
I  do  not  intend  to  come  back  to  our  country  at  once,  but  only  in  the 
spring,  because  up  to  the  present  my  health  is  favorable  so  I  think 

'  Acknowledgment  of  the  parental  authority,  but  this  becomes  more  and  more 
formal,  as  we  see  in  the  following  letters. 

"  The  will  of  the  parents  proves  ultimately  insufficient  to  influence  him,  but 
there  is  not  yet  a  conscious  attempt  to  get  rid  of  the  control  of  the  parents.  Up  to 
the  present  the  whole  process  of  emancipation  seems  to  have  gone  on  unconsciously. 


RADWAl^SKI  SERIES  795 

I  shall  remain  longer.  And  what  you  write  me,  dear  parents,  that 
if  I  do  not  come,  the  punishment  of  prison  threatens  me,  I  do  not 
mind  it  and  I  do  not  fear  it.'  And  now  I  inform  you,  dear  parents, 
about  sister,  and  what  you  wrote  about  wishing  to  send  her  to  a  dress- 
maker. You  can  do  it;  let  her  learn.  And  as  to  the  help,  don't  be 
anxious.  If  only  our  Lord  God  gives  me  health  I  will  help  you  at 
every  moment.  And  now  I  ask  about  Brother  Bronislaw.  After 
his  arrival  in  our  country  we  received  a  letter  [from  him],  and  he 
wrote  me  that  he  will  be  free  from  military  service,  so  I  request  you, 
dearest  parents,  if  you  receive  this  letter,  answer  me  directly,  because 
I  am  curious  about  it,  and  I  shall  await  it  with  great  impatience.  And 
now  I  inform  you,  dear  parents,  about  Janek,  that  we  are  together, 
only  he  asks  you  for  your  blessing,  because  he  intends  to  marry  a 
girl  from  Przasnysz,  daughter  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Lesniewski,  who  live 
in  Piaski.^  I  pen  to  you  in  this  letter  whatever  I  can  remember. 
But  I  have  nothing  more  to  write,  only  I  recommend  myself  to  your 
kind  memory  and  I  beg  you  for  a  speedy  answer.    With  high  respect, 

Antoni  Radwanski 
I  shake  your  hands.     Goodbye.3 

467  [January,  19 14] 

[Beginning  of  letter  missing.]  Now  about  your  request,  what 
you  ask.  We  cannot  help  you,  dear  parents,  in  this,  because  as  to  me, 
dear  parents,  I  am  somewhat  [illegible  word],  and  about  Janek  it  is 
not  necessary  to  explain  to  you  because  he  is  now  intending  to  marry. 
The  second  banns  of  his  marriage  were  on  January  4,  so  he  needs 
money.  I  lent  him  myself  $50  for  his  wedding,  and  I  do  not  take 
money  from  the  bank,  because  I  regret  to  touch  it.  Then,  dear 
parents,  manage  it  as  you  can  yourself.  I  will  send  you  [money] 
later,  if  our  Lord  God  gives  me  health.  But,  dear  parents,  I  think 
that  you  are  not  wronged  by  me  all  the  same.  I  help  you  in  the 
measure  of  my  ability.     Not  long  ago  I  sent  you  50  roubles  for  your 

^  First  conscious,  but  still  only  slight,  break  in  obedience. 

*  Janek  is  the  most  emancipated  of  the  brothers;  he  sends  the  least  money 
home,  and  decides  to  marry  without  consulting  his  parents. 

3  Shaking  hands  is  a  rather  disrespectful  form  of  greeting  the  parents;  the 
normal  form  is  kissing  the  hands.  One  of  the  complaints  of  old-fashioned  parents 
about  the  bad  influence  of  emigration  is  that  the  children  begin  to  shake  hands 
instead  of  kissing. 


796  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

needs,  although  we  were  all  three  in  America.  So,  dearest  parents,  I 
beg  very  politely  your  pardon.  Don't  be  angry  for  what  I  write  you. 
I  don't  remind  you  of  it,  because  it  ought  to  be  so;  it  is  a  duty  to 
respect  and  help  one's  parents  until  the  last  moment  of  death 
[life],  because  so  says  our  Lord  Jesus  and  the  Holiest  Mother  Virgin 
Mary:  "Do  not  abandon  thy  parents  and  remember  about  them, 
and  I  will  not  forget  about  thee."  I  wear  this  in  my  heart  and  I 
remember.  Only,  dear  parents,  you  demand  too  much.^  You 
ask  for  help  because  you  are  already  in  old  age  and  you  cannot  do 
heavy  work;  sister  [asks]  also,  the  brothers  also,  so  my  work  does 
not  suffice  for  all  this.  I  requested  Brother  Bronislaw  very  kindly: 
"Bronus,  little  brother,  I  beg  you,  remain  with  us  for  some  time,  then 
we  will  go  back  together."  I  implored  him  as  a  brother,  but  he  did 
not  hsten  to  my  request  and  did  not  heed  it.  Now  he  longs  and 
regrets;  probably  he  regrets  that  for  which  I  begged  him  so.  And  he 
is  longing  now  himself,  and  to  me  he  causes  pain,  because  I  wept  over 
that  letter  when  I  read  it.  He  caused  regrets  to  himself  and  to  me 
also,  because  after  his  departure  I  thought  that  my  heart  would 
burst  open.  And  I  request  you,  send  me  his  address,  where  he  is  in 
service.  Now,  dear  parents,  I  grieved  over  this  letter  which  you 
sent  to  me  recently,  that  not  even  money  [bribery]  can  help,  but 

'  His  attitude  seems  perfectly  correct  objectively,  and  still  it  is  quite  different 
from  the  traditionally  sanctioned  one.  Here  again  the  moral  statement  of  the 
situation  is  a  sign  of  the  dissolution  of  the  old  immediacy  of  social  attitudes.  In 
the  old  family-group  there  can  be  essentially  no  opposition  between  the  son's  and 
the  parents'  economic  interests.  The  property  is  familial;  there  is  no  question 
of  any  justice  or  injustice,  obligation,  antagonism,  or,  in  general,  of  any  moral  or 
immoral  relation  in  economic  matters  between  any  two  members  of  the  family  as 
personalities.  The  parents  do  not  wrong  the  son  in  requiring  all  his  earnings  to  be 
given  to  them;  the  older  brother  does  not  wrong  his  younger  brothers  or  sisters 
in  taking  the  lion's  share  of  the  inheritance  if  it  is  he  who  takes  the  farm;  the 
children  do  not  wrong  the  parents  when,  after  retirement  of  the  la-tter,  they  refuse 
to  them  the  right  to  own  anything  personally  and  acknowledge  only  their  right  to 
be  supported;  etc.  In  all  these  cases  the  relation  is  that  between  the  part  and  the 
whole,  not  that  between  independent  but  connected  entities.  But,  on  the  other 
hand,  when  an  indi\'idual,  as  in  the  present  case,  is  half  emancipated,  there  is  still 
no  relation  between  individuals,  but  between  the  individual  on  one  side  and  the 
group  on  the  other,  and  each  is  right  from  a  different  point  of  view.  The  parents 
are  right  here  in  asking  continually  for  money,  if  we  take  the  standpoint  of  the 
group;  the  son  is  right  in  refusing  to  send  more  than  he  wishes,  if  we  take  the 
standpoint  of  the  individual.  But  in  the  eyes  of  the  individual  whose  feeling  of 
familial  unity  has  dissolved,  the  situation  assumes  the  form  of  a  relation  between 
individuals,  to  be  regulated  by  justice. 


RADWANSKI  SERIES  797 

I  must  go  and  serve  in  the  army.  Now  I  cannot  assure  you  when 
I  shall  return  to  our  country.  If  I  knew  certainly  that  I  should 
not  go  to  the  army  I  would  go  back  at  the  same  moment;  but  I 
am  afraid  that  if  I  go  to  serve  it  would  be  still  more  painful  for  me 
than  here  in  America.     How  do  you  advise  me  about  it  ? 

And  now,  dear  parents,  I  inform  you  about  myself  and  Czesia 
Jankowska.  Once  I  was  there  with  them  and  she  asked  my  advice. 
She  had  an  opportunity  to  marry  a  boy  before  the  winter;  he  wanted 
to  marry  her.  So  she  asked  my  advice  about  the  matter.  I  answered 
her:  "It  depends  on  your  wish."  And  she  said  to  me  that  if  she 
had  an  opportunity  to  marry  such  a  boy  as  I  am,  she  wouldn't  mind 
anything.  Then  I  said  to  her  laughing:  "Well,  let  us  two  marry." 
Then  she  proposed  that  we  write  to  our  parents  whether  we  two  could 
not  marry.'     Here  is  the  end  of  my  letter.     [Usual  ending.] 

[Antoni] 

468 

[Beginning  of  the  letter  with  date  and  greetings  missing.]  I  inform 
you  that  I  received  also  a  letter  from  Brother  Bronislaw,  from  the 
army,  but  not  a  very  cheerful  one. 

Don't  be  anxious  about  your  old  age,  that  you  will  have  nothing 
to  live  on.  Only  beg  God  the  Highest  and  the  Holiest  Mother  for 
health;  and  I  also  will  help  you  at  every  time.  Now  also  I  send 
you  some  roubles,  although  not  much,  only  35,  but  I  cannot  send 
more,  because  I  must  support  Janek  and  his  wife.  He  married  and 
has  no  work,  because  work  is  bad.  Janek  got  a  good  wife,  dear 
parents,  she  pleased  me  very  much,  she  has  wisdom;  but  he  has 
been  short  of  reason — is  and  will  be.  The  wedding  was  very  nice, 
because  I  gave  him  for  this  wedding  $130.  If  he  has  a  brotherly 
heart  he  will  give  me  that  back,  and  if  he  has  a  Cainian  heart,  it  will 
be  lost.  But  nothing  can  be  done.  I  spent  for  him  $30  when  he  came 
from  our  country,  and  he  did  not  give  them  back.  And  that  coat, 
that  shirt,  that  ribbon  and  those  corals,  which  Bronislaw  brought 
with  him,  it  was  I  alone  who  sent  them.     I  bought  all  that  myself. 

And  now,  dear  parents,  we  inform  you  about  our  intentions  of 
marriage.     With  Czesia  it  would  be  very  well,   because  we  have 

'  His  presentation  of  the  matter  is  as  if  the  plan  of  marriage  arose  only  inci- 
dentally and  unintentionally;  he  wants  to  diminish  his  responsibility  for  the  fact, 
in  view  of  the  expressed  wish  of  the  parents  that  he  should  not  marry  but  return. 


798  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

talked  about  it,  dear  parents,  and  we  have  the  wish  [to  marry]. 
Czesia  is  a  good  girl,  and  wise.  Sh^  has  informed  me  about  every- 
thing. If  only  we  could  marry,  because  we  know  that  we  are  cousins. 
We  are  curious  what  Uncle  and  Aunt  Jankowski  say,  because  they 
wrote  a  letter,  and  I  read  it,  but  they  wrote  us  nothing  about  it. 
So  we  beg  you  very  much,  speak  among  yourselves  and  to  uncle 
and  auntie  also.     We  ask  for  a  speedy  answer.     [End  missing.] 

[Antoni] 


DOBIECKI  SERIES 

The  relation  between  an  older  and  a  younger  member  of  a 
family  is  broken  because  of  the  more  rapid  evolution  of  the 
latter.  The  uncle  here  assumes  with  regard  to  his  nephew, 
who  came  later  to  America,  the  attitude  of  famihal  authority 
usually  assumed  by  the  father.  The  uncle  evidently  came 
to  this  country  when  already  a  mature  man  and  has  pre- 
served almost  wholly  the  traditional  standpoint.  His 
behavior,  as  related  by  himself  and  by  his  nephew,  shows  a 
tendency  to  despotism.  The  boy  brought  also  enough  of 
familial  spirit  as  his  first  letter  shows;  but  his  emancipa- 
tion has  been  relatively  easy,  (Cf.  the  attitude  of  Alek- 
sander  Wolski  in  an  analogous  situation.) 

469-73,  ANTONI  (aNTEk)  DOBIECKI,  IN  AMERICA,  TO  FAMILY- 
MEMBERS,  IN  POLAND,  AND  ONE  LETTER  (472)  FROM 
THE   UNCLE   OF   ANTONI 

469  Phillips,  Pa.,  July  16,  1910 

[Usual  greeting  and  generalities;  letter  received]:  Now,  mother, 
you  write  me  that  you  grieve  because  you  cannot  pay  your  debts  and 
you  did  not  pay  the  money  back  to  brother-in-law.  So  I  send  you 
another  100  roubles.  Give  back  to  everybody  what  you  owe,  may 
nobody  look  angrily  at  you  because  of  your  owing  anybody  money; 
get  rid  of  all  your  debts.  Now  I  inform  you  that  I  sent  you  100 
roubles  on  July  13.  Answer  me  distinctly  with  whom  you  are  living. 
Now  I  have  nothing  to  write  you,  only  I  send  you  low  bows,  dear 
parents.  We  send  also  low  bows  to  brother  and  sister-in-law.  I 
inform  you,  dear  brother,  that  you  manage  your  household  badly 
if  you  cannot  give  our  parents  enough  to  live  with  you,  and 
even  two  people  have  no  place  in  your  home.  It  is  your  wife 
who  walks  in  the  breeches,  not  you;   your  wife  governs,  not  you. 

799 


Soo  PRIIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

Things  are  bad  in  a  household  where  the  cow  shows  the  way  to 
the  ox.'     [Proverb.] 

Now  I  have  nothing  more  to  write  you,  only  I  send  you  low  bows, 
and  I  send  also  low  bows  to  sister  and  brother-in-law,  with  their 
children.  And  I  inform  you  further,  dear  parents,  don't  be  anxious 
about  the  rent.     I  will  send  you  money  and  nobody  will  look  angrily 

at  you 

[Antoni  Dobiecki] 


470  September  26 

....  And  now  I  inform  you  that  in  America  things  are  very 
bad.  Work  is  bad  and  living  is  very  dear.  We  are  working  5  days 
in  a  week.  We  earn  hardly  more  than  enough  to  hve.  You  WTite 
me  to  send  you  a  photograph.  I  will  send  you  a  photograph,  but 
only  when  I  have  money;  then  I  will  send  you  money  and  the  photo- 
graph together,  because  if  I  sent  you  the  photograph,  and  no  money, 
people  would  laugh  at  me.     [Salutations  for  the  whole  family.] 

[Antoni] 


471  September  25 

....  Dear  Father  and  Mother:  I  pen  you  some  words. 
First  I  ask  about  your  health  and  success.  And  as  to  my  success, 
I  am  in  good  health,  and  my  success  is  as  e\-er.  I  work  as  before. 
And  now,  dear  father  and  mother,  why  is  it  that  you  don't  answer  ? 
I  sent  to  you  20  roubles  and  you  don't  answer  whether  you  received 
them  or  not.  And  now,  dear  father  and  mother,  I  write  to  you  that 
I  am  no  more  with  uncle,  but  with  strange  people,  because  he  wanted 
me  to  get  up  ever>'  day  at  two  or  half -past  two  o'clock  after  midnight 
and  to  go  with  him  to  work.^  I  am  working  hard  enough  myself, 
and  I  want  to  rest  during  the  night;  11  hours  is  work  enough.  I 
have  worked  with  him  many  times  and  enough.     Then  he  said  he 

'  When  the  parents  of  wife  or  husband  live  with  the  young  couple  it  is  usually 
the  women  who  quarrel,  and  it  is  the  role  of  the  men  to  keep  harmony.  Note  the 
contrast  between  this  sharp  passage  and  the  preceding  and  following  ceremonial 
ones. 

'  Probably  the  uncle  had  a  shop  of  his  own  and  wanted  his  nephew  to  help  him 
sometimes. 


DOBIECKI  SERIES  8oi 

would  credit  me  with  about  a  dollar  on  my  board,  but  instead 
I  was  obliged  to  pay  all  the  money  that  I  owed.  Afterward 
he  got  angry  with  me  because  I  would  not  work  with  him  every 
day,  and  he  told  me  to  go  away  and  to  hunt  another  boarding- 
house.  He  thought  that  I  would  help  him  to  work,  and  that  he  would 
thus  economize  and  put  it  in  the  bank.  And  now,  dear  father  and 
mother,  I  want  to  ask  what  about  the  military  service  ?  Write  me 
whether  I  have  to  go  to  our  country  or  how  I  may  do.  But  now  I 
have  no  money.  Send  me  the  address  of  the  Olszewiakis.  I  have 
nothing  more  of  interest  to  write,  only  I  salute  you.  [Usual  greetings 
for  all  the  family.]  If  you  don't  want  me  to  come  back  to  our  country, 
brother  and  sister-in-law,  then  send  me  your  sister  Helena. 

[Antoni] 


472  October  10,  191 1 

Dear  Sister  and  Brother-in-law:  ....  Now  I  inform  you, 
dear  sister  and  brother-in-law,  when  you  write  letters  to  Antek 
again  don't  address  them  to  my  name,  but  to  his  own,  because  you 
know  what  his  name  is.  He  has  no  uncle  now;  he  is  a  greater  lord 
than  his  uncle.  I  will  tell  you,  dear  sister,  why  I  fell  out  with  him — 
Antek  went  once  to  some  house  where  they  gave  him  beer  to  drink, 
and  came  back  drunk  and  made  a  fool  of  himself  at  home.  I  said 
to  him:  "You  did  not  go  to  the  church,  but  you  got  drunk,  and  now 
you  will  play  comedies!"  And  he  told  me  I  was  not  his  father  and 
should  not  order  him  about.  Then  I  got  angry  with  him  and  struck 
him  one  in  the  face.  When  he  came  from  our  country  he  came  to  me 
as  to  a  mother  or  father,  and  now  he  tells  me  that  I  am  not  his  father, 
that  I  did  not  bring  him  up  and  have  no  rights  over  him.  But  when 
he  came  from  our  country  he  did  not  wander  about  without  work,  but 
he  got  work  on  the  second  day,  and  he  works  above  [the  earth], 
drives  a  pair  of  horses  and  hauls  coal  and  firewood.  And  when 
another  comes  and  has  no  friend  he  has  to  go  to  the  mine  and  dig  coal 
under  the  earth.  But  he  has  good  work,  he  is  not  working  hard.  And 
when  he  came  from  our  country  he  was  as  blind  as  myself,  he  did  not 
understand  what  is  written,  black  on  white;  then  my  wife  did  not  sleep 
of  nights  but  taught  him  where  is  what  number  on  which  house, 
because  he  did  not  know  where  to  take  coal,  to  what  number.  And 
now  he  is  a  greater  lord  than  myself.     And  when  he  came  from  our 


8o2  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

countr}',  I  cared  for  him  as  a  father,  for  his  son.     I  bought  him  one 
suit  of  clothes  for  my  money  and  gave  him  another  of  my  own.'     [End 

missing.] 

[Uncle  of  Antoni] 

4.73  October  22,  191 2 

Dear  Parents:  ....  WTiat  you  \\Tite  me,  that  I  cease  to  help 

vou,  is  not  true,  because  I  think  of  you  and  remember  and  will  not 

cease  to  remember  you.     I  would  have  sent  you  some  roubles  long 

ago,  but  I  had  no  news  about  the  others,  whether  you  received 

them  or  not.     Since  I  have  learned  that  you  received  them,  I  send 

you  now  120  roubles,  20  roubles  for  your  expenses,  and  100  roubles 

please  lend  at  interest.     And  if  you  have  not  enough  with  those  20 

roubles,  write  to  me,  and  I  will  send  you  more,  but  let  these  100 

roubles  remain  untouched.     [Salutations.] 

Antoni 

'  Probably  all  the  facts  related  by  both  of  them  are  true.  The  uncle  has 
certainly  treated  his  nephew  in  the  traditional  way,  pla^-ing  the  part  of  a  father, 
making  him  work,  beating  him  but  also  helping  him  and  caring  for  his  future. 


KONSTANCYA  WALERYCH  SERIES 

Very  rapid  emancipation  of  a  girl  in  America  is  shown 
in  these  letters.  In  less  than  half  a  year  she  is  married 
without  asking  for  her  parents'  permission.  Probably  the 
familial  bonds  were  not  particularly  strong,  and  there  is 
an  instructive  influence  of  the  new  en\dronment.  The 
girl  comes  to  her  sister's  home  and  finds  there  the  familial 
attitude  very  weak,  and  this  example  acts  more  destructively 
than  sohtude  upon  her  o^^^l  familial  spirit. 

474-76,  KOXSTAXCYA  WALERYCH,  IN  AMERICA,  TO  HER 
PARENTS    IN   POL.AND 

474  Greenburg,  Pa.,  December  8,  1913 

De.vrest  Parents:  To  your  words,  '"Praised  be  Jesus  Christus," 
I  answer,  ''For  centuries  of  centuries.     Amen." 

Dearest  parents,  I  inform  you  that  I  received  the  letter  sent 
by  you  from  which  I  got  information  about  your  health  and  success 
also.  As  to  myself,  thanks  to  God  the  Highest,  I  am  in  good  health, 
which  I  wish  also  to  you  from  all  my  heart.  As  to  my  success,  it  is 
not  very  good  because  I  have  done  housework,  and  have  been  paid 
$10  for  this  month,  but  I  had  too  hea\y  work;  I  was  obliged  to  work 
too  long.  Now,  dearest  parents,  I  inform  you  that  I  have  at  present 
no  work  and  I  don't  know  what  will  be  further. 

Dearest  parents,  you  ask  to  be  informed  where  I  have  been  board- 
ing after  coming  to  America.  I  was  with  my  sister  and  now  I  am 
with  my  sister.  Dearest  parents,  don't  be  angry  with  me  for  not 
sending  you  anything  up  to  the  present,  but  I  inform  you  that  I 
could  not,  because  when  I  traveled  to  America  I  remained  for  a  week 
in  Antwerp,  and  when  I  came  to  America  I  had  no  work  for  three 
weeks,  and  you  know  well,  dearest  parents,  that  I  did  not  come  to 
parents  here;  in  America  nothing  is  to  be  had  without  paying.' 

^  Allusion  to  the  fact  that  her  sister  and  brother-in-law  take  money  for  board. 
In  the  old  countr>-  they  would  have  given  her  hospiuUty  at  least  for  some  weeks, 

803 


804  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

Dearest  parents,  I  inform  you  that  I  send  you  meanwhile  thirty 
roubles  for  Christmas,  and  by  my  soul  I  cannot  send  you  more  at 
present,  because  I  do  not  work  and  I  need  it  myself.  I  have  nothing 
more  to  write  you,  only  I  greet  you  and  send  you  low  salutations,  and 
I  wish  you  a  Merry  Christmas,  and  may  the  Godly  Child  have  you 
in  His  care.     God  grant  it.     Amen. 

Your  loving  daughter, 

KONSTANCYA   WaLERYCH 

Now,  dearest  parents,  I,  your  daughter,  Frankowska,  salute  you 
and  greet  you  heartily  and  I  inform  you  that  I  was  ill  and  had  two 
boys  born,  but  they  were  both  dead.  Now  I  [son-in-law]  greet  you 
and  salute  you,  and  all  our  children  bow  to  you  and  kiss  you. 

Bronislaw  Frankowski 

Dear  Zosia  [younger  sister],  I  salute  you  and  write  to  you  that 
you  must  go  to  school  and  learn  well,  and  next  year  you  will  come  to 
America,  and  then  you  will  write  letters. 

KONSTANCYA  WaLERYCH 


475  January  17,  1914 

....  Dear  Parents:  ....  I  inform  you  that  I  married  a 
man  from  Galicia.  Our  marriage  occurred  on  the  12th  of  January; 
my  husband  is  named  Jan  Czarnecki.  Now,  dear  parents,  I  beg  you 
heartily,  don't  be  angry  with  me  for  marrying  so  hastily  and  a  man 
from  so  far  a  country  and  for  not  even  writing  to  you  about  it.^  I 
inform  you,  dear  parents,  that  I  took  a  husband  from  so  far  a  country 
for  this  reason,  that,  as  you  know,  the  girls  who  married  with  us  and 
took  husbands  from  the  same  village,  were  most  unhappy  afterward.^ 


if  not  months.  The  American  conditions  and  customs  are  considered  a  justifica- 
tion for  not  fulfilling  the  duty  of  hospitality.  The  main  reason  of  the  change  is 
the  fact  that  here  food  has  to  be  bought  instead  of  being  produced,  and  thus 
the  economic  instead  of  the  social  point  of  view  is  applied  to  the  question  of  living. 
Cf.  Introduction:   "Economic  Life." 

'  The  only  case  in  our  collection  where  a  girl  marries  without  first  asking 
her  parents.  Of  course  it  is  a  complete  break  of  tradition  (cf.  Introduction: 
"Marriage"),  and  a  conscious  one,  since  she  knows  and  understands  the  traditional 
norms. 

^  The  justification  of  the  breach  of  this  custom  is  interesting,  because  based 
upon  consideration  of  utility  and  personal  happiness. 


KONSTANCYA  WALERYCH  SERIES  805 

And  secondly,  when  I  came  to  America  I  often  wept  because  I  found 
myself  among  good  people  [irony?].  Dearest  parents,  I  inform  you 
that  we  had  a  great  wedding,  only  I  was  so  sad  that  you  were  not  at 
my  wedding  and  that  you  did  not  even  know  about  it,  because  I  did 
not  write  to  you. 

Dearest  parents,  I,  Jan  Czarnecki,  your  son-in-law,  bow  to  you 
and  greet  you  heartily,  and  I  beg  you  not  to  be  angry  with  me  for 
marrying  your  daughter,  because  it  is  God  who  gives  their  fortune  to 
men,  and  to  us  also  He  gave  such  a  fortune  and  we  married  in  con- 
formity with  the  will  of  the  Highest.  Now,  dearest  parents,  we  kiss 
your  hands  and  we  bow  to  your  feet  and  we  ask  your  parental  blessing 
for  this  our  new  life.     [Usual  greetings.] 

Your  loving  children, 

Jan  and  Konstancya  Czarnecki 


476  March  25,  1914 

....  Dearest  Parents:  ....  We  inform  you,  dearest  par- 
ents, that  we  received  the  letter  you  sent  us,  for  which  we  thank  you 
heartily.  We  thank  you  for  your  good  hearts,  that  you  sent  us  your 
parental  blessing.  Dearest  mother,  you  think  of  having  sent  me  to 
America  as  if  you  had  sent  me  to  the  grave,  and  you  believe  that  we 
shall  not  be  able  to  return  to  our  country;  but  about  this  you  can  be 
perfectly  sure,  mother,  because  if  God  gives  us  health  and  happiness, 
we  can  go  to  our  country  at  any  moment. 

Now  I,  your  son-in-law,  thank  you,  dear  parents,  heartily,  that 
you  admitted  me  to  the  family  circle,  and  at  the  same  time  I  thank 
you  that  you  gave  your  daughter  under  my  care,'  and  I  will  endeavor 
that  she  may  ever  be  satisfied  with  me.  We  inform  you,  dear 
parents,  that  we  send  you  10  roubles  and  2  more,  one  for  grandmother, 
one  to  sister  Zosia;  it  makes  together  12.  We  inform  you  that, 
thanks  to  God  the  Highest,  we  are  in  good  health,  which  we  wish  to 
you  also  with  our  whole  heart.     We  are  only  sad  that  you  grieve  too 

'  A  good  expression  of  the  complex  meaning  which  marriage  assumes  when 
it  is  still  a  familial  matter  but  has  become  also  an  individual  matter.  There  is 
no  place  for  the  idea  of  putting  the  girl  under  the  man's  care  in  the  familial  system, 
because  she  remains  in  the  care  of  the  group  as  a  whole;  there  is  no  place  for 
the  idea  of  being  admitted  into  the  family  circle  in  the  individualistic  marriage- 
organization,  because  the  marriage-group  becomes  then  an  independent  entity. 


8o6  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

much,  but  be  calm,  because  our  Lord  God  gives  his  fortune  to  every 
man,  and  we  married  in  conformity  with  God's  will. 

Now  I  inform  you  about  my  parents.  Both  my  parents  are  still 
living  and  they  dwell  in  Galicia,  district  Ropczyce,  village  Czarna, 
post-station  Sfdziszow.  Father's  name  is  Filip,  mother's,  Dorota. 
We  are  nine  brothers — four  of  us  are  in  America,  five  in  our  country — 
and  two  sisters. 

We  have  nothing  more  to  write.     [Usual  greetings.] 

Your  loving  children, 

Jan  and  Konstancya  Czarnecki 


FELIKS  P.  SERIES 

The  letters  afford  a  good  example  of  a  conflict  between  the 
solidarity  of  the  old  familial  type  (uncle  and  nephew)  and 
conjugal  solidarity.  The  conflict  is  both  sentimental  and 
economic.  We  have,  unfortunately,  only  one  side  of  it 
presented,  but  it  seems  that  the  familial  sohdarity  is  here 
stronger  than  the  conjugal. 

477-80,    FROM   FELIKS   P.,    IN   AMERICA,    TO   A   FRIEND 
IN   POLAND 

477  Chicago,  July  31,  1908 

Dear  Companion  Waclaw:  I  have  not  written  to  you  for  so  long  a 
time,  because  I  had  no  reason  to  boast  about  my  lot.  My  uncle  is  very 
ill,  and  with  his  wife,  or  rather  that  mad  woman.  I  can  do  nothing. 
Work  is  also  difficult  to  get  here.  If  my  uncle  were  in  good  health, 
then  at  least  I  could  have  a  job  with  him,  but  he  must  give  this  busi- 
ness into  other  hands,  because  of  his  illness.  I  have  searched  for 
work  2  days,  all  in  vain.  And  with  my  aunt,  or  mad  woman,  it  is 
necessary  to  make  order  in  such  a  way  as  if  she  were  not  a  human 
being  [by  beating  her].  My  uncle  had  a  motorcycle  which  he  bought 
just  before  his  illness.  He  lies  in  the  hospital.  I  called  on  him  for 
the  first  time;  after  some  conversation  he  told  me  to  take  the  motor- 
cycle and  to  use  it.  Do  you  know  what  this  snake  did  ?  She  sold  it, 
and  she  told  him  that  somebody  had  stolen  it.  Such  [trouble]  I  have 
with  this  woman.  Where  I  live  there  are  no  Poles  at  all;  they  all  live 
on  the  other  side  of  the  city.  I  don't  know  when  I  shall  go  to  your 
brother,  for  my  head  is  totally  broken  [with  trouble].  I  can  only  wait 
until  my  uncle  recovers ;  then  everything  will  be  in  order.  If  not,  I  will 
take  the  woman  by  the  head,  the  money  in  my  pocket  and  run  away 
home.     What  else  can  I  do  here  if  he  dies  ?  .  .  .  .  Feliks  P. 

4178  August  II,  1908 

Dear  Waclaw:  ....  I  am  without  occupation  up  to  the 
present,  but  ....  the  brother  of  my  uncle's  wife  is  trying  to  get 

me  into  ....  the  West  Pullman  shop I  long  much  for  you, 

807 


8o8  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

but  I  hope  that  we  shall  yet  be  here  in  America  together.  Here  in 
Chicago,  when  I  looked  about,  I  was  not  very  much  pleased  with  the 
nature  of  the  place,  but  as  to  distraction  and  society,  the  occasions 
are  innumerable.  Naturally  I  have  not  been  so  merry  up  to  the 
present.     For  that  it  is  necessary  to  shake  your  pocket  out. 

Feliks  p. 

479  October  lo,  1908 

Dear  Companion:  ....  I  have  some  work,  but  only  a  kind 
from  which  I  can  earn  a  bare  living.  All  this  [lack  of  work]  is  through 
the  fault  of  my  uncle,  for  he  lives  in  a  place  where  there  is  not  a  bit 
of  a  factory,  and  he  wants  me  to  work  near  him  that  I  may  live  in  his 
house  and  be  with  him  until  he  recovers.  But  I  think  of  making  it 
short  and  searching  for  steady  and  well-paid  work,  for  with  him,  i.e., 
with  my  uncle,  one  can  live  as  with  a  man,  but  when  he  is  ill  he  cannot 
govern  [his  household]  as  he  did  before,  but  his  ''cholera''  [wife] 
manages  everything.  But  you  understand  I  treat  her  shortly 
[severely].  I  intended  before  this  to  drive  her  away  to  the  four  winds, 
but  with  a  woman  it  is  always  difficult.  He,  i.e.,  my  uncle,  is  ill  of 
a  sickness  which  needs  a  long  cure,  and  even  then  it  is  not  certain 
whether  he  will  recover.  So  this  woman  thinks  so  to  herself,  that  if 
he  is  cured  after  a  long  time  all  the  money  wdU  be  spent,  for  it  cost 
them  already  S560  for  4  months.  And  if  he  dies  nevertheless  she 
will  have  nothing  left.  So  she  wants  him  to  die  as  soon  as  possible — 
such  a  ''cholera."  And  he,  i.e.,  my  uncle,  has  here  nobody  of  his 
own  family  except  me.  So  I  have  cared  for  him  up  to  the  present, 
but  if  this  lasts  longer  I  must  leave  them,  for  I  get  very  nervous 
through  quarreling  and  this  is  bad  for  me Feliks  P 

480  December  16,  190S 

Dear  Waclaw:  ....  I  answer  you  at  once,  but  unhappily  the 
answer  is  unfavorable,  for  I  have  no  work.  I  worked  for  5  weeks 
only,  and  I  could  only  buy  what  I  needed  for  the  \\-inter.  It  is  true 
that  I  don't  pay  board,  but  then  I  have  been  working  for  only  part 
of  the  day.  I  would  not  sit  here  so  long,  but  there  is  now  little  hope 
for  my  uncle.     At  any  moment  we  expect  his  death,  and  then,  e\-i- 

dently,  I  have  a  certain  job Don't  be  angry  ^^-ith  me.     As 

soon  as  I  begin  to  work  I  must  pay  you  back  at  once,  for  I  owe  nobody 

Feliks  P. 


WINKOWSKI  SERIES 

Almost  complete  disintegration  of  the  whole  traditional 
set  of  attitudes  appears  in  this  series.  The  cause  is  cer- 
tainly the  fact  that  the  man  finds  himself  at  first  almost 
alone,  and  then  quite  alone  among  Americans,  and  thus 
there  is  lacking  the  pressure  of  social  opinion,  still  exist- 
ing, even  if  weakened,  in  American-Polish  communities.  It 
cannot,  of  course,  be  assumed  that  there  are  no  egotistic 
personalities  in  Poland,  but  the  behavior  in  this  case  would 
be  impossible  in  the  native  community  of  the  man.  How- 
ever egotistic  the  individual,  the  community  checks  would 
not  permit  of  this  kind  and  degree  of  violation  of  social 
tradition. 

481-88,    S.    WINKOWSKI,    IN    AMERICA,    TO    FAMILY- 
MEMBERS,    IN   POLAND 

481  July  8,  1907 

In  the  first  words  of  my  letter  I  salute  you,  dear  mother,  and  you, 
sister.  I  inform  you  that  I  received  your  letter,  and  I  inform  you  that 
by  the  favor  of  God  I  am  well,  and  I  wish  you  the  same.  Now  I 
inform  you  about  this,  that  you  write  me  sad  letters.  Why  do  you 
do  it  ?  Write  me  joyful  letters.  I  do  not  like  it  if  anybody  writes 
such  a  sad  letter.'  There  is  the  will  of  the  Highest  God,  and  whatever 
God  grants  it  is  well.  You  write  to  me  if  I  will  send  you  the  money, 
but  I  do  not  say  that  I  will  not  send  it,  but  I  will  tell  you  that  I  am 
in  far  America.  There  is  a  post-office  but  by  this  post-office  it  is 
impossible  to  send  the  money  to  the  old  country,  but  it  is  necessary 
to  go  to  the  agent.  And  to  go  to  the  city  will  cost  50  dollars.  If 
you  need  it  immediately  then  borrow  somewhere,  and  after  two  months 

'  This  is  not  the  first  time  we  meet  the  request  not  to  write  sad  letters.  (Cf. 
No.  405.)  This  shows  the  impression  which  the  letters  make  upon  the  reader  and 
the  importance  ascribed  to  the  mood  expressed  in  them.  At  the  same  time  we 
see  a  conscious  endeavor  to  escape  moral  pain. 

809 


8io  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

I  will  go  to  the  city  and  then  I  will  send  the  money,  because  now  I 
do  not  have  time  to  go  to  the  city.  I  am  doing  carpenter's  work, 
I  have  75  dollars  a  month.  There  are  no  Poles  here  but  us  two.  I 
have  an  opportimity  to  marry,  but  she  is  not  a  Polish  girl,  and  there- 
fore it  is  likely  that  I  shall  not.  I  intend  to  go  to  the  old  country 
for  a  visit,  and  whoever  in  the  old  country  wishes  me  well  I  \\all  extend 
my  hand  to  him,  and  whoever  wishes  me  ill  then  he  will  learn  who  is 
Stefan  [writer's  name].'  I  inform  you  that  I  have  good  work.  I 
work  only  from  8  in  the  morning  to  5  in  the  evening  and  afterward 
we  go  to  learn  and  to  fight  and  to  leap  and  to  weep,  as  they  say  in  the 
old  country. 

I  bow  to  mother  and  to  sister.  I  ask  for  a  quick  reply.  Dear 
mother  [find]  for  me  a  nice  girl  in  the  old  country,  nice  and  handsome, 
whom  I  greet  fondly.  I  bow  to  Ososki,  to  Pawlinow  and  to  all 
acquaintances.     My  address g^^^^  ^^^^  Winkowski 

482  Iroxwood,  ISIiCH.,  September  29,  1908 

Dear  Mother:  I  decided  to  write  to  you  a  few  words  and  I 
greet  you  \vith  God's  words  ["Praised  be,"  etc.].  Don't  be  angr\' 
with  me  for  not  writing  you  a  letter  for  such  a  long  time.  Because 
I  carmot  describe  to  you  my  lot  where  I  was.  It  is  likely  that  if  my 
acquaintances  knew  it  they  would  never  believe  it.  What  a  national- 
ity there  is  in  America!  If  such  a  man  were  brought  to  your  village 
then  all  the  people  would  run  away  from  fear  [alluding  to  the  negroes]. 
And  I  am  toiling  here  a  second  year.  I  have  pretty  good  work.  I 
work  as  a  butcher.'  I  have  a  pay  day  [peide]  of  75  dollars  a  month, 
and  I  have  a  further  income  of  60  dollars,  and  my  brother  and  Boleslaw 
Kowaleski  are  working  in  the  iron  mine  [niainie].  I  will  have  a 
butcher-shop  [bn<:emie]  of  my  own. 

Now  I  inform,  dear  mother,  about  my  great  trouble  [trubel].  I 
have  a  great  burden  upon  my  heart  on  account  of  one  girl.  I  have 
been  acquainted  with  her  for  over  10  months.  She  is  ver>^  beautiful 
and  [the  daughter]  of  a  rich  farmer.     She  is  not  Polish.     WTien  I 

'  A  self-assertion  resulting  from  his  feeling  of  his  o-mi  importance,  developed 
by  success.  This  normal  attitude  here  takes  a  rough  form  because  of  the  man's 
low  degree  of  moral  culture.     Cf.  the  case  of  Adam,  in  the  Raczkowski  series. 

^  For  "butcher"  he  uses  Jjicera  and  similarly  Polonizes  a  number  of  words 
as  indicated  in  brackets.  These  words  will  not  be  understood  at  home  and  are  a 
form  of  shoning-off,  harmonizing  with  his  l>-ing  about  his  income. 


,  WINKOWSKI  SERIES  8ll 

have  a  butcher-shop  [bucemie]  of  my  own,  then  I  will  get  married. 
I  dressed  this  girl  in  silk  and  gold.  We  meet  once  a  week.  When  I 
write  to  you  next  time  then  I  will  send  the  money,  because  now  I  am 

in  great  trouble  [tniblu] 

Steve  Winkowski 

483  December  8,  1909 

I  inform  you,  beloved  mother,  and  you,  beloved  sister  Bronislawa, 
that  by  the  favor  of  God  I  am  well  and  the  same  I  wish  to  you.  I 
beg  mother  and  you,  sister,  to  bless  me  and  my  Miss  Bronislawa 
Dronskowska  with  whom  I  shall  be  married  after  Christmas 
[Krismusle].  I  ask  you  to  my  wedding.  She  is  not  Polish.  Her 
fathers  come  from  under  German  [rule].  They  have  lived  in  America 
a  long  time  already.  Their  grandfather  and  grand-grandfather  [were] 
in  America.  They  are  Catholics  just  as  we,  and  she  greets  you 
also.^  .... 

Steve  Winkowski 

484  January  5,  1910 

I  inform  beloved  mother  and  father,  and  you,  sister,  that  by  the 
favor  of  God  I  am  well  and  the  same  I  wish  to  you.  I  received  your 
letter.  I  beg  your  pardon,  don't  be  angry  at  me  for  not  writing  often 
to  you.  I  will  always  write  to  you  that  I  am  well.  Now  I  write  to 
you  about  my  success.  My  success  is  pretty  good.  I  work  always. 
I  have  good  work.  I  have  worked  in  the  store  [storze]  long  years.  I 
am  very  lonesome,  I  do  not  hear  the  Polish  language  at  all.^  Here 
are  Poles  who  have  been  in  America  for  many  years,  and  therefore 
they  do  not  care  for  the  PoHsh  language.  This  girl  whom  I  am  going 
to  marry,  they  say  she  is  Polish  but  I  did  not  hear  Polish  language 
from  her. 

I  greet  you  fondly  and  sincerely,  mother,  father  and  sister.  Aunt 
Gricanowska  and  uncle  and  your  children. 

Stanly  [sic]  Winkowsky 

'  He  still  asks  for  a  blessing,  invites  to  his  wedding,  and  informs  that  the  girl 
is  Catholic.  In  so  far  the  tradition  persists,  but  only  its  form  is  left,  for  he  would 
not  care  at  all  if  his  mother  forbade  the  marriage. 

^  Some  traces  of  homesickness  remain.  His  special  longing  for  the  Polish 
language  may  be  connected  with  the  fact  that  he  feels  his  isolation  on  account 
of  his  poor  English. 


8 12  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

485  May  30,  191 1 

Dear  Sister  and  Brother-in-law:  I  inform  you  that  I  am  well 
and  the  same  I  wash  to  you.     I  greet  your  children. 
Please  answer  who  died  and  who  got  married. 

Your  brother, 

S.  W. 

486  June  19,  191 1 

Dear  Mother,  Father,'  and  Sister:  I  inform  you  that  by  the 
favor  of  God  I  am  well  and  the  same  I  wish  to  you.  My  success  is 
very,  very  good.     My  address  .... 

S.  A.  WiNKOWSKI 

487  Day  10 

Dear  Mother,  Sister,  and  Father:  I  inform  you  that  I  received 
your  letter.  You  write  to  me  that  I  obtained  great  wealth  after  [the 
death  of]  my  brother,  but  what  is  this  wealth  ?  I  wrote  to  you  that 
he  left  300  dollars,  so  you  may  write  to  Kuzeiiski  and  even  to  God 
himself,  then  he  will  tell  you  that  I  took  300  dollars.  The  funeral 
cost  me  200  dollars,  the  hospital  38  dollars,  carriages  at  the  funeral  26, 
holy  mass  16  dollars,  the  beer  for  treating  58  dollars,  the  coffin  for 
him  28,  the  priest  took  35  dollars,  the  cloth  for  the  deceased  35, 
lawyer  50  dollars;  Kuzenski,  in  whose  house  he  was,  took  10  dollars. 
Now  I  erected  a  monument  at  my  expense;  it  cost  me  38  dollars.^ 
I  sent  75  dollars  to  the  Chielehskis,  because  he  was  her  [Mrs.  C.'s] 
real  brother.  I  could  not  get  anything  because  he  was  not  our 
brother  [only  haK-brother].  In  the  court  they  were  saying  that  if 
you  want  to  get  his  wealth  then  come  over  here.  The  journey  will 
not  cost  you  much  [irony].  You  know  how  much  the  trip  cost  me. 
Only  bring  a  big  bag  [to  hold  the  money],  because  I  do  not  want  any- 
body's money.     I  have  enough  of  my  own.     So  long  as  God  grants 

'  His  mother  was  probably  married  a  second  time;  hence  the  addition  of 
"father." 

^  Judging  from  the  general  vulgar  ostentation  and  prevarication  of  the  man 
we  cannot  accept  this  as  an  accurate  enumeration  of  expenses,  but  the  man  evi- 
dently did  conform  to  the  form  of  the  old  familial  attitude  by  arranging  an  elaborate 
funeral  for  a  member  of  the  family.  This  is  a  fundamental  expression  of  the  soli- 
darity of  the  family  and  a  sign  of  its  social  standing,  and  Winkowski  does  it, 
although  his  family  feelings  are  almost  dead. 


WINKOWSKI  SERIES  813 

me  health  I  make  95  dollars  a  month.  I  am  a  boss  [&05za]  in  a  big 
store  [storze].  You  write  to  me  whether  I  am  married.  Well,  no, 
America  is  not  the  old  country  where  it  is  necessary  to  marry  for  your 
whole  life.     Here  it  is  not  so.' 

I  beg  your  pardon  dear  mother  and  sister  and  father.  In  a  short 
time  I  will  come  to  you  for  a  visit.  I  will  not  stay  long  with  you,  and 
I  will  go  back.  I  will  go  to  you  with  the  daughter  of  my  landlord. 
She  can  speak  Polish  a  little. 

I  ask  for  a  quick  reply. 

S.  A.  WiNKOWSKI 

488  EvELETH,  Minn.,  March  29,  1912 

Beloved  Mother,  Sister,  and  Father:  I  inform  you  about  my 
health.  By  the  favor  of  God  I  am  well,  and  the  same  I  wish  to  you, 
and  my  success  is  pretty  good.  Therefore  I  inform  you  that  the 
loth  of  May  I  will  be  gone  to  another  province,  very  far  away.  And 
what  mother  wrote  me  about  this  money  which  is  for  me,  the  lawyer 
wants  20  dollars  from  me  for  getting  this  money.  I  think  that  there 
is  not  any  more  than  that. 

I  do  not  have  anything  to  write.     I  remain,  with  good  health. 

S.  A.  WiNKOWSKI 

•  Complete  repudiation  of  the  traditional  idea  of  marriage — the  more  striking 
if  compared  with  his  rather  normal  attitude  less  than  three  years  before. 


INDIVIDUAL    LETTERS    AND    FRAGMENTS    OF 

LETTERS    SHOWING    THE    DISSOLUTION 

OF    FAMILIAL    SOLIDARITY 

The  dissolution  of  familial  solidarity  is  not  always  due 
exclusively  to  the  member  who  has  emigrated;  it  may  also 
happen  that  the  group  ceases  after  a  time  to  be  interested 
in  its  absent  member.  Or  it  may  happen  that  the  group 
learns  of  some  real  or  imaginary  break  of  solidarity  on  the 
part  of  the  absent  member  and  repudiates  him.  In  this 
respect  we  should  remember  that  sometimes  the  act  of 
emigration,  and  always  a  too  prolonged  stay  abroad,  con- 
stitute in  themselves  a  break  of  solidarity.  Often  the  reac- 
tion of  the  group  (or  of  some  of  its  members)  is  aroused  by  a 
false  report  about  the  absent  member  sent  by  someone  from 
abroad.  Gossip,  which  often  forces  the  individual  to  remain 
a  solidary  member  of  the  group,  may  become  a  factor  of 
dissolution  when  it  is  false.  Finally,  it  happens  also  that 
the  emigration  of  a  member  of  the  family-group  leads  to  a 
breakdown  of  familial  attitudes  in  another  member  who  stays 
at  home,  and  whose  situation,  in  consequence  of  the  emigra- 
tion of  the  first,  becomes  abnormal.  Thus,  for  example, 
a  wife  left  alone  by  her  husband,  a  child  left  without  the 
control  of  the  father,  become  more  easily  demoralized. 

Cases  of  these  various  kinds  are  given  in  the  following. 

489-98,   ISOLATED   LETTERS   OR  FRAGMENTS   OF   LETTERS 

489 

[The  group  repudiates  the  member,  but  the  latter  has  not  lost  his 
feeling  of  solidarity.] 

Detroit,  Mich.,  October  10,  1900 

Dear  Brother:  "Praised  be  Jesus  Christus."  .... 
I  inform  you,  dear  brother,  that  I  received  your  letter  for  which  I 
thank  you  from  my  soul  and  my  heart.     May  God  help  you  the  best 

814 


INDIVIDUAL  LETTERS  AND  FRAGMENTS  815 

Dossible.  And  now  I  inform  you  that  I  am  in  good  health,  thanks  to 
God,  and  I  wish  you  the  same.  And  now  I  admonish  you,  as  my 
brother,  about  what  you  wrote  to  me— that  you  will  go  volimtarily 
*vhere  you  may  be  shot  or  hung.  Remember  rather  the  mercy  of 
fesus  Christ  and  when  this  idea  [of  suicide]  visits  you,  sigh  to  our 
:.ord  God,  and  it  will  be  better  for  you.^  ^  The  same  ill  luck  presses 
leavily  upon  me  also;  I  sufifer  poverty  and  hard  words,  and  I  don't 
mow  what  will  become  of  me,  whether  I  shall  ever  see  you  again. 

As  to  the  matter  which  I  mentioned  to  you,  about  my  business,  let 
:he  clear  lightning  strike  her  before  she  becomes  my  wife.  It  would 
oe  better  for  me  to  break  hand  and  leg  than  to  marry  her.  I  write 
/ou  so,  dear  brother,  and  you  can  believe  me,  it  will  be  so.  I  have 
5ther  matters  in  my  head  than  such  a  crooked  stick.  And  now,  dear 
srother,  you  write  me  that  paternal  and  maternal  uncles,  father  and 
n(kher,  brothers  and  sisters  repudiate  me.  I  don't  mind  myself; 
/omjcan  repudiate  me,  because  I  am  an  exile  and  a  pilgrim,  far  away 
jpm  you,  from  my  father's  land  and  my  family,  and  therefore  you 
•epudiate  me.  Let  God  repay  you  all  this,  good  for  evil;  let  it  be  my 
A^rong  and  not  yours.  I  beg  you,  dear  brother,  salute  in  my  name 
ny  parents  and  thank  them  that  they  deigned  to  repudiate  me;  but 
3iy  conscience  does  not  allow  me  to  do  it  [repudiate  them],  and  God 
ivould  punish  me  heavily  for  it.  I  beg  you  for  the  second  time,  write 
1  letter  to  our  parents  in  your  own  hand  in  my  name,  and  thank  them 
"or  everything.^  I  won't  forget  you,  only  be  patient,  I  beg  you. 
.\nd  now  I  inform  you  that  I  shall  send  you  for  Christmas  about 
20  roubles  and  to  Stasiulek  I  shall  send  also  for  Christmas  10  roubles 
and  that  will  be  all.  And  now  pardon  me,  dear  brother,  for  writing  so 
ooorly,  but  I  have  on  this  account  [the  bad  news]  drowned  the  worm 
Dretty  well,  for  I  received  your  letter  precisely  on  pay  day,  and  I  am 
writing  this  letter  to  you  at  i|  o'clock  in  the  night.^    And  I  bid  you 

'  The  inclination  to  suicide  is  very  frequently  expressed  by  the  peasant  in 
aioments  of  discouragement,  and  the  only  reason  preventing  suicide  from  being 
particularly  frequent  is  the  religious  fear  of  damnation,  since  the  fear  of  death 
itself,  as  we  have  seen,  is  not  very  strong. 

"  The  meekness  manifested  is  not  ironical,  and  is  intended  to  provoke  a  reac- 
tion of  compassion  and  remorse. 

3  The  feeling  of  grief  is  compared  to  the  gnawing  of  a  worm,  and  "drowning 
the  worm"  is  the  usual  popular  expression  for  drinking  in  order  to  forget  grief. 
Socially  there  is  only  one  form  of  normal  intoxication,  that  which  takes  place  during 
:eremonies  of  any  kind,  where  the  purpose  of  drinking  is  to  maintain  a  certain 
intensity  of  common  feelings.     But  individually  drinking  has  another  function, 


8l6  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

farewell,  dear  [brother].  Remain  with  the  Lord  God.  And  I  beg 
you,  write  letters  to  auntie  and  to  our  parents  from  yourself,  for  I  will 
not  write  unless  I  receive  an  answer,  because  for  2  months  already  I 
have  had  no  letter.     Goodbye.     I  remain, 

Your  loving  brother, 

A.  Rembinski 

My  address  is  such,  the  following  one Finis,     Gut   naj 

[good  night]. 

And  I  beg  you  answer  the  soonest  possible  and  write,  my  brother, 
news  from  [illegible  name]  and  the  neighborhood.' 

A.  Remb. 

490 

[Demoralization  of  a  wife  in  the  absence  of  her  husband.  The  latter, 
in  spite  of  his  emigration,  shows  more  familial  feeling,  even  with  regard  to 
the  children,  than  the  wife.  The  letter  tends  to  establish  a  sohdary  relation 
between  the  husband  and  the  rest  of  the  family  as  against  the  wife.] 

Letter  written  the  13th 

"Praised  be  Jesus  Christus."  .... 

And  now,  dear  father,  what  does  all  this  mean  that  you  write  me  ? 
Why  does  my  wife  not  wish  to  come  to  America,  and  writes  me  such 
stupid  things  that  I  am  [illegible  word]  with  her?  I  have  sent  her  a  ship- 
ticket  for  all,  and  she  WTites  me  such  silly  things  and  is  not  ashamed 
of  it.  When  I  sent  the  ticket  I  sent  for  all,  and  not  for  her  alone. 
Could  I  leave  the  children  ?  My  heart  does  not  allow  me  to  leave  my 
own  children.  Then,  dear  father,  if  she  does  not  wish  to  listen  it  will 
end  badly  for  her.  Dear  father,  bow  to  her  [ironically]  and  take  the 
children  to  yourself,  and  I  will  send  you  directly  two  hundred  roubles 
for  the  children,  and  let  her  do  as  she  pleases.     And  if  not,  then  give 


it  becomes  a  substitute  for  action  whenever  a  strong  feeling  is  aroused  and  for  some 
reason  cannot  find  an  immediate  expression  in  activity.  For  the  eminently 
practical  nature  of  the  peasant  a  feeling  which  does  not  lead  to  action  becomes 
unbearable,  and  he  is  not  accustomed  to  find  relief  in  aesthetic  life  or  in  a  more  or 
less  long  process  of  theoretic  reflection  which  precedes  or  substitutes  itself  for 
action  in  intellectual  people. 

'  The  character  of  his  writing  shows  that  he  is  becoming  more  and  more  intoxi- 
cated. He  adds  some  meaningless  and  corrupted  EngUsh  and  German  words  about 
"writing  letters." 


f  INDIVIDUAL  LETTERS  AND  FRAGMENTS  817 

1  this  ship-ticket  to  [sister]  Kostka.    Let  Kostka  come  with  this  ticket. 

She  has  only  to  give  the  name  and  the  age  of  my  wife.  Let  her  come 
I  with  the  children,  and  when  Kostusia  [Kostka]  comes  we  will  do  well 
t  together,  and  my  wife,  as  she  was  a  public  woman,  so  may  she  remain 
!  a  public  woman.     And  if  the  children  fear  to  go,  please,  father,  take 

them  to  your  home;  I  will  send  you  200  roubles.     Let  her  not  make  a 

fool  of  me  in  America,  as  if  I  were  her  servant;  this  is  neither  right 
Inor  necessary.     When  someone  read  me  that  letter  of  hers,  finally 

I  did  not  let  him  finish,  because  I  was  ashamed. 

If  nobody  comes  with  this  ticket,  I  will  get  the  money  back  and 

will  send  it  directly  to  you,  father,  for  the  children.  And  if  not,  let 
I  Kostusia  come  alone  if  the  children  don't  want  to  come. 

I  [B.  Leszczyc] 

f 

I  491 

[Example  of  the  influence  of  gossip  upon  the  attitude  of  the  family- 
group  toward  the  absent  member.] 

j  Natrona,  Pa.,  December  29 

I        ....  Dear  Parents:  You  write  that  I  forget  about  you.     My 

j  dearest,  my  parents,  forgive  me,  but  I  cannot  write  myself,  and 
when  you  ask  somebody  to  write  you  must  go  and  treat  him.     My 

'  dear  parents,  it  was  very  painful  for  me  when  I  learned — as  Frek 
told  me — that  I  am  reveling  so  in  America,  that  I  throw  ten  roubles 
away  at  a  baptism.  And  I  did  not  spend  even  ten  grosz,  because  I 
had  nothing  to  spend.  I  had  still  a  debt,  and  they  [my  creditors] 
looked  angrily  at  me;    how  could  I  spend  anything?     My  dearest, 

I  my  parents,  I  have  had  very  sad  holidays,  even  in  the  army  I  had  no 

such  sad  holidays,  and  the  first  holidays  that  I  had  in  America  were 

not  so  sad  as  now.     I  don't  know  whether  something  happened  in 

our  country,  that  I  have  been  so  sad.     Now  I  have  nothing  more 

to  write,  only  I  send  you  hearty  wishes,  my  dearest,  and  I  kiss  the 

hands  and  feet  of  my  dearest  parents. 

[Jozek] 

And  now  I,  Helena,  write  to  auntie.  Please,  auntie,  don't  believe 
anybody,  who  says  that  Jozek  is  such  a  reveler.  He  did  not  throw 
away  a  single  grosz. 

Greetings  from  myself,  and  also  from  my  man  and  children. 


Si8  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

492 

[Fragment  of  a  letter  showing  the  influence  of  gossip.  Author 
unknown.] 

I  wrote  you  2  letters,  and  you  did  not  answer  me.  And  now  you 
write  me  to  send  you  money,  so  I  can  send  you  a  few  roubles.  One 
woman  will  go  to  our  country,  so  you  will  receive  a  gift  in  a  month. 
You  ask  me  whether  I  will  come  home.  Well,  dear  wife,  we  shall  meet 
soon.  Put  out  of  your  head  [the  idea]  that  I  have  a  mistress  here; 
I  did  not  know  that  you  are  still  so  stupid.  When  I  was  in  America 
the  first  time,  I  was  younger,  and  did  not  commit  this  folly;  should 
I  commit  it  now  ?  I  should  sooner  have  expected  death  than  to  Jiear 
this.     Inform  me  who  told  you  about  it. 

493 

[Fragment  of  a  letter  showing  the  influence  of  gossip  and  the  demorali- 
zation of  children  in  the  absence  of  the  father.] 

June  4,  1914 

Dear  Wife  :  I  inform  you  that  I  am  in  good  health,  that  I  left  my 
old  place,  because  there  w^as  no  work.  I  came  then  to  Toledo  and  I 
have  work.  I  sent  you  20  roubles  on  June  2,  because  I  had  no  more. 
You  know  that  in  the  world  it  is  indispensable  to  have  some  money 
with  you.  If  God  helps  me,  I  will  send  you  more.  Here  in  America 
it  begins  now  to  be  so  that  one  does  not  work  more  than  he  works. 
Thousands  of  people  go  about  without  w^ork.  And  as  to  our  children, 
I  cannot  hear  any  more  about  it.  Give  them  some  of  the  broomstick 
and  chase  them  away  on  the  street,  because  they  are  so  bad.  And 
you  I  ask,  don't  write  such  letters  to  me  any  more,  because  otherwise 
I  will  stop  writing  to  you  at  all.'  Tell  the  man  who  told  you  all  this 
that  I  will  send  him  some  roubles  for  beer  in  reward  for  it.  Let  him 
get  drunk  [again]. 

'  Probably  this  expression  of  provocation  has  some  history,  and  this  is  not  the 
first  complaint  of  the  wife  about  the  children,  but  we  find  frequent  protests  of  this 
kind  from  peasants,  about  the  communication  of  disagreeable  facts.  They  say 
they  do  not  want  to  be  made  sad.  (Cf.  No.  481.)  Reflection  is  painful  to  the 
peasant,  especially  when  he  has  no  possibility  of  action,  and  by  a  sort  of  passive 
hedonistic  selection  he  demands  to  be  spared  disagreeable  news.  Or  he  may  resort 
to  positive  hedonistic  selection,  e.g.,  drink.     Cf.  No.  489,  note  3. 


INDIVIDUAL  LETTERS  AND  FRAGMENTS  819 

494 

[Fragment  of  a  letter  showing  how  familial  solidarity  is  stronger  than 
gossip.] 

Dear  Wife:  Probably  you  have  received  the  ship-ticket  already; 
so  you  can  prepare  to  leave.  You  know  that  people  have  told  me 
bad  things  about  your  behavior,  but  to  me  it  seems  otherwise.  I  will 
forgive  you  all  your  wrongdoing.  I  only  hope  our  life  together  may 
be  good  in  the  future.  The  bed-furnishings,  whatever  you  have, 
bring  with  you,  because  here  they  are  very  expensive.  And  bring 
also  your  better  dresses  with  you;  the  remainder  can  be  left  for  the 
present.  Put  it  into  a  trunk  and  let  it  lie  there  for  some  time.  Con- 
ceal also  my  army-certificate.  I  will  not  send  you  money;  manage 
as  you  can  until  you  come  to  me.  The  agent  said  you  will  have  no 
trouble  about  anything.  Take  with  you  a  loaf  of  black  bread — it 
is  the  best — and  also  some  apples.  I  wrote  you  already  how  you  may 
explain. 

495 

[Fragment  of  a  letter  showing  some  coldness  between  husband  and  wife 
as  the  result  of  emigration.] 

June  16 

Dear  Wipe:  Why  do  you  make  such  bad  allusions  to  me?  Do 
you  know  from  what  family  I  come  ?  Did  you  not  know  whom  you 
took  ?  I  have  not  worked  for  7  months,  and  now  times  are  so  bad 
that  in  America  it  gets  worse  and  worse.  A  lot  of  people  come  from 
our  country,  and  here  in  America  there  is  no  work  for  them,  and  thou- 
sands walk  about  without  work.  But  the  people  in  our  country 
imagine  that  when  somebody  comes  to  America  he  does  nothing  but 
make  money.  But  here  in  America  one  must  work  for  3  horses,  and 
yet  this  work  is  scarce.  With  this  letter  I  send  you  some  few  zloty 
[a  little  money].  I  send  thirty  roubles  which  you  will  have  for  your 
expenses.  About  the  holiday  of  God's  Mother  [patron]  of  seed-time 
I  will  send  you  perhaps  a  ship-ticket  and  then  you  will  come  to  me. 
As  soon  as  you  receive  this  letter  and  the  money  write  me  how  many 
geese  and  young  cattle  and  pigs  you  have  already.  Why  is  it  so 
hard  to  persuade  you  to  write  letters?  Is  it  so  hard  for  you  to 
write  ? 


820  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

496  June  7,  1914 

[Fragment  showing  the  introduction  of  an  outsider  into  family  quarrels.] 

I  inform  you,  Sir,  about  my  health.  I  am  in  good  health,  Mr.  M., 
and  I  wish  you  the  same.  This  Smoliniak  went  awa}'  with  another 
man  to  New^  Britain,  and  they  wrote  about  us  that  we  robbed  them 
and  their  sisters.  So  if  you  ever  write  [to  them],  as  a  man  knowing 
our  situation,  be  so  kind  and  abuse  them.  And  please  wTite  them 
the  truth,  what  profit  we  had  of  them.  When  he  was  ill  with  his 
hand,  I  had  his  stove  heated  for  3  w-eeks,  and  during  the  whole  time 
w^hen  he  did  not  work  he  did  not  pay  his  [full]  board  but  only 
$2  for  his  food.  Manka  [his  sister],  as  you  know,  remained  [with 
him]  for  days  and  even  weeks,  and  we  asked  nothing  for  it,  only  what 
we  lent  her.  As  to  their  education,  you  know^  the  best  about  it.  The 
big  Sobieski  stopped  me  in  the  street  and  asked  me  whether  he  was 
my  cousin,  and  said  that  probably  he  was  educated  among  cattle. 
Please  tell  him  some  day  or  other  about  it. 

497 

[The  writer  of  the  two  following  letters  is  the  man  referred  to  in  the 
Raczkowski  series,  in  connection  with  a  quarrel  with  Adam  Raczkowski. 
He  came  to  America  at  a  mature  age  and  emigration  produced  hardly  any 
change  in  his  attitudes.  The  present  letters  are  interesting  because  of  the 
familial  situation.  Marriage  with  a  Russian  is,  of  course,  forbidden  by  the 
community  on  account  of  both  national  and  of  religious  considerations,  and 
the  family  shares  the  standpoint  of  the  community.  In  disowning  the 
daughter,  016 w  conforms  to  the  expectation  of  the  community  and,  as  head 
of  the  family,  orders  his  wife  to  do  the  same.  It  is  true  that  in  writing  to 
his  cousins,  the  Wolskis,  he  is  asking  for  information,  but  he  wants  them, 
as  family-members,  to  know  of  the  situation,  and  he  expects  them  to  share 
his  position,  and  invites  their  intrusion.] 

[November,  1909] 

My  dear  Wife:  I  received  a  letter  from  you  which  grieved  me 
very  much.  But  I  beg  you,  don't  grieve,  because  this  grieving  will 
not  help  us.  If  our  daughter  forsakes  you,  dear  wife,  as  a  good 
mother,  and  her  father,  who  wanders  about  the  world  for  her  happi- 
ness, and  if  she  despises  all  this,  then  nothing  can  be  done.  And 
when  she  comes  from  her  w^edding,  from  the  Russian  church,  let  her 
immediately  go  away  just  as  she  stands.  And  you,  dear  wife,  I  beg 
you,  live  w^here  you  are  hving,  because  I  do  not  even  know  where  to 


INDIVIDUAL  LETTERS  AND  FRAGMENTS  821 

send  my  letter.  And  I  inform  you,  dear  wife,  that  I  will  soon  be  in 
our  country.  And  now  I  beg  you,  don't  grieve,  you,  my  wife,  and 
you,  my  daughter  Zosia.  I  don't  mention  daughter  Domicella, 
because  she  is  not  worth  it. 

I,  your  loving  husband, 

Franciszek  Olow 

I  remain  in  good  health,  but  in  sorrow.    That  is  a  madness  of 
one's  reason!    To  fall  off  from  God  and  to  take  hold  of  a  man! 

1498  Wilmington,  Del.,  November  3,  1909 

[  To  that  sad  letter  I  answer:  " In  centuries  of  centuries.  Amen." 
Dear  Sister  [Cousin]  :  Forgive  me  for  not  having  written  for  so 
long  a  time,  but  you  know  that  I  wished  to  gather  some  roubles  in 
order  to  send  them  back  sooner.  Now  I  will  send  the  money  very 
soon.  And  now,  dear  sister,  I  inform  you  and  your  husband  that  I 
am  in  good  health,  and  I  wish  the  same  to  you,  dear  [sister  and] 
brother-in-law,  and  to  your  children.  Now  I  request  you,  dear 
sister,  and  you,  dear  brother-in-law,  inform  me  what  is  the  news  in 
my  home,  because  I  received  a  letter  which  grieved  me  much,  that  my 
daughter  Domicella  will  get  married,  but  forsakes  her  faith;  and  my 
wife  writes  me  that  she  will  not  be  at  home,  so  I  don't  know,  where  she 
is  to  be.  Dear  sister  and  dear  brother-in-law,  Antoni,  I  beg  you, 
tell  me  how  this  thing  is,  because  I  have  nobody  else  to  ask  except 
you,  dear  sister.  So  I  beg  you  heartily,  inform  me  what  has  become 
!of  my  wife  and  my  dear  daughter  Zosia,  because  I  no  longer  ask 
i  about  my  daughter  Domicella.  Since  she  forsakes  God  and  her 
[parents  I  cannot  even  ask  about  her.  I  am  a  wanderer  in  a  strange 
land  for  the  sake  of  my  children,  and  hear  through  a  letter  that  my 
i  daughter  forsakes  her  faith  and  her  parents.  I  wanted  to  go,  but 
'  I  have  money  only  for  my  debt,  and  I  must  still  earn  for  my  journey. 
Jf  God  grants  me  work  and  health  I  will  be  soon  in  our  country.  I 
have  nothing  more  to  write.  [Usual  ending.] 
i  Franciszek  Glow 


CORRESPONDENCE  BETWEEN  HUSBANDS 
AND  WIVES 

In  this  connection  we  find  a  great  variety  of  problems, 
but  the  common  problem  in  all  the  series  of  letters  is  that  of 
the  constitution  of  what  may  be  termed  a  "natural"  family, 
i.e.,  a  family  based,  not  upon  social  traditional  attitudes, 
but  only  upon  the  actual  relations  between  its  members, 
and  therefore  practically  limited  to  a  married  couple  with 
their  children;  it  is  the  family  as  elementary  social  group 
of  the  classical  sociological  theory.  It  proves  here  to  be  the 
result  of  a  relatively  late  social  evolution.  As  the  older 
form  of  familial  unity,  in  which  the  family  embraced  relatives 
up  to  the  fourth  or  fifth  degree  ("v\athout  very  clearly  deter- 
mined limits),  decomposes  under  the  influence  of  new  con- 
ditions, its  parts  enter  into  the  composition  of  different 
territorial,  professional,  sometimes  national  and  religious 
groups,  and  thus  their  former  connection  is  loosened. 
Simultaneously  an  evolution  goes  on  within  each  of  these 
parts — each  elementary  group  of  married  couple + children; 
the  reciprocal  relations  of  its  members  undergo  a  change. 
This  may  perhaps  be  best  expressed  in  the  following  way: 
As  long  as  the  familial  group  was  constituted  by  all  the  rela- 
tives on  the  sides  of  both  husband  and  wife,  the  fundamental 
conjugal  norm  was  that  of  "respect,"  because  the  married 
pair  was  not  an  isolated  couple  related  only  as  individuals, 
but  in  them  and  through  them  their  respective  families 
were  united,  and  the  dignity  of  these  families  was  involved 
in  the  conjugal  relation.  When  this  large  family  is  dis- 
sociated, the  fundamental  conjugal  norm  becomes  that  of 
love  and  reciprocal  confidence,  because  the  relation  is  a 
purely  personal  one.     In   the  larger  family  the   children 

822 


CORRESPONDENCE  BETWEEN  HUSBANDS  AND  WIVES    823 

were  not  merely  children  of  the  given  couple,  but  in  a  sense 
belonged  to  the  family  as  a  whole,  and  the  parents,  par- 
ticularly the  father,  represented  the  total  group  with  regard 
to  them,  and  was  to  some  extent  responsible  for  them 
before  the  group.  Hence  the  relation  between  parents  and 
children  was  one  of  authority  and  obedience,  and  bore  at 
the  same  time  a  certain  impersonal  character,  precisely 
because  it  lacked  exclusiveness,  for  the  children  as  members 
of  the  larger  group  had  a  quality  which  put  them  partly 
outside  of  the  smaller  group.  The  isolation  of  the  latter 
brought  new  forms  of  interior  hfe;  the  parents'  authority 
and  the  children's  obedience  became  personal,  not  social, 
attitudes,  and  the  individualization  called  for  a  new  norm— 
that  of  reciprocal  personal  affection. 

The  Polish  peasant  is  now  on  the  way  from  the  older 
form  of  familial  life  to  the  new  one,  and  we  find  in  the 
present  volume  the  two  forms  mixed  in  various  proportions. 
But  since  in  the  new  form  individual  factors  play  a  much 
more  important  part  than  in  the  old  one,  the  strength  and 
harmony  of  familial  life  begin  to  depend  in  a  much  larger 
measure  upon  such  factors  as  character,  intellectual  develop- 
ment, sentimental  refinement,  etc.  Thus  we  find  examples 
of  a  stronger  or  weaker  connection  between  the  members  of 
the  new  marriage-group,  of  a  more  or  less  perfect  harmon}' 
in  the  life  of  this  group,  of  its  more  or  less  solidary  behavior 
with  regard  to  the  external  world,  etc. 

In  arranging  the  materials  we  place  first  those  in  whirli 
the  marriage-group  is  shown  as  being  merely  a  part  of  the 
family,  and  later  those  in  which  the  "natural  family"  is 
definitely  constituted. 


PAWLAK  SERIES 

The  conjugal  relation  is  here  very  impersonal.  There 
are  only  a  few  rather  insignificant  expressions  of  aft'ection; 
business,  news  about  children  and  relatives  constitute  the 
content  of  the  letters.  The  detailed  account  w^hich  the  wife 
gives  of  all  expenses  and  other  matters  of  business  is  sig- 
nificant. In  these  matters  she  takes  only  provisionally  the 
place  of  her  husband  as  manager  of  the  property  which  is 
the  basis  of  the  living  of  the  family,  and  in  this  respect  her 
position  is  settled;  nothing  can  be  changed.  In  striking 
contrast  with  this  behavior  stands  the  fact  that  she  has 
evidently  bought  a  house,  in  her  own  name,  with  money  sent 
her  by  the  husband.  Here  a  traditional  attitude  has  not 
yet  been  sufficiently  established  with  regard  to  the  new 
property  and  the  money  for  which  it  was  bought,  for  the 
money  was  earned  in  a  new  way — by  emigration.  Of  course 
the  simplest  conclusion  would  be  that  the  role  of  the  woman 
should  remain  the  same,  because  the  new  problem  is  an 
economic  problem  like  the  old  ones.  But  we  know  that  the 
peasant  sees  qualitative  differences  where  the  economist 
finds  mere  quantities,  and  these  qualitative  differences  in 
the  present  case  are  great  enough  to  lead  to  a  new  attitude. 

499-505,    JOZEFA  PAWLAK,    IN   POLAND,    TO    HER 
HUSBAND,    LNT   AMERICA 

499  BuDziwoj,  August  15,  191 2 

....  Dear  Husband:  I  received  your  letter,  from  which  I 
learned  about  your  dear  health  and  success.  We  are  all  in  good 
health.  The  children  long  awfully  for  you.  When  you  went  away 
I  could  not  calm  them;  they  cried  so  that  they  almost  became  sick. 
Jozus  asks  always  where  is  father  and  whether  he  won't   come. 


PAWLAK  SERIES  825 

Wladzio  is.  already  beginning  to  walk.  Anielcia  had  a  good  school- 
certificate  and  will  go  to  the  second  class.  Franek  was  at  his  first 
confession  and  communion  and  will  go  to  the  third  class.  Now  you 
ask  how  much  rye  I  have  harvested.  Well,  I  have  harvested  5  kopa 
[i  kopa  =  60  pieces,  here  sheaves]  and  19  sheaves,  and  of  barley  2  kopa 
and  12  sheaves.  I  put  it  into  the  barn  of  Ignacy  Pasek  and  I  paid 
him  5  crowns,  and  the  driving  cost  me  3  gulden,  I  drove  5  times 
[carts]  of  dung.  The  vegetables  cost  me  3  renski  [gulden].  After  the 
harvest  I  drove  dung  again  [into  the  field]  5  times,  and  it  cost  2  renski 
and  1  szostka.  For  the  fine  I  paid  3  renski.'  The  cow  gives  little 
milk,  because  I  have  no  good  pasture.  I  received  money  from  you. 
Now  I  inform  you  that  Kustra  plagues  me  much  about  money  [debt]. 
I  should  like  to  buy  rye  and  wheat  for  sowing.  I  have  spent  15  renski 
from  this  money.  I  have  sold  that  pig.  God  keep  us  from  such 
pigs!  I  took  9  renski  for  it.  You  are  angry  with  me  for  not  having 
answered  you.  But  how  could  I  answer  since  I  received  no  letter  ? 
The  money  came  3  weeks  before  the  letter,  and  I  was  very  anxious. 
Write  me  whether  I  should  pay  for  my  letters  [stamp  them]  or  not 

....  and  write  me  where  you  are  boarding 

Now  I  kiss  you,  most  beloved  husband. 

Your  wife, 

JozEFA  Pawlak 

500  September  22,  1912 

....  Now,  dear  husband,  I  inform  you  that  I  received  the 
money,  102  and  5  crowns.  I  gave  the  5  crowns  to  mother,  as  you 
intended,  and  the  100,  with  interest,  I  paid  back  to  Picta,  for  Kustra 
refused  to  accept  them.  She  wants  all  the  debt  at  once.  Now, 
dear  husband,  you  ask  me  for  what  fine  I  paid  3  renski.  Well,  for 
what  was  imposed  upon  us  when  the  cattle  were  sick,  for  you  had 
lost  that  paper  which  we  received  from  the  starosta  [chief  of  district] 
and  I  had  no  proof.  I  had  to  pay  because  they  wanted  to  inscribe  [levy 
on]  my  cow.  Dear  husband,  I  inform  you  that  Magdusia  [the 
husband's  sister]  intends  to  go  to  America.     Will  you  allow  me  to  sell 

'  This  paragraph  shows  the  extreme  complexity  of  tlie  peasant's  counting— 
the  result  of  a  combination  of  old  Polish  units  with  those  imposed  by  the  foreign 
government.  In  this  particular  case  a  new  source  of  complication  is  the  substitu- 
tion of  crowns  for  gulden,  introduced  in  Austria  in  the  past  century.  The  old 
units  are  kept  by  the  peasants. 


826  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

the  cow  ?  For  she  is  so  bold  that  I  cannot  manage  her.  She  runs  away 
wheiie\"er  she  wants  to  and  goes  wherever  she  will,  and  does  damage 
to  otlier  people,  and  I  must  pay.  I  would  sell  her  and  buy  some 
older  one ;  perhaps  she  would  be  gentler.  Now,  I  have  not  yet  sown 
the  rye,  for  it  has  rained  during  the  whole  month  and  nothing  could 
be  done.  I  have  nothing  more  to  write,  only  I  greet  you  kindly  and 
heartily  innumerable  times.  ]May  I  see  you  soon  again!  Franus, 
Anielcia,  Jozio,  and  Wtadzio  kiss  the  hands  of  their  dear  father 

JozEFA  Pawlak 

501  January  6  [1913] 

....  Now,  dear  husband,  I  received  250  cro-^ois  from  you  on 
January  2,  for  which  I  thank  you  heartily.  I  gave  back  to  the 
Kustras  the  sum  wdth  interest.  They  took  12  renski  of  interest.  I 
have  threshed  the  grain;  Wojciech  Kret  threshed  for  me.  I  got  4I 
korce  [18  bushels]  of  rye  and  4  of  barley.  The  threshing  cost  me  7 
renski  and  20  cents  [kreuzer].  I  have  ground  in  the  mill  2  korce  of 
rye  and  f  of  barley.  For  threshed  barley  I  gave  mother  those  5  crowns 
which  you  ordered,  and  I  invited  her  for  Christmas  eve,  but  she  did  not 

come;  she  would  have  come,  but  Magdusia  did  not  wish  it I 

have  bad  times  now  for  I  have  no  firewood.  I  have  burned  all,  and  it  is 
far  to  the  forest,  diflScult  to  drive,  and  I  have  little  money  left 

[Jozefa] 

502  May  18,  1913 

....  Dear  Husband:  I  received  your  letter  and  175  renski. 
I  gave  mother  5  crowns,  and  22^  renski  [45  crowns]  were  left  for  me. 
I  have  spent  it  all,  for  I  bought  dung  at  60  cents;    I  could  get  it 

cheaper  nowhere I  had  10  wagons  of  my  own  and  I  bought 

10 Now,  dear  husband,  I  wrote  you  for  ad\-ice,  what  to  do 

with  this  house  which  is  for  sale,  and  you  answered  me  neither  so 
nor  otherwise.  Now  people  give  [offer]  for  it  530  renski.  It  seems  to 
me  too  expensive,  but  if  you  order,  dear  husband,  I  shall  buy  it  for 
this  money,  because  it  would  be  good  for  us.  But  if  you  don't  order, 
I  won't  buy.  But  there  are  peopile  who  will  buy  it,  for  there  are 
buyers  enough.  Now,  dear  husband,  upon  my  land  I  planted  potatoes 
and  I  left  one  bed  for  cabbage.  I  gave  one  bed  to  mother,  and  I 
rented  two  from  Lasota  and  Pasek.     As  to  the  crops,  they  are  very 


PAWLAK  SERIES  827 

nice;  we  have  also  beautiful  rye  and  wheat  and  barley  and  clover. 
Now  I  inform  you  that  the  cow  stands  in  the  stable,  for  they  don't  let 
her  go  upon  the  manorial  pasture  and  I  don't  know  what  will  be, 
how  I  shall  keep  her  until  the  harvest,  for  I  have  nowhere  to  pasture 
her.'  Moreover  I  have  got  a  calf,  and  now  it  is  impossible  to  get 
even  a  handful  of  grass  from  the  manorial  land,  for  they  guard  it  day 
and  night '  t'  t. 

^  JOZEFA  PaWLAK 

503  November  23,  1913 

Dear  Husband:  ....  I  have  already  bought  that  house.  I 
agreed  at  530  and  I  gave  them  400.  The  contract  is  settled.  I 
paid  13  renski,  and  30  cents  for  the  stamps,  and  I  must  still  give  130 
renski.  So  send  them  to  me.  You  ordered  me  to  borrow  200  renski 
from  mother,  but  she  did  not  give  them  to  me,  for  she  had  none.  She 
had  lent  to  Kondratka,  for  you  did  not  mention  anything  in  your  letter 
to  her  and  she  did  not  know.  [Enumerates  house  expenses.]  You 
ordered  me  to  borrow  a  machine  for  straw-chopping,  but  I  did  not 

take  it  for  I  have  no  money The  pig  keeps  well  enough,  but 

I  won't  drive  it  [to  the  fair]  until  St.  Paul's  Day  [June  29].  The  cow 
and  calf  keep  well  also.  Pasek  will  sell  two  morgs  [of  land]  quite 
near  this  house  which  we  bought.  If  we  could  buy  at  least  half  a 
morg,  then  even  if  a  hen  ran  about  there  she  would  be  upon  our  own 
land.  Pitera  is  very  angry  with  me  for  having  bought  this  house 
and  threatens  me  very  much ^  Tozefa  Pawlak 

'  The  permission  to  send  cattle  to  the  manorial  pasture,  when  not  a  right  of 
common,  is  sometimes  granted  personally  by  the  manor-owner  as  a  reward  for 
some  service  or  as  help.  Sometimes  the  arrangement  is  tacit,  but  after  some  time 
the  fact  becomes  custom  and  is  claimed  as  a  right.  A  change  of  manor-owners  or 
officials  often  leads  to  serious  troubles. 

*  Cutting  of  manorial  grass  for  the  cow,  carrying  of  dry  wood  from  the  manorial 
forests,  gathering  of  mushrooms,  berries,  nuts,  is  not  considered  as  in  any  case 
reprehensible.  But  little  reprehension  is  attached  to  such  acts  as  culling  of  wood, 
stealing  fruit  or  vegetables,  letting  the  cattle  damage  the  crops,  etc.,  wherever  the 
damage  is  done  to  a  manor-owner,  not  to  a  neighbor-peasant.  Cf.  Introduction: 
"Economic  Life." 

3  The  peasants  in  Galicia  are  more  attached  to  land  and  more  unwilling  to 
move  from  the  country  to  the  towns  than  in  any  other  part  of  Poland.  I'lriiajjs 
the  slight  development  of  industry  is  one  of  the  causes.  Owing  to  emigration 
there  is  relatively  more  ready  money  than  purchasable  land.  So  the  price  of 
land  is  enormous,  and  the  rivalry  between  buyers  assumes  the  extravagant  forms 
exemplified  in  this  letter. 


828  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

504  March  i,  19 14 

Dear  Husband:  In  the  first  words  of  my  letter  I  speak  to  you, 
dearest  husl)and,  with  these  words:  "Praised  be  Jesus  Christus  and 
the  HoUest  Virgin  ]\Iary,  glorious  through  the  whole  world."  May 
She  be  with  you,  dearest  husband. 

[Generalities  about  health  and  success.]  I  received  320  crowTis, 
from  which  I  gave  20  crowns  to  mother  and  260  crowns  I  must  give 
to  Pasek  for  this  land  and  house  which  we  bought ;  40  crowns  will  be 
left  for  me.  I  bought  i  korzec  of  rye  for  20  crowns,  and  I  had  to 
give  1 2  crowns,  20  heller  on  account  of  that  land  which  we  had  bought 
before  from  Dala.  The  notary  with  whom  we  made  the  contract 
is  dead,  and  they  cUd  somewhere  some  cheating.  The  successors  have 
now  divided  the  land  and  for  the  expense  of  this  division  I  had  to 
give  these  12  crowns.  Now  you  ask  in  whose  name  I  made  this 
contract  about  this  house.  Well,  I  have  written  you  so  many  letters 
asking  you  whether  I  should  buy  it  or  not,  why  did  you  not  WTite  me 
in  whose  name  to  do  it  ?  [Farming  details.]  Now,  dear  husband, 
you  write  me  to  move  into  this  house.  But  I  won't  move  until  you 
come,  for  I  am  afraid  lest  somebody  should  do  me  some  harm,  for  it 
is  near  the  road.  I  admitted  as  lodger  Jozef  Pieskiewicz,  the  tailor. 
He  will  pay  me  40  crowns  a  year.  I  shall  pluck  the  fruit  from  the 
orchard,  and  he  can  plant  potatoes  for  himself  in  the  beds  which 

are  there 

JOZEFA  Pa\vlak 

505  April  17,  1914 

Dear  Husband:  ....  You  write  me  that  your  leg  bites  [aches] 
you.  Well,  I  cannot  help  you,  for  if  you  were  at  home  we  would 
find  some  help  for  it.  Only  I  advise  you  that  there  are  doctors,  so 
don't  grudge  money  but  go  to  a  doctor;  perhaps  he  will  help  you. 
And  don't  put  on  leeches  lest  something  bad  should  happen  with 
your  leg.     [Farm-work,  crops,  etc.] 

Our  children  learn  well,  they  don't  ever  omit  the  classes 

Jozus  will  go  to  church  in  the  summer  when  it  is  warm,  for  if  I  took 
him  in  winter  he  would  catch  cold.  Wtadzio  cannot  yet  cross  himself, 
but  tries  already  to  do  it.     [Farm-work ;  marriages  and  deaths.] 

JOZEFA   PA^^'LAK 


i  KUKIELKA  SERIES 

The  familial  character  of  marriage  viewed  from  the 
husband's  side  is  depicted  in  the  letters  of  this  series.     It  is 

[difficult  to  establish  whether  in  this  case  the  relation  is 
really  closer  than  in  that  of  the  Pawlaks.  At  any  rate  the 
letters  show  much  more  eagerness  to  keep  the  familial 
solidarity  and  manifest  greater  claims  on  familial  affection 
than  those  of  Pawlak's  wife,  and  it  seems  that  Kukielka's 
wife  is  also  less  interested  in  the  questions  of  familial  solidar- 
ity than  her  husband.  If  we  compare  these  facts  with  the 
situations  found  in  other  series  (for  example,  the  Markiewicz 
series),  where  the  wife  evidently  does  not  share  her  husband's 
familial  attitude,  and  with  other  cases  where  the  wife  seems 
rather  passive  and  the  husband  even  writes  all  the  familial 
letters  (Stelmach,  Cugowski),  a  general  conclusion  seems  to 

[  present  itself:  As  it  is  primarily  the  man,  not  the  woman, 
who  represents  and  understands  the  group  standpoint,  in 

[  marriage-groups  based  upon  the  familial  organization  the 

i  conjugal  affection  is  maintained  much  more  through  the 
husband  than  the  wife.  The  attitude  of  the  latter  is  always 
personal,  and  she  is  never  satisfied  with  being  treated  by  her 
husband  merely  as  a  member  of  the  group  with  certain 
functions  to  perform,  and  not  as  an  individual.  Therefore, 
after  a  shorter  or  longer  time,  she  turns  her  affection  toward 
her  children  and  becomes  often  almost  indifferent  toward 
her  husband,  because  in  the  case  of  the  children  her  indi- 
vidualistic affection  finds  an  easier  response.  This  enables 
her  afterward  to  assume  the  role  of  a  mediator  between  her 
husband  and  her  children  when  the  latter  develop  an 
individualistic  attitude.  (Cf.  Osinski  series.)  Meanwhile 
the  husband  shows  the  same  unchanging  kind  and  degree 

829 


830  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

of  attachment  as  prescribed  by  the  organization  of  the 
family.  Of  course  the  sexual  factor  must  exert  a  powerful 
if  unconscious  influence  upon  the  conjugal  relation,  but 
it  is  not  consciously  allowed  to  interfere  with  the  social  and 
moral  side  of  this  relation. 

The  respective  roles  of  husband  and  wife  change,  as  we 
shall  see,  as  soon  as  marriage  becomes  an  individual  matter. 

There  is  no  contradiction  between  the  lack  of  familial 
solidarity  in  the  married  woman  and  the  solidarity  which 
an  unmarried  girl  shows  toward  her  parents,  brothers, 
sisters,  and  relatives.  The  unmarried  girl  has  no  particular 
familial  function  to  perform  and  hence  her  personal  affec- 
tion to  individual  members  of  the  family  can  still  easily 
fit  into  the  familial  organization. 

506-9,  JAN  KUKIELKA,  IN  AMERICA,   TO  HIS  WIFE,  IN  POLAND 

506  August  9,  191 1 

[A  page  and  a  half  of  the  usual  greetings,  wishes,  and  generalities 
about  heahh.]  Now  I  inform  you,  dearest  little  wife,  about  what 
you  ask,  whether  JMaiika  shall  go  to  Warsaw,  although  she  is  the 
daughter  of  a  farmer.  Well,  I  answer  you  that  she  is  not  to  go, 
because  I  do  not  allow  this.'     Now,  as  to  our  son  Antoni,  with  him  it's 

'  Going  to  Warsaw  means  going  to  serve  as  a  housemaid.  The  father  forbids 
it  as  contrary  to  the  peculiar  dignity  of  a  farmer  as  against  a  landless  peasant.  We 
find  the  same  aversion  to  any  hired  work  for  wives.  This  aversion  is  weakened, 
without  disappearing,  when  the  child  or  the  wife  has  to  go,  not  to  a  Polish  estate  or 
city,  but  abroad — to  Germany  or  to  America.  Sending  children  to  hired  work  in  the 
country  is  not  suitable  for  a  farmer  who  has  some  10  morgs  of  land,  vi-hile  only  rich 
farmers,  owning  20  to  30  morgs,  consider  it  below  their  dignity  to  send  their  chil- 
dren to  Germany.  Evidently  the  reason  of  this  difference  is  that  the  work  abroad 
has  some  characters  of  novelty  which  make  the  application  of  traditional  inhibitions 
to  it  less  natural  and  immediate.  Further,  the  inhibition  is  not  so  strong  with 
regard  to  boys  as  to  girls,  not  so  strong  mth  regard  to  girls  as  to  wives,  and  in  the 
process  of  industrial  evolution  the  first  has  almost  disappeared.  But  it  seems  still 
to  be  instinctively  held  \vith  regard  to  the  oldest  son  or,  more  exactly,  to  the  son 
who  is  to  take  his  father's  farm.  It  is  certainly  neither  by  mere  sentiment  nor  by 
rational  calculation  that  the  son  who  is  destined  to  take  the  farm  is  more  unwillingly 
allowed  to  go  to  hired   work  than  other  sons.     The  aversion  to  hired  work  cer- 


KUKIELKA  SERIES  83 1 

going  very  badly,  and  in  this  way,  that  he  does  not  keep  his  work,  and 
is  without  a  cent  at  all,  and  if  anybody  says  anything  to  him,  he  does 
not  listen  at  all,  but  is  ready  to  fight.  What  can  be  done  with  such 
a  boy  ?  You  can  understand,  dearest  little  wife,  that  it  would  be 
quite  unsuitable  for  me  to  give  him  money,  because  you  know  yourself 
that  I  must  think  of  you  all,  and  it  would  be  too  much  if  I  had  still  to 
have  difficulties  with  him  or  to  be  concerned  with  his  difficulties. 
When  I  sometimes  predicted  to  him  [the  bad  consequences  of  his 
behavior]  he  took  pains  not  to  meet  me  at  all.  What  more  can  I  do  ? 
I  inform  you  however  that  he  is  in  good  health;  that  is  all  that  I 
can  tell  you,  dearest  little  wife.^  I  inform  you  also,  dearest  little  wife, 
that  I  will  send  you  about  100  roubles  after  some  days.  So  don't 
answer  this  letter,  because  after  some  days  another  will  come,  and 
then  you  will  answer  both.  Now  I  want  to  say  this  also,  my  dear 
little  wife,  that  I  am  very  much  pleased  with  your  doing  good  farming 
for  me,  and  keeping  the  boars,  sows,  and  pigs,  and  with  your  having 
harvested  the  crops.  I  am  very  much  pleased  with  this  letter, 
dearest  little  wife.^     Now  I  inform  you  about  my  work.     I  work  in  a 


tainly  goes  back  to  the  time  when  the  work  away  from  the  familial  farm  was  mainly 
servage  work;  but  this  is  hardly  sufficient  by  itself  to  explain  the  facts.  We  must 
take  into  consideration  the  distinction,  pointed  out  elsewhere,  between  farm-income 
and  income  from  hired  labor,  the  latter  being  additional  and  destined  primarily 
to  cover  such  expenses  as  in  the  peasant's  economy  are  relatively  new,  while  the 
farm-income  is  the  essential  basis  of  living  of  the  whole  family.  All  these  facts  are 
explained  if  we  remember  that  economic  organization  is  determined  by  familial 
organization.  The  essentially  familial  property  is  the  hereditary  farm,  and  against 
this  the  money  earned  outside  represents  the  more  individual  form  of  property. 
Wages,  being  a  relatively  recent  phenomenon,  cannot  be  as  completely  subordinated 
to  the  familial  standpoint  as  land  and  land-income,  even  if  their  subordination  is 
manifested  by  the  demand  that  earned  money  be  turned  over  to  the  family.  There- 
fore, hired  work  is  felt  as  particularly  unsuitable  for  those  whose  connection  with 
the  main  familial  group  is  particularly  close,  while  a  certain  relaxation  of  the  inhibi- 
tion is  natural  for  the  members  who  will  sooner  or  later  establish  a  new  branch  of 
the  family. 

^  Particularly  rapid  emancipation  of  the  boy.  The  father's  authority  is  not 
sufficient  when  not  supported  by  the  whole  family-group  and  community. 

*  The  farm-work  done  by  the  wife  is  presented  here  as  meritorious  and  as  if  it 
were  done  for  the  husband  and  deserved  his  particular  gratitude.  This  attitude 
seems  contrary  to  the  familial  principle,  according  to  which  there  is  no  division 
of  property  between  husband  and  wife  because  there  is  no  private  property. 
Kukielka  is  also  evidently  conservative  and  it  is  improbable  that  he  would  occupy 
an  individualistic  standpoint.     The  explanation  is  connected  with  the  situation 


S^2  PRI^IARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

brick-factory  and  earn  very  good  money,  that  is,  $2 .  70  for  13  hours. 
The  work  is  very  hea\y,  but  I  don't  mind  it;  let  it  be  hea\y,  but  may 
it  last  without  interruption.  The  brick-factories  are  going  all  right 
during  the  summer  but  in  winter  they  stop,  and  I  am  afraid  of  it. 
But  let  it  be  as  our  Lord  God  sends  it.  When  that  day  comes,  some 
way  will  be  found.  Now  I  have  nothing  more  to  write,  only  I  may  add 
that  in  America  there  have  been  enormous  fevers,  for  some  days 
thousands.  .  .  .  [End  of  the  letter  missing.]  rj^^,  KukielkaI 

507  January  6,  191 2 

[Two  pages  of  greetings,  wishes,  reproaches,  and  justifications 
about  ^vriting  or  not  writing  letters.]  Now,  dearest  little  wife  ,  as 
to  what  you  write  about  sending  a  ship-ticket  for  [our  daughter] 
Mahka,  it  is  so:  As  to  the  ship-ticket,  it  does  not  matter  much,  but  I 
mind  most  this:  If  I  take  Manka,  what  will  you  do  there,  dearest  little 
wife  ?  You  know  yourself  that  she  is  of  great  help  to  you.  That  is 
one  thing.  x\nd  secondly  I  mind  that  the  girl  will  be  very  sad  and 
will  suffer  misery.  Here  in  America  it  is  not  the  same  as  in  our 
country.  WQiat  if  she  does  come  to  me?  She  cannot  remain  with 
me,  but  must  go  into  service,  and  in  the  service  it  is  necessary  to  learn 
the  English  language,  and  even  to  learn  washing  and  cooking.  Then 
there  will  be  misery  and  weeping,  because  somebody  speaks  and 
you  can  only  look  at  him.  If  you  want  it  exceedingly  I  will  send  [the 
ticket],  but  then  don't  blame  me.  Now  I  inform  you  also,  dearest 
little  wife,  that  after  this  letter  I  will  send  you  some  roubles,  so 
wait  some  days  before  you  answer. 

The  loving  father  of  our  children,^ 

[Jan  Kukielk.\] 

500  December  30,  19 13 

....  And  now,  dear  wife  and  daughters,  write  to  me,  when 
do  you  think  it  best  for  me  to  return  home  ?  On  Easter  or  at  some 
other  time  ?    And  now  I  greet  you,  dear  wife  and  daughters,  and  I 

outlined  in  the  first  note  on  this  letter.  The  husband's  emigration  and  the  hired 
work  he  is  doing,  even  if  necessitated  by  the  situation,  are  still  formally  a  depar- 
ture from  his  familial  duty,  which  would  oblige  him  to  remain  on  the  farm.  The 
wife  by  doing  his  work  performs  his  duty  and  is  therefore  entitled  to  gratitude. 
Their  arrangement  is  personal  even  if  its  object — farm-work — is  familial. 
'  Curious  expression  of  the  familial  attitude. 


KUKIELKA  SERIES  833 

greet  my  dear  sisters  Katarzyna,  Rozalia,  Maryanna,  with  their 
husbands  and  children.  And  now  I  greet  the  whole  household  of 
father-in-law,  father  and  mother  and  brothers-in-law.  And  now, 
dear  wife,  I  inform  you  [send  you  this]  through  the  Mrozys  [who  are 
returning],  and  I  send  you  4  roubles  for  your  expenses.  Buy  for 
yourself,  Rozia,  a  white  waist  and  for  Nastusia  and  Jagusia  shawls 
that  you  may  have  them  for  summer  when  I  come  home.  And  now 
dear  wife,  tell  my  sister  Rozalia  Figlisz  not  to  allow  her  daughter 
Marysia  to  marry  Bzdziuch,  because  no  good  will  come  of  it.  As 
the  father,  so  is  the  son,  as  the  tree,  so  is  the  wedge.  And  then  it  is  a 
near  family,  and  therefore  God  will  not  bless  such  a  marriage,  because 
there  are  enough  people  in  the  world.'  If  she  does  not  believe  my 
words  let  her  be  persuaded  by  the  example  of  those  who  married  their 
relatives.  As  a  good  brother,  I  admonish  Sister  Rozalia,  let  her  not 
do  it,  what  she  intends  to  do.     [More  greetings  for  the  whole  family.] 

Your  liusband, 

Jan  Kukielka 

Gut  hai  [goodbye].  It  means  do  widzenia.  [More  wishes  of 
divine  blessing  for  the  whole  family.]  I  will  ask  you  only,  don't  ever 
quarrel  with  sister  Maryanna,  don't  abuse  her,  don't  let  the  children 
laugh  at  her,  God  forbid  you  this!  But  on  the  contrary,  as  a  good 
mother,  you  ought  more  than  once  to  buy  either  bread  or  sugar  or 
[illegible  word]  and  to  give  them  to  herself  and  her  children,  and  God 
will  be  satisfied  with  your  life  and  will  bless  you.^     [More  greetings.] 

509  February  15  [1914] 

Letter  from  husband  Jan  to  his  wife  Rozalia.  In  the  first  words 
of  my  letter  I  speak  to  you,  dear  wife,  with  those  words  that  are 
pleasant  to  you:  "Praised  be  Jesus  Christus"  and  I  hope  that  you 
will  answer  me,  "For  centuries  of  centuries.     Amen." 

And  now  I  inform  you,  dear  wife,  that  I  received  your  letter  on 
February  13,  for  which  may  God  reward  you,  that  you  wrote  me 
about  your  dear  health  and  success.^    And  now  I  inform  you,  dear 

'  God  does  not  need  an  increase  in  population  badly  enough  to  bless  with 
children  a  marriage  of  this  kind. 

=  The  whole  letter  is  a  notable  expression  of  familial  solidarity. 

3  The  beginning  is  particularly  formal,  preparatory  to  the  scolding  which  is  to 
follow.  His  masculine  vanity  is  particularly  offended  by  the  lack  of  respect 
shown  in  connection  with  the  photograph,  especially  as  the  wife  of  the  other  man 
behaved  better  in  this  respect. 


834  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

wife,  that  that  letter  did  not  please  me  at  all,  because  I  asked  you  to 
write  me  when  I  should  come,  and  you  did  not  answer  me,  as  if  you  w^ere 
not  my  own  wife  but  a  cook  or  some  other  hired  woman  And  now  I 
inform  you,  that  you  wrote  twice  for  me  to  send  you  my  photograph, 
3^ou  ga\'e  me  no  peace.  To  tell  the  truth,  I  did  not  even  wish  it,  but 
when  you  wrote  once  and  then  once  more,  I  was  obliged  to  send  you 
the  photograph.  But  it  was  expensive  for  me  alone,  so  I  asked 
my  companion,  and  this  cost  us  cheaper.  My  companion  sent  one 
at  once  to  our  country,  and  they  answered  him  and  thanked  him  ver>' 
much,  but  when  I  sent  it  I  did  not  even  get  an  answer.  Such  is 
the  gratitude  I  got.  I  had  thought  that  I  left  a  good  wife  at  home, 
but  I  was  disappointed;  the  husband  is  far  away.  I  WTote  letters 
as  to  a  wife,  but  I  did  not  receive  any  good  answers  for  them.  WTien 
I  was  a  little  boy  with  my  parents  I  was  glad  and  happy,  I  had  what- 
ever I  wished,  and  now  I  have  a  wife  w^ho  does  not  even  WTite  to  me 
about  my  daughters.     Such  is  the  reward  for  one's  goodness. 

And  now,  dear  wife,  you  write  me  that  Jozef ,  your  brother,  writes 
about  those  few  roubles,  asking  for  them.  So  I  wTite  you,  dear  wife, 
you  may  write  to  him  that  I  wall  send  him  those  few  roubles,  but 
only  when  I  am  at  home.  Now  I  will  not  send  money  home  because 
I  need  it  for  my  journey,  and  what  is  left  I  will  give  back.  And  now 
you  write,  that  you  have  no  milk.  Do  you  think  that  I  have  it? 
You  have  rye  for  bread,  lo  korcy,  and  I  must  buy  bread;  you  have 
a  house,  and  I  must  pay  rent,  7  roubles  a  month,  and  so  my  work 
goes  on.  And  now,  dear  wdfe,  you  write  that  you  ha^-e  a  fat  pig 
[ready]  to  be  killed,  so  I  advise  you,  if  they  pay  you  well,  you  can  sell 
him,  if  pigs  are  dear;  but  if  they  are  cheap,  don't  sell.     [End  missing.] 

[Jan  Kukielka] 


JANKOSKI  SERIES 

A  typical  conjugal  relation  upon  the  familial  basis  is 
shown  in  this  series.  The  wife  is  a  substitute  for  the 
husband,  performing  economic  functions;  there  is  a  lack 
of  personal  interests;  the  husband's  father  and  wife's  sister 
are  in  solidary  co-operation  with  the  marriage-group. 


51O-II,    FROM    SZYMON   JANKOSKI,    IN   AMERICA,    TO 
HIS   WIFE,    IN   POLAND 

510  Perth  Amboy,  NJ.,  August  11,  1913 

[Usual  greetings  and  wishes.]  And  now,  dear  wife,  I  inform  you 
about  my  success,  that  my  success  is  good  enough  because  I  have 
work  and  I  work  every  day.  Dear  wife,  if  you  find  an  opportunity  to 
buy  [a  farm]  somewhere  for  about  700  roubles,  then  buy  it,  I  request 
you,  dear  wife  and  dear  father,  for  the  money  that  is  in  the  bank 
there,  and  if  some  more  is  needed,  write  to  me.  Dear  wife  and  dear 
father,  if  you  have  the  opportunity  to  buy  somewhere  near  a  manor, 
then  buy  it,  either  in  Chojnowo  or  in  Obr^biec  or  in  Czernice,  because 
it  is  always  better  to  buy  near  a  manor  than  somewhere  far  away, 
as  there  is  the  possibility  of  earning  something.  And  now,  dear 
wife  and  dear  father,  what  you  write  about  money,  that  I  might  send 
you,  so  deprive  yourselves  of  it  for  some  time  yet,  dear  wife  and 
dear  father,  because  now  I  shall  send  you  none,  as  it  is  not  worth  send- 
ing some  cents.  I  have  money  but  I  am  not  willing  to  send  these  few 
cents.  I  will  send  you  later  and  more  at  once,  then  you  will  know  that 
you  have  received  [something]  and  I  shall  know  that  I  have  sent  the 
money.  And  so  I  will  send  you  later,  but  then  a1)out  200  roubles. 
Now,  dear  wife,  I  request  you  to  go  to  Obr^bicc,  to  call  on  the  Adamskis 
and  to  ask  them  the  address  of  their  son,  and  send  me  this  address  to 
America.  Now  I  have  nothing  more  to  write  but  to  greet  you,  dear 
wife,  lovingly  and  heartily.  I  greet  Stasiek  and  Antos,  and  I  greet  dear 
father.     [Greetings  from  some  friends.] 

[SzYMON  JaNKOSKI] 
«35 


836  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

Now  I  request  you,  dear  reader,  if  you  cannot  read  what  I  wrote 
here,  do  not  answer,  because  I  did  not  learn  in  a  school,  but  in  a  barn; 
so  write  me,  dear  reader,  did  you  read  it  or  not.'' 

511  May  13,  1914 

....  And  now  I  greet  you,  dear  wife,  and  you,  my  dear  children, 
I  greet  you  all  with  those  godly  words,  "  Praised  be  "  [etc.].  And  now 
I  inform  you  that  I  received  the  letter  from  you  for  which  I  thank 
you  very  kindly,  dear  wife,  and  you,  dear  children.  And  now  I 
inform  you,  dear  wife,  that  I  sent  you  20  roubles  on  the  5th  of  May. 
I  would  have  sent  you  more  but  my  finger  was  wounded.  For  three 
weeks  I  have  not  been  able  to  work,  and  I  don't  know  how  it  will  be 
further.  Now,  thanks  to  God  and  to  God's  Mother,  this  finger  does 
not  pain  me  so  much. 

And  now  you  ask  me,  dear  wdfe,  how  much  money  Walerka 
[probably  wife's  sister]  earns,  in  ^America.  Well,  do  you  know, 
dear  wife,  that  I  spent  for  her  more  than  S60,  and  from  her  wages  I 
have  not  a  cent.  She  served  with  a  certain  master  and  mistress  for 
a  month  and  they  did  not  give  her  a  cent  for  all  this  work  of  hers,  and 
so  $14  was  lost.  And  now,  I  thank  you,  dear  wife  for  buying  this 
land,  and  I  request  you,  dear  wife,  to  describe  to  me  how  did  you 
succeed  with  that  business,  and  what  about  that  annuity?  Is  it 
already  finished  or  not  ?  I  request  you,  describe  all  this.  You  write, 
dear  wife,  about  that  Stasiek,  whether  you  may  take  him  or  not. 
I  leave  it  to  your  choice.  If  you  are  attached  to  him  take  [adopt  ?] 
him.  And  now  I  inform  you,  dear  wife,  that  I  will  send  you  presently 
the  attorney's  powxr.  And  now  I  thank  you,  dear  son,  that  you 
don't  wish  to  come  to  America,  because  now  in  America  there  is 
terrible  poverty.  It  [work]  goes  badly.  I  have  nothing  more  to 
write,  I  only  wish  you  all  health,  happiness  and  good  success;  what 
you  wish  for  yourself  from  our  Lord  God  and  God's  Mother,  and  I 
ask  you  for  a  speedy  answer.     Got  naj  [good  night]. 

SZYMON  JaNKOSKI 
'  This  is  a  rhyme  in  the  original,  and  is  proverbial. 


LAZOWSKA  SERIES 

The  general  background  of  the  conjugal  relation  is  here 
still  familial;  common  interests  (children,  management 
of  the  property)  are  still  the  main  link  between  husband 
and  wife,  and  other  members  of  the  family  (grandfather, 
uncle)  are  still  closely  connected  with  the  marriage-group. 
But  already  some  changes  can  be  noticed.  The  woman's 
affection  for  her  husband  and  her  grief  over  her  daughter's 
death  seem  to  be  a  little  stronger  than  the  mere  familial 
connection  requires  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  she  seems  to 
lack  the  ability  of  expression.  Again,  the  solidarity  of  the 
family  is  no  longer  so  strong  as  it  should  be  according  to 
tradition,  as  is  shown  by  the  relative  estrangement  of  the 
daughter  in  America. 

512-17,   FROM   MARYANNA   LAZOWSKA   AND   CHILDREN,    EST 
POLAND,    TO   HER   HUSBAND   AND   FAMILY- 
MEMBERS,    IN   AMERICA 

512  Przasnysz,  November  27  [1913] 

"Praised  be  Jesus  Christus!"  [etc.] 

[Health;  letter  received.]  You  write  me,  dear  husband,  that  I 
forbid  you  to  come  to  our  country.  I  don't  forbid  [dissuade]  you 
at  all,  you  may  come  at  any  moment,  you  have  your  own  reason. 
Don't  think  that  I  live  here  luxuriously  with  these  children.  I  buy 
only  what  they  need  absolutely.  Why,  they  go  to  school,  the  girl 
goes  to  sewing  [learns  sewing].  She  has  still  the  same  jacket.  I  only 
had  new  overcoats  made  for  the  boys.     It  was  absolutely  necessary, 

for  now  it  is  very  cold.     I  must  buy  books  and  hefts  for  them 

When  one  of  them  had  no  book  the  teacher  told  him  not  to  come  tc 
the  school.  You  see  yourself  how  bad  it  is  for  you  not  to  be  able  to 
write.  Why,  I  don't  pay  for  the  school;  this  means  much  also.  And 
then  the  shoes  cost  me  much;  we  are  6  persons  to  be  shod  for  winter. 

837 


838  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

I  don't  spend  a  single  grosz  in  vain.  It  seems  to  you  that  you  have 
sent  me  much  money.  But  I  have  paid  so  many  debts.  I  have  only 
trouble  with  these  children,  for  they  don't  ask  whether  I  have  money 
or  not,  but  require  me  to  give  them.  I  know  myself  that  you  are 
working  hard,  you  don't  need  to  admonish  [remind?]  me,  for  I  did 
not  buy  anything  for  myself.  [Food  prices;  news  about  pigs  and 
cow.]      Now,  dear  husband,  I  wish  you  a  Merry  Christmas.     It  would 

be  better  if  we  were  together;  it  would  rejoice  us  more In 

going  to  bed  and  in  rising  remember  us  always,  dear  husband.^ 

Your  most  loving  wife, 

Maryanna  Lazowska 

513  January  29,  19 14 

....  Dear  [Brother]  Bolek:  I  inform  you  about  my  grief. 
WTien  you  wrote  a  letter  and  asked  how  many  there  are  of  our  family, 
she  spoke  and  asked  us  to  write  about  her  also.^  She  fell  sick  with 
measles,  then  she  got  inflammation  of  the  lungs.  There  were  doctors, 
but  they  could  not  save  her.  She  was  awfully  clever,  it  is  difl&cult  to 
relate.^  ....  I  am  terribly  pained.     If  it  were  by  land,  I  would 

go  afoot  to  America Grandfather  despairs  continually  after 

Henka's  death  and  he  cannot  forget  her  cleverness.  His  health 
has  got  very  bad;  he  cannot  work  and  says  that  he  will  die  soon. 

'  This  request  tends  unconsciously  to  assimilate  the  familial  and  the  religious 
attitudes.  The  moments  after  the  end  and  before  the  beginning  of  the  daily  work 
are  evidently  the  ones  most  favorable  to  an  undisturbed  and  purely  sentimental 
remembrance  of  home  or  God  in  a  workman's  life.  At  the  same  time  the  periodical 
character  of  this  remembrance  would  tend  to  make  of  it  both  a  habit  and  a  duty. 
We  understand  better  the  meaning  of  this  request  if  we  remember  that  the  normal 
life  of  the  peasant  is  fully  practical  and  always  determined  by  the  actual  situation. 
Reflection  and  remembrance  require  in  him  a  particular  effort  and  an  almost 
absolute  freedom  of  mind  and  body.  Therefore  he  carefully  selects  the  time  and 
place  of  reflection  or  remembrance  and  makes  for  these  acts  a  self-conscious, 
intentional,  and  sometimes  ridiculously  ceremonial  preparation.  (See  Part 
IV.)  As  in  letter-writing  reflection  and  remembrance  are  combined,  the 
same  care  is  shown  in  the  preparation  for  it. 

'  The  meaning  is  that  her  anxiety  not  to  be  omitted  in  the  enumeration  of 
the  members  of  the  family  was  a  foreboding  of  her  death. 

3  Normal  idealization  after  death.  In  children  it  is  usually  intelligence  which 
is  thus  idealized,  in  grown-up  persons,  character.  Perhaps  this  idealization  in 
general  is  an  unconscious  attempt  to  Justify  indindual  grief  when  it  goes  beyond 
the  limit  assigned  by  the  social  regulation  of  the  attitude  toward  death.  At  any 
rate  it  is  an  attempt  to  give  objective  reasons  for  subjective  grief. 


LAZOWSKA  SERIES 


839 


As  to  the  air  [weather],  up  to  the  present  we  had  frost,  but  now  it 
does  not  freeze  any  more. 

We  salute  and  greet  you  together  with  your  wife  and  children. 
She  died  on  January  19,  and  was  buried  on  January  20. 

Maryanna  Lazowska 

514  March  20,  1914 

....  Dear  Uncle:  What  does  it  mean  that  we  have  no  letter? 
We  have  had  no  letter  since  December  5.  What  does  it  mean  ?  Are 
they  [the  father  and  oldest  sister]  dead,  or  what  ?  We  wrote  3  letters 
and  we  had  no  answer  to  any  of  them.  When  Henka  died  we  wrote 
a  letter,  but  there  was  no  answer.  So  please,  uncle,  write  a  letter  at 
our  cost — we  will  pay  for  it — and  describe  kindly  what  is  going  on, 
for  we  don't  know,  because  we  have  no  letter.  We  beg  you  for  God's 
sake,  tell  us  how  it  is.  If  somebody  is  sick  there,  describe  everything. 
What  happened  with  our  father,  that  he  does  not  deign  to  write  a 
letter  ?  When  Genia  [the  oldest  sister]  was  leaving,  mother  admon- 
ished her  not  to  forget  about  letters.  And  she  does  not  even  deign 
to  write  a  letter.  We  wonder  how  can  a  daughter  be  so  mean.'  So 
please,  uncle,  read  them  this  letter.  But  perhaps  they  are  no  more 
alive.  Then,  please,  describe  to  us  kindly  everything.  Only  we 
beg  you  for  a  speedy  answer.  We  bow  to  you,  uncle  and  auntie, 
and  to  all  our  acquaintances.  We  wish  you  a  merry  Easter.  AUe- 
luiah!    The  end. 

[Lazowska's  Children] 

515  April  10,  1914 

....  Dear  Husband  and  Daughter:  We  received  your  letter, 
for  which  we  thank  you  heartily,  and  the  money  also.     Dear  husband, 

Henka  is  dead.^     She  fell  sick  on  January  5 There  was  one 

doctor  and  another  and  they  tried  to  save  her,  and  she  wanted  to  live. 
Everything,  whatever  the  doctor  prescribed,  she  took  everything. 
She  had  40  cupping-glasses  applied.  In  the  last  moment,  dear 
daughter,  she  kissed  your  photograph,  and  kissed  me  on  the  face, 

'  The  daughter  evidently  has  not  a  much-developed  familial  feeling,  or  per- 
haps the  fact  that  she  is  in  America  with  her  father  and  uncle  accounts  for  her 
lack  of  longing  for  home. 

» Her  first  letter  with  news  of  the  death  was  evidently  not  received  by  the 
husband,  who  heard  of  it  through  the  letter  to  the  brother-in-law. 


840  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

raised  her  eyes  on  high  and  died.  She  finished  her  wandering  here 
and  went  to  eternity,  to  the  Mother  and  to  her  Lord.  But  for  me  it 
is  a  terrible  burden,  for  I  loved  her  and  she  loved  me.  When  I  enter 
into  the  house,  it  is  as  sad  for  me  as  in  a  den.  We  grieved  because  we 
had  no  letter,  we  thought  that  you  were  dead.  As  to  the  weather  in 
our  country,  it  is  so  wet  that  one  could  drown  dogs.  In  gardens 
water  stands,  it  is  impossible  to  sow  or  to  plant.  Many  people  died 
this  year.  Dear  husband  and  dear  daughter,  we  have  sad  holi- 
days this  year,  it  is  difficult  even  to  describe  to  you  my  sad  experience 

of  this  year.     I  was  in  Mlawa,  to  buy  seeds;  I  spent  50  roubles 

Grandfather  is  also  impaired  in  health  and  cannot  work.  I  thank 
you  heartily  for  the  dollar.  Remember,  dear  husband,  not  to  forget 
about  letters Grandmother  also  grieves  that  uncle  does  not 

^^'^^^^'  [Maryanna  Lazowsel\] 

Dear  father,  what  shall  mother  do  with  me,  for  I  shall  go  to  the 
school  only  till  vacation,  and  mother  does  not  know  where  to  give  me 
[in  apprenticeship]. 

Mother  is  very  angry  with  you  [Genia]  for  not  even  sending  a 
bow  to  the  Morawiankis,  for  when  the  letter  comes  they  always  ask 
whether  you  send  greetings  for  them.  FWacekI 

516  April  2T),  1914 

....  Dear  Husband:  We  are  in  good  health,  only  grandfather 
is  sick.  He  made  a  will,  for  he  is  in  danger  of  life.  He  has  willed  me 
everything.     This  happened  on  April  22.     I  am  to  pay  100  roubles  to 

the  B.'s So  I  beg  you,  dear  husband,  send  me  money,  for  it 

cost  me  already  some  15  roubles.  And  I  am  writing  already  the 
sixth  letter,  and  I  have  an  answer  to  none.  You  see,  dear  husband, 
what  difficulties  and  expenses  I  have;  as  soon  as  one  is  finished, 
another  comes.  So  I  beg  you,  send  me  this  debt,  for  they  may  make 
a  complaint  against  me,  particularly  she.  Dear  husband,  nothing 
rejoices  me  [not  even  this  will],  for  I  have  not  my  dear  daughter. 
Wherever  I  go  I  am  sad.  At  every  moment  I  think  about  her  and 
about  you. 

As  to  the  air,  it  is  warm.  There  is  work  to  be  done,  and  nobody 
to  work,  for  grandfather  is  ill.  Fences  must  be  repaired  and  potatoes 
planted.  The  prices  are  very  high  in  our  country  ....  and  work 
is  difficult  to  get;  only  craftsmen  can  earn 


LAZOWSKA  SERIES  841 

Now,  dear  daughter,  I  am  writing  to  you.  Why  do  you  not 
write  letters  to  us  ?  Everybody  wonders  why  do  you  not  write.  You 
know  how  to  write  and  don't  write.  This  makes  me  wonder  much. 
I  had  sad  holidays.  Wlien  you  were  here  it  was  not  so  sad,  for  I 
had  always  a  companion.  Grandfather  bids  you  farewell,  for  perhaps 
he  won't  see  you  any  more.  .  ,  .  .'  It  is  difficult  to  describe  to  you 
my  experience  which  I  had  this  year  [the  daughter's  death]. 

Maryanna  Lazowska 

517  June  I,  1914 

....  Dear  Husband:  You  write  that  you  earn  only  for  your 
living.  Then  come  back  to  our  country.  Enough  of  this  America. 
You  write  that  you  earn  only  enough  for  your  own  living;  but  who 
will  earn  for  us  ?  If  you  earn  only  for  your  own  living,  I  cannot  earn 
for  mine.     Wacek  went  to  the  first  confession. 

And  you,  dear  daughter,  you  send  only  bows.  Can  you  not  write 
with  your  own  hand,  that  you  send  only  bows,  as  to  strangers? 
Why,  I  am  not  your  kuma;  only  a  hima  sends  bows  for  her  kuma. 
When  you  were  not  in  America  I  did  not  wonder  that  uncle  wrote 
father's  letters.  But  you  are  now  with  your  father,  you  ought  to 
write  letters.  You  know  how  to  write,  only  you  don't  want  to.  I 
was  glad  that  I  received  a  letter  but  I  read  it  and,  see  here,  from  my 
daughter  I  have  nothing  but  a  bow! 

Grandfather  has  been  in  bed  for  six  weeks,  I  don't  know  whether 
he  will  recover.  He  dried  out,  he  cannot  eat  any  more.  And  thus 
I  have  such  experiences  and  troubles  this  year.  I  have  sown  the 
garden  myself.     I  have  nothing  but  work  and  trouble 

Why,  I  asked  you,  dear  husband,  what  to  do,  and  had  no  answer. 
Grandfather  is  sick,  money  is  needed,  work  must  be  done,  and  here 
there  is  nobody  to  work.     For  here  a  man  is  needed.     So  consider  it  and 

come.     For  it  is  impossible  to  live  without  somebody  to  work 

Maryanna  Lazowska 

Dear  father,  mother  bought  me  a  suit  at  the  fair. 

[Wacek] 

'  The  grandfather's  imminent  death  evidently  provokes  no  grief  because  of  his 
age.  The  social  normality  of  death  is  increased  with  advancing  age,  to  such  an 
extent  that  Ufe  beyond  certain  limits  becomes  an  anomaly. 


OLSZAK  SERIES 

The  old  solidarity  of  the  family-group  has  not  yet  been 
superseded,  but  there  is  a  marked  beginning  of  the  isolation 
of  the  marriage-group.  Real  personal  love  is  expressed  in 
the  letters  of  the  wife.  The  connection  between  the 
marriage-group  and  the  rest  of  the  family  is  relative!}^ 
loosened,  particularly  in  the  case  of  the  wife's  family.  But 
here  again  it  is  the  husband  who  is  more  conservative  in  his 
familial  attitudes.  It  is  he  who  tries  to  re-establish  a 
closer  connection  between  his  wife  and  her  parents  and 
sisters.  Though  he  may  be  moved  in  this  case  more 
particularly  by  the  desire  to  help  his  wife,  this  is  certainly 
not  his  reason  for  asking  his  cousin  not  only  to  help  but  also 
to  control  her. 

518-21,   TO   PIOTR   OLSZAK,   IN  AMERICA,   FROM  WIFE 
AND   FAMILY-JMEMBERS,    IN   POLAND 

518  November  12,  1913 

....  Dear  Husband:  [Health  and  success.]  In  my  field 
[cousin]  Jakob  worked  2^  days  with  a  single  horse  and  then  one  day 
with  two  horses.  He  has  not  been  paid  at  all  and  he  will  wait  till 
you  send  him  something,  because  I  borrowed  25  [gulden]  of  money 
and  bought  a  calf.  I  borrowed  this  money  from  Kolupa.  And 
Jakob  bought  me  a  pig  for  11  gulden.  I  have  dug  the  potatoes  out 
and  have  sown  7  measures  of  wheat  and  i  measure  of  barley  and  7 
measures  of  rye.  I  ha\-e  dunged  and  sown  the  field  where  the  oats 
were.  I  borrowed  i§  bushels  from  Franek  Batuch.  He  wants 
money  [interest]  for  it,  as  much  as  he  pays  himself  for  borrowing  from 
Tomasiak.'  But  don't  worry,  I  shall  manage  everything.  Since 
you  went  away  neither  father  nor  mother  has  been  here  yet,  only 

'  She  mentions  the  fact  because  it  is  not  according  to  tradition  to  take  money 
for  lending  of  grain.  Traditionally  either  nothing  or  a  little  grain  should  be  taken 
as  interest. 

842 


OLSZAK  SERIES  843 

Maryna;  and  Rozia  also,  for  a  week.  I  went  to  them  and  asked  them 
to  give  me  their  daughter  [to  help].  She  was  here  for  a  week  and 
cried  every  evening,  and  once  she  went  home  and  did  not  come  any 
more.'  The  knife  which  you  made  has  not  been  found,  nor  the 
brush.  When  I  went  with  you  to  S^cz,  Franek  took  the  brush  from 
the  shelf  in  the  lobby,  for  Maryna  and  Swidzak  saw  it.     But  I  don't 

say  anything,  because  there  would  be  trouble  for  us I  dream 

about  you  every  night.  Sometimes  I  dream  that  you  come  back 
angry  and  sometimes  good,  and  I  long  very  much.  The  day  passes 
in  working  but  in  the  evening  I  long  much  and  at  night  I  cannot 
sleep 

Samek  did  not  thresh  ....  because  I  wanted  him  to  thresh 
in  the  autumn,  but  he  was  angry,  [saying]  that  if  he  did  he  could  not 
go  to  Hungary  through  my  fault.^  In  the  field  nobody  does  you  any 
damage,  nor  does  anybody  damage  the  hedge.  People  say  about 
you  that  you  don't  need  that  America,  but  nobody  asked  how  you 
would  pay  the  debts  of  which  we  have  so  many.  Nobody  believed 
up  to  the  end  that  you  would  go.  The  Gazdas  are  very  curious 
whether  you  will  write  to  them.  Franek  comes  here  and  looks 
sometimes,  and  when  he  has  passed  by  it  can  always  be  noticed,  for 
when  he  sees  anything  he  does  not  omit  the  occasion  [to  take  it]. 

About  [your  brother]  Walek  I  dream  also.     He  has  not  written 

to  me;    I  did  not  receive  any  letter  from  him Weddings  are 

numerous  in  our  village,  but  you  will  learn  about  them.  Our  boys 
remember  you.  They  ask,  "Where  is  father?  Why  does  he  not 
come?"  Now  I  have  nothing  more  of  interest  to  write,  but  I  greet 
A'ou  a  hundred  thousand  times  kindly  and  heartily,  dear  husband, 
and  I  thank  you  for  that  letter  for  which  I  have  looked  for  so  long  a 
time.  Be  healthy.  Let  us  see  each  other.  Amen.  I  greet  you 
[enumeration  of  all  the  relatives  in  America].  And  if  I  don't  do  any- 
thing quite  well,  don't  be  angry  with  me.  And  it  is  well  that  you  like 
it  there,  because  I  have  grieved  enough,  thinking  that  you  don't  like 

it  there And  Piotrek  went  with  Samek  to  Hungary  to  work. 

And  the  Tyrkiels,  when  they  both  went  to  the  fair,  slipped  into  a 

'  She  speaks  here  of  her  own  family,  not  of  her  husband's.  The  unwillingness 
of  her  sisters  to  help  her  and  the  indifferent  attitude  of  her  father  (see  No.  520) 
show  that  a  married  couple  may  become  isolated,  not  by  their  own  fault,  but  by 
the  fault  of  the  family  in  which  the  solidarity  is  weakened. 

»  For  season-work.  The  emigration  to  Hungary  is  regarded  by  the  Galician 
peasants  as  particularly  demoralizing. 


844  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

tavern,  and  there  a  light  began.  When  Waligora  from  Brzegi 
smashed  with  a  glass  upon  the  table,  her  [Tyrkiel's  wife's]  forehead 
was  cut  in  two  spots/ 

Answer  at  once.  E  q^^^^^ 

519  May  23,  1914 

....  Dear  Husband  :  .  .  ,  .  You  write  that  you  are  worse,  but 
you  did  not  WTite  what  befell  you,  for  Wojtek  Jakubow  wrote  that 
your  leg  pains  you  but  he  did  not  write  what  happened  to  you,  and  I 
am  so  anxious  because  I  don't  know.  But  did  you  go  in  search  of 
misfortune  there?  [To  think  that  you  found  misfortune  there  I]  I 
don't  know  what  is  going  on.  Only  this  I  can  say,  Wojtus,  my  dear 
heart,  that  when  anything  bad  befalls  you,  a  part  of  my  heart  is  cut, 
from  longing  for  you.  If  you  only  know  that  the  work  won't  go  or 
if  you  cannot  work,  get  a  little  of  that  money  and  come,  and  if  you 
have  none  perhaps  Jasiek  Kuzak  will  lend  it  to  you.  And  when  you 
come  back,  if  God  the  Holiest  grants  you  to  come  back,  we  could  give 

back  either  the  field  bought  from  Tyrkiel  or  the  other  part 

There  is  no  reason  to  keep  it.  WTiy  do  you  need  it,  particularly  if 
you  have  no  health  ?  And  so  it  seems  to  me.  WTienever  I  think 
about  you,  my  heart  is  cut.  And  this  buying  of  land  from  this 
Tyrkiel  is  so  useless,  because  you  must  work  and  pay  this  interest, 
while  they  live  like  lords  and  you  cannot  say  anything  to  them.^  If 
it  were  not  because  of  this  debt  you  would  not  have  gone  to  America 
and  would  not  suffer  misery  there.  But  if  you  are  to  sufi'er  there  and 
I  here  it  is  better,  if  you  can,  to  come  back.  From  them  [the  parents] 
also  [there  is  no  great  help,  such  as  was  promised].  Sometimes  one 
[sister],  sometimes  the  other  comes,  but  when  they  are  most  necessary 
there  is  rione.  When  I  go  anywhere,  I  take  the  children,  I  take  them 
to  Popardzina  [and]  I  close  the  house.     I  shall  have  enough  grain, 

^  There  is  a  mischievous  joy  in  this  description,  resulting  from  the  woman's 
animosity  toward  the  Tyrkiels.  The  reason  of  the  animosit}-  is  stated  in  the  fol- 
lo^song  letter. 

^  The  reason  of  the  woman's  animositj'  toward  the  Tyrkiels  is  here  explained; 
it  is  envy,  because,  by  selling  their  land,  that  family  found  itself  in  a  better  position 
than  the  buyer.  There  is  a  peculiar  and  mixed  attitude  in  these  matters.  The 
price  of  land  is  out  of  proportion  to  any  possible  income  from  it,  and  while  the 
peasant,  under  the  influence  of  the  traditional  land-hunger,  still  buys  the  land  and 
pays  the  price,  he  bears  a  grudge  against  the  seller  who  made  him  pay  more  than  the 
land  is  economically  worth. 


OLSZAK  SERIES  845 

but  I  have  bought  one  quarter  of  potatoes  more,  and  I  paid  i  gulden 
because  they  are  that  dear.  But  it  does  not  matter  much,  for  they 
were  as  dear  in  the  first  year  when  we  were  married,  [Crops;  weather; 
farm-work.] 

E.  Olszak 


520  Brzezna,  May  5,  1913 

[Dear  Brother-in-law]:  You  write  us  to  help  her,  but  we  help 
her  as  we  can.  Father  continually  abuses  mother  for  going  so  often 
to  her.  When  you  went  away  Maryna  was  with  her  for  four  weeks, 
and  we  also  go  to  her  as  often  as  we  can.  You  know  that  when  you 
were  here  you  bought  [things  for  her?],  but  she  has  no  money  to  buy. 
Where  can  she  get  it?  The  worst  are  the  children,  because  when 
she  must  go  anywhere  she  takes  the  children  to  some  house  [or  other]. 
If  we  are  there,  then  it  is  better.  But  ....  we  have  no  hired  man 
and  there  is  never  time  [to  help  her  in  farm-work  ?],  and  she  is  very 
poor  without  a  servant  [passage  obscure].  But  nevertheless  we  help 
her  as  much  as  we  can.  She  has  no  fat  [for  seasoning  food]  so  we  take 
her  some  whenever  we  can,  when  father  does  not  know  about  it.^ 
Now  a  pig  has  been  killed,  so  we  are  sending  her  [some  fat],  because 
she  has  no  money  to  buy  it.  You  know,  dear  brother-in-law,  the 
difference  between  that  which  is  given  and  that  which  is  bought  [the 
gift  is  always  of  better  quality].  [News  about  relatives  and  greetings 
from  all  the  family  of  the  wife.] 

I,  Rozia,  have  written  this  page,  but,  my  dear  brother-in-law,  I 
beg  you,  don't  be  angry  if  the  writing  is  bad  and  ugly 

Rozalia  [R6zia[  Gancarczyk 

521 

....  Dear  Friend  and  Kum  ....  You  write  me  to  de- 
scribe everything,  so  I  will  write  you  the  whole  truth I  have 

sown  wheat  for  her  upon  the  field  where  potatoes  had  been,  and  a 
measure  of  barley,  and  rye  upon  dung  where  oats  had  been,  because  she 
took  one  morg  of  field  from  Franek.     And  now  I  write  you  that  she 

dug  the  potatoes  out  and  has  sown Now  you  ask  what  she  says 

about  you.     She  says  that  she  dreams  about  you  every  night 

We  have  nice  and  warm  weather.     Yours  [your  wife]  has  called  upon 

1  Cf.  No.  518,  p.  843,  note  i. 


846  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

us  with  your  letter,  and  I  did  everything  in  the  field  for  her  and  I  have 

sown,  and  Franek  keeps  it  [  ?]  well.     They  have  not  divided  it  yet. 

And  now  I  write  you  that  I  gave  to  Tyrkiel  those  10  gulden 

You  ask  whether  people  from  Ciecewina  [  ?]  [the  wife's  family]  call 

upon  her.     The  girls  do  come,  but  nobody  else.     And  now  you  ask 

how  yours  manages.     So,  up  to  the  present  she  manages  well  enough, 

and  how  it  will  be  further,  I  don't  know '  She  bought  a  calf 

for  50  crowns  and  keeps  it,  and  now  she  intends  to  buy  also  a  pig,  and 

asks  me  to  lend  her  money,  so  I  will  lend  her  some.     And  now  I 

write  you  about  this  field,  that  I  persuaded  her  to  rent  it  from  Franek, 

because  Franek  told  me  that  he  would  let  it  be  rented,  and  that  he 

had  [prospective]  tenants,  Wojtek  Ciula,  and  Jozek  Junczak,  and 

Franek  Samek.     So  it  is  better  if  your  wife  takes  it  instead  of  having 

trouble  with  them  [probably  because  of  a  too  near  neighborship].      So 

your  wife  took  one  morg  of  this  field 

[Jakob] 

'  Example  of  a  husband  controlling  his  wife  through  his  friends.  In  spite  of 
the  conjugal  affection  the  individualization  of  the  marriage-group  is  still  incomplete, 
since  other  members  of  the  family  or  community  are  not  only  allowed  but  asked 
to  interfere. 


STARKIEWICZ  SERIES 

Starkiewicz  is  not  a  farmer,  but  had  probably  worked  in 
a  manor,  and  when  he  went  to  America  his  wife  Hved  with  her 
relatives.  This  accounts  for  the  woman's  lack  of  economic 
interest.  In  their  situation  it  is  really  not  very  important 
whether  they  have  more  or  less  money,  for  money  assumes 
a  real  social  importance  only  when  it  can  be  used  to  buy 
land  or  can  in  any  way  become  a  basis  of  an  independent 
existence.  And  Starkiewicz  can  hardly  hope  to  earn  enough 
money  to  buy  a  farm. 

The  marriage-group  is  more  isolated  from  the  rest  of  the 
family  than  in  the  case  of  the  Olszaks;  probably  their 
situation  as  manor-servants  has  helped  to  produce  this 
isolation.  Still  the  familial  relations  are  rather  close,  since 
the  wife  can  stay  with  her  relatives.  Conjugal  affection  has 
evidently  considerably  transcended  the  traditional  limits. 

522-28,  FROM  ZOFIA  STARKIEWICZ,  IN  POLAND,  TO  HER 
HUSBAND,  IN  AMERICA 

522  UsciMOW,  April  16,  1914 

"Praised  be,"  [etc.]. 

Dear  Husband:  I  am  very  glad  that  I  received  your  letter,  but 
this  kills  me,  that  you  don't  write  me  exactly  what  is  going  on  with 
,you.  Here  papers  write  that  there  is  war  in  New  York,  that  houses 
iare  destroyed  with  bombs,  ....  that  ships  are  stopped  [do  not 
i bring  emigrants  to  America]  and  that  they  say  there:  "We  won't 
1  admit  the  strangers  any  more  who  came  to  spoil  our  kind  of  money, 
they  have  taken  enough  of  our  money  from  our  land."  And  you 
don't  write  me  what  is  going  on  with  you.  Please,  my  dear,  what 
I  became  of  Stasiek  Olesiuk?  Aheady  15  weeks  have  passed  and  he 
'does  not  write  any  letter  to  her.  Is  he  no  longer  alive,  or  what  else 
'  became  of  him  ?    For  she  grieves  very  much.   Don't  you  know  anything 

847 


848  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

about  him  ?     I  beg  you,  my  dear  husband,  you  have  enough  of  this 

earning;   come  back  to  us.     It  will  be  sufficient  for  you.     You  have 

more  than  300  roubles,  and  you  can  earn  the  rest  here.     You  won't 

take  the  money  with  you  when  you  die,  and  here  you  can  also  earn, 

if  God  the  Merciful  grants  you  health  and  allows  you  to  live.     Instead 

of  working  there  and  wasting  your  strength  you  can  have  here  bread 

enough.     If  you  don't  want  to  serve  [in  a  manor]  go  to  Lublin,  and 

there  you  can  live.     You  don't  want  to  have  most  [money]  among 

other  men.     If  it  is  difficult  to  return  now,  if  it  is  true  that  there  are 

such  troubles,  then  come  about  autumn,  and  if  perhaps  you  have  sent 

me  all  your  money,  wxite  me  and  I  will  send  you  for  the  journey.     In 

our  country  now  it  is  warm,  trees  are  developing  their  leaves,  people 

are  sowing  oats  and  barley  and  planting  potatoes 

I  inform  you,  dear  husband,  that  somebody  stole  100  roubles  from 

stepmother,  father's  wife,  from  her  chest.     We  all  went  to  the  priest, 

father  and  stepmother  and  sister  Wisniewska,  and  Wojciech,  and 

Helena,   and   I.     Stepmother   was   absolutely   determined   to   have 

father  testify  under  oath.     Then  father  would  say  that  his  children 

had  stolen  the  money.     But  the  priest  forbade  him  to  make  the 

oath.^  .... 

[ZoFiA  St.^rkiewicz] 


523  June  2,  1914 

Dear  Husbaxd:  I  inform  you  that  I  received  the  money,  loi 
roubles  and  5  copecks,  and  I  thank  you  heartfly,  my  dear  husband,  for 
remembering  me.  Now  I  inform  you  that  I  will  do  nothing  with  this 
money  and  I  won't  lend  it  to  anybody,  for  I  am  afraid.  I  will  put 
it  into  the  bank.     Just  now  your  godfather  Kunak  came  to  me, 

'  The  oath  is  considered  a  perfectly  sufficient  proof  even  if  it  is  false;  the 
responsibility  for  its  truthfulness  falls  exclusivelj'  upon  the  person  who  makes  it, 
and  it  is  a  general  belief  that  great  calamities  and  even  death  are  the  result  of  a 
false  oath.  (The  result  is  conceived  partly  as  di\Tne  punishment,  partly  as  imme- 
diate magical  consequence  of  the  sacrilege.)  In  this  case  the  author  believes  that 
the  stepmother's  accusation  against  her  stepchildren  is  either  true  or  not  true.  In 
the  first  case  her  satisfaction  at  the  priest's  refusal  to  accept  the  oath — the  only 
possible  proof — shows  that  she  does  not  consider  the  robbing  of  the  stepmother 
a  bad  act.  If  she  does  not  believe  it  is  true,  then  she  thinks  her  father  either 
capable  of  a  false  oath  or  so  henpecked  that  he  would  believe  anything  the  step- 
mother says,  and  in  either  case  absolutely  estranged  from  his  own  children.  In  that 
case  we  have  a  situation  resembling  that  in  the  Wr6blewski  series. 


STARKIEWICZ  SERIES  849 

asking  me  to  lend  him  100  roubles,  but  I  am  afraid.  I  said  so — that 
I  won't  give  them  until  I  write  to  you  and  ask  you,  and  he  agreed. 
,  .  .  .  What  do  you  say?     Shall  I  lend  it  or  not?    He  wants  to 

borrow  it  on  a  note,  but  I  should  prefer  to  put  it  in  the  bank I 

am  very  much  satisfied  that  you  intend  to  come  when  you  have  no 

work 

Now  I  inform  you  that  your  niece  Kaska  is  married  already.  They 
went  to  be  married  on  Thursday  before  Pentecost,  and  the  marriage- 
festival  will  be  on  the  Holy  Trinity  Day.     They  say  that  they  got 

married  in  Wlodawa.    The  rest  I  will  tell  you  in  my  next  letter 

Your  wife, 

ZoFiA  Starkiewicz 

Read  for  yourself  secretly,  that  nobody  may  know.  I  inform 
you  about  this  marriage  of  Kaska.  They  went  to  the  wedding  alone, 
and  they  have  no  sign  at  all  whether  they  are  married  or  not.  When 
they  came  back,  only  then  they  went  to  our  priest  asking  him  to 
publish  the  banns.  They  had  to  take  the  certificate  to  the  other 
church  that  their  banns  had  been  published,  and  only  then  the  other 
priest  was  to  give  them  the  marriage-certificate.  But  our  priest 
refused  to  accept  [money]  for  the  banns.  So  everybody  says  as  he 
pleases — some  that  they  were  married,  others,  that  they  were  not, 
for  nobody  was  with  them,  and  he  is  a  true  Ruthenian.^ 

524  June  21,  1914 

Dear  Husband:  ....  I  received  your  letter It  made 

me  very  sad  that  so  many  people  are  drowned.  I  think  about  your 
journey.  May  God  only  grant  you  to  come  back  happily  to  us,  may 
God  guard  you  against  any  accident!  ....  I  beg  you,  my  husband, 
be  so  good,  listen  to  me,  come  back  at  once.  After  this  letter  prepare 
yourself  directly  for  the  journey.  What  a  life  it  is  that  you  live! 
Your  work  is  heavier  than  a  stone.  What  of  it  if  you  leave  your 
strength  in  a  foreign  country?  Shall  we  take  our  money  with  us 
after  our  death  ?     Why  should  we  exert  ourselves  so  ?     Pray  God  for 

'  The  secrecy  in  which  she  communicates  this  news,  the  nature  of  the  gossip, 
and  the  postscript  to  No.  528,  show  clearly  the  normal  attitude  of  the  peasant 
toward  illegal  sexual  intercourse.  There  is  no  trace  of  a  purely  moral  or  religious 
condemnation,  but  a  very  strong  feeling  that  such  an  intercourse,  even  if  finishing 
with  marriage,  is  socially  abnormal.  This  standpoint  will  explain  many  peculiarities 
in  this  connection. 


850  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

health,  then  we  shall  live.     Whether  you  earn  or  lose,  nobody  will  add 

or  take  away  anything  from  you.     I  have  a  hog.     They  offered  me 

45  roubles;   I  want  50.     Now  I  won't  sell  it  until  you  come.     Then 

we  should  have  313  roubles,  and  if  we  sold  the  cow  there  would  be 

about  400.     We  would  put  it  into  the  bank  in  Lublin,  and  we  should 

live  much  better  than  now 

ZoFiA  Starkiewicz 

525  August  9,  1914 

In  the  first  words  of  my  letter,  dear  husband,  I  inform  you  about 
my  health  and  success.  Up  to  the  present  we  are  still  in  good  health, 
but  we  don't  know  how  it  will  be  further.  I  sent  you  already  one 
letter  in  which  I  bade  you  farewell,  like  going  to  death,  but  still  war 
is  in  some  way  held  up  for  2  weeks,  only  throngs  of  soldiers  are  passing 
by  us  afoot  and  on  horses;  we  see  no  end  of  them.  God  forbid,  what 
is  going  on  with  everyone  of  us!  How  much  crying,  how  much 
sorrow!  Everybody  is  so  grieved,  if  you  looked  today  upon  anybody 
you  would  not  know  him.  O  my  God,  what  we  have  lived  to  see! 
May  God  guard  everybody  against  it !  Now  nothing  else  but  every- 
body prays  and  prepares  himself  for  death.  The  priests  listen  to  con- 
fession, and  people  come  during  whole  days  and  confess  themselves. 
And  nobody  knows  what  will  happen,  whether  we  shall  be  sent  away 
from  here  or  not.  Rich  people  go  to  far  Russia;  there  is  no  war  there, 
while  here  is  the  worst  fire.  We  are  all  so  afraid  that  we  don't  know 
how  to  live  in  the  world.     The  reservists  have  been  sent  away.  .  .  . 

even  those  are  taken  who  are  48  years  old And  nobody  knows 

what  will  be.     [The  papers]  write  always  that  it  is  a  European  war, 

but  we  don't  know I  beg  you,  answer  this  letter  as  soon  as 

possible.  And  perhaps  we  shall  no  longer  be  alive  when  your  letter 
comes ^ 

And  now  I  beg  you,  dear  husband,  and  Jozefka,  Stasiek's  wife,  we 
begged  you  in  some  letters  to  write  us  about  him,  but  you  did  not 
answer  this.  We  heard  from  the  T.'s  that  Stasiek  has  a  sweetheart 
and  won't  come  back  any  more,  for  he  has  a  sweetheart  and  will 
remam  in  America.  His  mother  weeps  very  much,  and  his  wife  also. 
Answer  me,  whether  it  is  true,  but  answer  me  the  truth.     Then  we 

'  This  whole  paragraph  is  a  good  illustration  of  the  peasant's  feeling  of  incom- 
prehension and  impotence  with  regard  to  the  phenomena  of  the  social  world  outside 
of  his  owTi  community.     Cf.  Introduction:   "Social  Environment." 


STARKIEWICZ  SERIES  851 

shall  tell  it  to  them.     Write  us  the  address  of  Stasiek.     Only  tell  the 
truth,  what  is  going  on.     We  believe  that  it  is  true,  for  perhaps  he  had 

a  very  bad  life  and  he  attached  himself  to  a  sweetheart 

Your  truly  loving  wife, 

ZoFiA  Starkiewicz 

I 

520  November  i,  19 14 

....  Dear  Husband:  I  inform  you  that  I  am  in  good  health 
and  our  son  is  also  in  good  health,  and  we  wish  you  the  same.  Dear 
husband,  I  have  sent  you  3  letters,  this  is  the  fourth,  and  I  have  no 
answer.  Are  you  no  longer  alive?  I  don't  know  myself  what  it 
means.  It  is  not  enough  that  I  have  grief  here;  I  don't  know  any- 
thing about  you.  I  will  write  you  one  letter  after  another,  perhaps 
one  of  them  will  reach  you,  for  I  shall  not  live  through  this  grief, 
thinking  about  you.  And  perhaps  you  are  not  there,  so  whoever 
opens  this  letter,  please  answer  me  at  least  a  few  words,  whether  he 
is  alive  or  is  no  more  there I  give  my  address 

ZoEiA  Starkiewicz 

527  November  7,  1914 

Dear  Husband  :  I  received  your  letter.  [Health ;  wishes.]  Your 
son  sends  you  bows  and  kisses  your  hands,  saying  that  he  is  worried 
without  his  papa.  Yes,  dear  husband,  our  son  is  already  big  enough 
and  intelligent,  he  always  remembers  "  Mamma,  where  is  papa  ?  Is  it 
far?  When  shall  we  go  to  him?  Perhaps  tomorrow?  '  Come, 
mamma,  let  us  go!"  .  .  .  .  Jozefka  thanks  you  heartily  for  the 
address  which  you  sent  her,  and  I  thank  you  also  for  having  written 
a  few  words  about  Stasiek.  We  are  still  curious  to  know  what 
woman  sits  there  with  him,  what  is  her  name.  Write  me.  What 
does  it  matter  to  you  if  I  know  who  she  is  ?  .  .  .  . 

As  to  the  war,  there  is  now  no  battle  near  us.  The  nearest  one 
was  about  Lublin,  3  versts  away.  Trawniki  is  burned,  Janow 
destroyed,  of  Tomaszow  only  sky  and  earth  are  left.  There  was 
such  a  groan  from  shots  here  that  the  earth  trembled.  Now  the  battle 
is  going  on  beyond  the  Vistula,  toward  Cz^stochowa.  Radom  is 
destroyed,  but  not  totally,  Pulawy  destroyed,  villages  destroyed. 
There  was  such  a  roar  at  night  that  it  was  impossible  to  sleep.     Now 


85-'  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

no  more  shots  are  to  be  heard,  for  the  German  has  been  driven  away. 

Only  there  is  great  misery  in  our  country,  everything  expensive 

Few  people  are  left,  only  women,  for  men  have  been  taken,  some  to  the 

war,  others  to  digging  trenches,  others  to  transports;    horses  and 

carts  are  all  taken 

Your  loving  wife, 

ZoFiA  Starkiewicz 

528  November  26,  19 14 

....  Dear  Husband:  ....  Our  son  is  healthy  and  rather 
big;  he  walks  already  in  trousers.  When  I  ask:  "What  is  father 
doing  in  America?"  he  answers:  "He  cuts  wood."  I  have  a  great 
distraction  with  him;  he  always  talks  to  me.  Were  it  not  for  the 
child  I  should  perhaps  not  live  through  this  sorrow.  Dear  husband,  I 
inform  you  that  I  hired  myself  as  a  milk-woman,  for  both  brothers- 
in-law  are  at  the  war.  I  have  nowhere  to  live,  and  it  is  difficult  to  live 
in  the  village.  And  thus  they  will  give  me  lodging  and  fuel,  i  cow 
to  keep  in  the  manorial  stable,  3  bushels  grain  every  quarter  and  100 
roods  of  field  [for  potatoes].  I  take,  it  is  true,  a  duty  upon  my  head, 
for  I  must  be  there  at  every  call,  but  at  least  I  shan't  have  to  work 
during  the  whole  summer  [for  some  neighbor].  For  the  keeping  of  one 
cow  and  for  a  few  roods  of  field  I  had  to  work  during  the  whole  sum- 
mer, while  now  I  shall  have  peace  with  it.  Whatever  I  earn  [outside 
the  milking  hours]  will  be  mine,  and  they  will  give  me  also  4  roubles 
a  year.  Yes,  dear  husband,  it  is  painful  for  me,  for  I  did  not  expect 
that  I  should  have  to  serve. 

Now  I  inform  you  that  Jozefka,  Stasiek's  [wife],  went  as  a  maid 
to  a  pop  [Russian  priest]  to  Kolechowicze.  For  the  prices  of  every- 
thing are  now  very  high;  it  is  difficult  to  live  in  the  village,  when  one 
cannot  earn  somewhere.  First  she  had  waited  for  a  letter  from  her 
husband,  but  it  is  a  year  since  she  has  had  no  letter  from  him;  what 
should  she  expect  from  him  any  more  ?  She  went  away  on  Novem- 
ber 15.  When  she  was  leaving  she  cried  very  much;  she  simply  could 
not  say  a  word.  She  is  so  grieved,  because  she  has  a  husband  and 
must  serve,  while  he  works  for  some  whore  and  lives  with  her.  She 
is  very  much  pained,  she  can  hardly  bear  it.  Yes,  my  husband,  poor 
is  her  lot.     I  wept  myself  about  her  lot 

[Describes  who  went  to  war  and  perished.]  Brother-in-law  bade 
us  farewell  by  letter  and  begged  everybody  to  forgive  his  sins 


j  STARKIEWICZ  SERIES  853 

We  simply  could  not  listen  to  this  letter;    everybody  wept 

Since  then  there  has  been  no  letter  from  him,  perhaps  he  is  dead. 
....  Now  I  inform  you  that  people  talked  here  that  all  the  men  have 

been  driven  away  from  America  and  that  they  are  going  to  war 

I  thought  that  it  was  true  and  grieved 

ZoFiA  Starkiewicz 

Kaska  P.  had  already  a  daughter  on  November  17,  while  the  wed- 
ding was  in  June. 


KLUCH  SERIES 

Partial  isolation  of  the  marriage-group,  resulting,  not 
from  a  particularly  close  relation  between  husband  and  wife, 
but  from  a  disintegration  of  the  family,  appears  in  this 
series  of  letters.  Already  one  branch  of  the  family  has  been 
spacially  isolated  from  the  rest.  We  find  no  mention  of 
any  other  member  living  in  Lublin  except  the  father  with 
his  wife  and  the  two  daughters  with  their  husbands.  And 
even  this  small  group  is  dissolved  by  the  father's  second 
marriage.  Consequently  there  remain  only  three  marriage- 
groups,  partly  solidary,  partly  opposed  to  one  another. 
And  again  we  find  the  men  more  conservative,  willing  to 
keep  at  least  in  a  certain  measure  the  old  group-connection. 


529-32,  TO  S.  KLUCH,  IN  AMERICA,  FROM  HIS  WIFE  AND 
FAMILY-MEMBERS,  IN  POLAND;  AND  ONE  LETTER  FROM 
THE  SISTER-IN-LAW  OF  KLUCH  TO  HER  HUSBAND,  IN 
AMERICA 

529  [Lublin],  May  21,  1914 

Dear  Son-in-law:  You  ask  me  to  describe  to  you  the  success  of 
your  wife,  but  I  can  write  you  no  news  at  all,  for  I  have  never  any 
occasion  to  call  upon  her,  although  she  is  my  child.  How  can  I  call 
upon  her  since  she  drove  me  away  from  her  ?  And  secondly,  when  1 
go  she  avoids  me  as  if  I  had  done  her  some  evil.  She  moved  from  here 
to  Wesola  Street,  there  they  live  near  each  other,  she  and  Pawlowa 
[Pawel's  wife,  the  other  daughter].  I  send  you  only  the  news  that 
kuma  Staskowa  [Stasiek's  wife]  went  to  borrow  money  from  her,  and 
she  said  that  she  had  not  a  penny ;  so  probably  there  is  misery. 

And  now,  dear  son-in-law,  I  beg  you  very  much,  write  letters  to 
me  oftener,  for  it  is  my  only  comfort,  when  you  send  me  a  letter.  For 
I  have  no  comfort  at  all  from  my  daughters.  I  respect  you  more, 
both  my  sons-in-law,  than  my  own  children.     My  older  son-in-law 

854 


KLUCH  SERIES 


855 


wrote  to  me  asking  me  whether  I  was  not  angry.  Now  probably  he 
is  angry  with  me  ...  .  because  I  have  no  news  from  him  at  all  and 
I  don't  know  what  has  become  of  him.  And  now  I  address  myself 
to  you,  dear  son-in-law  Stanislaw.  You  ask  me  whether  I  am  not 
afraid  that  you  won't  give  me  the  money  back.  I  am  not  afraid  at 
all,  for  I  understand  what  work  means  and  what  it  means  to  be  with- 
out work.  [Conditions  at  home  are  bad.]  Write  letters  to  me, 
oftener,  then  I  will  also  send  you  more  interesting  news,  for  it  is  my 
only  diversion  when  you  send  me  a  letter.  It  is  sad  and  painful  to 
me  that  my  daughters  avoid  me  like  some  enemy  [in  return]  for  my 
education  [of  them],  for  my  goodness,  for  my  having  fed  them  for 
some  time  when  you  went  away.'  ....  j  7 

530  March  22,  1914 

[Usual  greetings;  letter  and  photographs  received.]  Dear  hus- 
band, you  wrote  me  to  try  to  get  Kocieba's  address,  so  I  went  to  his 
wife.  But  she  did  not  want  to  give  it  at  all.  She  said:  "Perhaps  he 
will  go  to  him."  I  said:  "I  don't  know."  Then  she  said:  "He  has 
had  no  work  himself  for  two  months."^  And  now,  dear  husband,  you 
wrote  me  to  say  to  kum  Pawel  that  you  did  not  work  for  4  months. 
But  kum  did  not  believe  it  at  all;  he  said  that  it  was  impossible,  that 
you  were  not  w^ithout  work  for  so  long  a  time.  Dear  husband,  people 
don't  believe  that  there  is  misery  in  America;  they  want  to  go  without 
reflecting.  Kum  does  not  earn  badly  where  he  is  now;  he  did  not 
tell  it,  but  kuma  [his  wife]  told  me  that  he  earned  up  to  20  roubles 
every  two  weeks.  Perhaps  even  in  America  he  would  not  earn  more, 
for  people  think  that  in  America  everybody  is  filled  with  cakes  [by 
the  employers]  while,  as  we  see,  even  in  America  it  is  not  so 
sweet M.  Kluch 

'  The  strength  of  the  famiUal  attitude  is  seen  in  the  fact  that  the  old  man  seeks 
in  his  sons-in-law  a  support  when  the  relation  with  his  daughters  is  broken  off. 
He  needs  a  sanction  for  his  second  marriage  and  his  sons-in-law  are  a  substitute  for 
his  daughters. 

2  Not  professional  jealousy,  as  this  developed  only  among  craftsmen  and  the 
persons  here  are  from  the  peasant  class.  The  unwillingness  shown  here  is  therefore 
the  sign  of  a  partial  dissolution  of  the  old  solidarity  and  hospitality  among  peasants. 
The  feeling  of  obligation  cannot  be  shaken  off,  but  the  duty  seems  burdensome  and 
unpleasant,  because  no  longer  adapted  to  the  general  conditions  of  modern  life- 
Cf.  No.  474. 


856  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

531  September  4,  1914 

....  And  now,  dear  husband,  you  ask  me  how  much  money  I 
have.  I  have  not  so  much.  In  the  bank  I  had  only  50  roubles  and 
I  had  left  only  a  few  roubles  for  myself  to  live  upon,  and  then  you  sent 
100.  So  there  would  have  been  150  roubles  in  the  bank,  but  I  did 
not  put  them  in  the  bank,  for,  as  you  know,  nobody  accepts  money 
and  nobody  gives  it  back  [because  of  war].  Those  100  roubles  which 
I  had  to  pay  to  my  father,  I  did  not  pay  them  either,  for  my  sister 
had  also  a  few  roubles  at  home  which  she  put  in  the  bank,  and  now 
the  bank  refuses  to  pay  them.  She  cannot,  evidently,  die  from  hunger 
together  with  her  children  [so  I  lent  her  money].  The  old  man,  I 
know,  is  not  without  money,  and  as  soon  as  everything  starts  again 
our  brother-in-law  will  send  [money  to  my  sister]  and  I  will  give  [the 
money]  back  to  the  old  man.  And  now,  dear  husband,  perhaps  I 
have  spent  somewhat  too  much  money,  so  don't  be  angry  with  me,  for 
I  was — I  don't  mean  to  reproach  God  with  it- — in  Cz^stochowa  and  I 
bought  a  few  things  for  myself  and  for  the  children,  so  the  money  was 
spent.  And  now  you  wrote,  why  did  I  not  inform  you  that  I  was  in 
Cz^stochowa.  How  could  I  have  informed  you,  since  you  forbade 
me  to  write  at  all,  so  I  waited  until  all  this  is  changed,  and  I  did  not 

know  what  was  the  matter But  you  listened  to  the  absurdities 

of  the  old  man  [my  father],  and  the  old  one  avenges  himself  on  me  as 
much  as  he  can.  Surely  he  is  so  angry  because  I  don't  say  "mother" 
to  his  linen-press  [wife].  But  you  don't  know  the  old  one  yet.  The 
old  one  probably  is  trying  to  get  us  separated.  As  long  as  I  worked 
I  was  good  [in  his  opinion],  and  although  he  got  married  he  wanted  me 
to  wash,  to  do  everything,  while  his  linen-press  w^ould  lie  and  drink 
milk  instead  of  water.'  He  would  like  his  children  to  be  wasted  like 
salt  upon  boiling  water,  as  he  always  said  to  our  brother-in-law, 
"Well,  you  will  be  wasted  like  salt  upon  boiling  water."  ....  I 
Don't  believe  the  old  one,  whatever  he  writes  you  about  me,  for  he 

'  Before  his  second  marriage  the  father  had  lived  with  his  daughter  and  his 
claims  to  support  and  ser\dce  were  considered  rightful.  (Cf.  Jablkowska  series.) 
But  after  his  second  marriage  all  his  rights  disappeared.  He  had  not  only  to  pay 
for  his  own  and  his  wife's  living,  but  his  wife  had  to  share  the  housework  with  his 
daughter.  He  complains  of  his  daughter's  ingratitude,  but  clearly  his  appeal  is 
made  rather  in  the  name  of  an  abstract  morality  than  of  a  practically  acknowledged 
social  obligation.  This  is  one  of  the  clearest  examples  of  familial  dissociation 
resulting  from  a  second  marriage  through  the  difficulty  of  assimilating  the  new 
family-member. 


KLUCH  SERIES  857 

never  knows  what  I  do  and  even  where  I  live.  Since  he  moved  away 
from  me  he  has  never  yet  called  upon  me.  I  could  die  and  be  buried 
and  he  would  not  know  anything.  And  to  you  he  writes  that  he 
knows  everything,  how  I  live.  Let  him  rather  guard  his  pile-driver 
[wife]  lest  they  take  it  away  from  him  for  driving  bridge-piles  into 
the  river-bed.  I  return  once  more,  dear  husband,  to  my  going  to 
Cz^stochowa.  I  went  there  with  this  intention,  that  you  might  be 
healthy  and  succeed  well,  and  that  we  might  see  each  other  once  more 
in  our  life.'  And  now,  dear  husband,  I  inform  you  about  this  war, 
that  here  nothing  terrible  has  been  as  yet,  but  we  don't  know  how  it 

will  be  further Only,  wounded  men  are  brought  from  morning 

till  evening,  and  even  by  night,  and  the  villages  are  burned  around 

us 

M.  Kluch 


532  August  31,  1914 

....  And  now,  dear  husband,  don't  grieve  and  don't  be  very 

anxious,  but  here  is  a  terrible  misery  in  Lublin  ....  terrible  trouble. 

Villages  are  burning  around  Lublin,  dear  husband!    And  we  see  so 

many  wounded  men  when  they  bring  them  through  the  streets  that 

our  eyes  are  aching  from  looking  upon  these  cripples And  we 

are  quite  stupid,  dear  husband,  we  don't  know  what  to  do.     Some  say 

to  fly  from  the  town,  others  say  to  sit  upon  the  spot,  some  say  so 

others  so,  but  nobody  knows  what  will  befall  us,  except  perhaps  our 

Lord  God  alone We  received  now  fresh  news  that  the  pillows 

are  to  be  taken  for  the  wounded.     From  this  fright  we  hid  them  in 

cellars,  but  then  we  learned  that  whoever  hides  the  [)illows  will  be 

beaten  by  the  Cossacks,  so  we  took  them  from  the  cellar  and  buried 

them  in  the  earth ^ 

[Pawlowa] 

'  This  is  evidently  a  pretext.  Her  excuses  show  that  going  to  Cz^stochowa  is 
not  a  pure  rehgious  act — a  pilgrimage  in  the  proper  sense — but  a  social  and  aesthetic 
enjoyment  of  the  same  character  as  attendance  at  religious  ceremonies  and  parish 
festivals.  The  connection  of  religious  life  with  aesthetic  and  hedonistic  interests 
is  very  close. 

"  The  fear  of  the  authorities,  as  of  an  incalculable  danger,  stifles  every  other 
feeling;  there  is  no  place  left  for  pity  toward  the  wounded.  This  is  proljubly  one 
of  the  reasons  why  the  peasant,  ready  for  individual  compassion  and  iielp,  mistrusts 
absolutely  any  official  charity  organization,  and  is  unwilling  not  only  to  contribute 
to  it,  but  even  to  be  helped  by  it,  unless  the  help  takes  the  form  of  a  gift  of  money. 


STRUCINSKI  SERIES 

The  case  is  interesting  on  account  of  the  evolution  which 
goes  on  in  the  conjugal  relation.  In  the  beginning  this  has 
evidently  a  famiHal  character  which  it  gradually  drops, 
leaving  only  some  community  of  interest,  personal  affection, 
and  sexual  impulse.  This  change  is  probably  due  to  the 
emigration  of  the  man,  and  not  alone  to  his  separation  from 
the  family-group,  but  also  to  the  tendency  to  economic 
advance  which  is  expressed  in  the  emigration.  We  have 
seen  that  this  tendency  always  acts  more  or  less  destruc- 
tively upon  the  familial  form  of  economic  life;  at  the  same 
time  it  creates  a  new  and  exclusive  link  within  the  marriage- 
group,  since  it  affects,  of  course,  this  group  as  a  whole.  We 
shall  see  this  very  well  illustrated  in  another  (Jablkowska) 
series.  But  in  the  present  case  the  influence  of  emigration 
does  not  express  itself  in  this  way.  The  personal  conjugal 
connection  is  not  strong  enough  to  subsist  when  its  familial 
basis  has  been  dissolved  and  without  the  help  of  the  attach- 
ment brought  by  common  life.  Gradually,  therefore,  the 
relations  between  husband  and  wife  become  cooler  and  seem 
to  tend  to  a  definite  break. 

533-46,   FROM  ADAM   STRUCINSKI,   IN  AMERICA,   TO 
HIS   WIFE,    IN   POLAND 

533  Glassport,  Pa.,  June  9,  1910 

In  the  first  words  of  my  letter,  "Praised  be  Jesus  Christus." 
And  now  I  inform  you,  beloved  wife,  that  by  the  favor  of  God  I  am 
well,  and  the  same  I  wish  to  you  and  the  whole  family.  And  now  I 
ask  whether  you  received  the  money,  because  on  April  18  I  sent  to  you 
19  roubles  and  43  copecks,  and  I  have  no  information  about  it  for 
7  weeks.     Now  I  send  25  roubles  again,  so  when  you  receive  it,  then 


STRUCINSKI  SERIES  859 

write  to  me,  because  I  am  very  much  troubled.  I  do  not  know  what 
happened.  And  now  I  do  not  have  anything  more  to  write,  only  I 
would  ask  you  to  send  to  me  three  little  crosses,  and  one  little  medal- 
lion, because  I  need  only  one  little  cross,  but  I  should  like  to  give  it  to 
my  colleague,  and  furthermore  I  would  ask  you  to  put  in  about  6  hog- 
bristles,  because  when  sometime  my  shoe  is  torn  then  I  do  not  have 
any  means  to  mend  it,  and  if  I  want  to  buy  [bristles]  then  you  cannot 
find  a  store  that  has  hog-bristles.  Give  this  letter  to  my  parents, 
or  send  it  by  mail,  for  maybe  you  do  not  go  there.  And  now  I 
kiss  you.' 

Adam  Strucinski 


534  July  13,  1910 

....  And  now  I  inform  you,  beloved  wife,  about  my  dear  health 
and  success.  Thanks  to  God  I  am  well  and  the  same  I  wish  to  you. 
I  received  your  letter  July  4,  for  which  I  thank  you  heartily,  and  I 
reply  to^you  at  once.  July  9  I  sent  you  50  roubles,  so  that  when  you 
receive  it  then  answer  me. 

And  now,  beloved  wife,  you  were  writing  that  you  want  to  come 

to  America,  so  now  I  do  not  advise  you  to  come.     It  is  better  if  I 

send  you  a  few  roubles  for  your  use  and  if  you  stay,  for  the  election  of 

president  will  be  soon  and  it  may  even  be  that  I  will  come  back  to  the 

old  country.^     And  if,  after  the  elections,  in  America  times  are  good 

then  I  can  send  you  a  steamship-ticket,  and  if  they  are  bad,  then  it 

may  be  that  next  fall  I  will  come  back  to  the  old  country  myself.     I 

pray  God  to  help  you  just  as  I  pray  Him  to  help  me  in  America.     So 

when  I  stay  in  America  until  next  fall  and  then  come  back  to  the  old 

country,  we  shall  have  good  living  just  the  same.     When  you  reply  to 

me  write  me  whether  you  received  those  19  roubles,  43  copecks.     I 

bow  to  you,  beloved  wife,  and  to  the  whole  family.     I  wish  health, 

happiness,  and  good  success. 

Adam  Strucinski 

'  The  letter  is  much  more  business-Hkc  and  less  personal  than  the  following  ones; 
the  request  to  give  it  to  the  parents  proves  that  it  is  meant  to  be  a  purely  familial 
letter. 

'  Probably  a  pretext  for  not  bringing  her  to  America;  possibly  he  was  misin- 
formed about  date  of  elections. 


86o  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

535  November  i,  1910 

Dear  Wife:  I  greet  you  at  least  through  this  dead  paper,  and  I 
kiss  you,  my  love,  and  I  inform  you  that  I  received  a  letter  from  you 
from  which  I  learned  about  your  dear  health  and  also  your  success,  and 
therefore  I  am  very  glad  my  beloved  Broncia.  And  I  also  inform  you 
about  my  health  and  success.  By  the  favor  of  God  I  am  well  and  the 
same  I  wish  to  you,  my  love.  And  my  success  is  pretty  good,  only 
this,  that  I  am  lonesome  without  you,  for  what  is  the  use  of  this  work 
and  money  if  I  do  not  have  and  do  not  see  you.  So,  I  ask  you, 
beloved  angel,  to  send  me  your  little  face,  that  is  a  photograph,  just 
as  I  send  [one]  to  you.  Although  we  are  on  the  inanimate  paper, 
nevertheless  we  shall  see  [each  other]  and  in  our  souls  we  shall  have 
our  tender  kisses,  my  dear  love.  Beloved  Broncia,  I  send  you  my 
photograph  together  with  that  of  my  cousin  whom  I  want  to  engage 
with  Wiktorya  Dobrzynska,  and  I  ask  you,  beloved  wife,  to  take 
your  picture  together  with  Wichta  [Wiktorya]  and  to  send  it  to  me, 
because  if  you  will  not  take  it  together  with  her,  then  I  will  be  very 
angry  with  you,  because  he  [the  cousin]  sends  one  of  his,  for  he  is  very 
much  pleased  with  my  description,  and  therefore  he  desires  it  [the 
picture],'  and  we  will  come  back  together.  Now  I  write  to  you  that 
with  a  second  letter  I  will  send  to  you  60  roubles.  I  do  not  have 
anything  more  to  write  but  to  send  a  bow  to  your  beloved  mother, 
sisters,  brothers-in-law,  brother,  and  sister-in-law,  in  general  to  the 
whole  family,  and  I  send  hearty  wishes.  Let  God  grant  them  every- 
thing the  best.  And  I  bid  you  farewell,  beloved  Broncia,  embrace 
you  and  kiss  you,  I,  your  sincerely  loving  husband, 

Adam  Strucinski 

You  will  give  one  photograph  to  my  parents.  There  will  be  5 
altogether,  4  mine  and  one  of  my  cousin. 

I  ask  you  for  a  quick  reply  and  the  photographs.  Have  photo- 
graphs taken  of  both  of  you  at  once,  and  send  them  to  me.  I  shall 
wait  with  impatience. 

'  The  whole  story  of  the  matchmaking  in  this  and  the  following  letters  is 
perfectly  typical.  The  underlj-ing  attitudes  are  exactly  in  accordance  with  the 
tradition,  only  the  means  are  new  because  of  the  new  situation.  This  tj^se  of 
matchmaking  is  more  conservative  than  the  one  which  we  find  in  the  Butkowski 
series. 


STRUCINSKI  SERIES  86 1 

536  December  20,  19 10 

Dear  Broncia:  First  of  all  I  greet  you  and  I  kiss  you  affably  and 
I  inform  you  that  I  received  the  letter  and  a  photograph.  This 
letter  and  the  photograph  rejoiced  me  very  much.  Those  photo- 
graphs rejoiced  me  very  much  more  than  if  I  should  find  a  hundred 
dollars.  I  am  very  glad  also  that  you  took  the  picture  together  with 
Wichta.  And  I  thank  you  very  heartily  for  the  wafer,  and  I  also 
mutually  divide  the  wafer  with  you  and  the  whole  family,  and  I 
congratulate  you  on  Christmas,  and  let  God  grant  us  to  live  to  see 
each  other  next  year  and  to  sing  together  "Glory  to  God  in  the  high- 
est, and  peace  to  us  on  earth."  That  I  wish  to  you,  my  sweetheart, 
and  to  the  whole  family,  and  I  warmly  pray  God  that  he  would  deign 
to  save  us  until  that  time.  My  dear  angel!  I  inform  you  about  my 
health  as  also  about  my  success,  that  by  the  favor  of  God  I  am  well 
and  I  wish  the  same  to  you,  my  love.  And  as  to  my  success,  it  is 
just  as  formerly,  only  that  after  New  Year  the  work  is  to  go  better. 
And  now  you  ask,  my  dear  little  soul,  together  with  Wichta  and  her 
mother,  about  my  colleague — who  is  he,  where  does  he  come  from,  and 
what  is  his  occupation,  and  how  long  has  he  been  in  America:  Well, 
he  has  been  in  America  as  long  as  I  have,  and  we  work  together  at  the 
same  work,  only  we  board  separately;  and  he  comes  from  Obryte  in 
the  old  country,  where  he  has  a  farm.  He  came  from  the  army  at  once 
to  America.  In  the  army  he  was  a  higher  hospital  attendant,  and  by 
his  usual  trade  he  is  a  carpenter.  So  he  can  build  houses  well  and 
do  joiner's  work,  and  his  farm  is  not  bad,  because  his  father  is  pretty 
well  off,  and  he  is  the  only  son,  and  there  are  two  sisters,  and  the 
remaining  sisters  are  married.  I  should  not  believe  that,  and  would 
not  write  it,  but  I  know  from  those  who  know  him,  and  they  know 
well  what  kind  of  success  he  has.  And  I  was  talking  with  him  and  he 
did  not  want  to  praise  himself  like  others,  for  only  those  praise  them- 
selves who  do  not  have  anything.  And  I  wish  him  for  Wichta  very 
much,  if  she  will  marry  him.  Because  he  is  not  a  drunkard,  or  a 
villian  either,  and,  secondly,  she  and  all  of  you  see  him  on  the  photo- 
graph, and  you  may  judge  what  kind  of  man  he  appears  to  be.  And 
I  was  showing  him  those  photographs  and  he  was  very  much  pleased 
with  her,  and  he  says  that  it  would  be  a  pity  if  she  would  get  into  some 
bloodthirsty  hands.  And  he  intends  to  go  to  the  old  country  with  me 
after  one  year,  in  the  fall.     And  so  I  ask  sister  not  to  let  Wichta 


Soj  I'RIMARY-GROUr  ORGANIZATION 

nuvry  siiniconc  else.  Also  he  sends  his  low  bows  to  Wichta  and  to  her 
niDthcr  ami  father  and  to  the  whole  family,  and  he  asks  for  Wichta's 
hand.  I  tlo  not  ha\e  anything  more  to  describe  and  I  ask  you, 
dearest  wife,  whether  you  received  those  60  roubles  which  I  sent;  so 
write  me  about  that.  And  I  bid  you  farewell,  beloved  Broncia.  I 
send  you  my  heartiest  husband's  feelings,  and  sincere  wishes  and  bows. 
I  greet  you  affectionately  and  kiss  you  my  little  dove.  I,  your  hus- 
band, sincerely  loving  you  until  the  grave-board. 

Adam  Strucinski 

And  I  send  bows  and  hearty  wishes  to  mother,  sister,  brother- 
in-law,  Wichta,  Stasia,  and  to  the  whole  home,  to  brother,  sister-in-law, 
and  to  the  whole  home.  And  I  congratulate  you  for  the  New  Year 
and  new  happiness,  and  God  grant  my  wishes.  I,  pleasantly  recollect- 
ing you,  and  wishing  you  well. 

Adam  Strucinski 

537  February  12,  1911 

....  Dear  Wife:  I  inform  you  that  I  received  your  letter, 
from  which  I  learned  about  your  health  as  also  about  success,  and  that 
rejoiced  me  very  much.  Dear  wife,  you  write  to  me  if  [that  you  wish] 
this  year  would  pass  in  one  moment,  and  I  also  should  be  glad,  only 
I  do  not  know  how  it  will  be  further,  because  I  should  like  to  save  the 
most  money  I  can,  then  it  would  be  better  for  me  than  everything, 
because  if  I  had  a  great  deal  of  money  then  I  should  know  how  to 
start  farming.  So  I  think  of  staying  some  two  or  three  years,  because 
I  should  like  us  to  have  a  thousand  roubles.'  Well  I  do  not  know  how 
it  will  be  on  account  of  present  times,  because  it  is  the  fifth  month 
since  we  have  worked  only  half  days,  and  they  don't  even  always 
allow  us  to  work  as  much  as  half  a  day.  Now  it  is  very  bad  in  America. 
Only  in  ax-shops  the  work  is  going  better. 

At  New  Year  we  did  not  work  for  two  weeks,  and  now  we  receive 
small  working  payments.  And  in  regard  to  winter  it  is  neither  winter 
nor  warm,  in  a  word,  scabby,  with  us  also.  The  9th  of  January  there 
was  a  terrible  thunder,  and  hail  fell  almost  like  potatoes.  I  do  not 
have  anything  more  to  write,  but  to  send  you,  beloved  wife,  bows  and 
my  dear  greetings,  and  hearty  wishes,  and  I  bid  you  farewell,  beloved 

'  The  desire  to  advance  is  here  explicitly  limited  to  the  marriage-group,  and 
nothing  is  left  of  the  famili-l  attitude. 


STRUCIls[SKI  SERIES  863 

wife.     I  embrace  you  and  kiss  you,  I,  your  husband  loving  you  until 
the  grave-board. 

Adam  Strucinski 

[Greetings  for  the  whole  family.]  And  I  ask  you  kindly  to  send 
me  your  exact  name  and  address,  because  when  I  send  money,  then 
I  will  send  in  brother's  hands  [name],  because  it  is  more  convenient 
for  brother  than  for  wife,  on  this  account  that  there  are  mistakes.  I 
ask  for  a  quick  reply. 


538  April  17  [1911] 

Dear  Wife:  ....  You  write  me  to  come  on  your  account. 
So  when  the  work  goes  worse,  then  it  may  be  that  I  will  come,  but 
I  will  work  as  long  as  we  have  not  a  thousand  roubles.  I  will  live 
in  the  most  economical  way,  and  you  also  do  as  you  can,  because 
it  would  not  pay  me  to  come  [here]  for  one  year.  I  came  in  order 
to  earn  something.  Write  to  me  whether  you  received  80  roubles 
that  I  sent  to  you.  I  am  very  lonesome  without  you.  I  kiss  you, 
I,  your  husband. 

Adam  Strucinski 

539  May  21,  1911 

Dear  Wife:  ....  You  write  me  to  come.  Well,  I  would  come, 
but  I  cannot  come  because  the  work  is  going  very  weakly,  and, 
secondly,  I  send  you  the  money,  and  now  it  is  difficult  to  earn.  I  will 
see  later.  When  I  am  able  to  earn  at  least  for  a  ship-ticket  then  after 
All  Saints  Day  I  will  come  back.  It  is  true,  my  dear  wife,  that  you 
must  worry,  but  I  also  worry  still  more  than  you,  and  I  have  more 
troubles,  because  I  have  to  think  about  myself  and  about  you,  but  it 
is  difficult  if  God  manages  us  in  this  way,  that  we  cannot  live  in 
abundance.  If  it  were  not  for  that  then  we  would  not  separate  even 
for  one  minute,  but  for  the  piece  of  bread  it  is  necessary  to  bid  farewell 
to  the  family.  So  let  God  help  me  to  earn  and  to  come  back  happily 
to  my  native  country.  So,  I  pray  God  and  do  you  pray  also  to 
this  Creator  and  the  holiest  Mother,  that  we  may  be  united 
together  and  live  together  until  death.  I  do  not  have  anything 
else  to  write. 

Adam  Strucinski 


864  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

540  August  21  [191 1] 

[Greetings;  health;  letters.]  You  write,  "If  I  would  come,"  and 
I  think  myself  [it  would  be  best]  if  I  could  come  the  soonest  possible 
to  my  family,  for  I  did  not  come  to  America  to  drink  and  lead  a  merry 
life,  because  I  have  a  family  in  the  old  country.  When  I  recall  it 
then  the  tears  run.  But  I  will  work  as  I  am  able,  and  when  nothing 
is  left  for  me  [in  America],  then  I  will  come  back.  I  inform  you  that 
the  15  of  August  I  sent  3  photographs  and  the  19,  100  roubles. 
Write  whether  you  received  it.  I  sent  a  handkerchief  on  your  name- 
day,  and  because  I  do  not  know  whether  it  will  reach  you  or  not,  write 
to  me.  I  sent  two  letters  together,  one  with  the  handkerchief,  and 
another  without  a  handkerchief. 

I  do  not  have  anything  else  to  write. 

[Adam  Strucinski] 

541  November  26,  191 1 

Dear  Wife:  I  inform  you  that  I  received  your  two  letters,  and 
in  both  of  them  I  heard  nothing  else  but  if  I  would  come  back.  You 
see,  my  dear  treasure,  although  you  write  to  me  that  I  love  the  money 
better  than  you,  nevertheless  you  see  that  I  love  you  and  the  money, 
because  if  without  money  then  I  should  not  like  you  either,  and  when 
I  have  a  great  deal  of  money  then  you  also  will  like  me  still  better 
than  without  money,  because  when  we  have  a  great  deal  of  money 
then  when  we  fill  ourselves  up  by  eating  and  drinking,  and  when  we 
dress  up,  then  it  will  be  pleasant  to  look  at  each  other;  then  we  will 
love  each  other  still  better  and  we  will  put  lips  on  lips,  and  the  heart 
will  beat,  and  then  the  love  will  be  better  than  it  was  w^hen  we  were 
hungry  and  ragged,  because  when  a  man  is  hungry  then  he  does  not 
like  to  love.'  So  you  see,  I  want  to  work  for  some  time  yet  because 
the  work  is  going  not  the  worst,  and  I  may  earn  as  I  did  not  before. 
So  I  will  stay  some  couple  of  weeks,  and  you,  my  dear,  pray  God  for 
health,  and  this  time  will  fly  away  for  me  and  for  you  as  one  moment. 
So  I  send  you  25  roubles  for  the  holidays.  Out  of  this  money  give 
2^  roubles  to  each  mother,  and  with  20  roubles  procure  what  is 
necessary  for  you,  and  do  not  walk  hungry  and  cold,  because  I 
attempt  to  provide  so  that  there  will  not  be  any  hardship.     When 

*  This  hedonistic  attitude,  rare  among  the  peasants,  shows  a  relatively  far- 
going  indi\'idualization. 


STRUCIISrSKI  SERIES  865 

you  receive  the  money  then  answer  at  once.     I  congratulate  you  for 
the  holidays  of  Christmas.     I  do  not  have  anything  more  to  write. 

Adam  Strucinski 


542  1912 

....  Now  I  inform  you,  beloved  wife,  about  your  letter,  that 
I  received  it,  from  which  I  learned  only  that  you  are  well,  and  about 
nothing  else.  You  do  not  write  even  whether  you  received  the  money 
and  letter.  Whether  you  are  angry,  I  do  not  know.  And  I  ask  you 
whether  you  wish  to  come  to  America  to  me  or  not.  So  answer  me. 
If  you  wish,  then  at  once  after  Whitsuntide  I  will  send  you  a  steamship- 
ticket,  unless  you  do  not  want  to  wait  so  long.  If  so  come  on  yours 
[at  your  expense],  because  I  do  not  have  any  intention  of  coming  back 
unless  there  is  great  want  in  America;  then  and  only  then  I  would 
come  back.  Then  answer  me  about  your  coming,  or  perhaps  you 
do  not  have  the  desire  to  come,  or  perhaps  something  will  hinder  you, 
or  perhaps  your  family  does  not  allow  you.  Then  answer,  and  I  will 
know  how  to  arrange.  So  if  you  should  not  come  then  I  would  stay 
some  time,  and  I  would  send  you  [money]  for  living,  just  as  I  used  to 
send  to  you. 

I  do  not  have  anything  mort  to  write,  but  to  send  bows  and  hearty 
wishes  to  the  whole  family,  and  especially  a  bow  to  you,  beloved  wife, 
and  also  hearty  wishes.     I  remain  sincerely,  I,  your  husband, 

Adam  Strucinski 


I  543  September  15,  19 12 

....  Beloved  Wife:  ....  A  few  days  ago  I  was  very  ill,  and 
I  for  this  reason  I  did  not  reply  to  your  letter  at  once.  And  I  am  very 
I  glad  of  your  success,  that  you  behave  yourself  well  and  manage  well. 
Because  I  have  also  a  few  pennies,  and  now  I  work  up  to  one  thousand 
[  roubles,  and  just  as  soon  as  I  save  a  thousand  roubles,  at  once,  in  a 
i  short  time,  I  will  come  back.  And  I  ask  you  what  kind  of  crops  were 
I  this  year.  And  prepare  a  lot  of  potatoes  and  one  barrel  of  cabbage, 
';  and  in  addition  feed  up  a  hog,  and  when  I  come  then  we  will  kill  this 
;  hog.  We  will  boil  potatoes  and  cabbage  and  we  will  put  the  rib 
j  pieces  into  the  cabbage;  and  we  will  have  comfortable  shelter  for  the 
!  whole  winter.     And  see  that  the  feather  bed  is  good,  and  the  bed 


866  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

strong,  because  from  [eating]  rib  pieces,  potatoes,  and  cabbage  the 
man  is  hea\y,  and  if  the  bed  were  weak  then  it  could  break  down. 
Only  do  not  take  this  trick  badly  [do  not  be  angry  at  my  joke.]' 
Now  in  regard  to  this  man  about  whom  I  wrote,  I  thought  that  he 
went  to  the  [old]  country,  and  he  is  still  here,  because  in  the  spring, 
when  there  was  a  strike  in  our  factory  and  he  could  not  get  work  in  the 
same  city  he  went  to  another  city.  And  now  he  wrote  a  letter  to  me 
and  he  was  asking  about  Wichta,  whether  she  got  married.  And  he 
sends  bows  to  her,  and  he  wrote  that  he  will  soon  come  to  Glassport, 
and  we  intend  to  go  together  to  the  old  country.  So  let  Wichta  write 
something,  and  I  will  send  [it]  to  him.  I  do  not  have  anything 
more  to  WTite,  only  I  send  my  bows  to  brother  and  sister-in-law,  to 
brothers-in-law,  and  sisters-in-law;  and  hearty  wishes  and  a  low  bow 
to  Wichta's  mother  and  to  the  whole  family,  and  especially  a  bow 
and  hearty  wishes  to  you,  beloved  wife.     Remain  with  God.    I,  your 

husband, 

Adam  Strucinski 
I  ask  for  a  quick  reply.     Gut  baj. 

■544  October  28,  191 2 

Dear  Wife:  ....  I  was  already  starting  to  go  to  the  old  coun- 
try,  but  I  detained  myself  in  order  to  earn  some  100  roubles  more,  and 
because  the  war  is  going  to  be,  so  that  if  they  should  have  to  take  me 
into  the  army  then  it  is  better  to  be  in  America.  \Mien  there  is  peace 
then  I  will  come  at  once,  because  I  have  worked  enough.  Answer  me 
whether  the  reservists  are  taken  already,  because  we  read  the  papers 
and  we  know  that  Russia  sent  an  army  of  80,000  to  the  frontier  of 
Asia.  You  see,  beloved  wife,  I  am  afraid  of  being  taken.  Now  I 
write  you  that  in  two  weeks  after  the  letter  I  will  send  you  the  money 
for  ''celebration."  Beloved  Broncia,  when  there  is  peace  then  we 
shall  soon  see  each  other.     I  do  not  have  anything  more  to  write. 

Adam  Strucinski 

545  February  18,  19x3 

....  Dear  Wipe:  I  inform  you  that  I  received  your  letter  and 
I  am  answering  you  at  once  and  I  inform  you  that  we  shall  not  see 
each  other  before  my  brother  Andrzej  comes  to  me.     I  should  be 

'  Sexual  allusions  are  completely  avoided  as  long  as  marriage  is  a  familial 
matter.  Here  we  find  only  a  vestige  of  the  familial  attitude  in  his  asking  pardon 
for  his  joke. 


STRUCINSKI  SERIES  867 

gone  already,  but  I  received  a  letter  from  my  brother  to  send  him  a 

ship-ticket,  and  he  as'cs  about  that.     He  says  that  he  has  to  work 

very  heavily,  and  apparently  he  does  not  have  any  possibility  of 

helping  our  parents.     I  sent  him  therefore  a  ship-ticket  and  I  expect 

him  to  come  to  me  in  the  holidays,  and  so  when  he  comes  then  I  will 

be  going  1jack  to  my  country  at  once.     Dear  wife,  you  make  yourself 

so  mournful  that  you  must  suffer.     I  suffer  more,  because  I  must  work 

like  a  mule,  and  I  do  not  have  any  comfort  either.     So  it  is  not  as 

we  want,  only  it  must  be  as  we  can.     It  is  true  that  I  promised  you 

too  much  about  my  coming,  but  what  could  I  do  if  it  did  not  come  out 

as  I  thought.     But  I  hope  that  in  May  I  shall  be  in  ray  home,  if  not 

sooner.     I  beg  your  pardon,  dear  Broncia.     Do  not  be  angry  with 

me,  forgive  me,  and  when  I  come   then  we  will   reconcile.     I  am 

ending.     I  send  to  you  my  kiss  and  embrace.     Will  it  do?     Bows 

to  the  whole  family.     I   remain   sincerely   your  husband,  brother, 

brother-in-law, 

Adam  Strucinski 

1546  [No  date] 

Dear  Wife:  [Greetings;  health  and  success  good.]  Don't  worry 
about  me,  because  when  I  work  then  I  do  not  want  to  bring  you  to 
America,  because  here  in  America  it  is  very  difficult  for  a  peasant 
[man],  because  as  long  as  he  is  well  then  he  always  works  like  a  mule, 
and  therefore  he  has  something,  but  if  he  becomes  sick  then  it  is  a 
trouble,  because  everybody  is  looking  only  for  money  in  order  to  get 
some  of  it,  and  during  the  sickness  the  most  will  be  spent,  and  in  old 
age,  when  one  has  not  health  or  money,  then  there  is  trouble  again. 
So  when  I  have  money  today,  then  if  something  bad  happens,  I  take  a 
train  and  go  ahead  there  where  I  came  from,  but  it  is  not  so  with  a 
woman.  Now  the  work  will  go  2  months  at  most,  because  there  are 
elections  of  the  president.  As  is  known,  there  will  be  very  hard 
times  and  want.  The  fight  is  seen  already  among  those  who  run  for 
president  of  the  Republican  side.  I  will  not  stay  and  I  will  run  away 
for  the  winter  to  you  under  the  feather  bed.  I  have  the  money,  so 
that  I  shall  not  worry  about  anything,  and  as  to  what  you  write  about 
what  you  think,  I  do  not  know.  So,  do  not  write  me  that  at  all 
unless  you  think  of  doing  as  you  did  when  I  was  in  Prussia.  But  also 
about  Prussia  do  not  write  anything  nor  about  my  parents  either,  for 
when  I  received  vour  letter,  and  I  did  not  have  a  colleague  who  would 


868  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

write  me  a  letter,  then  I  answered  myself,  though  with  pencil,  and 

you  think — God  knows  what.     And  if  you  want  money  then  I  will 

send  vou  a  few  roubles,  because  not  long  ago  you  were  saying  that  you  i 

had  [money].     Now  you  say  that  you  have  none.     Write  me  how 

much  money  you  have.     And  I  did  not  send  to  you  for  such  a  loivj 

time  because  I  wanted  to  save  something.     I  do  not  have  anythini,' 

more  to  write.' 

[Adam  Strucinski] 

'  The  last  letters  are  filled  with  excuses  and  delays.  The  man  apparent! \- 
likes  to  be  in  America  and  prefers  to  be  there  alone.  We  are  not  to  assume  an\- 
definite  interest  in  another  woman,  but  possibly  he  is  sexually  demoralized.  It  is 
not  the  character  of  the  peasant  to  prepare  a  break  with  his  wife  and  lead  gradual!}- 
up  to  it,  or  to  deceive  her  and  at  the  same  time  write  affectionately.  Desertions 
of  wives  in  Poland  by  husbands  in  .\merica  are  not  infrequent.  Perhaps  usual! \, 
as  in  this  case,  the  desertion  (if  it  comes  to  that)  is  not  planned,  but  the  moment 
does  not  come  when  the  stimulation  to  go  is  stronger  than  the  stimulation  to  sta\-. 


60RK0WSKI  SERIES 

The  Borkowski  case  is  a  particularly  interesting  example 
of  a  situation  in  which  the  marriage-group  has  almost 
ceased  to  be  a  part  of  the  family  and  is  no  longer  kept 
together  by  the  familial  organization,  while  the  personal 
connection  of  husband  and  wife  is  not  yet  strong  enough  to 
make  the  group  consistent. 

The  Borkowskis  are  city  people.     We  do  not  know  when 

the  families  of  the  husband  and  the  wife  came  to  Warsaw 

— it  may  have  been  thirty  years  ago  or  three  hundred — ^and 

their  attitudes  give  us  no  cue  to  this  problem.     The  fact  is 

that  we  find  here  an  almost  complete  lack  of  traditional 

elements,    except   religion.     But   this   may   be   the   result 

ji  either  of  a  loss  of  peasant  traditions  in  the  city  or  of  a 

'  gradual   disintegration   of   old   city   traditions   under   the 

'  influence  of  modern  life.     At  any  rate,  Borkowski  is  a  factory 

'  workman,  not  a  guild  member,  so  he  has  not  even  the 

vestiges  of  the  traditions  of  the  handworker  class,  which 

would  be  slight  even  if  he  were  a  member  of  a  guild,  as  we 

see  in  the  case  of  his  friend,  Stanislaw  R. 

Although  Borkowski  and  his  wife  have  numerous  rela- 
i  tives  in  the  city  or  in  the  neighborhood,  the  members  of 
neither  family  care  much  for  one  another.  The  lack  of 
i  solidarity  goes  so  far  that  Borkowski's  brother  has  not 
I  written  to  him  during  a  period  of  twenty  years;  otherwise 
the  letters  would  have  been  preserved  with  the  others. 
I  Compare  this  situation  with  the  one  which  we  find  in  the 
j  Markiewicz  family.  When  Teoiila,  the  wife,  finds  herself  in 
S  an  exceptionally  bad  situation,  no  one  among  her  relatives 
I  helps  her.  They  avoid  even  social  relations  with  her,  as 
I  a  boresome,  poor,  ill-dressed,  complaining  old  woman. 

869 


870  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

There  is  also  nothing  that  could  take  the  place  of  the 
community  which  we  find  in  the  country  or  in  small  towns. 
To  be  sure,  everyone  has  a  circle  of  acquaintances  within 
which  there  is  gossip — a  poor  imitation  of  social  opinion — 
but  there  is  nothing  like  the  continuous  relationship  between 
the  inhabitants  of  a  village,  and  no  periodical  meetings. 
Social  opinion  has  therefore  little  power,  consistency,  or 
vitality. 

Clearly  in  these  conditions  marriage  becomes  a  mere 
individual  matter;  its  social  side  is  limited  to  the  religious 
sanction,  to  the  few  uncomplicated  relations  between  the 
marriage-group  and  the  loose  social  environment,  and  to  an 
exceptional  intervention  of  this  environment  and  of  the 
state  in  the  rare  cases  of  criminal  behavior.  Within  the 
large  limits  marked  by  these  few  social  forms  there  is  place 
enough  for  all  the  varieties  which  the  relation  between  two 
individuals  of  different  sex  may  assume.  The  nature  of 
this  relation  will,  of  course,  depend  upon  the  personalities 
of  the  members  and  the  sphere  of  their  common  interests. 
In  the  actual  case,  where  the  personalities  of  husband  and 
wife  are  poor  in  traditions  and  poor  in  culture,  their  con- 
nection must  be  rather  weak.  When  the  first  sensual 
attraction  has  disappeared,  habit  and  the  common  interests 
of  everyday  life  are  the  only  links.  But  the  emigration  of 
the  husband  interrupted  both  of  these,  and  a  gradual  dis- 
solution of  the  conjugal  bond  became  a  psychological 
necessity. 

We  do  not  know  the  evolution  through  which  the : 
husband  has  passed,  but  we  can  easily  guess  it  from  the 
woman's  letters.  He  evidently  found  a  new  sphere  of 
interests  in  America;  being  a  relatively  intelligent,  although 
not  educated,  man,  he  adapted  himself  successfully  to  the 
new  conditions,  and  his  life  in  Warsaw,  where  he  did  the 
same  work  but  earned  less  and  had  less  opportunity  to 


BORKOWSKI  SERIES  871 

express  himself,  must  have  appeared  to  him  rather  narrow — 
much  more  so,  indeed,  than  in  the  case  of  a  peasant,  with 
the  variety  of  work  and  the  many  concrete  social  interests 
which  village  life  can  give.  Further,  he  seems  to  have  felt 
rejuvenated  in  America,  away  from  his  wife,  who  was 
probably  older  than  he  (cf.  No.  563).  He  dresses  better, 
shaves  his  beard,  and,  as  his  wife  expresses  it,  looks  ten 
years  younger.  Probably,  almost  certainly,  he  has  here  a 
relation  with  another  woman.  Hence  after  a  certain  time 
there  is  nothing  more  left  of  the  old  affection  toward  his 
wife,  and  though  for  almost  twenty  years  he  writes  from 
time  to  time  and  sends  some  money,  he  does  it  partly  from 
pity,  partly  from  a  feeling  of  moral  obligation.  He  does 
not  make  any  great  sacrifice;  during  the  whole  time  he 
has  sent  her  less  than  five  hundred  dollars,  i.e.,  less  than 
twenty-five  dollars  a  year.  But  we  must  remember  that 
he  lacks  any  really  strong  motive  to  help  her,  for  the  feeling 
of  obligation,  not  backed  by  the  sanction  of  social  opinion, 
cannot  be  strong  in  a  man  on  this  level  of  culture.  And  he 
feels  more  and  more  that  his  wife  is  a  useless  burden  to  him 
— not  only  on  account  of  money,  but  also  as  the  only  link 
with  a  past  life  which  he  evidently  wants  to  forget,  and 
perhaps  also  as  a  hindrance  to  marrying  someone  else. 

As  to  the  influence  of  social  opinion,  there  is  an  interest- 
ing difference  between  his  behavior  and  that  of  a  peasant, 
expressed  by  the  fact  that  for  so  long  a  time  he  keeps  up  his 
relations  with  old  friends  of  himself  and  his  wife  and  still 
does  not  help  her  enough  to  prevent  her  becoming  a  pauper. 
Manifestly  he  does  not  care  much  for  the  opinion  of  the 
people  at  home,  the  demands  of  this  opinion  on  him  are 
neither  strong  nor  consistent  (cf.  No.  586),  and  he  does  not 
at  all  identify  the  social  position  of  his  wife  with  his  own. 
Now,  a  peasant  would  either  send  his  wife  money  enough 
to  satisfy  the  opinion  of  the  community  and  to  enable  her 


Syz  PRIIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

to  maintain  a  social  position  in  accord  with  his  own,  or 
would  break  off  all  relations  with  her,  with  his  friends,  anrl 
with  his  family  in  order  to  avoid  all  touch  with  the  opinion 
and  condemnation  of  his  community. 

The  letters  give  us  a  very  good  insight  into  the  evolution 
of  the  woman.  Without  the  backing  of  a  family-group 
she  never  feels  that  she  has  a  right  to  claim  her  husband's 
fidelity,  help,  and  protection.  The  higher  moral  view  with 
regard  to  the  conjugal  relation  is  clearly  not  more  strongly 
developed  in  her  than  in  her  husband  and  cannot  be  a 
substitute  for  the  absent  social  norms.  In  the  beginning, 
she  assumes  implicitly  that  he  will  care  for  her  after  his 
emigration,  since  he  cared  for  her  at  home.  Later,  when 
she  realizes  that  things  have  changed,  she  appeals,  not  to 
his  conjugal  duty,  but  to  his  promise  to  help  her  and  to  his 
generosity.  Still  later,  appeals  to  pity  become  her  only 
resource,  and  when  even  this  proves  insufficient,  she  uses  ; 
additional  arguments — promises  of  God's  reward,  threats  i 
of  suicide,  etc.  Love  is  at  no  time  appealed  to.  The 
nature  of  her  claims  changes  also.  First,  she  wants  and 
expects  her  husband  to  come  back  rather  than  to  take  her 
to  America;  later,  she  would  be  glad  if  he  let  her  go  to  him, 
under  someone's  care  (her  affection  is  not  strong  enough  to 
overcome  her  fear  of  the  journey) ;  still  later,  she  ceases  to 
expect  to  live  with  him  and  hopes  only  to  see  him  once 
more;  finally,  it  is  enough  for  her  to  have  from  time  to  time 
his  letters  and  money. 

Another  interesting  point  is  her  relation  to  her  environ- 
ment. As  she  has  no  social  standing  as  a  member  of  a 
family-group  her  social  position  is  based  exclusively  on  her 
marriage,  i.e.,  upon  the  position  of  her  husband,  upon  his 
attitude  toward  her,  upon  their  having  a  home,  etc.  As 
soon  as  her  husband  leaves,  her  position  is  immediately 
lowered;  she  has  no  home  and  she  does  not  represent  much 


BORKOWSKI  SERIES  873 

personally.  But  still  he  is  expected  to  return  or  to  take 
her  to  America,  and  thus  her  position  is  not  yet  so  very  low, 
because  provisional.  When,  however,  time  passes  and  she 
remains  alone,  her  social  environment  no  longer  takes  her 
husband's  possible  return  into  account,  and  then  her  position 
depends  exclusively  upon  his  attitude  toward  her;  every 
letter,  photograph,  sum  of  money,  which  he  sends  influences 
her  social  standing  positively,  as  proofs  that  he  is  still 
solidary  with  her,  while  every  proof  of  his  desire  to  get  rid 
of  her  pushes  her  down  in  social  opinion.  Naturally,  it 
would  be  quite  different  if  she  were  able  to  fight  for  a  position 
by  herself,  without  being  so  exclusively  dependent  upon 
him.  But,  being  a  city  woman,  she  is  afraid  of  heavy  work, 
not  only  because  of  its  physical  hardship,  but  also  because 
she  believes  that  it  would  lower  her  still  more.  On  the 
other  hand,  she  is  unable  to  progress  by  skilled  work  and, 
moreover,  apparently  lacks  energy.  Being  so  completely 
dependent  upon  her  husband,  she  wants  him  for  herself 
alone ;  she  seems  to  feel  that  every  expression  of  his  person- 
ality outside  is  a  loss  for  her,  she  is  hostile  to  all  his  friends 
and  relatives. 

All  these  features  of  the  Borkowski  marriage-group  are 
[typical,  because  resulting  necessarily  from  the  given  social 
I  situation  and  the  general  characteristics  of  the  personalities. 
I  Now,  if  they  had  children,  the  whole  situation  would  be 
I  different.  We  shall  find,  indeed,  in  the  next  series  analogous 
I  characters  and  an  analogous  social  situation,  and  we  shall 
'  see  what  an  enormous  importance  the  children  have  there — 
'  an  incomparably  greater  one  than  in  the  traditional  familial 
'  organization. 


874  -P?JMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

547-86,      TO    WLADYSLAW    BORKOWSKI,    IN    AMERICA,    FROU: 

HIS  WIFE,  IN  POLAND,  AND  SOME  LETTERS  (578-86) 

FROM  ACQUAINTANCES 

547  Warsaw,  July  21,  1893 

Dear  Husband:  I  received  your  letter  on  July  4,  which  found 
me  in  usual  health.  Up  to  the  present  I  live  with  the  Rybickis.  ] 
am  not  very  well  satisfied,  perhaps  because  I  was  accustomed  to  live 
for  so  many  years  quietly,  with  you  alone/  And  today  you  are  at 
one  end  of  the  world  and  I  at  the  other,  so  when  I  look  at  strange 
corners  [surroundings],  I  don't  know  what  to  do  from  longing  and 
regret.  I  comfort  myself  only  that  you  won't  forget  me,  that  you 
will  remain  noble  [generous]  as  you  have  been.  You  wanted  me  to  gc 
to  the  Borkowskis  [his  brother].  I  was  there.  If  they  had  only 
asked  about  you  themselves!  But  nobody  said  a  word,  only  ] 
related.^  Stasiak  ....  asked,  but  nobody  else.  Borkowski's  wife 
said  that  you  took  27  roubles  for  the  wardrobe  and  15  roubles  for  the 
chest  of  drawers,  and  she  refused  to  add  anything.  She  said  to 
Stanislaw  that  you  had  taken  enough.  The  small  altar  and  the  clock 
vvere  taken  by  Filip  from  Praga  and  he  gave  20  roubles.  I  have 
nothing  more  to  write,  only  I  beg  you,  my  dear,  write  to  me  as  often' 
as  you  can  about  yourself,  whether  you  are  in  good  health  and  how 
you  succeed,  for  this  is  my  only  pleasure;  I  have  no  other.  I  have' 
only  the  sort  of  friends  who  think  that  I  own  thousands  and  from 
time  to  time  someone  comes  to  me,  asking  me  to  lend  her  a  dozen 

roubles And  everyone  w^ould  borrow  for  eternity;     I   know 

them  already 

And  now  I  bid  you  goodbye  and  wish  you  health  and  every  good. 
Only  don't  forget  me.  your  sincerely  well-wishing  wife, 

[Teofila  Borkowska] 

'  Isolation  has  become  habitual  and  desired.  We  do  not  find  this  in  the; 
peasant  family.  Of  course  some  privacy  is  always  sought  by  the  marriage-group, 
but  only  for  matters  which,  like  the  sexual  relation,  are  more  or  less  reserv-ed  by 
tradition  as  beyond  the  reach  of  other  people's  intrusion.  And  the  amount  of 
privacy  claimed  b}'  the  marriage-group  from  the  family  is  much  smaller  than  that 
which  it  requires  from  the  community.  In  short,  privacy  for  the  peasant  is  nothing 
but  a  certain  socially  sanctioned  limitation  of  the  social  character  of  individual 
life.  Here,  on  the  contrary,  it  becomes  a  voluntary  individual  seclusion  from  the 
social  life  in  general. 

'  The  disintegration  of  the  family  is  certainly  real,  even  if  in  the  given  case 
the  writer  puts  a  particular  emphasis  upon  the  indifference  of  her  husband's 
relatives,  in  accordance  with  her  tendency  to  keep  him  exclusively  for  herself. 


BORKOWSKI  SERIES  875 

548  April  12,  1894 

Dear  Husband:  I  received  your  letter  on  April  i,  vrluch  found 
ne  in  the  best  of  health,  and  I  wish  you  t'.ie  same  with  my  whole 
leart.  Up  to  the  present  I  thought  and  rejclced  that  you  would  still 
borne  back  to  Warsaw,  but  since  you  write  that  you  won't  come,  I 
|:omply  with  the  will  of  God  and  with  your  will.  I  shall  now  count 
ihe  days  and  weeks  [until  you  take  me  to  America].  May  our  Lord 
God  grant  it  to  happen  as  soon  as  possible,  for  I  am  terribly  worried. 
Such  a  sad  life!  I  go  almost  to  nobody,  for  as  long  as  you  were  in 
Warsaw  everything  was  different.  Formerly  we  had  friends,  and 
[everybody  was  glad  to  see  us,  while  now,  if  I  go  to  anybody,  they  are 
ifraid  I  need  something  from  them  and  they  show  me  beforehand  an 

Indifferent  face They  all  do  it,  even  those  who  were  so  good 

I  ormerly.     Now  they  show  themselves,  as  they  are.'     You  write  me 

0  try  to  earn  something  with  Wladzia.  But  I  have  not  earned  yet 
.  urosz  from  her.  '  She  says  that  people  beg  her  to  give  them  work  for 
i\  ing  alone,  while  I  must  pay  2  roubles  for  lodging,  besides  board. ^ 

,x),  my  dear,  I  beg  you,  describe  to  me  everything  in  detail,  what  I 

an  take  with  me,  what  clothes,  whether  it  is  worth  taking  the  fur, 

he  [photographs  in]  frames  and  other  trifles.     I  will  take  the  image 

ind  the  cross,  but  I  have  heard  that  it  was  forbidden  to  take  the 

lu'st.     So  please  describe   everything   to   me  exactly.     You  write 

i  o  the  Lukas  that  I  write  so   seldom,  but  always  when  the  Lukas 

vrile  I  ask  them  to  write  something  from  me.     Evidently   they 

lon't  do  it 

Your  loving  wife, 

Teofila  Borkowska 

'  As  we  have  stated  in  the  introduction,  Teofila,  not  being  a  member  of  a 

aniily-group,  can  have  no  other  social  recognition  than  that  which  results  from 
'ler  own  or  her  husband's  position.  Her  husband  being  away,  the  recognition 
'vhich  she  had  as  his  wife  is  reduced  to  almost  nothing  as  is  shown  by  the  behavior 

if  her  environment  and  of  which  she  complains.  There  are  still  two  chances  for 
'  ler  to  keep  at  least  some  social  standing.     One  is  her  husband's  fidelity — sending 

if  money,  writing  of  letters,  etc. — in  a  word,  proofs  that  he  remains  solidary  with 
iier  in  spite  of  the  separation  and  that  the  separation  is  only  temporary,  that  he 
ivill  either  come  back  or  take  her  to  America.     The  second  chance  is  to  acquire  a 

lerscjnal  position  by  her  own  work. 

2  Wladzia  is  a  cousin  who  has  a  millinery  or  dressmaking   shop,   in   which 

1  Jorkowski  wants  his  wife  to  work  as  a  seamstress. 


876  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

549  August  8,  1895 
Dear  Husband:  ....  You  won't  believe  how  much  I  suffered 

when  you  did  not  write  for  some  months.  I  thought  that  I  should 
not  live  long  enough  to  read  your  letter,  but  when  I  received  the  letter 
from  you  I  wept  with  joy.  But  after  reading  it  sadness  overwhelmed 
me  again.  I  thought  that  you  had  forgotten  and  would  not  write 
your  address.  But,  thanks  to  God,  it  seems  to  me  that  my  heavy 
sorrow  and  my  terrible  want  are  over.  There  is  no  work  this  year 
with  Dobska  at  all,  so  I  don't  sew  there  at  all.  I  earn  sometimes  a  few 
zloty,  but  what  does  it  mean  when  I  must  pay  3  roubles  rent  a  month 
[in  a  room  with  three  or  four  others].  In  one  place  I  had  no  money  to 
pay  for  the  lodging,  and  they  took  my  bed.  Now  I  sleep  upon  a 
borrowed  bed.  Moreover,  they  have  levied  hospital  taxes  in  Warsaw, 
I  rouble  for  a  person  yearly,  so  I  must  pay,  for  if  you  do  not  pay  you 
must  pay  later  4  roubles  of  fine. 

Before  I  received  your  letter,  I  went  to  the  consiJl  more  than  once, 
begging  him  to  find  you,  what  is  going  on  with  you.  But  he  did  not 
want  to  search  for  you  until  I  paid  him  5  roubles.  But  I  did  not  have 
them  and  I  had  to  remain  in  sadness.  My  dear,  you  ask  for  my 
photograph,  but  I  can  send  it  only  when  you  send  me  a  few  roubles. 

But  I  beg  you,  send  me  yours  as  soon  as  possible 

[Teofila] 

550  October  2,  1895 
Dear  Husband:  To  the  last  letter  which  you  wrote  on  July  13, 

I  answered  at  once  with  great  joy,  for  I  thought  that  after  so  many 
months  of  my  sorrow  and  crying  and  different  other  troubles  the  sun 
shone  for  me.  But  I  see  that  it  only  joked,  that  I  must  suffer  so  up 
to  my  death.  Up  to  the  present  I  have  never  annoyed  you  [about 
money],  for  I  knew  that  when  you  could,  you  would  send  me  a  few 
roubles.     So  I  beg  you,  if  you  can,  send  me  a  few  roubles  as  soon  as 

possible,  for  I  am  in  a  situation  without  issue 

Your  loving  wife, 

Teofila  Borkowska 

551  January  28,  1896 

Dear  Husband:  ....  You  reproach  me  for  not  answering  you 
at  once.  My  dear,  I  evidently  did  not  do  it  through  negligence,  for 
you  won't  believe,  I  have  not  words  enough  to  tell  you,  how  much 


BORKOWSKI  SERIES  877 

good  you  did  me  by  sending  that  money,  you  saved  me  from  some 
strange  despair,  because  I  waited  for  this  money  as  for  the  salvation 
of  my  soul.  Twelve  roubles  out  of  this  money  went  for  rent  alone, 
for  I  must  pay  3  roubles  a  month.  Now  they  won't  take  less  for  a 
person,  because  apartments  have  gone  up.  And  I  have  a  corner 
where  I  must  sit  upon  my  bed.  And  in  renting  they  say  at  once  that 
I  cannot  cook,  and  ask  me  whether  I  will  sit  much  at  home.  I  have 
often  such  conditions  for  these  3  roubles  that  I  cannot  even  boil  a 
little  water  for  my  tea,  but  must  remain  the  whole  day  living  on  dry 
food.  The  first  11  roubles  I  received  from  Berlin,  the  next  time  10 
from  the  consul,  both  without  any  letter,  so  I  thought  that  perhaps 
it  was  not  from  you,  this  money,  and  I  did  not  know  what  to  do. 
You  promised  me  to  send  your  photograph.  I  hoped  always  to  see 
you  at  least  upon  paper,  but  I  was  deceived.  I  sent  you  the  books; 
it  seems  to  me  that  they  are  good.  Now  I  have  nothing  more  to 
write  you,  only  I  wish  you  every  good  and  every  happiness,  whatever 
you  want  from  our  Lord  God.  For  I  know  this,  that  if  you  get  on 
well  I  shall  also  get  on  well ;  so  you  said  when  you  were  leaving. 

Greeting  from  all  acquaintances,  the  good  ones 

Teofila  Borkowska 

;  552  May  13  [1896] 

I         Dear  Husband:  I  received  your  letter  ....  together  with  the 

photographs.  You  won't  believe  me  what  a  joy  and  comfort  it  was 
[  for  me  when  I  saw  you.  It  seemed  to  me  in  the  first  moment  that 
i  I  saw  you  alive.  I  received  the  money,  i.e.,  12  roubles,  on  April  i. 
I  I  thank  you  for  it  heartily.     Dear  Wladek,  you  asked  me  to  answer 

you  at  once  when  I  received  the  letter  and  the  money.  I  wished  to 
[  answer  at  once  ....  but  I  caught  such  cold  that  for  3  weeks  I  did 
1  not  rise  from  my  bed.  Now,  thanks  to  our  Lord  God,  I  am  better. 
i  And  so,  my  dear,  from  the  money  which  you  sent  me  I  intended  to  pay 
I  4  roubles  of  rent  and  to  buy  shoes  for  myself,  but  I  had  to  spend  it  on 
'  medicine  and  a  doctor.  So,  my  dear,  I  beg  you,  if  you  can,  send  me 
I  a  little  money  as  soon  as  you  receive  this  letter,  for  I  need  it  very 
•  much.  The  Czub.  thank  you  very  much  for  the  photograph,  Kawecki 
;  has  probably  answered  you  himself,  for  he  was  to  write  at  once.     You 

pleased  everybody  very  much,  acquainted  as  well  as  unacquainted 

people,  you  look  so  well, 
i         Now,  dear  Wladek,  as  to  my  coming  to  you,  if  it  were  possible, 
i  I  should  be  very  glad,  but  imagine  what  a  terrible  difficulty  it  would 


878  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

be  for  me  to  start  quite  alone  on  such  a  far  journey.  You  know  that 
T  am  not  very  bold,  nor  very  talkative  either,  so  it  would  be  very 
dilTicult  for  me  to  find  my  way  alone.'  For  as  to  Rafalski,  he  won't 
go  now;  his  plans  are  changed.  He  is  offended  with  you  for  having 
written  him  about  land  instead  of  writing  how  much  you  earn  and 
what  work  is  there.  He  says:  "Does  he  do  any  favor  to  me?  He 
will  send  me  a  ship-ticket  when  I  send  him  20  roubles.  But  if  I  wish 
I  can  buy  a  ticket  myself."  My  dear,  you  ask  me  why  do  I  not  write 
you  about  Karol  and  his  wife.  I  have  nothing  to  write  about  them, 
for  I  know  nothing.  They  don't  come  to  me  at  all,  they  are  afraid 
I  might  want  something  from  them,  so  I  don't  go  to  them  either. 
Since  you  left  they  have  not  invited  me  to  any  holidays  or  little 
parties  which  they  arrange  often.  You  know,  Wladek,  I  pray  to  God 
continually  that  He  may  inspire  you  wdth  the  wish  to  come  back  to 
Warsaw.  After  the  crowning  there  will  be  amnesty,  so  you  can  come 
back,  and  you  would  certainly  have  work,  for  in  the  factory  they  are 
working  on  holidays  and  nights,  and  everybody  says  that  it  will 
last  for  some  years  still.  So,  my  dear,  perhaps  you  will  change  your 
mind  and  long  for  your  native  country,  I  heard  that  you  promised  it 
to  Rafalski.     I  would  wait  patiently;   I  have  suffered  for  3  years,  I 

would  bear  it  for  one  year  more I  have  kept  the  box,  the 

image  of  God's  Mother,  and  the  photographs  as  tokens.  I  did  not  sell 
your  fur  coat  either;  I  keep  it,  for  I  think  that  you  will  perhaps  walk 
in  it  about  Warsaw.     Although  I  was  already  in  a  hard  need,  I  did 

not  sell  it ^ 

My  dear,  don't  forget  what  I  asked  you  for,  because  I  need  it 
very  much  and  very  soon [TeofilaI 

553  July  10,  1896 

Dear  Wladek:  ....  I  don't  know  what  it  means  that  you 
don't  answer  the  letter  in  which  I  thanked  you  for  the  photographs 
and  the  money  which  you  sent  me,  10,  11,  and  12  roubles,  the  last 

'  Her  helplessness,  in  contrast  with  the  energy  of  country  girls  who  undertake 
the  journey  to  America  even  to  marry  unknowTi  men  (cf.  Butkowski  series)  is 
perhaps  partly  constitutional. 

=  The  woman's  desire  to  see  her  husband  back  in  Warsaw  rather  than  to  go  to 
America  is  probably  conditioned  by  other  factors  than  her  fear  of  traveling  alone. 
She  can  imagine  future  happiness  only  in  the  same  familiar  conditions  and  environ- 
ment in  which  she  had  lived  happily  before.  Perhaps  there  is  also  some  desire  to 
get  restitution  for  all  the  humiliations  which  she  has  to  suffer,  to  have  the  same 
people  who  now  neglect  her  be  the  witnesses  of  her  triumph. 


BORKOWSKI  SERIES  879 

before  Easter.  I  sent  you  a  letter  on  May  13,  almost  begging  for  a 
few  roubles,  for  I  spent  these  on  medicines  and  the  doctor,  but  not 
only  you  did  not  send  me  anything,  you  did  not  even  answer,  so  I 
don't  know  what  it  means,  whether  you  are  offended  with  me  for 
having  asked  you  for  these  few  roubles.  But  you  have  written  your- 
self that  you  will  send  me  [money]  every  month,  and  therefore  I  was 
more  bold  in  asking  you  for  it.^  ....  So  please  answer  me  whether 
you  received  that  letter  and  the  books  which  I  sent  you  before. 
The  letter  was  registered,  so  it  must  have  reached  you,  and  if  it  did 
not  reach  you  ....  write  me  and  I  will  take  a  complaint  to  the 

post-office 

Your  always  loving  wife, 

Teofila  Borkowska 

554  December  2,  1896 

Dear  Husband:  I  inform  you  that  I  have  already  left  the  hospi- 
tal and  I  am  healthy  enough,  and  I  wish  you  the  same.  I  received 
in  the  hospital  the  letter  which  you  wrote  on  August  31.  I  rejoiced 
very  much,  for  every  letter  from  you  is  a  day  of  joy  for  me,  and  I 
have  no  other  joy  now.  Only  I  am  very  much  pained  that  you 
reproach  me  for  writing  only  about  myself  and  nothing  about  any 
relatives  or  acquaintances.  But  what  can  I  write  about  them,  since 
they  are  all  panstwo  [originally  "lord  and  lady,"  then  in  general, 
''gentle  people"  or  "rich  people"]  as  compared  with  me,  while  I  am 
quite  alone,  without  husband,  without  home.  When  I  left  the 
,  hospital  I  did  not  know  what  to  do  with  myself,  without  money  and 
^  almost  without  roof,  for  I  did  not  know  what  to  do  and  what  to  pay 
for  the  lodging  with.  I  remained  for  2  months  in  the  hospital  and 
had  to  pay  6  roubles  of  rent.  She  remitted  one  rouble,  5  were  left. 
So  I  begged  her,  and  promised  I  would  pay  her  when  you  send  some 
money.  But  nobody  cares  for  me,  nobody  helps  me,  for  they  know 
that  I  have  no  chance  to  pay  them  back.  And  you  reproach  me  for 
not  informing  you  about  them.  Why,  he  is  your  own  brother,  he 
could  ask  sometimes  what  is  going  on  with  you,  once  at  least,  send 
one  of  the  children  to  me  or  write  to  you.  And  my  family  is  the  same; 
they  are  afraid  I  will  ask  them  for  something.  Czab.  came  to  me 
once,  to  the  hospital,  and  I  know  that  they  are  all  in  good  health. 

'  She  does  not  consider  it  her  husband's  duty  to  maintain  her,  as  a  peasant 
woman  would  do,  but  appeals  merely  to  his  promise. 


88o  PRnrARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

My  Wladzio,  don't  be  angry  that  I  send  registered  letters,  but  you  see 
you  write  so  seldom  I  should  think  that  my  letter  did  not  reach  you 
and  I  could  not  learn,  while  so  I  am  certain  that  you  received  it  and 
I  live  at  least  with  some  hope  that  you  will  answer  me.  And  now  I 
am  waiting  for  an  answer  to  that  letter  which  I  wrote  you  when  I 
was  in  the  hospital,  and  I  know  that  it  reached  you  for  it  was  regis- 
tered. Evidently,  dear  Wladek,  you  are  so  angry  with  me  that  you 
have  not  written  for  some  months,  while  I  sent  you  almost  not  a 
letter  but  a  petition.  So  don't  be  angry  with  me,  my  dear  husband, 
for  to  whom  shall  I  appeal?  And  you  made  me  bold  yourself,  for 
vou  promised  me  to  send  me  a  little,  and  I  don't  ask  much,  anything 
[a  little]  at  least.  And  I  beg  your  pardon  once  more,  Wladek,  don't 
be  angry  with  me,  but  answer  me  as  soon  as  possible.  As  to  the 
photograph,  perhaps  I  shall  earn  a  little,  but  only  in  the  spring;  then 
I  would  send  you  one,  for  now  I  have  no  money  to  go  to  the  photog- 
'■aP^ler] '  [Teofila  Borkowska] 

555  ^^ay  19,  1897 

Dear  Husband:  ....  I  received  your  letter  together  with  the 
money,  i.e.,  with  12  roubles  ....  for  which  I  thank  you  heartily, 
dear  Wladek.  After  receiving  those  20  roubles,  which  you  sent  me 
last  year,  I  wrote  you  3  letters,  two  registered,  the  last  with  a  single 
stamp,  so  I  beg  you  much,  ansv%-er  me  whether  you  received  them  all, 
particularly  that  non-registered  one,  for  it  seems  to  me  that  letters 
often  don't  reach  you.  Now,  dear  Wiadek,  you  write  me  that  you 
are  not  sure  whether  I  receive  your  money,  because  I  don't  write 
myself  [with  my  own  hand],  only  Mrs.  Sliwinska  [the  woman  from 
whom  she  rents]  does.  But  you  can  be  as  sure  as  if  I  wrote  with  my 
own  hand.  She  gives  me  every  letter  as  soon  as  she  receives  it  from 
the  post,  whether  wdth  money  or  not,  and  address  them  as  always, 

because  they  are  sure  people I  intentionally  begged  somebody 

else  to  write  this  letter  in  order  that  you  might  believe  that  I  receive 
your  letters  and  money.  I  beg  you,  dear  Wladek,  write  to  me  more 
often,  for  now  you  have  not  written  for  so  long  a  time.  My  dear, 
write  me  whether  you  intend  ever  to  come  back  to  Warsaw  ?  I  often 
hear  that  some  husband  comes  back  to  his  family,  and  even  whole 
families  return.     When  I  hear  it  my  heart  almost  bursts  open,  because 

*  The  absolute  and  painful  dependence  of  the  wife  could  hardly  be  better 
illustrated  than  by  this  letter. 


BORKOWSKI  SERIES  88 1 

you  don't  write  and  won't  return  to  your  native  country.  Why,  you 
are  a  Pole !.-...  In  Warsaw  there  is  an  enormous  movement,  all  fac- 
tories full  of  work,  and  for  you  also  work  is  ready.  Only  come !  .  .  .  . 
I  thank  you  once  more  heartily  for  the  money,  and  the  next  time 
when  you  send  me  some  money  I  will  go  to  the  photograph[er]  and 
I  send  you  [my  photograph]. 
j  .  Your  loving  wife, 

t  Teofila  Borkowska 

556  September  26,  1897 

Dear  Husband:  For  God's  sake,  what  does  it  mean  that  you 
don't  answer?  Kawecki  called  on  me,  for  he  also  wrote  to  you  and 
jyou  gave  him  no  answer,  so  he  came  to  ask  what  you  write  to  me,  what 
[is  ^oing  on  with  you  and  how  you  succeed.  He  thought  that  you 
[don't  want  to  write  to  him  because  you  have  got  very  rich;  he  was 
curious,  for  he  did  not  know  how  to  judge  you.  Only  when  I  told 
him  that  for  half  a  year  you  have  not  written  to  me,  he  was  also 
■pained,  fearing  that  something  had  happened  to  you.  For  I  also 
Igrieved  terribly  [thinking]  what  had  happened  to  you.  For  I  don't 
[think  that  you  could  have  forgotten  me  totally,  while  I  write  you 
such  supplications  every  time.  So  I  repeat  once  more  my  begging. 
[Answer  me  as  soon  as  possible  and  send  me  anything  you  can.  For 
\ii  I  were  not  in  need  I  should  never  annoy  you,  but  our  Lord  God  is 
ithe  best  witness  how  terribly  hard  it  is  for  me  to  live.  Those  few 
[roubles  which  you  sent  me  a  few  times  are  only  enough  to  pay  the 
Irent  for  some  months,  because  there  I  must  give  3  roubles  a  month  at 
once.  As  to  board,  clothes,  and  shoes,  they  are  earned  with  such  a 
jdifficulty  that  you  have  surely  no  idea.  And  I  must  eat  every  day. 
'There  are  mostly  days  in  my  present  situation  when  I  have  one  small 
'roll  and  a  pot  of  tea  for  the  whole  day,  and  I  must  live  so.  And  this 
'has  lasted  almost  5  years  since  you  left.  If  I  were  a  plain  country 
iwoman  I  would  go  to  wash  linen  or  floors,  or  in  summer  to  work  in  a 
[garden,  but  you  know  that  I  am  unable  to  do  it  and  I  have  no  strength, 
[while  sewing  by  hand  is  terribly  hard.'     So,  my  dear  husband,  don't 

I  '  The  inability  to  do  hard  work  is  to  some  extent  real,  but  to  some  extent  only 
limagined  with  the  women  and  men  who  belong  to  that  lower  town  and  city  class 
[which  is  more  or  less  specialized  in  finer  handwork  or  small  trade.  There  is  a 
peculiar  rivalry  between  this  class  and  the  peasants  in  the  country.  People  of 
ithis  class  feel  that  only  the  relatively  finer  character  of  their  work  and  dress  keeps 
jthem  in  a  certain  regard  above  the  country  peasant,  while  by  hard  labor  they 


882  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

be  angry  with  me  for  writing  to  you  so  decidedly,  but  I  have  almost 
nobodv  except  you.  Although  I  have  many  relatives  it  is  as  if  I  had 
none,  for  you  remember  also  what  you  got  from  your  relatives  when 

you  were  in  need.     Although  you  were  only  a  child 

And  now  I  bid  you  goodbye,  dear  husband.  Be  healthy,  and 
don't  forget  me. 

Your  loving  wife, 

Teofila  Borkowska 

557  ^^ay  24,  1898 

Dear  Wladek:  I  received  your  letter  on  May  i,  i.e.,  15  roubles 
of  money.  They  had  searched  for  me  for  some  weeks  and  could  not 
find  me,  because  you  almost  never  address  to  Jan  Sliwinski,  but  to 
Teofila  Borkowska.  I  should  not  have  received  this  money  .... 
only  Sliwinska  wondered  why  you  had  not  written  for  almost  a  year. 
She  found  the  postman  and  asked  him  whether  he  had  never  had  a 
letter  from  America  to  Borkowska,  and  he  said  that  he  had  one  some 
weeks  ago,  but  could  not  find  [the  person]  and  gave  it  back  to  the 
post-office.  There  were  two  money-orders,  one  of  15  roubles  for 
Teofila  Borkowska,  and  the  other  of  25  roubles  for  Teofila  Bartowska 
[misaddressed].  They  refused  to  give  me  the  second,  saying  that  it 
was  not  for  me,  and  kept  it  at  the  ofiice.  And  as  you  sent  no  letter, 
I  don't  know  myself  whether  these  25  roubles  are  for  me  or  not.  So 
I  beg  you,  dear  Wladek,  answer  me  the  soonest  possible  whether  you 
sent  me  these  25  roubles,  and  if  you  did,  you  must  correct  the  name 

yourself Perhaps  I  suspect  you,  dear  husband,  and  grieve 

that  you  have  forgotten  me,  while  it  is  perhaps  unjust.  You  have 
written  perhaps,  but  not  to  the  address  of  the  Sliwinskis,  but  to  mine, 
and  the  letter  did  not  reach  me.  I  thank  you,  dear  Wladek,  for  your 
remembrance  and  for  these  15  roubles  with  which  you  have  saved  me 
from  a  great  misery.     May  our  Lord  God  in  reward  help  you  in  all 


would  fall  at  once  to  the  lowest  degree  in  the  social  scale — to  that  of  a  wyrohnik, 
having  no  home  and  working  by  the  day.  Therefore  they  defend  themselves  to 
the  last  against  plain  physical  work,  and  often  prefer  pauperism.  The  class  of 
city  paupers  recruits  itself  mainly,  if  not  exclusively,  from  these  people.  The 
peasant,  particularly  the  farmer,  despises  heartily  this  class  of  people,  even  if 
envjdng  sometimes  their  few  external  refinements  of  dress  and  manners.  But 
this  class  of  people,  by  real  culture  hardly  superior  to  the  country  peasant,  forgets 
every  prepossession  and  works  as  herd  as  possible  when  in  America. 


BORKOWSKI  SERIES  883 

your  intentions.     I  pray  to  Him  every  day  for  you I  greet 

you  heartily. 

Your  always  loving  wife, 

Teofila  Borkowska 
Good  by  [in  English;    imitated  from  his  letter]. 

55^  September  12,  1898 

Dear  Husband:  First  I  must  thank  you  heartily  for  having 
hc'li:)ed  me  so  much.  I  did  not  expect  it  at  all,  only  I  always  thought 
that  perhaps  you  had  no  money  yourself  and  you  could  send  me  none. 
I  only  prayed  to  our  Lord  God  to  give  you  health  and  to  bless  you  in 
all  your  intentions,  for  I  knew  that  you  would  not  desert  me.  And 
s(i  it  happened,  for  which  I  thank  you  heartily  once  more,  and  may 
our  Lord  God  help  you  further  in  everything. 

First  I  received  the  15  roubles  about  which  I  wrote  you.  Then  I 
received  25  roubles,  when  you  corrected  the  name.  And  now  I 
received  28  roubles  through  the  Commercial  Bank,  for  which  I  made 
some  purchases,  because  for  a  long  time  I  had  bought  nothing  [no 
clothes,  etc.]  for  myself.  I  am  very  happy  through  all  this,  but  I 
should  be  still  more  happy  if  we  could  see  each  other  some  day,  and 
if  it  were  in  Warsaw. 

You  ask  me  what  is  the  news  in  Warsaw.  You  would  not  recog- 
nize Warsaw — such  movement  and  work,  hundreds  of  l^ig  new  houses. 
On  Marszalkowska  Street  a  score  of  very  splendid  houses,  and  a  very 
beautiful  church  on  Dzielna  Street,  and  in  the  neighborhood  of  the 
Jesus  Hospital  they  begin  to  build  a  church,  and  on  Czerniakowska 
Street  a  church,  and  a  politechnical  school  is  opened  in  Warsaw,  such 
as  up  to  the  present  have  been  only  abroad.  Therefore  there  is 
movement  and  in  factories  everywhere  much  work.  They  built  a 
new  railway  to  Wilanow,  another  is  being  built  to  Grojec,  many  nice 
small  parks  are  added,  before  the  All-Saints  Church  and  the  St. 
x\lexander  Church.  Where  the  Ujazdowski  place  was  there  is  now 
a  very  beautiful  park.  On  Krakowskie  Przedmiescie  will  stand  a 
monument  of  Mickiewicz;  there  will  be  a  consecration  on  Christmas 
eve,  an  enormous  meeting;  all  the  windows  are  already  hired.  Only 
you  won't  be  here!  And  perhaps  you  will  still  come  back  to  Warsaw 
some  day?     May  God  grant  it.'     All  my  brothers  came  here,  some 

'  By  the  description  of  Warsaw  she  evidently  wishes  to  attract  him  home. 
At  the  same  time  we  have  a  manifestation  of  attachment  to  the  city. 


884  TRIMARY-GROUr  ORGANIZATION 

of  them  to  Warsaw,  to  work  at  the  railway-works,  others  in  Wola, 

others  in  Briuhio The  Borkowskis  are  no  longer  here.     They 

rented  a  buffet  at  a  railway-station.     [Indifferent  news  about  friends.] 

Teofila  Borkowska 

559  ^^y  12,  1899 

Dear  Husband:  I  received  your  letter  ....  with  20  roubles 
and  three  photographs  on  April  4,  for  which  I  send  you  a  hearty 
"God  reward."  I  bear  it  always  in  my  heart  and  thought  and  I 
always  repeat  it  to  everybody,  that  you  were  good  and  generous  and 
vou  are  so  up  to  the  present.  I  can  be  proud  before  everybody  that 
vou  don't  forget  me'  for  which  once  more  may  our  Lord  God  reward 
\'ou.  I  beg  only  our  Lord  God  that  we  may  yet  see  each  other  once 
more.  Write  me,  dear  Wtadek,  can  I  hope  it  ?  When  I  saw  you  in 
a  cyclist  dress  in  the  photograph,  I  could  hardly  recognize  you,  you 
have  got  about  10  years  younger,  particularly  because  you  had  your 
beard  shaved.  But  did  you  not  regret  your  beard?  Kawecki 
thanks  you  much  for  the  photograph  and  will  send  you  his  own  soon, 
together  with  his  wife's.  They  even  wish  to  give  you  a  surprise  and 
to  send  you  a  group  of  all  [the  members]  of  the  fraternity  [a  half- 
religious  fraternity  to  which  he  belonged;  see  Kawecki  letters]. 
And  as  to  me,  if  God  comforts  me  still  on  your  behalf  [if  you  still 
send  me  money],  I  will  send  you  also  my  photograph.  Don't  be 
angry,  dear  Wladek,  for  my  counting  upon  you  alone.  Perhaps  now 
your  condition  is  still  difficult,  but  I  beg  our  Lord  God  in  every  prayer 
that  He  may  help  you  in  all  your  intentions,  and  I  always  feel  a 
comfort  and  hope,  that  you  are  very  happy  and  in  a  very  good  condi- 
tion.^ ....  And  I  think  that  if  our  Lord  God  helps  you,  for  me  it 

W'ill  also  be  better 

Your  loving  wife, 

Teofila  Borkowska 

'  We  see  how  her  social  standing  depends  exclusively  upon  her  husband's 
good  will  toward  her.  She  does  not  succeed  in  getting  position  personally,  hardly 
even  tries,  but  clings  desperately  to  the  only  thread  which  keeps  her  from  falling 
definitely  into  the  class  of  paupers  and  outcasts. 

^  We  find  here  a  proof  that  praying  to  God  for  the  sake  of  anyone  is  not  a 
merely  formal  expression  of  gratitude,  but  that  the  prayer,  as  well  as  the  blessing, 
is  supposed  to  be  really  efficient  and  a  real  reward  for  a  benefit  received.  The 
existence  of  beggars  is  based  upon  this  idea.  Cf.  Wroblewski  series,  No.  31, 
note. 


BORKOWSKI  SERIES  885 

560  June  26,  1901 

Dear  Wladek:  I  received  the  letter  with  50  roubles,  which  you 
sent  on  January  25.  Later,  after  many  troubles  and  much  walking, 
at  the  cost  of  10  roubles,  I  got  the  pictures,  for  which  I  thank  you 
heartily,  first  for  the  money,  then  for  the  picture.  For  you  not  only 
remember  about  my  needs,  but  you  caused  me  a  great  pleasure.  But 
for  the  picture  only  I  thank  you,  for  Karol  [brother]  and  Lodzia 
[niece]  are  not  satisfied  at  all,  they  would  prefer  a  score  or  two  of 
roubles.^  Dear  Wladek,  I  have  not  written  for  so  long  a  time,  for,  to 
tell  the  truth,  I  don't  dare  to  importune  you  so  often.  But  you 
authorized  me  yourself,  for  you  wrote  me  to  write  you  whenever 
I  needed  money.     So,  dear  Wladek,  I  write  now . 

I  don't  live  any  longer  with  Karol  and  his  wife,  for  it  seemed  to 
them  that  since  I  lived  with  them  they  ought  to  have  a  living  out  of 
me.  But  as  I  could  not  give  them  everything  you  sent  me  they  began 
to  behave  toward  me  in  an  awful  manner,  so  that  at  last  they  wanted 
to  beat  me.     So  I  live  now  elsewhere 

O,  dear  Wladek,  if  it  could  happen  some  day,  if  you  could  come 
and  take  me  with  you!  For  myself  I  would  not  be  able  to  go  alone 
to  you.  And  perhaps  somebody  from  your  side  [of  your  family  or 
friends]  will  go  to  America?    Then  I  would  willingly  go  with  him 

to  you 

Your  loving  wife, 

Teofila  Borkowska 

561  July  29,  1902 

Dear  Husband:  I  received  your  letter  ....  and  it  grieved  me 
much  that  you  had  been  so  very  sick.  Well,  but  thanks  to  God  you 
are  now  in  good  health,  and  I  wish  you  the  same  in  the  future;  I 
pray  our  Lord  God  for  it  every  day.  [Describes  the  difficulty  she 
had  in  getting  60  roubles  which  he  sent  her.]  Stanislaw  intends  to  go 
to  you  within  a  short  time.  He  promised  me  always  that  when  he 
went  he  would  take  me  with  him.     I  rejoiced  very  much,  but  they 

'  Again  she  tries,  consciously  or  half-consciously,  to  weaken  still  more  the 
connection  between  her  husband  and  his  family,  in  order  to  have  him  exclusively 
for  herself.  This  method  does  not  seem  very  wise,  if  we  compare  this  situation 
with  the  peasant  series.  Since  the  personal  relation  between  husband  and  wife  is 
not  strong  enough,  the  proper  thing  would  be  to  strengthen  as  much  as  possible 
all  the  ties  which  attach  him  to  his  country. 


886  PRI]\IARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

wanted  to  wheedle  me  out  of  the  money  which  you  had  sent  me. 
And  as  I  could  not  give  it  to  them  they  don't  speak  to  me  any  more. 
I  don't  know  whether  it  is  possible,  but  when  he  goes  to  America, 
he  wants  to  marry  there  his  sweetheart  with  whom  he  lives  and  has 
5  children.  So,  dear  husband,  if  it  is  possible,  when  he  takes  her, 
perhaps  I  could  go  with  them  to  you.  I  desire  it  very  much,  even 
only  to  see  you,  my  dear!  If  it  is  possible,  write  to  him  yourself,  for 
he  is  like  a  wasp  to  me  now  because  of  my  not  having  given  them  this 
money.^  I  thank  you  once  more  heartily  for  the  money  and  I  beg 
you,  my  dear,  although  with  a  great  timidity,  don't  forget  about  me 
and  send  me  soon  a  little  at  least,  for  it  is  already  difficult  for  me  to 
earn  anything.  They  require  now  machine-sewing.  Moreover  my 
eyes  ache  from  crying  and  from  work  in  these  small  corners,  in  the 
kitchen  where  I  live,  because  for  3  roubles  nobody  would  receive  me 
into  a  dwelling-room.     And  even  these  3  roubles  I  can  scarcely  pay, 

and  often  I  suffer  hunger,  since  the  rent  must  be  paid 

Your  always  loving  wife, 

Teofila  Borkowska 

562  March  27,  1903 

Dear  Husband:  Mr.  Rupinski  called  upon  me  on  March  11,  and 
left  me  40  roubles,  for  which  may  our  Lord  God  reward  you.  I 
wanted  to  answer  you  at  once  but  I  had  yet  to  see  Mr.  R.  before  his 
departure.  Meanwhile  he  probably  had  some  business  and  could 
not  see  me,  for  during  a  whole  week  I  went  every  day  to  the  Karols 

to  see  him,  for  they  always  told  me  that  he  was  not  yet  leaving 

And  perhaps  they  simply  deceived  me,  for  they  have  a  pleasure  in 
annoying  me  in  any  way.  Now,  dear  Wladek,  Mr.  R.  said  that  you 
would  probably  come  back  to  Warsaw.  O,  dear  Wladek,  a  new  life 
entered  into  me,  the  whole  world  appeared  to  me  more  gay.  Now  I 
shall  pray  to  our  Lord  God  to  shorten  these  months,  for  you  won't 
believe  how  happy  I  am  now.  I  shall  live  with  this  idea,  that  I  may 
see  you  yet  before  dying.  Now,  dear  Wladek,  I  will  try  to  find  the 
man  who  bought  the  altar,  for  he  said  that  if  we  want  it  he  will  give 
it  back  at  any  moment.  Dear  husband,  perhaps  you  will  send  me  an 
authorization  to  get  back  from  Stanislaw  the  rest  of  the  money  which 

he  owes  you 

Teofila  Borkowska 

'  Compare  this  whole  story  with  the  letters  of  Stanislaw  R. 


BORKOWSKI  SERIES  §87 

563  April  23,  1904 

Dear  Husband:  I  received  your  letter  with  60  roubles It 

rejoiced  me  on  the  one  hand,  but  on  the  other  hand  grieved  me  very 
much.  Believe  me,  dear  Wladek,  that  I  had  such  a  foreboding. 
When  I  divided  the  [Easter]  egg  with  anybody,  I  wept,  for  I  imagined 
always  that  you  are  so  far  away,  alone,  without  family,  and  more 
ilian  once  you  must  feel  very  sad,  as  I  do,  and  perhaps  even  sick,  and 
there  is  nobody  to  care  for  you  of  your  own  people.  And  so  it  seemed 
to  me  continually,  and  suddenly  Sliwihska  brings  me  a  letter.  Really, 
my  foreboding  proved  true.  Believe  me,  dear  Wladek,  that  I  even 
was  not  so  glad  to  receive  this  money  as  grieved  in  learning  that  you 
are  sick.  You  are  often  sick  there,  probably  the  climate  is  bad  for 
you.  But  I  pray  and  beg  our  Lord  God  every  day  to  give  you  health 
and  to  make  you  still  happy  in  your  life.  You  are  still  young,  and 
up  to  the  present  you  have  not  yet  experienced  any  good  in  your  life. 
So  may  our  Lord  God  give  you  every  good,  whatever  you  wish  from 
Him,  for  your  good  heart. ^  God  reward  you  for  the  money  which  you 
sent  me!     Besides  you,  I  had  still  another  sorrow,  for  my  brother 

Ignacy  is  dead I  don't  know  even  whether  you  remember 

him.     So  people  of  my  family  begin  to  die 

Teofila  Borkowska 

564  August  8,  1904 

Dear  Husband:  For  God's  sake  answer,  what  is  going  on  with 
you.  This  is  the  fourth  letter  which  I  send  you,  begging  you  for  an 
answer,  and  you  don't  answer  me  even  a  word.  I  believe,  dear 
husband,  that  perhaps  you  are  tired  already  with  writing  always  and 
sending  money.  But  perhaps  our  Lord  God  will  make  you  free  soon. 
I  wish  it  myself,  for  I  am  also  tired  with  worrying  myself  so  in  this 
world  and  worrying  you  besides.  Although  you  do  not  let  me  feel 
it,  because  you  are  good,  yet  I  feel  it  myself,  and  whenever  I  receive 
money  from  you  I  weep,  for  I  am  a  burden  to  you  and  I  can  repay  you 
with  nothing  except  by  praying  God  for  your  health  and  for  happiness 
in  your  life ^  Your  sincerely  loving  wife, 

Good  by.  Teofila  Borkowska 

■  This  is  apparently  a  resignation  to  the  idea  of  a  perpetual  separation  and 
perhaps  to  the  possibility  of  hi?  being  happy  with  another  woman. 

^  Her  conviction  is  more  outspoken  than  in  the  preceding  letter.  A  few  words 
from  time  to  time  and  a  little  money  to  enable  her  to  continue  to  live  is  all  she 
can  claim. 


888  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

565  October  16,  1905 

Dear  Husband:  ....  I  wrote  you  a  letter  on  August  10,  asking 

}-ou  to  answer  with  at  least  a  few  words,  whether  you  are  in  good 

health  and  whether  you  received  my  letter  with  thanks  for  the  money. 

But  up  to  the  present  I  have  no  answer.     It  is  true,  dear  Wladek,  that 

you  have  not  so  much  time,  but,  my  dear,  write  me  sometimes  a  few 

words;   you  will  cause  me  a  great  comfort.     For  I  read  your  letter 

like  a  prayer,  because  for  me,  dear  Wladek,  our  Lord  God  is  the  first 

and  you  the  second.     Don't  be  angry,  if  perhaps  I  bore  you  with  my 

letters,  but  it  is  for  me  a  great  comfort  to  be  able  to  speak  with  you  at 

least  through  this  paper.     Write  me,  Wladek,  whether  you  will  come 

some  day  to  Warsaw.     Good  by.     May  our  Lord  God  keep  you  in 

His  care.  .         . 

Your  iovmg  wife, 

Teofila  Borkowska 

566  February  12,  1906 

Dear  Husband:  ....  Don't  be  angry  with  me  for  writing  to 
you  in  such  an  importunate  way  and  asking  always  for  money,  but 
what  can  I  do,  poor  woman,  when  I  have  no  other  way  except  to 
stretch  out  my  hand  on  the  street  and  beg.  It  is  quite  difi&cult  for 
me  to  earn  enough  for  my  whole  living,  because  not  everybody  wants 
[clothes]  sewn  by  hand  but  only  some  poor  servant  maid,  who  pays 
then  very  little.  So,  my  dear  husband,  send  me  what  you  can,  for 
I  have  nothing  to  live  on.  I  even  made  debts  for  my  rent  and  a  few 
roubles  which  I  borrowed  from  Sliwinska  on  account  of  the  money 

which  you  will  send  me I  wrote  you  some  letters  begging  you 

so  much  to  answer  me  a  few  words,  whether  you  are  in  good  health, 

but  you  wrote  me  no  letter  except  that  one  with  money 

Teofila  Borko^vska 

567  November  25,  1906 

Dear  Husband:  First,  may  God  the  Great  reward  you  for  your 
good  heart  and  your  care  for  me,  for  truly  it  is  nothing  else  but  the 
Divine  Providence  which  through  your  person  guards  me.  I  had 
not  a  whole  rouble  left,  and  moreover  I  got  so  sick  that  I  was  taken 
unconscious  to  the  hospital;  nobody  even  among  my  acquaintances 
knew  it.  Only  when  I  came  back  a  little  to  health  I  asked  the  nun  to 
telephone  to  Sliwinska,  and  the  latter  when  coming  to  me  met  the 


BORKOWSKI  SERIES  889 

postman  who  gave  her  a  letter  and  a  money-order  for  70  roubles. 
She  brought  me  at  once  this  comfort  to  the  hospital.  Believe  me, 
Wladek,  when  I  read  your  letter,  that  perhaps  I  may  see  you  still,  it 
seemed  to  me  that  I  was  healthier.  But  even  so  I  remained  still 
about  a  month  in  the  hospital,  and  when  I  left  it  I  had  money  to  live 
and  to  pay  for  the  lodging,  because  Sliwiiiska  brought  me  75  roubles 

from  the  post-office So  think,  dear  Wladek,  is  it  not  a  true 

Providence,  Divine  and  yours,  which  guards  me  ? 

Perhaps  you  won't  come  here  for  ever,  dear  Wladek,  but  at  least 
perhaps  you  will  visit  Warsaw  and  your  friends,  and  so  God  will 

listen  to  me  and  I  shall  see  you  once  more ' 

Teofila  Borkowska 

568  March  i,  1907 

Dear  Husband:  Again  some  months  have  passed  and  I  have  no 

.lews  from  you.     As  long  as  you  were  in  Chicago  it  seemed  as  if  I  felt 

you  nearer,  but  now  [when  you  are  in  California]  it  seems  to  me  that 

you  are  so  far  that  even  by  thought  I  cannot  reach  you.     O,  my  dear 

Wladek,  you  cannot  imagine  how  woeful  it  is  to  live  so  alone,  a  woman 

left  by  everybody  in  the  world.     For  if  a  woman  is  poor  she  has  no 

friends  at  all,  even  her  family  leaves  her.     I  see  nobody  but  Sliwinska 

from  time  to  time,  and  nobody  else  ever  comes  to  me.     So,  my  dear 

Wladek,  although  you  are  so  far,  don't  forget  me,  for  if  you  forgot  me 

my  life  w^ould  be  ended  for  me.     Answer  me  soon,  my  only  one! 

Good  by,  my  dear  husband.  _,.       ,     .         .^ 

Your  lovmg  wife, 

Teofila  Borkowska 

569  September  2,  1909 

Dear  Husband:  For  God's  sake,  what  has  happened?  Since 
you  wTote  last  year  and  sent  money  in  June  ....  you  sent  money 
the  second  time  in  December,  but  no  letter.  I  wrote  two  letters  to 
/on,  begging  you  to  write  a  few  words,  at  least  upon  a  postcard,  but 

Yoxi  did  not  write,  I  don't  know  why You  know  probably 

ilready  that  [Mr.]  Sliwihski  is  dead,  for  I  wrote  you,  and  even  your 
:riend,  Mr.  Kotowski,  told  me  that  he  wrote  you.  I  don't  see  Mr.  K. 
low,  for  he  lives  in  Praga  and  I  hear  intends  to  go  back  to  America. 
Mr.  K.  told  me  that  you  would  write  a  letter  for  me  to  the  address  of 

'  Complete  resignation,  placing  herself  on  the  same  basis  as  his  friends. 


80O  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

his  brother  on  Hoza  Street,  so  I  go  there  very  often  and  ask,  but  there 
is  never  any  letter.  So,  dear  Wiadek,  don't  be  angry  for  my  register- 
ing this  letter,  but  from  sorrow  I  don't  know  what  to  do.  Dear 
husband,  if  you  send  money,  send  it  as  before  to  the  address  of 

Mrs.  Sliwinska And  I  beg  you,  dear  husband,  don't  be  angry, 

but  I  beg  you,  send  as  soon  as  possible,  what  you  can.  Dear  Wladek, 
I  know  that  you  are  worth  some  thousands,  for  Mr.  K.  told  me  so. 
You  could  therefore  do  to  yourself  and  to  me  and  to  all  your  friends 
this  pleasure,  and  come  at  least  on  a  visit  to  Warsaw.  Now  in 
Warsaw  it  is  very  quiet. 

Good  by,  dear  husband,  and  may  God  give  you  everything  the 

^^^*  __     ■  Your  loving  wdfe, 

^-    -^^  Teofila  Borkowska 

570  January  20,  1910 

Dear  Husband,  my  beloved  Wladek:  I  don't  know  why  you 
do  not  want  to  write  to  me.  Evidently  you  don't  want  to,  for  I 
have  sent  you  4  letters  and  begged  and  implored  you  to  write  at  least 
a  few  words,  but  you  don't  write  at  all.  Never  yet,  during  so  manv 
years,  has  it  been  so.  Now,  toward  the  end  of  my  life,  for  a  year  and 
8  months  you  have  not  written  a  letter.  Why,  you  could  find  a  little 
time  to  write  a  few^  words!  You  sent  money  a  year  and  two  months 
ago  and  even  then  you  did  not  write  a  word.  Evidently  you  don't 
wish  to  care  for  me  any  more.  And  what  can  I  do  now,  unhappy 
woman,  since  I  cannot  earn  enough  for  my  living.  Here  thousands 
of  young  people  walk  without  work,  and  for  me,  in  my  advanced  age. 
it  is  still  more  difficult.  So  I  don't  know  what  I  shall  do  wdth  myself, 
miserable  woman,  if  you  cease  to  care  for  me  and  don't  send  me 
money  any  more.  Nothing  more  is  left  for  me  except  to  stretch  out 
my  hand  and  beg  on  the  street,  or  to  take  my  life  away.  But  I 
miserable  woman,  have  not  courage  enough  to  do  either  the  one  01 
the  other,  only  I  worry  and  suffer  hunger,  for  I  lack  a  bit  of  bread 
So  have  pity,  dear  husband !  You  have  cared  for  me  so  many  years 
don't  abandon  me  in  the  last  years  of  my  life.  Send  me  a  little  money. 
and  perhaps  our  Lord  God  will  listen  to  my  prayer — and  increase 

your  fortune,  your  happiness,  and  your  health ^ 

Teofila  Borkowska 

'  An  unimportant  letter  follows  from  which  it  is  evident  that  he  sent  her  som< 
money  before  this  letter  reached  him 


BORKOWSKI  SERIES  891 

571  August  6,  igio 

Dear  Husband:  I  write  to  you  with  great  timidity,  but  despair 
obliges  me  to  write  so  openly.  I  beg  you,  dear  Wtadek,  I  beg  you  for 
God's  sake,  have  pity  and  send  me  a  little  money,  for  I  can  find  no 
way  out.  I  tried  to  get  from  the  Philanthropic  Association  at  least 
a  few  tickets  for  a  few  pounds  of  bread  and  a  few  pints  of  gruel 
monthly,  but  they  refused  me,  for  they  learned  that  I  have  a  husband. 
They  say  that  it  is  for  them  all  the  same  whether  this  husband  is  in 
Warsawor  in  America,  but  I  have  a  husband.  So  I  don't  know  what 
to  do  with  myself.  I  have  no  work,  for  now  even  a  poor  servant  maid 
wants  [her  dresses]  to  be  sewn  on  a  machine  with  different  adorn- 
ments, for  such  is  the  fashion.  And,  to  tell  the  truth,  I  begin  to  lose 
my  eyes  with  sewing  and  crying.  So  I  only  implore  first  our  Lord 
God,  then  you  for  mercy  upon  me.  Have  pity,  dear  husband,  send 
ime  [money]  as  soon  as  possible,  because  I  owe  for  rent,  I  owe  to 
Sliwinska,  and  I  have  no  possibility  of  paying  them,  while  every  day 
I  must  nourish  myself,  and  I  have  nothing.  Although  I  economize 
every  grosz  from  you  and  nourish  myself  with  anything  in  order  only 
to  live  through  the  day,  yet  everything  is  so  expensive,  particularly 
rent.  I  live  in  a  basement,  my  bed  in  a  corner,  a  box  and  a  small 
table  before  the  bed,  and  I  pay  for  it  3  roubles  and  2  zloty  [3  roubles, 
30]  a  month,  and  they  hardly  permit  me  sometimes  to  cook  a  little 

with  my  own  fuel,  and  so  it  is  everywhere 

Teofila  Borkowska 

Dear  husband,  write  me  whether  you  will  come  some  day  to 
Warsaw?  It  is  true  that  you  have  put  aside  some  money,  but  on 
the  other  hand  you  are  far  away  from  your  family  and  from  your 
land.  And  after  so  many  years  you  would  have  had  better  con- 
ditions even  here,  and  more  than  one  pain  would  be  spared  to  you. 
iFor  it  seems  to  me  that  sometimes  it  is  not  very  pleasant  for  you 
there,  and  more  than  once  perhaps  you  long  for  your  people.  Write 
me,  dear  Wladek;  let  me  at  least  have  some  illusion  that  I  shall  still 
see  you. 

572  October  13,  1910 

Dear  Husband:  A  few  weeks  ago  I  sent  you  a  letter,  or  rather 
a  supplication,  asking  you  to  have  pity  and  to  send  me  some  money. 
But  you,  Wladek,  did  not  answer  me  a  word.     I  don't  know  what  to 


Sc)2  PRIIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

think.  I  think  tliat  you  are  tired  perhaps  with  having  cared  for  me 
for  so  long  a  time.  But  have  pity  and  send  me  something  and  don't 
forget  me.  Perhaps  soon  things  will  come  to  an  end  with  me 
and  I  shall  go  aside  from  your  way.  Write  me,  dear  Wladek, 
what  is  the  news  with  you.  Perhaps  you  are  sick  and  therefore 
don't  answer.  Answer,  my  beloved,  my  dear  benefactor,  and  send  me 
some  money Teofila  Borkowska 

5173  November  11,  1910 

Dear  Husband:  You  write  that  I  have  not  answered  after 
receiving  your  money.     But  I  sent  you  at  once  a  letter  with  thanks 

when  I  received  75  roubles  from  the  post-office You  sent  this 

money  a  year  ago,  in  November,  while  I  received  it  only  in  February 

igio Of  the  money  which  you  have  sent  me  not  a  penny  was 

ever  lost.  If  we  see  each  other  some  day — and  I  pray  always  to  our 
Lord  God  for  it,  and  I  hope  that  it  will  come — I  shall  show  you  all 

your  letters  and  orders,  for  I  keep  them  like  holy  things Dear 

Wladek,  you  make  reproaches  for  my  calling  on  you  for  money. 
Look  through  the  letters  [you  will  see]  that  I  beg  you  and  implore 
you  with  great  timidity,  and  only  because  great  need  forces  me. 
Dear  Wladek,  you  won't  believe  how  I  beg  our  Lord  God  that  I  may 
see  you  still  before  my  death.  j\Iy  dear,  write  me  whether  it  will  { 
ever  happen.  And  write  me,  my  dear,  whether  you  know  there 
everything,  which  happened  here  upon  Jasna  Gora  [Cz^stochowa; 
a  monk  killed  his  cousin  and  robbed  the  cloister]. 

Teofila  Borkowska 

574  December  18,  1910 

Dear  Husband:  I  received  your  letter  and  38  roubles.  [Details 
and  thanks.] 

Dear  Wladek,  are  you  angry  when  I  write  you  and  ask  you  to 
write  me  a  few  words,  whether  you  will  ever  come  to  Warsaw  ?  For 
you  never  answer  my  begging.  Answer  at  least  a  few  words  to  my 
begging,  my  dear! Teofila  Borkowska 

575  April  20,  191 1 

Dear  Husband:  I  wrote  you  four  letters  and  in  every  one  I 
implored  you  to  write  me  at  least  a  few  words,  and  I  cannot  prevail 
upon  you.     So,  my  dear  husband,  have  pity  upon  me,  I  implore  you. 


BORKOWSKI  SERIES  893 

and  send  me  a  little  money,  for  strange  things  come  already  to  my 
head,  and  I  tell  you  openly  that  it  is  from  hunger.  For  a  long  time 
I  have  not  had  a  penny  of  my  own,  only  a  few  roubles  of  debt  which 
I  borrow,  a  few  zloty  at  once.  But  as  it  seems  to  other  people  that 
you  won't  send  me  any  more,  so  I  don't  dare  to  borrow,  and  they 
make  excuses  and  don't  want  to  lend  me.  So  I  beg  you,  send  as  soon 
as  possible,  or  else  I  will  probably  take  my  life  away.  On  Easter  I 
should  not  have  had  a  bit  of  dry  bread  if  Sliwinska  had  not  given 
me,  and  she   also   has   nothing,   lives   only   by    the   mercy  of  her 

children * 

Teofila  Borkowska 

576  September  8,  191 1 

Dear  Husband:  Don't  be  angry  with  me,  dear  Wladek,  for 
writing  to  you  too  often,  but  I  am  always  tormented  [about  you]  and 
I  grieve,  fearing  you  may  be  sick.  For  the  papers  write  here  that  in 
America  great  heats  prevailed  and  therefore  many  people  are  sick; 
perhaps  even  therefore  I  grieve  so  and  have  such  painful  dreams.  So, 
dear  Wladek,  answer  me  at  least  a  few  words,  comfort  me  in  my  heavy 

misfortune,  for  you  are  my  only  Providence Only  you  are 

changed  since  some  time,  dear  Wladek;   when  you  write,  your  letter 

is  now  always  angiy  with  me 

Teofila  Borkowska 

577  July  12,  1912 

Dear  Husband:  Have  pity  upon  me,  for  I  am  already  barefooted 
and  naked.  They  have  taken  everything  for  the  rent,  even  the 
pillow  from  under  my  head;  only  a  small  pillow  is  left.  Have  pity, 
dear  Wladek,  and  send  me  some  money!  You  won't  let  me  die  from 
hunger,  for  I  know  that  you  have  a  merciful  and  noble  heart,  only 
perhaps  somebody  incites  you.  Wliy,  I  have  not  much  longer  to 
live,  for  with  such  a  hunger  as  I  suffer  now  I  shall  not  hold  out  long. 
So  I  implore  you,  dear  husband,  have  pity  and  listen  to  my  imploring, 
for  you  are  the  second  after  God,  to  whom  I  pray  every  day. 

Good  by,  dear  husband.     Be  happy. 

Your  loving  wife, 

Teofila  Borkowska 

'  The  next  letter,  here  omitted,  shows  that  he  sent  her  some  money. 


8o4  PRIIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

578  September  5,  19 1 2 

Respected  Sir:  Your  wife  is  sick,  she  lies  in  the  St.  Roch's 
Hospital  ....  since  August  20.  She  received  the  money  which  you 
sent,  20  roubles,  in  August;  she  was  already  so  sick  that  she  scarcely 

dragged  herself  to  the  post-office She  is  not  so  dangerously 

sick,  but  suffering  very  much  ....  and  in  general  the  whole  organ- 
ism is  very  weak  because  of  bad  nutrition  and  continuous  sorrow. 
She  is  so  alone  and  deserted  almost  by  everybody,  for  the  family 
never  comes  to  see  her.  Even  to  the  hospital  nobody  goes  except 
me,  who  go  to  her  once  in  a  week.  Even  the  Czs.  do  not,  although 
I  informed  them.  In  the  hospital  she  has  at  least  some  care,  while  at 
home  she  remained  quite  alone,  for  the  people  with  whom  she  lived 
left  for  some  weeks.  The  doctor  advised  sending  her  to  the  hospital 
that  she  might  have  at  least  a  little  comfort  and  care.  So  please 
write  to  her  at  once.  You  will  thus  comfort  her  a  little,  for  she  longs 
continually  for  you  and  your  letters.  I  shall  answer  you  at  once,  how 
she  is  in  her  health.  And  please  be  so  good  and  send  her  a  few  roubles 
when  she  leaves  the  hospital,  for  of  those  20  roubles  only  a  few  zloty 
are  left,  and  she  must  pay  the  rent  for  the  time  during  which  she 
remains  in  the  hospital.  And  please,  be  so  kind,  send  her  [money] 
regularly  every  month  or  every  2  months,  for  your  wife  is  horribly 
tormented  by  this  lack  of  a  few  zloty  and  of  a  letter  from  you,  when 
you  don't  write  for  so  long  a  time.  And  please,  write  a  little  more 
affectionately.     Only  do  it  soon,  for  it  will  be  the  best  medicine  for 

your  wife,  at  least  for  her  heart 

Aleksandra  Sliwinska 

579  September  27,  1893 

"Praised  be  Jesus  Christus." 

Respected  Mr.  Borkowski:  I  have  received  your  letter,  for 
which  I  send  you  the  most  hearty  "God  reward."  I  was  very  glad 
that  you  deigned  to  describe  the  customs  of  that  country  and  that 
you  are  in  good  health,  for  which  infinite  praise  be  to  God  who 
deigns  to  keep  you  in  His  omnipotent  guardianship  on  your  long 
journey.  And  now,  Resp.  Sir,  in  Warsaw  there  is  no  news.  Food 
has  got  cheaper,  except  sugar  and  meat.  For  instance,  2  lbs.  of 
bread  cost  now  6  copecks,  a  korzec  [250  lbs.]  of  potatoes  i  rouble, 
and  so  on. 


BORKOWSKI  SERIES  895 

As  to  our  singing,  all  those  are  there  who  were  there  during  your 
presence.  We  have  not  learned  any  new  song  except  this  one  which 
we  send  you.  I,  my  children,  and  all  our  brothers  and  sisters  from 
the  choir  of  the  Holy  Rosary,  are  in  good  health,  by  the  favor  of  our 
Lord  God,  and  we  wish  you  the  same  with  our  soul  and  heart.  We 
send  up  a  profound  and  sincere  sigh  to  the  Great  Lord  of  Hosts,  that 
He  may  bless  you  in  that  far  and  remote  country.  I  send  you  my 
photograph  and  that  of  the  priest  S.,  for  remembrance.  All  your 
acquaintances  greet  you,  such  as  [enumeration]. 

And  now,  Resp.  Mr.  Borkowski  ....  nothing  remains,  except 
to  kiss  you,  my  kindest  friend,  heartily.  I  greet  you  and  bid  you 
goodbye  in  the  name  of  the  Holy  Trinity,  from  whose  care  may  you 
never  be  removed.  And  I  exhort  you  to  worship  this  Holy  Trinity 
ceaselessly,  and  be  sure  that  you  won't  be  deceived.  And  acting 
thus,  we  can  secure  for  ourselves  our  soul's  salvation.  I  wish  it  to 
you,  my  kindest  friend  and  brother  in  Christ,  and  to  myself  with  all 
my  heart.' 

P.  Kawecki 

1580  November  24,  1896 

Respected  Mr.  Wladyslaw  Borkowski:  I  received  your 
photograph,  for  which  I  send  you  most  hearty  thanks.  I  took  it  to 
the  church  and  showed  it  to  all  your  friends,  who  were  very  much 
satisfied,  and  particularly  myself,  for  it  is  made  very  originally.  I 
imarried  Mrs.  Jozefa  P.  last  year,  and  now  God  has  given  us  a  third 
Idaughter  [two  from  the  first  marriage].  We  are  in  good  health,  by  the 
favor  of  our  Lord  God,  and  we  wish  you  the  same.  Here  in  Warsaw 
everything  is  the  same,  except  [news  about  priests  who  died  or  were 
transferred].  As  to  the  Rosary-choir,  nobody  among  the  priests  cares 
for  us,  only  I  teach  [the  members]  to  sing,  as  best  I  can.  From  our 
■Rosary-circle  died  [enumeration].  Your  wife  longs  very  much  for 
you,  she  would  like  to  see  you  as  soon  as  possible.     From  this  grief 

'  The  religious  fraternities  to  one  of  which  the  writer  and  Borkowski-  belonged 
are  very  old  in  Warsaw.  They  have  developed  an  artificial  kind  of  devotion  and 
a  religious  jargon  of  which  the  first  letter  of  Kawecki  is  a  good  example.  Outside 
of  the  traditional  atmosphere  of  these  circles,  this  way  of  addressing  a  friend  by  a 
iman  would  be  hardly  possible  in  Poland,  except  perhaps  on  some  very  important 
occasions,  in  great  sorrow,  etc.  The  religiosity  is,  moreover,  hardly  connected 
iwith  a  higher  morality;  Kawecki  himself  becomes  later  a  habitual  drunkard.  On 
ithe  fraternities  in  general,  cf.  Osinski  series,  No.  78,  note. 


896  TRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

she  was  very  sick,  and  was  obliged  to  go  to  the  hospital,  but  now  she 
is  already  in  good  health,  and  implores  you  for  pity's  sake  to  come  back 
to  Warsaw  ["and  implores  .  .  .  ."  added  later].  And  now  .... 
I  commend  your  person  to  the  Providence  of  God.  May  He  guard 
you  against  any  bad  accidents  and  grant  you  the  best  health  and  ever}- 
good.     [Christmas  wishes  and  greetings  from  friends.] 

P.  Ka\vecki 


581  November  25,  1894 

"Praised  be"  [etc.]. 

Dear  Friend:  [News  about  the  death  of  the  tsar  Alexander  III, 
description  of  the  funeral-ceremonies,  etc.;  news  about  friends.] 
In  the  iron-factories  and  on  the  railways  there  is  enormous  work.  In 
Sosnowiec  lives  one  of  yom-  friends,  I  forget  his  name.  He  says 
always  that  you  should  come,  that  there  is  a  sure  place  for  you  on  the 
railway.  So  come  back  to  Warsaw  now.  Because  of  his  ascending 
the  throne  the  emperor  has  reduced  the  punishment  of  prisoners  and 
offenders,  so  there  will  be  amnesty  for  you.  And  you  will  revive  your 
wife  again  from  this  sorrow,  for  she  torments  herself  continually. 
That  which  you  lost  you  will  earn  again  with  the  help  of  our  Lord 
God.  And  as  to  the  shame,  throw  it  away  from  you  and  let  it  be 
ended.  For  people  do  worse  things  and  they  come  off  easily.^  So 
I  am  persuaded  that  you  will  come  back  soon,  and  I  beg  you  to  answer 
whether  you  will  come  back.  And  I  assure  you  with  all  my  heart 
that  you  won't  be  deceived  at  all 

Your  loving  and  sincere  friend, 

Emilian  L. 

582  October  28,  1900 

Dear  Weadyslaw  Borkowski:  Praised  be  God.  You  praise 
God  and  I  praise  him  also.  But  you  did  not  keep  the  word  which 
you  gave  me  and  you  did  not  write  me  where  you  are  to  be  found. 
Only  after  much  begging  I  received  your  address  [from  your  wife],  and 
there  must  be  some  jealousy,  for  your  wife  begged  me  very  much  not 

'  We  do  not  know  his  offense.     Possibly  some  small  peculation. 


BORKOWSKI  SERIES  897 

to  give  anybody  your  address.     Only  I  beg  you,  don't  make  any 
reproaches  to  your  wife  in  your  letters.' 

Now,  dear  Wladzio,  I  inform  you  about  my  success.  I  work  now 
in  my  own  shop,  and  there  was  a  time  when  10  journeymen  worked 
with  me  and  I  had  1,500  roubles  in  cash.  Counting  upon  my  cash, 
I  took  a  larger  shop,  and  I  lost  everything  in  a  year.  I  have  still  all 
my  tools,  but  have  that  cash  no  longer,  and  only  2  journeymen  and  a 
boy  work  with  me.  So  my  condition  is  not  very  good,  and  if  I  knew 
that  there  was  something  good  for  me  in  America  and  if  you  gave  me 
information  in  a  letter,  I  would  leave  Warsaw,  for  in  Warsaw  it  is 
more  and  more  difficult  to  live.  Although  I  became  a  master  and 
belong  to  the  guild,  it  is  very  difficult  to  get  on.  I  have  had  losses 
because  of  the  strike  of  last  year,  and  the  rent  is  expensive,  while 
I  heard  from  your  wife  that  God  has  blessed  you  and  you  succeed 
well.     May  God  grant  it  to  you.     I  wish  it,  for  when  you  left,  it 

seemed  to  me  as  if  my  brother  or  father  were  dead 

Your  true  companion, 

Stanislaw  R. 

'  The  situation  disclosed  in  these  letters  is  rather  difficult  to  understand. 
There  is  an  evident  antagonism  of  interests  between  Stanislaw  R.  and  Teofila  B., 
both  of  whom  rely  on  Wladyslaw  B.  in  matters  of  money.  Still,  for  a  long  time, 
their  relations  remain  friendly,  until  apparently  they  are  broken  almost  entirely. 
The  simplest  explanation  seems  to  be  the  'following  one.  Teofila  is  jealous  of 
Stanislaw,  for  the  social  reason  stated  in  the  introduction,  and  for  the  economic 
reason,  that  he  wants  her  husband  to  lend  him  money.  Yet  her  hostile  feeling  is 
for  a  long  time  neutralized  by  the  fact  that  in  Stanislaw's  home  she  is  relatively 
well  treated  and  often  fed — which  in  her  loneliness  and  poverty  mean  much — and 
that  she  hopes  to  go  to  America  under  Stanislaw's  care.  This  second  reason 
remains  even  after  the  breaking  of  the  relation  (see  her  letter  No.  561),  and  there- 
fore the  break  is  not  definite.  As  to  Stanislaw,  it  is  probable  that  he  may  have 
miscalculated  the  power  of  the  connection  between  Teofila  and  her  husband  and 
hoped  to  influence  him  through  her  until  he  understood  that  Wladyslaw  B.  con- 
sidered his  wife  rather  a  burden,  and  then  he  lost  his  interest  in  her.  At  any  rate, 
his  way  of  writing  about  her  in  the  first  letters  and  in  the  last  one  seems  to  express 
precisely  such  an  evolution.  The  break,  thus  prepared,  may  have  been  caused 
really  by  Teofila's  refusal  to  lend  Stanislaw  money.  Nevertheless,  it  is  possible 
that  there  was  also  a  feeling  of  pity,  finally  tired  out  by  Teofila's  continual  com- 
plaints. 

Besides  this  situation  with  regard  to  Teofila,  and  his  own  matrimonial  rela- 
tions, the  letters  of  Stanislaw  are  totally  insignificant.  They  show  a  personality 
as  average  and  uninteresting  as  possible,  and  in  this  respect  precisely  typical  of 
his  class,  which  has  lost  the  mediaeval  town  traditions,  has  no  peasant  traditions, 
remains  still  untouched  by  the  influence  of  modern  industrialism,  and  particularly 
in  Warsaw,  lacks  the  ambitious  tendencies  going  along  with  the  constitution  of  a 
new  social  organization. 


8q8  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

583  April  6,  1902 

Dear  CoNrp anion:  ....  My  work  is  very  bad.  You  wrote  me 
to  come,  and  then  I  had  still  some  money,  but  now  I  have  none. 
But  I  would  go  to  you  at  once  if  you  sent  me  a  ship-ticket.  Only  I 
have  now  a  large  family,  another  wife  [illegal]  who  is  worthy  of  respect. 
So  we  are  two,  and  5  children,  the  oldest  15,  the  youngest  2  years  old. 
At  the  same  time  your  wife  assures  me  that  if  I  go  she  will  go  with  me, 
but  with  nobody  else.  Reflect  whether  you  may  help  me,  for  I 
should  risk  everything.  Warsaw  is  building  up  rapidly,  but  among 
the  middle  [really  lower]  class  the  misery  is  awful.  If  I  sell  my  tools 
I  can  get  about  400  roubles.  Now,  dear  companion,  your  wife  suffers 
terribly  without  money,  for  she  cannot  earn  much.  The  money 
which  you  sent  is  spent  long  ago,  and  it  is  very  difl&cult  for  her  to  earn. 
She  wrote  to  you  long  ago  for  some  help,  for  she  has  nothing  to  live 
on  and  to  pay  the  rent.  This  letter  is  written  in  the  presence  of  your 
wife.     [News  about  friends.]     P.  Kawecki  is  in  the  customs-ofl&ce,  as 

formerly.     He  drinks  very  much 

Your  truly  well-wishing, 

Stanislaw  R. 

584  .  May  14,  1902 

Dear  CoiiPANiON  Wladyslaw:  ....  I  don't  know  what  is 
going  on  with  you,  why  do  you  not  give  any  news  about  yourself. 

This  is  the  4th  letter  which  I  send  you  and  have  no  answer 

In  my  last  letter  I  asked  you  for  a  ship-ticket  for  myself  and  your  wife, 
for  your  wife  has  absolutely  nothing  to  live  on  and  to  pay  for  her 
lodging.     Those  50  roubles  which  you  sent  so  long  ago  are  spent,  for 

more  than  a  year  has  passed  since  you  sent  them So  I  don't 

know  whether  you  don't  receive  my  letters  or  don't  wish  to  answer 
your  countryman  from  Warsaw,  a  Pole  and  a  companion.  Dear 
Wladyslaw,  my  companion,  perhaps  you  have  read  in  my  letters  that 
I  want  to  go  to  you  at  any  moment,  for  in  Warsaw,  even  if  I  worked 
my  hands  away,  I  could  earn  only  for  my  living  and  some  clothes, 
while  it  does  not  suffice  for  the  schooling  of  my  children.     ]Many 

people  here  in  Warsaw  walk  without  work As  to  my  character 

and  my  disposition,  you  know  well  that  I  have  never  cheated  any- 
body for  a  grosz.  In  the  same  way  I  would  give  you  back  with  thanks 
the  money  for  the  ship-ticket. 


BORKOWSKI  SERIES  899 

Perhaps  I  have  offended  you  in  some  way  in  my  letters  and  there- 
fore you  don't  answer  me.  Pardon  me,  for  I  have  loved  you  much 
because  of  your  devotion 

Your  wife  comes  every  day  to  me  and  asks  whether  you  have  not 
given  any  news  about  yourself.  She  wonders  whether  perhaps  some- 
body has  written  some  false  letters  to  you  [slandering  her]  and  there- 
fore you  remember  her  so  little.  For  it  is  difficult  for  her  to  live. 
She  says  with  great  crying  that  now,  were  it  not  for  the  sea,  she  would 
go  afoot  to  you.     So  she  begs  you  also  to  send  her  a  ship-ticket 

Stanislaw  R. 

585  May  30,  1902 

Dear  Companion  Weadyslaw:  I  received  your  letter  on  May  29, 
and  I  rejoiced  much  at  your  good  advice.  I  am  therefore  selling  my 
whole  business  and  waiting  for  your  answer  and  the  ship-ticket  which 
you  promised  me,  for  I  believe  that  it  will  be  cheaper.  Dear  Wladzio, 
could  you  not  send  a  ticket  for  me  and  for  my  oldest  son,  15  years 
old,  for  he  would  perhaps  become  a  loafer  during  this  year  of  my 
absence.  And  if  you  think  that  it  is  difficult,  so  I  beg  you  to  send  a 
ticket  for  me  alone.  I  will  take  more  money  with  me  than  50  roubles 
[required  from  every  immigrant].     I  should  like  to  work  together 

with  you  as  long  as  I  still  have  some  health,  by  the  favor  of  God 

Your  wife  received  the  money,  60  roubles  and  i  copeck.  Now  I 
inform  you  that  in  Warsaw  handworkers  are  very  badly  situated. 
When  I  see  you,  I  will  tell  you  everything.  So,  dear  companion, 
send  me  a  ship-ticket.  I  should  prefer  a  more  expensive  one,  for  I 
should  not  like  to  go  so  long  through  the  water.     With  your  advice 

and  help,  God  will  help  me  also 

Stanislaw  R. 

586  February  8,  1903 

Dear  Companion  Wladyseaw:  ....  I  received  your  ship- 
ticket  last  year  ....  and  I  am  not  sure  whether  it  will  be  valid  for 
this  year.  I  asked  and  was  informed  that  it  was  valid  but  I  don't 
know  whether  you  did  not  withdraw  it,  so  I  beg  you,  inform  me  about 
it.  This  year  I  am  going  to  see  you  and  to  greet  you  like  a  brother 
and  companion.  Poland  is  a  country  which  gets  poorer  and  poorer. 
Now  I  inform  you  why  I  could  not  go  last  year.     I  counted  that  I 


900  I'RlMARV-CROrP  ORGANIZATION 

should  finish  in  time  a  work  for  which  275  roubles  were  due  to  me, 
hut  the  hron/e-makor  did  not  make  the  bronzes  [for  furniture]  in 
tinu\  Mt>roovor,  1  had  an  ai)i)rcntice-boy,  for  whose  learning  the 
parents  had  paid.  So  all  this  hindered  my  going.  Dear  companion, 
answer  mo  what  happened  with  that  ship-ticket?  I  regret  having 
wastcil  this  year  in  Warsaw.  If  my  ship-ticket  is  valid  this  year  it 
would  be  a  great  help  to  me,  because  I  would  take  my  wife  and  chil- 
dren; I  should  have  money  enough.  Then  we  would  live  merrily, 
for  my  wife  loves  me  too  much  and  does  not  want  to  let  me  go  alone. 
Dear  Wladzio,  help  me  in  whatever  you  think  it  advisable.  Jan  K. 
came  here  from  America  and  told  me  that  it  was  the  best  to  go 
together  with  one's  wife,  that  there  such  good  housewdves  are  lacking, 
because  the  women  don't  want  to  work.  Now,  dear  companion,  I 
have  very  good  children,  who  w^ould  love  you  much.  Jan  K.  said 
that  a  woman  who  wants  to  work  and  cooks  or  bakes  well  gets  on 
pretty  well.  And  I  can  boast  that  I  have  a  wife  who  is  good  in  this 
work,  and  laborious,  and  affectionate  in  the  case — God  forbid! — of 
a  sickness.  With  my  children  you  would  have  a  distraction,  for 
ever}'body  envies  me  because  of  them,  they  are  so  pretty  and  attached. 
And  now,  dear  companion,  I  should  like  to  inform  you  about  your 
wife,  but  I  don't  know  what  is  going  on  with  her,  for  she  does  not  call 
upon  us  any  more.  Last  year  she  came  almost  every  day.  I  don't 
say  it  as  a  reproach  [boast],  but  I  always  asked  her  to  share  our  dinner 
and  invited  her  to  stay  over  the  supper.  I  don't  know  w'hy  [she  does 
not  come],  perhaps  because  she  is  angry  wdth  me  for  your  having  sent 
me  the  ship-ticket,  for  I  heard  so.  I  write  you  the  truth.  I  inform 
you  only  that  I  don't  know  where  she  lives  now,  for  Klimek's  wife 
[with  whom  she  lived]  told  me  that  nobody  wants  to  lodge  her,  because 
she  is  awfully  boresome,  and  already  gray-headed  like  a  m.ushroom 
[usual  comparison]. 

Stanislaw  R. 


PORZYCKI  SERIES 

The  Porzyckis  are  another  isolated  marriage-group 
whose  relation  with  the  family-group  of  both  husband  and 
wife  is  rather  loose,  though  some  assistance  is  given  and 
received.  As  in  the  case  of  the  Borkowskis,  there  is  a 
notable  poverty  of  traditional  materials,  but  the  Porzyckis 
have  preserved  somewhat  more  of  the  traditional  attitudes, 
because,  living  in  a  small  town,  they  are  more  subject  to  the 
pressure  of  social  opinion.  The  social  opinion  itself  is, 
however,  rather  hesitating;  even  in  small  towns  the  tradi- 
tional standpoint -has  been  abandoned  in  most  of  its  details. 
Moreover,  it  was  never  very  consistent,  since  the  traditions 
of  the  city  class  were  always  intermingled  with  those  of  the 
peasants.  Perhaps  the  Porzyckis  are  also  of  peasant  origin; 
the  preceding  generation  may  have  moved  to  the  town  and 
there  lost  all  the  peasant  attitudes  which  differed  from  those 
prevailing  in  the  town  without  acquiring  the  traditions  of 
their  new  environment. 

The  cultural  level  is  not  much  higher  than  in  the 
Borkowski  case.  Porzycki  is  a  shoemaker,  the  woman  a 
midwife,  and  these  professions  in  small  towns  do  not  require 
much  instruction.  It  seems  that  there  is  a  little  more 
community  of  interests  between  the  Porzyckis  than  between 
the  Borkowskis;  at  least  there  is  a  little  more  real  affection. 
But  this  would  be  hardly  enough  to  keep  the  conjugal  con- 
nection strong  in  spite  of  the  separation  if  there  were  no 
other  factors. 

Finally,  the  characters  are  almost  alike  in  both  cases. 
Porzycki,  as  well  as  Borkowski,  is  rather  cold;  his  wife, 
by  her  lack  of  energy  and  independence,  is  hardly  more  able 
than  Borkowska  to  defend  her  own  cause  either  in  her 

901 


002  PKIM AKV CROrP  ORGANIZATION 

relation  with  lur  husband  or  with  her  social  environment. 
And,  moreover,  she  is  a  neuraesthenic.  In  short,  it  seems 
that  the  history  of  this  marriage-grouj)  should  be  a  repetition 
of  that  of  tlie  Horkowskis,  and  of  many  others  from  among 
tlie  lower  city  class.  But  it  is  not  so,  owing  to  the  children. 
'Hie  children  are,  first  of  all,  objects  of  common  care,  and 
thus  the  sphere  of  interest  of  husband  and  wife  remains 
])artly  the  same  in  spite  of  their  separaton.  Further,  the 
common  obligation  toward  the  children  forces  the  parents 
to  keep  their  obligations  toward  each  other.  Consequentl\', 
the  situation  of  the  wife  is  quite  different  from  that  in  the 
Borkowski  case.  She  is  not  an  isolated  and  passive  individ- 
ual toward  whom  any  attitude  is  possible  from  the  husband, 
but  an  acti\e  member  of  a  larger  group  to  which  her  husband 
belongs;  she  performs  a  function  which  nobody  else  could 
perform,  and  her  husband  must  be  interested  in  her,  if 
not  personally,  at  least  as  in  a  member  of  the  marriage- 
group.  The  children  themselves  grow  into  active  members 
of  the  marriage-group  and  exert  a  conscious  influence  on 
their  parents.     See  particularly  the  letters  of  Romek. 

With  regard  to  the  social  environment,  the  situation 
of  the  woman  is  here  also  quite  different  from  that  in  the 
preceding  case.  We  see  that  she  has  sometimes  economic 
difficulties,  but  there  is  not  a  single  complaint  about  any 
humiliation.  The  woman  is  and  will  always  be  treated  by 
the  environment  with  some  consideration  as  a  member  and 
provisional  head  of  the  small  group,  even  if  her  personahty 
should  not  command  respect.  Sympathy  with  the  children, 
expectation  that  the  children  will  grow  up  and  possibly 
become  important  members  of  the  community,  certainty 
that  the  husband,  even  if  absent,  will  never  completely 
break  the  relation  of  solidarity,  because  the  ties  which  unite 
him  with  the  rest  of  the  marriage-group  are  too  strong — ■ 
all  these  considerations,  to  which  may  be  added  the  fact  that 


I 


PORZYCKI SERIES 


903 


she  has  a  profession,  keep  the  social  standing  of  Porzycka 
from  ever  faUing  even  approximately  so  low  as  that  of 
Borkowska.  Certainly  her  social  standing  still  depends 
upon  her  husband's  success  and  his  fidehty  to  her,  but  not 
absolutely,  as  in  the  preceding  case. 

The  Porzyckis  are  thus  an  example  of  a  relatively  solidary 
family-group  of  the  modern  type,  in  which  the  solidarity 
does  not  result  alone  from  tradition  and  pressure  of  social 
opinion,  but  from  relations  between  individuals  as  deter- 
mined by  mere  natural  bonds.  However,  the  group  is  neither 
perfectly  soHdary  nor  very  harmonious.  Common  interests 
have  to  fight  against  individual  interests,  and  there  are 
frequent  misunderstandings  and  quarrels.  In  comparing 
this  case  with  the  peasant  families,  we  see  what  a  powerful 
factor  of  harmony  is  the  traditional  familial  organization. 

587-629,  TO  STANIStAW  PORZYCKI,  IN  AMERICA,  FROM  HIS 
WIFE  AND  CHILDREN,  IN  POLAND.  THE  LAST  LETTER  IS 
HIS  REPLY  TO  A  REQUEST  FOR  FURTHER  DETAILS  ABOUT 
HIS  FAMILY 

587  [Mlawa,  autumn,  1910] 

Dear  Father  :  I  inform  you  that  we  are  all  in  good  health,  thanks 

to  our  Lord  God Don't  believe  in  those  dreams,  for  they  only 

deceive  everybody Mother  must  always  cry,  sometimes  even 

be  sick,  for  when  Hela  merits  a  punishment  and  mother  beats  her, 
grandmother  at  once  takes  her  part,  and  they  both  gossip  [outside] 
about  mother.  This  [contemptible]  Hela  now  goes  to  the  teaching  in 
the  church,'  and  instead  of  being  better  she  is  still  worse.  Please, 
father,  advise  us,  at  least  in  a  letter,  what  to  do  with  this  Hela,  for 
mother  can  no  longer  hold  out  with  her * 

ROMUALD  [RoMEK]  P. 

■  Instruction  before  confession. 

=  It  is  the  familial  duty  of  the  son  to  take  the  part  of  the  mother  against  tlie 
daughter,  but  in  the  whole  series  the  attachment  of  the  son  to  the  mother  and  of 
the  daughter  to  the  father  is  so  marked  as  to  suggest  the  Freudian  theory.  Perhaps 
the  attitude  of  protector  of  the  family  assumed  by  the  boy  in  the  absence  of  the 
father  is  here,  as  in  many  of  the  following  letters,  merely  an  objective  and  conscious 
form  in  which  the  subconscious  preference  for  the  mother  finds  its  expression. 


.KM  rRi.M.\RV-(;R(H'r  organization 

588  November  3  [1910] 

Dkar  Hi  smand:  In  Uic  first  words  of  my  letter,  "Praised  \)v 
Jesus  Christus '" 

I  received  the  money,  50  roubles,  for  which  I  thank  you  heartily, 
for  I  was  almost  in  despair.  During  the  whole  of  October  I  earned 
nothing,  and  there  were  always  expenses.  Were  it  not  for  the  Rzq,ps, 
who  lent  us  a  few  roubles,  I  don't  know  how  we  should  have  lived. 
Thanks  to  God  tliat  at  least  they  are  our  friends,  for  it  would  be  hard. 
....  These  50  roubles  which  you  sent  will  be  spent  at  once — 15 
roubles  to  Pawlowska,  10  to  the  Rz^ps  ....  shoes  for  us  all,  a  few 
wagons  of  turf,  potatoes.  Believe  me,  my  dear,  I  should  prefer  in 
have  you  rather  than  this  money,  for  I  had  not  so  much  trouble  when 
you  were  here.  Now  you  write  that  you  won't  come  back  until  }'()u 
pay  your  debt.     But  it  will  soon  be  a  year  and  there  is  almost  nothini^ 

paid  of  it I  inform  you  about  Romek,  that  he  is  getting  awful  1\ 

spoiled;  he  does  not  listen  at  all,  he  is  worse  and  worse.  Please  send 
him  an  admonition,  but  so  as  if  you  wrote  of  yourself,  for  he  does  not 
even  want  to  go  to  church.^  Pawlowski  writes  to  his  family  that  hi 
will  come  back,  will  sell  his  property  and  will  take  them  all  to  America, 
for  it  is  so  well  there.  I  have  nothing  more  to  write,  only  I  wish  you, 
dearest  love,  good  health  and  success,  and  may  the  Lord  God  help  you 
to  pay  that  debt  back. 

Your  loving  wife  and  children, 

Wladyslawa  Porzycka 
Only,  I  beg  you,  write  more  often. 

589  January  7,  191 1 

And  although  we  cannot  be  together,  yet  we  can  be  united  in  our 
hearts  and  thoughts  [probably  quotation  from  his  letter].  It  is 
true,  dear  husband,  that  we  are  united  in  our  hearts  and  thoughts,  but 
tell  me  why  does  this  unity  of  thoughts  not  suffice  for  me  ?  Tell  me, 
why  does  my  heart,  although  united,  long  for  yours  ?    Oh,  it  is  ter- 

'  The  only  letter  which  begms  in  the  typical  peasant  way,  with  the  greeting, 
"Praised  be,"  etc.  In  the  following  letters  the  greeting  is  dropped,  probably  in 
imitation  of  the  husband's  letters.  The  omission  is  itself  a  sign  of  the  loosening  of 
old  traditions. 

'  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  the  children  rapidly  outgrow  these  childish 
attitudes,  naughtiness,  disobedience,  etc.;  the  common  difficulties,  the  common 
fight  with  poverty,  etc.,  make  of  them  rather  the  associates  of  the  mother. 


PORZYCKI  SERIES 


90: 


ribly  empty  here,  and  I  long  so  much  for  you,  dear  husband!  The 
longing  and  grief  devour  me  slowly.  If  you  knew,  dearest,  what  were 
our  holidays!  Perhaps  yours  were  also  not  merrier,  but  you  are  a 
man  and  you  can  bear  your  lot  with  more  resignation.  Can  I  do  it  ? 
Oh  no,  it  is  difficult  to  bear  this;  the  wheelbarrow  of  life  is  too  hea\y 
for  my  shoulders.  So,  dear  husband,  if  you  wish  to  lighten  our 
misfortune,  take  me  there,  where  you  are,  and  perhaps  when  we  are 
together  this  weight  of  life  won't  seem  so  hea^/y  to  us.  For  if  you 
don't  take  us,  know  it,  my  dear,  that  I  can  still  get  money  for  my  own 
journey.  I  will  leave  the  children  and  go  after  you.  Otherwise  I 
shall  perish,  waste  away  here.  Why,  Stach  dear,  you  went  away 
with  the  idea  that  we  should  come  at  once  after  you,  and  you  don't 
even  mention  it  but  I  must  be  the  first  [to  speak  of  it].  Klasztor  took 
his  wife  9  weeks  ago.  Mania  Pawlowska  is  going  away  presently. 
Only  for  me  there  is  no  place! 

Dear  Stach,  if  I  found  work  at  least!  But  I  happen  to  get  work 
as  often  as  a  blind  hen  finds  grains  [proverb].  And  here  we  lack 
money,  and  you  say  yourself  that  the  children  ought  not  to  suft'er 
cold.  My  dear  husband,  if  I  could,  if  I  had  [money],  surely  not  only 
the  children  but  myself  would  be  dressed,  for  you  know  that  I  like  it. 
But  when  there  is  no  money!  Do  you  know,  dear  Stach,  that  since 
you  went  away  I  have  not  bought  anything  for  myself  except  shoes, 
for  I  cannot  walk  barefooted.  But  all  this  would  not  be  so  painful  to 
me  if  we  could  be  together.  So  if  you  love  me,  arrange  for  us  to  be 
together!  Well,  dear  husband,  you  won't  say  now  that  I  write  little, 
will  you  ?  Though  all  these  are  not  merry  things,  still  don't  grieve, 
dearest,  for  I  should  not  like  you  to  be  grieved  through  me.  I  should 
like  us  to  be  always  merry,  always  happy,  and  our  letters  to  be  not  so 
sad.  But,  say,  should  I  lie  ?  You  prefer  the  reality  yourself,  even 
if  it  were  the  saddest.  And  then,  to  whom  shall  I  go,  if  not  to  you  ? 
To  whom  shall  I  complain,  if  not  to  you  ?  And  when  I  know  that  you 
share  my  feelings  and  sympathize  with  me — oh,  then  my  heart  is 
much  lighter.  Pardon  me,  dear  Stach,  for  sending  you  so  much  sad 
news,  but  all  this  because  I  want  to  be  with  you.  What  more  shall  I 
write  you  ?  Only  that  our  children  are  healthy,  thanks  to  God,  and 
learn  well  enough.  I  have  nothing  more  to  write.  I  think  it  is 
enough,  is  it  not  ? 

This  letter  took  me  very  much  time,  but  it  is  not  time  that  I  lack. 
I  received  your  money  for  Christmas  only  after  New  Year.     I  send 


Oo6  PRlMARV-CROUr  ORGANIZATION 

yovi   hearty   thanks.     Wc  received  your  letter  with   the  wafer  on 

Peceniber  17 

Your  loving,  longing,  and  truc-to-dcath  wife,  with  children, 

Wladyslawa  Porzycka 


590  February  11,  191 1 

Dear  Father:  I  inform  you  that  I  received  your  letter  with 
wishes  and  3  roubles  for  my  name-day  on  my  name-day  itself.  I 
tliank  you  very  much,  father,  for  the  wishes  and  for  these  3  roubles, 
which  came  in  the  worst  time,  for  mother  had  no  money  at  all,  so  I 
took  half  a  rouble  for  myself  and  gave  2|  to  mother.  Mother  scarcely 
saves  our  life.  We  paid  Pawlowska  for  the  last  quarter  [rent],  and 
not  yet  for  this  quarter.  Dear  father,  take  either  all  of  us  there  or  at 
least  me  alone.  Then  we  could  both  earn  more  than  you  alone. 
Dear  father,  I  want  to  go  to  school  only  this  year,  and  then  to  become 
a  tailor's  apprentice,  for  tailor's  work  pleases  me  most,  because  of  the 
wages  and  because  the  work  is  not  hard  to  learn.  I  have  nothinj^^ 
more  to  write,  only  I  wish  you  good  health  and  success. 

Your  truly  loving  son, 

ROMUALD  p. 

591  March  15,  191 1 

Dear  Father:  I  inform  you  that  we  are  in  good  health 

Pawlowska  rented  our  lodging,  for  somebody  gave  her  70  roubles,  and 
we  have  not  yet  rented  another.  And  Rzezuski  went  to  America  in 
the  autumn,  set  up  a  shoemaker's  shop  and  is  getting  on  pretty  well. 
He  has  now  taken  her  [his  wife]  and  they  left  their  children  with  the 
grandmother.  You  wrote  that  Osiecki  is  to  come  back.  So  I  would 
beg  }'ou  to  send  me  through  him  a  few  books,  and  if  you  have  some  old 
suit  send  it  to  me.  Mother  will  have  it  cut  down  and  I  shall  have 
something  to  walk  in.  If  you  went  to  Pawlowski  you  would  perhaps 
have  better  work,  for  Pawlowski  sent  1,000  roubles  in  all.  Y^ou 
wrote  us  that  he  perhaps  borrowed  them,  but  he  answered  that  he  did 
not  borrow  a  penny.  He  has  paid  already  200  roubles  to  Mr.  Tanski. 
Dear  father,  we  still  owe  Pawlowska  for  half  a  year ^ 

ROMUALD  P. 

■  The  letter  is  probably  partly  dictated  by  the  mother. 


PORZYCKI  SERIES 


907 


592  April  29,  iQii 

Dear  Father:  First  I  inform  you  that  I  am  in  good  health,  by 
the  grace  of  Lord  God,  and  I  wish  you  the  same  with  my  whole  heart. 
And  as  to  the  school,  we  are  going  on  May  i,  and  the  summer  vacation 
will  begin  on  June  i .  And  wc  have  no  lodging  as  yet,  for  all  are  rented, 
so  we  must  perhaps  take  this  one  after  the  Kirszenbaums.  But  it  is 
80  roubles.     Do  you  allow  us  to  take  it  or  not  ? 

If  Mr.  Osiecki  has  not  left  yet,  please  father,  send  me  through  him 
an  accordeon  with  bells. 

Wishes  for  name-day:  I  wish  you,  father,  health,  happiness, 
success,  long  life,  and  to  see  one  another  soon. 

Your  truly  loving  son, 

ROMUALD  PORZYCKI 

Dear  Father:  If  Mr.  Osiecki  comes  back,  and  if  you  can,  send  me 
through  him  a  ball  in  a  net.  [Adds  wishes  for  name-day,  copied 
from  a  book.] 

Helena  P. 

593  May  3,  191 1 

Dear  Husband:  First  I  beg  your  pardon,  Stas  dear,  that  I  have 
so  neglected  [writing],  but,  believe  me,  not  from  pleasure.  It  seems 
to  you  that  I  did  not  write  for  a  long  time.  Well,  but  say  yourself, 
what  could  I  write  so  often  ?  If  I  had  any  merry  news  surely  I  would 
hasten  with  the  good  tidings,  but  this  monotonous  uniformity  is 
always  here.  Now  I  have  a  little  more,  not  merry,  but  natural  news. 
My  dear  husband,  I  received  the  first  25  roubles  in  the  last  week  before 

Easter,   and   the  second   10  roubles  only  today May   God 

reward  you.  But  I  must  describe  to  you,  what  I  spent  this  money  on. 
Well,  I  bought  a  suit  for  Romek,  and  shoes.  This  cost  me  10  roubles. 
For  Hela  I  bought  a  dress,  shoes,  and  a  hat,  for  you  know  that  her 
nature  already  claims  its  own;  so  I  spent  for  her  11  roubles.  I  gave 
8  roubles  to  Pawlowska,  and  what  is  left  ?  Moreover,  I  paid  some 
other  small  debts,  so  we  did  not  have  very  merry  holidays — sad  and 
modest.  If  we  were  together  at  least,  and  shared  our  good  or  bad 
fortune,  surely  it  would  be  merrier.  But  now,  my  dear,  you  are  there 
and  I  am  here,  bad  fortune  separated  us.  But  let  us  hope  in  God  that 
we  shall  once  more  live  together.  You  ask  my  advice,  dear  Stach, 
what  you  shall  do  with  your  person,  come  back  or  not.     Oh,  if  it  were 


Oo8  TRIM  \-RY  r.ROTT  ORGANIZATION 

in  my  jwwer,  I  wouUi  add  wings  that  you  might  return  to  us.  But 
s;iy,  dear,  what  awaits  us  here?  My  dear  husband,  I  don't  advise 
>-ou  ciUior  so  or  so,  for  you  know  better  yourself  what  to  do.  You 
know  what  we  had  in  our  country,  and  you  know  what  you  have  there. 
Do  as  >-our  reason  advises  you,  and  I  agree  perfectly.  As  to  this 
debt,  it  will  be  as  you  do  it.  If  you  send  it  partly,  I  will  pay  it  back; 
if  you  put  money  aside  [and  send  the  whole  at  once],  it  will  be  well 
also.  You  ask  me  how  much  I  can  spend  monthly.  I  think  you 
know  yourself,  for  we  are  not  more  and  not  less  now  [than  formerly], 
and  we  don't  spend  money  for  any  luxuries.  I  shall  have  as  much  as 
you  send. 

So,  dear  husband,  you  deceived  me,  you  let  me  wait  2  months. 
I  waited  obediently  till  at  last  you  wrote  me  that  you  could  not  take 
me.     Thereby  I  have  no  lodging  now;   the  lodging  we  had  is  rented 

long  ago.     I  don't  know  how  it  will  end My  health  is  very 

liad,  my  strength  is  leaving  me.  For  a  year  I  have  intended  to  go  to  a 
physician,  but  always  something  is  lacking,  either  time  or  money. 
....  And  now,  dear  Stas,  I  intend  to  insure  myself,  for  I  am  afraid 
for  my  life,  and  therefore  I  intend  to  insure  myself  for  some  hundred 
roubles.  You  don't  expect  to  be  there  long,  and  cannot,  and  here  we 
shall  not  be  able  to  put  money  aside  ....  and  if  a  black  hour  comes 
or  if  I  die,  what  will  be  the  future  of  my  children?  So  advise  me, 
dear  Stas,  what  should  I  do.  In  my  opinion  it  would  be  the  best  if 
you  took  us  to  you.  You  write  that  you  are  anxious  about  the  chil- 
dren, lest  they  become  American  [illegible  word].  But  even  in  Amer- 
ica it  cannot  be  worse  than  in  this  accursed  Mlawa.  You  know 
yourself  that  I  have  nobody  here,  I  am  alone,  an  orphan  in  the  world. 
I  don't  go  to  Piotr  [her  brother]  at  all,  for  you  know  yourself  how  good 
he  is.  I  went  once  to  him,  and  he  was  cjuarreling  with  her.  I  could 
not  bear  it  and  said  a  few  words — why  does  he  swear  so  ?  When  he 
began  to  bark  against  me  and  you,  I  thought  that  I  should  die  from 
all  this.  The  matter  was  particularly  about  you.  But  don't  write 
him  anything. 

Dear  Stas,  believe  me  that  as  the  fish  thirsts  for  fresh  water,  so 
we  thirst  to  be  united  with  you,  but  not  here,  only  in  America.     I 

should  prefer  to  work  heavily,  and  to  get  away  from  this  hell 

Calculate  only  what  all  this  costs— living,  lodging,  fuel,  dress.  Surely 
we  could  live  there  together.  My  success  is  bad,  for  two  more 
midwives  came  here,  and  there  is  almost  nothing  to  do.     So  I  beg  you, 


PORZYCKI  SERIES 


909 


dear  Stas,  consider  it  in  our  favor,  and  take  us  from  here,  that  I  may 

at  least  for  a  moment  breathe  freely,  for  I  cannot  bear  all  this 

Your  sincerely  loving  and  true  wife,  with  children, 

Wladyslawa  p. 

Pawtowska  agreed  with  mother  for  77  roubles  [for  the  lodging], 
and  she  will  herself  put  it  into  order.  But — it  would  be  best,  dear 
father — take  us  to  you. 

Your  truly  loving  son, 

ROMUALD  P. 
In  Mlawa  it  is  bad;  I  should  prefer  to  Hve  in  the  country. 

594  June  27  [1911] 

Dear  Husband:  I  received  your  letter,  which  on  the  one  hand 
rejoiced  me,  that  at  last  there  is  a  place  for  me  in  America,  for  indeed, 
dear  Stas,  in  the  present  state  of  things  my  despair  goes  to  my  head. 
If  it  lasts  longer  so,  I  think  you  will  send  me  to  Tworki  [insane- 
hospital],  for  there  is  not  enough  of  my  head  to  overcome  all  this. 
You  have  not  even  an  idea  how  everything  has  stopped.  Whence 
shall  I  take  [money]  ?  If  there  were  anything  to  steal,  I  would  steal, 
but  even  this  is  impossible.  You  always  try  to  comfort  me  and  tell 
me  not  to  grieve,  but  all  your  explanations  have  had  no  result  yet. 
You  tell  me  to  borrow,  but  I  have  already  debts  enough.  Even  the 
Osieckis  won't  lend  me  as  much  as  I  want,  for  what  are  these  few 
roubles  when  I  owe  to  Pawlowska  for  a  full  quarter  and  she  looks 
sourly  at  me,  and  the  other  quarter  is  near.  Whence  shall  I  take 
[money]  ?  So  I  write  you  the  last  letter  and  tell  you,  let  it  be  once, 
[for  all],  either  take  the  children  or  come  yourself  and  sufifer  together 
with  us.  I  write  you  decidedly,  let  it  be  so  or  so,  for  here  I  am  neither 
upon  ice  nor  upon  water.  I  have  no  lodging.  We  agreed  with 
Pawlowska  about  this  other  lodging,  but  I  did  not  give  her  any 
deposit,  for  how  could  I  give  any  ?  And  now  she  says  that  she  won't 
give  the  lodging.  So  what  shall  I  do  with  all  this?  Mad  things 
come  to  my  head  with  all  this.  And  you  tell  me  to  insure  myself! 
Very  well,  but  only  where  they  will  pay  me,  for  I  have  nothing  to  pay 
with.  Osiecki  said  himself  that  he  would  give  me  money  for  one 
ship-ticket,  and  you  could  send  for  the  children,  but  speedily,  for  the 
Osieckis  intend  to  leave  at  the  end  of  July,  and  I  could  go  with  them. 
But  if  not,  then  come  yourself,  and  when  you  come,  it  will  be  more  or 


QIO  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

less  hottiT.     I  don't  wish  to  sufTcr  any  more  as  I  do;   I  have  lost  m\ 
hoahh  alroa(l\-.     Answer  at  once,  what  you  intend,  for  every  day  is 

imiH)rlanl  to  me 

Well-wishing,^ 

Wladyslawa  p. 

595  August  17,  191 1 

Dkar  Father:  I  inform  you  ....  that  the  vacation  is  endin,^^ 
On  September  i  we  go  to  school,  and  mother  does  not  earn  any 
money  now,  so  when  we  go  to  school  we  need  for  books  and  for  fees. 
So  I  beg  you,  father,  send  a  few  roubles  at  least  for  me  and  for  Romus, 
so  perhaps  mother  will  get  somewhere  [money  for  other  expenses]. 
As  to  these  35  roubles  which  you  sent,  mother  did  not  even  see  them 
well.  Mother  owed  12  roubles  to  Pawlowska  from  the  other  quarter 
and  gave  her  4  roubles  for  this  quarter  and  some  lesser  debts.  And 
mother  owes  10  roubles  to  the  Osieckis.^  Dear  father  ....  if  you 
had  much  money,  it  would  be  better  to  come  back  to  our  countr\-, 
for  here  it  is  also  well  for  one  who  has  much  money.  It  is  bad  onl\- 
for  us,  for  we  have  nothing.  Write  u?,  is  it  true  that  it  is  so  hot  in 
America,  for  Mania,  Mrs.  Pawlowska's  daughter,  writes  that  it  is  so 

hot  that  people  fall  down  upon  the  streets 

Your  loving  daughter, 

Helena 

596  September  2^,  191 1 

Dear  Father:  I  inform  you  that  we  received  your  letters  and 
20  roubles.  You  wrote  mother  to  pa}'  my  fee  from  this  money  .... 
but  here  is  a  more  necessary  debt,  that  of  Pawlowska;  she  is  the  first. 
I  shall  probably  not  go  to  school  any  more,  dear  father,  for  it  is  too 
difficult  for  mother.  I  must  help  mother  at  home.  Formerly  at 
least  grandmother  was  in  her  bed,  and  it  was  possible  to  leave  the 
house,  but  now  [since  grandmother  is  dead]  if  mother  goes  somewhere 
to  a  sick  woman  she  shuts  the  house  and  takes  the  key  with  her,  and 
when  we  come  from  the  school,  we  must  sometimes  sit  outside  till 

'"Well-wishing"  (doubly  underscored),  instead  of  "Your  loving  and  true 
wife,"  as  previously.  In  contrast  with  the  humble  and  pleading  letters  of  Teofila 
Borkowska,  Porzycka  demands  to  be  united  with  her  husband  as  her  right,  and  this 
right  is  based  on  the  fact  that  they  have  children,  and  common  duties  toward  them. 

'  Enumeration  of  expenses  probably  dictated  by  the  mother. 


PORZYCKI  SERIES  gn 

evening.     Romus  passed  into  the  fifth  division  [grade],  but  on  the 

condition  that  he  will  take  private  lessons  for  three  months  at  3 

roubles  a  month.     He  is  a  bad  comfort  to  us,  for  he  is  sickly  and  looks 

very  bad.     Mother  grieves,  for  it  will  probably  be  consumption. 

Up  to  the  present  he  did  not  cough,  but  now  he  coughes  terribly. 

Mother  intends  to  go  to  the  doctor  with  him.     Mother  also  looks  bad; 

sometimes  she  groans  during  the  whole  night.     I  alone  am  in  good 

health,  and  even  I  was  ill  for  more  than  a  week.     Probably  you  won't 

find  us  all  here  when  you  come.     But  perhaps  I  write  letters  too  often; 

if  you  mind  the  cost,  I  won't  write  letters  so  often.     But  these 

letters  don't  cost  me,  for  I  won  the  paper  at  a  lottery  during  the 

exhibition.     I  thank  you  heartily  for  your  wishes,  but  you  were 

mistaken,  for  my  name-day  is  on  March  2,  or  on  May  22.  .  ,  .  . 

But  even  so  it  is  well.  -.;-       ,     .       ,       ,  ^ 

Your  lovmg  daughter, 

Helena 

We  and  uncle  sent  together  a  letter  to  the  other  uncle  in  America. 
Perhaps  it  did  not  arrive,  so  please  inform  him  about  grandmother['s 
death]. 

597  October  30,  19 1 1 

Dear  Husband:  First  I  inform  you  that  we  are  in  good  health. 

....  Michalina  T.  married  a  Sudzienski,  cooper  from  Mlawa 

They  came  to  live  with  us  but  they  won't  pay  any  money;   they  say 

that  it  will  be  on  account  of  the  debt Dear  Stas,  I  have  earned 

nothing  for  5  weeks  already,  and  here  you  tell  me  to  drink  milk. 
But  a  quart  costs   12  grosz  ....  and  there  are  so   many   other 

expenses Helcia,  thanks  to  God,  is  better,  and  is  going  to 

school,  for  this  is  all  her  dowry,  so  it  is  impossible  to  keep  her  at  home. 
She  learns  well,  better  than  Romek.  I  chose  for  him  such  a  profession 
[of  barber],  I  think  that  it  is  the  best  for  him,  not  very  hard,  and 
healthy,  for  he  is  always  in  movement.  I  don't  know  how  you  think. 
He  likes  it,  for  it  is  not  heavy  and  is  well  paid,  and  he  will  be  able  to 

do  it.     Rakoski  [the  employer]  praises  him 

Your  sincerely  loving  wife, 

Wlauyslawa  p. 

Dear  Father:  ....  I  inform  you  that  after  the  lessons  I  go  to 
the  barber  and  learn  barber's  work.  You  wrote  to  send  you  a  photo- 
graph, but  I  have  no  [Sunday]  clothes.     So  please,  father,  scnrl  me 


niJ  TRIM AKN    (.KOri'  OiaiAM/ATION 

money  for  \hv  clothes Dear  father,  I  cannot  die,  for  I  musi 

keep  you  and  feed  you  in  >-our  old  da\s,  and  if  I  died  who  would  feed 
vou  ?  .  .  .  .  Don't  grieve  about  me,  I  am  healthy,  better  than  beforr 
this  iUness 

ROMUALD  P. 

5q8  November  3  [191  i] 

Di  AK  1 1  IS  band:  First  I  inform  you  that  I  received  your  letter 
on  All-Souls  Day.  I  thank  you  for  it  heartily.  I  am  very  much 
pained  that  you  grieve  so.  We  are,  thanks  to  God,  in  good  heallli, 
and  Romek  looks  much  better.  In  the  summer  he  bathed  too  often 
and  this  must  have  done  him  harm.  Now  I  treat  him  myself  with 
medical  herbs,  and  he  is  quite  well  already,  only  he  requires  very  good 
living,  and  I  have  not  enough  for  all  this.  I  don't  know  myself  what 
to  do;  my  practice  has  ceased  totally.  I  accepted  these  Sudzieriskis 
on  the  condition  that  I  was  to  receive  a  few  roubles,  but  the  Tanskis 
arranged  that  this  money  might  go  on  account  of  the  debt.  The\' 
agreed  upon  30  roubles.  O,  dear  Sta^,  may  God  unite  us  as  soon  as 
possible,  for  our  whole  life  is  only  a  torture.  We  are  always  separated, 
the  one  here,  the  other  there,  and  always  in  this  longing.  You  think 
about  us,  and  we  about  you.  Dear  Stas,  you  wrote  in  your  last  letter 
that  I  ought  to  pull  away  from  my  head  this  longing  and  to  occupy 
myself  with  my  duties  and  with  prayer.  0,  dear  Stas,  were  it  not 
for  the  prayer  and  the  hope  in  God,  I  don't  know  how  I  should  bear 
all  this.  I  hope  that  our  Lord  God  will  change  it  into  a  better  hap- 
piness, but  meanwhile  we  must  suffer,  for  such  is  the  will  of  God. 
Dear  Stas,  I  beg  you,  don't  grieve,  but  have  confidence  in  God,  and 

God  will  comfort  us  in  everything 

Your  truly  loving  wife,  with  children, 

Wladyslawa  p. 

599  November  20  [191 1] 

Dear  Husband:  ....  You  write  about  Romek,  that  if  you 
were  here  everything  would  be  better.  That  is  true,  but  even  10 
fathers  cannot  take  the  place  of  one  mother,  particularly  with  our 
Romek.  He  is  so  delicate  and  exacting  in  his  constitution  that  it  is 
not  only  necessary  but  indispensable  to  have  always  something  good 
for  him,  for  he  won't  take  into  his  mouth  anything  not  perfect.  He 
cannot  eat  at  all,  he  is  so  tired  with  learning.     He  must  sit  till  mid- 


PORZYCKI  SERIES 


913 


night  and  worry  himself  in  learning  lessons,  and  he  is  weak,  so  it  is 
indispensable  to  have  for  him  always  something  good  to  eat.  If  I 
did  not  care  for  him,  he  would  have  been  in  his  grave  long  ago. 
[Usual  ending.] 

Wladyslawa  p. 

600  January  20,  191 2 

'Dear  Husband:  ....  You  have  no  idea  how  I  am  worried. 
Oh,  may  God  put  an  end  to  all  this,  for  I  cannot  hold  out  any  longer. 
I  have  not  a  happy  moment  in  my  Hfe.  I  have  only  wasted  my  young 
years  in  longing  and  grief,  alone  with  these  orphans,  and  I  have  no 
hope  that  it  will  end  soon.  Dear  Stas,  I  cannot  describe  all  this  to 
you,  for  the  frame  of  this  letter  is  too  small.  If  I  had  wings,  like  a 
falcon  I  would  fly  to  you,  even  if  only  for  an  hour,  and  tell  you  every- 
thing. Dear  Stas,  you  write  me  to  rent  a  lodging;  I  don't  think  of 
renting;  let  it  be  as  it  is,  for  I  don't  intend  to  remain  here  any  longer. 
....  The  Sudzienskis  don't  live  with  us  now.  It  was  too  crowded 
for  them.  But  it  is  well  that  they  went  away,  for  God  forbid  living 
with  anybody!  ....  If  you  send  the  Tanskis  the  interest,  calculate 
carefully  how  much  ....  and  as  to  the  whole,  they  can  wait. 
Better  pay  L^czynski,  for  he  is  at  least  polite  when  he  comes  for 

money,  though  he  needs  it  more ^  I  give  you  one  other  advice. 

Write  a  letter  to  Rz^p  [her  cousin]  and  ask  him  in  my  name  to  help  us. 
He  won't  refuse  us.  They  are  4  brothers,  so  even  if  he  has  no  money 
he  can  find  a  way.  Only  if  you  write  me  anything  about  Rz^p,  write 
upon  a  separate  sheet,  for  sheycomes  sometimes  to  me  and  reads 
your  letter.     Let  her  rather  not  know,  for  women  are  always  worse, 

more  avaricious ^ 

Your  sincerely  loving  wife, 

Wh.  Porzycka 

601  April  4,  19 1 2,  Good  Thursday 

Dear  Father:  First  I  inform  you  that  we  received  today  your 
letter,  for  which  we  have  waited  impatiently,  but  instead  of  rejoicing 
us,  it  caused  us  a  still  greater  pain.     Mother  was  already  sick  and 

'  Lending  money  is  still  treated  as  a  personal  service  and  paying  a  debt  as  a 
partial  reciprocation.     Politeness  of  the  creditor  heightens  the  value  of  the  service. 

^  As  we  have  seen  more  than  once,  men  have  a  stronger  and  more  persistent 
feeling  of  familial  solidarity  than  women.  In  this  case  Rzijp  is  the  relative  of  the 
writer. 


914  rRIMARY-CROUr  ORGANIZATION 

got  still  worse  after  reading  this  letter.  In  a  few  days  the  holidays 
will  eomc.  but  these  holidays,  instead  of  bringing  us  joy,  cause  us  a 
still  greater  pain  when  we  look  upon  tJiis  gay  world.  Everybody  is 
merry,  only  we  must  cry.  During  the  whole  of  Lent  we  have  fasted 
truly,  and  during  Kastcr  we  shall  fast  still  better,  for  perhaps  we 
shan't  have  even  a  bit  of  dry  bread.  You  tell  us  to  borrow  inone\' 
from  somebody.  But  why  don't  you  borrow  there  from  somebody? 
Perhaps  somebody  there  will  sooner  lend  you,  for  here  we  are  so  in 
debt.  We  have  taken  so  much  on  credit  in  all  the  shops  that  nobody 
wants  cither  to  lend  us  or  to  give  us  credit  any  more,  but  everybody 
asks  us  to  pay  our  debts.  You  told  us  not  to  rent  an  apartment,  and 
we  did  not  rent  any;  and  now  they  drive  us  away  from  here,  for  we 
did  not  pa\-  the  rent  for  half  a  year.  You  travel  from  town  to  town 
and  enjoy  pleasures,  while  we  die  from  hunger.  It  would  be  better 
if  you  sent  us  the  money  which  you  spend  on  traveling,  or  if  you  put 
it  aside.  Pawlowski  went  to  Chicago  and  he  stays  there  and  sends 
her  money,  though  she  does  not  need  it  as  we  do,  for  to  whomever 
she  goes  among  her  tenants  everybody  must  give  her.  Dear  father, 
for  the  holida\-s  even  a  beggar  clothes  his  children,  while  we  are  like 
the  poorest  orphans;  we  are  even  ashamed  to  go  out  upon  the  street, 
for  everybody  laughs  at  us.  If  you  could  imagine  how  we  look  today, 
as  if  we  had  arisen  from  the  tomb,  and  all  this  from  sorrow.  Nothing 
grieves  me  so  much,  even  if  I  were  dying  from  hunger,  as  the  pain  and 
sorrow  of  my  mother,  upon  which  I  must  look,  and  already  in  youth 
poison  my  hfe.  As  long  as  I  Hve,  I  don't  remember  such  a  sad  time 
as  these  holidays  which  approach  for  us.  I  have  nothing  more  to 
write,  only  I  wish  you  health  and  merry  holidays. 

Your  loving  son, 

ROMUALD  PORZYCKI 

Don't  be  angry  with  me  for  having  described  so  much  misery, 
but  you  think  perhaps  that  we  are  well  off  here.^ 

'  The  letter  is  exceptionally  hard.  A  peasant  boy  would  never  dare  to  write 
to  his  father  in  this  way.  He  would  have  a  certain  right  of  control  over  his  father's 
behavior,  but  only  m  matters  which  constituted  a  direct  breach  of  the  familial 
solidarity  and  to  the  extent  proportionate  to  their  respective  importance  in  the 
family-group.  As  the  father  is  the  actual,  while  the  son  only  the  prospective,  head 
of  the  family,  this  right  of  control  could  only  find  its  expression  in  some  humble 
request  addressed  by  the  son  to  the  father.  In  extraordinary  cases  the  son  could 
appeal  to  the  rest  of  the  family,  who  would  then  exert  an  active  control.  But  here 
the  situation  is  different.  The  marriage-group  is  isolated  and  the  respective 
positions  of  its  members  are  no  longer  determined  by  social  tradition,  but  by  the 


PORZYCKI SERIES 


915 


Unhappy  the  hour  of  my  wedding!  I  pity  these  orphans,  for  I 
am  ready  to  take  my  life  away.  I  cannot  overcome  all  this  any 
more!  Could  my  tears  torment  you  as  much  as  the  pain  which  you 
cause  me!     How  have  you  had  the  conscience  to  send  such  a  letter! 

Your  sorrowful  wife 

602  April  24,  191 2 

Dear  Husband:  First  I  inform  you  that  I  received  the  letter  with 
money  more  than  a  week  ago,  I  cannot  [write  further.] 

Dear  father,  I  announce  to  you  very  sad  news:  Romus  is  severely 
sick.  Three  illnesses  came  upon  him  at  once.  His  heart  is  bad,  his 
lungs  and  stomach  have  caught  cold;  we  don't  know  how  it  will  turn 
out.  One  doctor  said  that  he  must  go  to  Warsaw,  and  Dr.  Korzybski 
■tells  us  to  take  him  to  the  country.  But  first,  it  is  difficult  for  us, 
and  then  he  has  terrible  fever  and  vomits.  Mother  has  almost  lost 
her  senses.  She  began  to  write  this  letter,  but  she  cannot  do  it  from 
grief.  If  you  could  appear  today  in  our  home  and  comfort  us!  For 
it  is  worse  here  today  than  in  a  tomb.  We  thought  that  we  should 
soon  go  to  America,  and  Romus  rejoiced  that  he  would  visit  such  a 
far  world,  and  then  suddenly  it  happened  so.  Now  he  says  that  even 
if  our  Lord  God  gives  him  his  health  back  he  won't  go.  Write  at 
least  letters  more  often  to  us,  dear  father.  Now  help  is  needed,  and 
here  we  have  no  money.  Please  write  us,  father,  whether  you  had 
foreboding  of  our  grief.  Dear  father,  Mr.  Korzybski  said  that 
Romek  needed  this  cure  long  ago,  but  as  long  as  he  could  walk  we 
did  not  notice  it,  for  he  said  nothing  to  mother;  only  now,  when  he 
could  walk  no  more  [he  spoke].  We  should  like  not  to  grieve  you, 
father,  but  we  have  grieved  already  for  some  days.  If  this  letter 
could  come  to  you  the  soonest  possible!  I  have  nothing  more  to 
write,  only  we  wish  you  health  and  good  success. 

Your  loving  daughter, 

Helena  P. 

Only  don't  grieve,  father,  perhaps  our  Lord  God  will  grant  him 
to  recover.     Pray,  father,  our  Lord  God  for  his  health. 


individual  characteristics  of  the  members  themselves.  The  father's  authority  is 
based  upon  his  physical,  moral,  and  intellectual  superiority  and  upon  the  fact  that 
he  is  the  support  of  the  family;  it  decreases  as  these  factors  decrease.  In  the 
present  case  it  is  precisely  his  moral  superiority  and  his  willingness  to  support  the 
family  which  are  in  question.  Prol)ably  the  niollicr's  talk  has  influenced  the  boy 
and  undermined  the  father's  authority. 


9i6  I'KIM ARV CROUP  ORGANIZATION 

603  May  13,  1912 

Dkar  Hi'snAND:  First  I  inform  you  that  we  are  in  good  heallli 
and  Ronu'k,  thanks  to  God,  walks  already,  but  he  is  still  feeble.  IK 
lay  more  than  2  weeks  and  was  severely  ill,  he  had  typhoid  and  \\\> 
heart  was  bad.  We  doubted  whether  he  would  live,  but  God  thr 
Mereiful  comforted  us.  I  did  not  know  any  more  what  to  do  with 
all  this;  for  2  weeks  I  neither  slept  nor  ate,  for  he  had  great  fever  aivl 
I  had  always  to  sit  with  him,  and  there  was  nobody  here  to  take  my 
place  in  anything.  It  cost  me  much,  the  drugs  alone,  some  roubles. 
None  of  the  doctors  accepted  any  money  from  me.  Dear  Stas,  I 
inform  you  that  I  received  two  letters  and  25  roubles,  for  which  I 
thank  you  heartily.  Don't  turn  your  head  about  [don't  trouble 
yourself  about]  taking  us  to  America,  and  leading  yourself  into  still 
worse  debts.  If  you  have  good  work,  stay  there  until  you  pay  the 
debt  and  come  back your  loving  wife, 

WtADYSLAWA  P. 

604  May  14,  191 2 

Dear  Father:  I  inform  you  that  I  am  better  already,  thanks  to 

our  Lord  God.     I  have  not  yet  come  to  my  full  strength,  but  I  walk 

already I  don't  go  to  the  school,  for  the  doctor  forbade  me  to 

go.     Dear  father,  we  inform  you  that  the  bishop  was  here  and  myself 

and  Hela  were  at  confirmation  on  May  10.     Dear  father,  don't  turn 

your  head  about  taking  us  to  America,  rather  pay  the  debt  and  then 

come  here.     It  will  be  better,  for  L^czynski  doubts  whether  we  shall 

pay  him Dear  father,  I  wish  to  go  to  school  next  year,  but  I 

have  no  money.     It  is  not  indispensable  to  pay  100  roubles.     Whoever 

is  poorer  pays  as  he  can,  50  or  25.     Some  go  without  paying.     Help 

me  only  for  the  first  fee,  later  I  will  try  to  earn  for  myself  with  lessons 

[helping  the  younger  students].     Rz^p  has  come  already  from  America 

and  brought  many  different  things  for  his  wife — a  gold  watch,  a  ring, 

a  bracelet,  and  many  other  things.     I  have  nothing  more  to  write, 

only  I  wish  you  health,  and  to  see  one  another  soon  in  our  fatherland. . 

May  God  grant  it.     Amen,      ^r        *     1    1     • 

■^  ^  Your  truly  lovmg  son, 

Romuald  Antoni  Porzycki 

Dear  father,  please  pay  first  the  debt  and  then  corne  back  to  us 
yourself,  for  now  I  will  never  and  for  nothing  go  to  a  foreign  country. 
Here  is  my  fatherland,  here  I  want  to  live  and  to  die.     I  joined  a 


PORZYCKI  SERIES  917 

circle  of  temperance,  i.e.,  of  not  drinking  any  alcoholic  drinks — 
brandy,  beer,  or  wine.  I  hope  that  I  shall  hold,  for  this  is  an  offering 
for  Poland.  Dear  father,  now  people  begin  to  think  and  act  better 
here,  even  priests  inscribe  [boys]  into  secret  associations.     May  God 

grant  a  star  of  a  better  future  to  shine  for  us Amen. 

Your  son,  loving  his  father  and  his  fatherland 

and  ready  to  give  his  life  for  them,' 

ROMUALD 

605  June  7  [1912] 

Dear  Husband:  ....  Romek  is  still  feeble  and  has  not  the 
same  strength  as  before,  but  there  is  hope  in  God  that  he  will  recover. 
Only  he  needs  good  food  now.     He  would  eat  even  10  eggs  a  day,  and 

here  eggs  cost  5  grosz  each.     But  I  don't  spare  money  for  him 

Dear  Stas,  you  write  us  to  go  to  the  country,  but  it  is  not  possible  by 
any  means.  Our  children  are  rather  well  developed  [intellectually], 
and  what  is  there  ?  Shall  I  send  them  to  Prussia  [for  season-work]  ? 
We  have  no  fortune  there,  nobody  has  sown  grain  for  us,  everything 
must  be  bought  as  here.  Hela  passed  the  examination  to  the  fourth 
division,  but  Romek  must  still  remain  in  the  fifth.  This  illness  is  the 
cause  of  all  this.     He  could  have  got  a  job,  but  now  nothing  can  be 

done Dear  Stas,   what  shall  I  do  with   this  Romek?     He 

aspires  to  go  to  the  gymnasium,  while  all  this  is  difficult 

Your  truly  loving  wife, 

WtADYSLAWA  P. 

Only  I  beg  you,  don't  grieve,  everything  will  be  well,  if  God  grants  it. 

'  The  patriotic  spirit  of  this  letter  is  evidently  a  result  of  the  influence  of  the 
association  about  which  the  boy  writes.  Secret  associations  in  schools  have  existed 
in  Poland  since  the  loss  of  her  independence;  but  their  character  has  changed.  At 
first  they  were  mainly  devoted  to  patriotic  purposes,  but  toward  the  end  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  particularly  in  Russian  Poland,  they  occupied  themselves 
mainly  with  self-instruction.  They  completed  the  very  deficient  education  of 
the  Russian  schools,  not  only  in  the  subjects  of  Polish  history  and  literature,  but 
also  in  other  subjects  not  treated  at  all,  or  only  poorly  treated  in  the  schools — 
philosophy,  biology,  sociology,  history  of  western  literatures,  history  of  art.  The 
associations  were  mainly  directed  by  older  students.  With  the  introduction  of 
private  Polish  schools,  within  the  last  ten  years,  the  secret  associations  have  turned 
from  self-instruction  to  self-education  upon  a  patriotic  basis.  They  imitated 
formally  the  "scouting"  movement  in  England,  but  developed  their  own  moral 
ideal  of  patriotism,  chivalry,  purity,  and  general  efiiciency.  The  association, 
to  which  Romek,  and  later  Hela,  Ijclonged  were  of  this  latter  type.  The  vow  of 
temperance  is  the  first  degree  of  initiation. 


Ol8  IKIMARV-C.KOIT  ORGANIZATION 

606  June  24,  191 2 

Dfak  FATiirR:    I  inform  you  that  I  am  in  j];ood  health 

I  cannot  describe  the  joy  which  you  caused  me  by  your  letter,  and 

1  don't  know  how  to  thank  you  for  your  goodness  and  the  sacrifice 
which  you  make  for  my  sake.  Dear  father,  I  will  prepare  myself 
for  the  ,^d  class,  but  it  is  not  sure  whether  I  shall  pass  the  examination 
or  not.     But  I  shall  surely  get  into  the  2d.     When  I  have  any  certain 

news,  I  will  inform  you Dear  father,  only  don't  deceive  me, 

for  you  would  then  probably  cause  my  early  death;  I  am  so  given  up 
with  my  whole  life  to  this  learning.  Dear  father,  do  your  best,  for 
the  time  is  short,  and  the  candidates  will  be  examined  on  August  20. 
Dear  father,  the  whole  preparation  will  cost  24  roubles,  if  I  learn 

2  hours  a  day,  and  14  roubles  if  one  hour  a  day.  How  much  the  fee 
will  cost  I  don't  know  yet.  I  will  write  you  in  a  second  letter.  Dear 
father,  we  received  your  letter  and  40  roubles,  for  which  we  thank  you 
heartily 

Your,  remaining  in  uncertainty,  truly  loving  son, 

ROMUALD  P. 

607  [September  16,  1912] 

Dear  Husband:  I  thank  you  heartily  for  your  kind  feelings 
toward  us.  May  God  grant  your  intentions  to  be  fulfilled,  may 
God  give  us  comfort  in  our  children.  They  both  joined  a  temperance 
association.  They  don't  drink  even  ordinary  beer.  Romek  does 
not  smoke  any  cigarettes  and  does  not  do  any  silly  things.  He  is 
always  occupied  with  serious  things  and  learning.  In  that  circle 
tliey  have  their  owti  treasure  and  library.  Romek  keeps  the  library, 
so  he  has  enough  to  read  and  acquires  very  much  knowledge.  Dear 
Stas,  you  would  have  much  to  speak  with  him;  probably  you  would 
wonder  at  his  ideas.  They  have  a  priest  in  their  association  who 
leads  them.  Romek  always  goes  to  him  and  receives  different 
national  books,  and  the  priest  has  no  secrets  from  him,  talks  with  him 
openly  about  everything  [national  and  moral  questions].  And  Hela 
is  in  the  fourth  division.  She  learns  well  also.  I  should  be  glad  if 
she  finished  at  least  this  school;  in  any  case  it  would  be  better  for 
her.  Dear  Stas,  we  have  begun,  but  I  don't  know  whether  we  shall 
be  able  to  go  on,  for  all  this  costs  very  much.  The  books  alone  and 
the  clothes  fake  much  money — the  overcoat  of  Romek  alone  18 
roubles,  and  the  shoes  and  summer  clothes.     Dear  Stas,  from  this 


PORZYCKI  SERIES  gig 

money  which  you  sent  50  roubles  must  be  kept  for  Romek  [for  the  fee], 
and  the  remaining  60  roubles  will  be  spent  soon.  [Enumerates  the 
expenses.]  Your  truly  loving  wife, 

Wladyslawa  Porzycka 

608  September  16,  1912 

Dear  Father:  ....  I  go  to  school,  I  am  in  the  fourth  division. 
....  Mother  did  not  want  to  send  me  to  school  this  year,  but  I  was 

stubborn  and  mother  at  last  agreed I  thank  you  a  thousand 

times  for  remembering  me.  We  don't  need  anything  more,  we  lack 
only  you,  dearest  father.  I  inform  you  that  I  joined  a  circle  of 
temperance.  It  means  not  to  drink  ....  not  to  play  cards  and  not 
to  smoke  during  your  whole  life.  You  ask  about  Romek.  He  is 
admitted  to  the  second  class  of  the  commercial  school  and  learns  well 
enough.  And  in  the  new  lodging  it  is  very  good  for  us.  Mother  has 
patients.  Directly  after  we  moved,  the  next  day,  they  did  not  give 
mother  any  rest,  but  she  was  called  to  a  patient.  All  would  be  well, 
if  only  our  Lord  God  gave  us  all  health Helena  P 

609  May  22,  1913 

Dear  Father:   I  inform  you  that  we  received  your  letter  and 

50  roubles From  these  50  roubles  we  gave  to  Mr.  Tanski  the 

interest.  Now  mother  bought  for  Romek  shoes  and  for  herself  a 
dress,  and  hats  for  mother  and  for  me.  You  think  perhaps  that  we 
spend  money  here  on  some  unnecessary  things,  but  no,  dear  father, 
we  spend  only  on  what  we  need  absolutely.  Dear  father,  I  am  no 
longer  so  little,  and  mother  must  spend  some  money  on  me  also,  for 
I  cannot  walk  dressed  worse  than  everybody I  go  to  a  singing- 
class,  and  every  Sunday  and  holiday  we  sing  in  the  church 

Dear  father,  Romek  teaches  four  boys  and  gets  from  every  one  of 
them  I  rouble  a  month;  this  money  which  he  earns  goes  for  his  school 
wants.  Romek  will  soon  pass  an  examination,  so  he  must  even  now 
worry.  Sometimes  when  he  comes  from  the  school  he  is  quite  sweat- 
ing  Thanks  to  God,  he  recovers,  he  can  eat  more  and  has 

color  on  his  cheeks.     He  has  grown  so  big  that  he  is  already  somewhat 

taller  than  mother,  and  I  am  a  little  smaller  than  mother 

Your  sincerely  loving  daughter, 

Hela 


Ol;o  ruiMARV-GROur  organization 

6io  June  i6  [1913] 

Dear  and  beloved  Husband:    ....  I  don't  know  what  it 

moans  that  you  don't  receive  our  letters We  wrote  you  3 

letters  and  received  an  answer  to  none.  I  had  begun  to  think  that 
you  hatl  followed  Osiccki  in  search  for  pleasures.  But  excuse  me  for 
writing  you  such  silly  things.  And  as  to  the  money,  don't  worry. 
If  you  send  it  it  will  come.  Only  send  soon  and  plenty,  for  we  need 
it.  I  paid  Laczynski  65  roubles,  for  he  wants  money  most;  Lq,czynski 
is  sick  with  consumption.  You  write  that  you  will  take  me  and  Hela 
to  America,  and  Romek  can  be  left.  But  where?  With  him  it  is 
still  worse  than  with  a  small  child,  for  he  has  no  health  and  has  a  very 
delicate  nature.     He  can  by  no  means  be  left  alone.     So  if  we  are  to 

go  we  will  go  all  together,  and  if  not,  then  none 

Your  truly  loving  wife  with  children, 

W.  PORZYCKA 

Dear  Father  :  You  wrote  that  mother  and  Hela  might  go,  and  I 
might  remain  here.  I  agree  with  it,  and  I  can  remain  in  the  pension. 
But  for  vacation  where  shall  I  go  ?  Perhaps  to  you,  for  here  they  all 
leave  for  vacation.  As  to  the  money,  dear  father,  don't  trouble 
yourself  whether  we  shall  get  it,  whether  there  is  not  somebody  ill; 
even  if  so,  for  a  sick  person  money  is  useful.^  Our  lessons  end  on 
Saturday,  June  21,  and  on  Sunday  we  shall  receive  the  certificates 
with  promotion  or  not.  So  if  I  am  promoted  to  the  3d  class,  I  will 
inform  you 

ROMUALD 

611  June  25,  1913 

Dear  Father:  ....  I  have  been  promoted  to  the  3d  class, 
without  a  second  examination.  Dear  father,  you  do  ill  in  postponing 
the  sending  of  money.  You  wrote  that  you  would  send  us  50  roubles 
monthly,  and  we  believed  it.  So  we  gave  out  most  of  the  money 
which  you  had  sent  before,  in  paying  the  debts.     The  rest  was  spent 

'  There  is  irony  at  this  point.  The  father  has  made  some  stupid  excuse  for  not 
sending  money — that  the  money  might  not  reach  them  on  account  of  the  probable 
war,  that  if  the  mother  was  ill  there  would  be  no  one  to  go  to  the  post-office  for  the 
letter.  The  remark  about  vacation  above  is  also  ironical.  In  comparison  with 
No.  601  the  moralizing  attitude  of  this  and  the  following  letter  is  more  objective 
and  superior.  The  boy  is  more  under  the  influence  of  the  patriotic  society  and  of 
his  reading  and  less  under  the  influence  of  his  mother. 


PORZYCKI  SERIES 


921 


in  a  short  time.  JNIeanwhile  a  month  passes,  then  another,  and  you 
always  postpone.  Once  you  are  afraid  that  somebody  is  ill,  then 
again  that  somebody  is  dead,  and  we  are  almost  dying  here  of  hunger, 
and  we  can  really  fall  sick  from  grief.  For  you  must  also  know  that 
mother  has  very  little  income,  while  we  must  eat  every  day  in  order 
not  to  die.  We  should  have  been  dead  from  hunger  long  ago  if 
nobody  had  lent  us  money.  But  at  last  people  refuse  to  lend.  So, 
dear  father,  I  beg  you  very  much,  send  at  least  a  few  roubles  for 
living  at  the  appointed  time,  for,  dear  father,  I  can  control  myself, 
but  mother  is  despairing  and  cursing  her  life  and  everything,  when  she 
does  not  see  any  better  prospect  before  her.  I  beg  your  pardon, 
father,  for  writing  this  letter  with  such  reproaches,  but  don't  be  angry 
with  me,  for  I  must  at  last  write  the  truth.  I  send  you  the  medical 
advice  of  our  school-physician,  how  I  ought  to  nourish  myself.  Just 
think,  father,  what  a  day  of  living  would  cost  if  I  nourished  myself 
even  partly  according  to  this  program 

ROMUALD 

612  [June  25,  1913] 

Dear  Father:  ....  And  now  I  inform  you  that  we  received 
your  letter  on  June  23,  for  which  I  thank  you.  Dear  father,  misery 
came  to  us  seriously,  for  more  than  once  we  have  gone  hungry  to  bed. 
L^czynski  comes  to  us  now  one  or  two  times  every  week.  He  is  sick 
with  consumption,  so  when  he  comes  to  us  the  whole  lodging  is  lilled 
with  a  foul  smell.  When  once  he  stayed  over  night  here  we  all  got 
sick,  I  and  Romek  even  had  vomits.  May  God  grant  us  to  settle  the 
matter  with  him  as  soon  as  possible!  Mother  has  given  him  65 
roubles  back  already.  Mother  earns  almost  nothing,  and  here  every- 
thing is  so  expensive,  pork  41  grosz,  beef  38  grosz,  so  we  buy  only 
seldom  a  pound,  and  of  the  worst,  the  cheapest.  So  please,  father, 
send  us  at  least  a  few  roubles,  for  we  cannot  hold  out  so  any 

longer 

Hela 

613  July  5  [1913] 

Dear  HusbaI'TO:  ....  I  received  75  roubles  for  yvhich  I  thank 
you  heartily,  for  we  needed  it  very  much.  I  don't  know  whether  I 
shall  be  able  to  give  anything  of  this  money  to  Lg.cz.,  for  I  have  made 


022  rRiMARvr.ROur  organization 

some  debts,  and  I  must  pay  these  first  of  all Dear  Stas,  don't 

be  ani^n-  with  us  if  the  children  have  described  to  you  too  much  of  our 
misen-  in  that  last  letter,  but  I  was  not  at  home.  And  you  know,  my 
dear,  that  here  if  one  has  no  money  he  does  not  know  what  to  do,  for 
it  is  even  dilTicult  to  borrow,  because  here  everybody  has  scarcely 

enough  to  live 

Dearest  Stas,  write  me  how  do  you  live  there.  Are  you  not 
worrietl  with  this  solitary  life  ?  For  I,  when  I  pass  this  time  in  mind, 
it  seems  very,  very  long.  Three  years  and  a  half  we  have  led  such 
a  martyr  life!  For  there  is  nothing  worse  than  longing.  And  you 
are  so  indifferent,  you  don't  even  deign  to  send  us  your  photograph! 

Send  it,  I  beg  you,  at  least  on  a  postcard;  it  will  cost  cheaper 

Your  truly  loving  wife, 

Wladyslawa  Porzycka 
My  condition  is  very  bad. 

614  July  23,  1913 

Dear  Father:  ....  I  inform  you  that  we  received  40  roubles, 
from  which  we  gave  25  to  Mr.  L^czynski.  [Enumerates  all  the 
expenses.]  Dear  father,  believe  now  everything  that  we  write  you, 
for  we  write  you  the  sincere  truth.  Even  if  we  wished  to  add  any- 
thing, we  could  not,  for  you  look  always  at  us  and  see  everything,  and 
we  can  hide  nothing  at  all.  Dear  father,  we  have  your  picture. 
Although  you  did  not  deign  to  send  us  your  photograph,  we  had  a 
larger  copy  made  of  an  old  one.  Dear  father,  now  it  is  at  least  a 
little  more  gay,  we  have  somebody  to  speak  to.  But  what!  We 
speak,  and  you  don't  wish  to  answer  us.'  So  it  would  be  the  best  if 
you  earned  much  money  and  came  to  our  country,  or  if  we  went  to 
you.  And  if  not,  then  take  me  to  you.  I  could  at  least  cook  for  you, 
and  you  would  not  have  to  pay  me,  and  it  would  be  better  for  us 

And  Romcio  always  does  nothing  but  go  to  the  forest  and  read 
books.  He  is  already  a  hundred  times  fatter  than  I,  and  as  you 
know,  bigger  than  mother. 

Your  truly  loving  daughter  with  her  mother  and 

Romciuchno  [affectionate  diminutive  of  Romuald] 

'  An  ex.imple  of  the  primitive  attitude  toward  photographs  and  pictures. 
The  photograph  of  the  dear  person  seems  for  the  peasant  as  well  as  for  the  child  to 
mean  much  more  than  to  a  sophisticated  man,  to  convey  much  more  feeling  of  life 
and  reality.     In  all  the  series  of  peasant  letters  this  is  manifested. 


PORZYCKI SERIES 


923 


615  August  18,  1913 
Dear  Father:    ....  As  to  that  America,  we  discussed  and 

decided  either  to  go  all  together  or  to  remain  and  not  to  take  upon  us 
the  burden  of  a  new  debt.  This  would  be  still  better  than  to  go.  Mr. 
Nowakowski  asks  you  whether  work  is  good  and  whether  it  is  worth 
while  to  go  to  America.  It  is  also  hard  for  them  to  live,  and  the  priest 
[a  brother  or  uncle]  cannot  suffice  for  everything.'  Dear  father,  when 
we  saw  your  photograph  we  were  awfully  pained  that  you  look  so  bad, 
but  later  we  comforted  ourselves  that  the  photograph  is  bad 

ROMUALD 

616  August  18,  1913 
Dear  Father:  ....  I  received  one  rouble  from  you,  for  which 

1  thank  you  heartily.  I  am  somewhat  pained  that  you  always  make 
a  difference  between  us  two.  We  are  never  equally  treated,  but  he 
aways  gets  more  than  I  do,  as  if  I  were  not  your  daughter.  But 
nothing  can  be  done.  Dear  father,  if  you  love  Romek  more  than  me, 
what  can  I  do  ?  Dear  father,  I  lent  this  rouble  to  mother,  for  she  had 
no  money,  but  soon  we  shall  go  to  school;  then  mother  will  give  it 
back.     I  shall  have  it  for  the  fee,  if  you  are  so  gracious  as  to  send  me 

2  roubles  more.     For  books  perhaps  mother  will  give  me,  if  she  earns. 

Helena 

617  September  10,  1913 

Dear  Father:  ....  I  am  in  the  3d  class  and  am  learning  well 
enough,  for  I  cannot  say  very  well.  To  Mr.  L^czynski  we  owe  still 
15  roubles  of  the  sum,  and  the  interest,  28  roubles,  together  43.  Mr.  L. 
is  a  very  good  man  for  he  counted  the  interest  only  for  3  years,  at 
8  per  cent.  Dear  father,  Mr.  Pawlowski  came  back  [from  America], 
but  he  intends  soon  to  go  there  again,  for  he  has  nothing  to  do  here. 
He  acquired  a  higher  culture  [irony].  I  send  you  my  photograph 
and,  I  beg  you,  send  me  yours,  but  a  better  one,  for  I  was  only  grieved 
in  receiving  the  former  one Romuald 

618  October  20,  1913 

Dear  Father:   ....  I  inform    you  ....  that    Romek    was 

very  ill  ....  and  now,  although  he  walks,  it  is  with  difficulty 

Dear  father,  he  is  a  bad  comfort  for  us,  for  he  is  always  sick,  only 

'  For  the  r6le  of  a  priest  in  the  family  cf.  Rzepkowski  scries. 


()J4  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

seldom  a  little  better.  Mother  grieves  terribly  and  weeps  continually. 
Mother  weeps  from  sorrow  and  sings  at  the  same  time.  It  would  be 
better  if  you  were  at  home.  [Money  received;  expenses.]  Dear 
father,  there  .would  be  no  misery  in  our  home  any  more,  if  only  Romcio 
were  in  good  health.  We  inform  you  that  Uncle  Piotr  wrote  to  Yon- 
kers,  to  Uncle  Jan  [both  mother's  brothers]  asking  him  for  a  ship- 
ticket,  and  he  intends  to  go  to  America,  for  his  affairs  are  very  bad; 

he  does  not  keep  his  shop  any  more 

Helena 


619  November  5,  1913 

De.\r  Husbaxd:    ....  Romek  was  seriously  ill  but,  thanks  to 

God,  it  passed,  although  he  is  never  very  well,  for  his  disease  remains 

for  his  whole  life.     He  suffers  with  heart-disease,  and  this  cannot  be 

healed.     Hard  is  the  life  of  such  a  man,  for  he  is  unable  to  work, 

except  w^ith  his  head  ....  so  learning  is  indispensable   to  him. 

Dear  Stas,  I  inform  you  about  my  success.     My  success  is  so  bad 

tliat  I  earn  almost  nothing.     We  live  only  on  what  you  send.     Dear 

Stas,  you  write  that  you  will  come  on  Christmas.     Oh,  how  glad  I 

should  be  if  this  lonely  life  of  ours  came  to  an  end!     But  if  you  come 

here  and  we  have  not  a  rouble  with  us,  how  shall  we  live,  since  this 

year  everything  is  so  dear  ?     Prices  were  never  so  high.     Do  as  you 

think  best,  my  dear,  but  may  you  not  wish  to  go  for  the  fifth  time 

[keep  going].     Piotr  has  failed  so  utterly  that  he  does  not  even  keep 

his  shop.     He  has  many  debts,  and  even  500  roubles  mortgage. 

Janek  refused  to  send  him  a  ship-ticket.     He  justified  himself  saying 

that  Piotr  won't  be  admitted,  because  he  lacks  fingers  on  one  hand. 

Now  he  does  not  know  himself  what  to  begin.    And  the  cause  of  all 

this  is  liquor 

Wladyslawa  p. 

620  January  29,  1914 

Dear  Father:  ....  We  don't  know  now  what  to  do  with  this 
lodging,  whether  we  should  remain  or  not,  for  it  is  very  small,  and  if 
you  come,  it  would  be  too  crowded.  So  tell  us  positively  whether 
you  will  come  or  not.  Then  we  shall  know  what  to  do.  Dear  father, 
did  you  receive  our  letter  for  Christmas  with  a  wafer,  in  which  we 
informed  you  about  the  death  of  F.  Lijczynski  and  the  illness  of 
Pawlowski?     Did  Uncle  Bogorski  from  Chicago  write  to  you?     He 


PORZYCKI SERIES 


925 


wrote  to  us  and  wants  us  absolutely  to  come  there,  for  work  is  very 
good  there.  But  these  are  vain  dreams.  Did  you  receive  a  letter 
from  Uncle  Piotr  [asking  for  a  ship-ticket]  ?  If  you  received  it, 
please  father,  don't  trouble  yourself  about  him,  for  he  has  not  deserved 
it.  Mother  has  wept  bitter  tears  more  than  once  because  of  him. 
And  he  takes  now  work  from  Wichrowski.  Such  is  the  shop  he 
keeps  [i.e.  none  at  all].  Dear  father,  we  overwhelm  you  with  only 
questions  in  this  letter,  but  we  have  nothing  to  write,  so  we  write  at 

least  this We  are  satisfied  with  your  photograph,  you  look 

very  well  ....  but  you  look  sad  and  upon  your  face  weariness  is 
marked.  [Lessons.]  I  beg  you,  father,  write  more,  for  when  you  write 
this  one  page  we  have  nothing  to  read.  When  Mr.  Rzezuski  writes 
a  letter,  there  are  at  least  5  sheets;  she  must  read  it  during  a  whole 

week 

Helena 

621  March  20,  1914 

Dear  Father:  ....  You  ask  us  to  reflect  about  that  America. 
But  we  can  by  no  means  leave  Romek  here.  [Money  received; 
expenses.]  Dear  father,  my  studies  are  going  on  well  enough.  I 
hope  that  this  year  I  shall  finish  this  school.  Now  here,  in  Mlawa,  a 
new  four-class  school  will  be  opened.  I  should  be  glad  if  I  could 
finish  at  least  these  4  classes.  There  it  would  cost  40  roubles  a  year 
in  each  class.  Mother's  income  is  rather  bad.  You  know,  sometimes 
she  has  so  much  work  that  she  can  find  no  time,  and  then  for  a  month 
there  is  nothing 

Your  loving  daughter  Helena  ....  with  her  mother  and  Romcio, 
her  dear  little  brother,  who  was  today  at  confession.  I  was  last 
Saturday.* 

622  March  28,  1914 

Dear  Husband:  ....  You  write  that  you  are  too  much  dis- 
gusted with  such  a  life.  Nothing  can  be  done,  my  dear.  For  me 
it  is  also  very  painful  to  worry  so  alone.     Perhaps  I  must  even  bear 

'  Before  going  to  confession  it  is  the  haljit  to  beg  the  pardon  of  everybody  for 
any  past  wrongs,  and  any  evil  doing  on  the  day  of  confession  is  considered  particu- 
larly degrading.  It  is  also  considered  exceptionally  mean  to  wrong  anyone 
who  has  been  recently  to  confession.  Therefore  days  of  confession  are  days  of 
exceptional  harmony  in  family  life.  The  end  of  Ilela's  letter  is  the  expression 
of  this 


o_>6  I'Ri.MARV-r.Rorr  organization 

more  |xiins  than  you,  for  I  am  a  woman,  and  still— and  still  I  accept 
mv  lot.  Vcs.  dear,  let  us  sacrilice  ourselves  for  our  children,  because 
we  live  only  for  them.  Were  it  not  for  them  I  should  have  been  with 
vou  lonp  apo.  Dear  Stas,  you  reflect  whether  Romck  cannot  be  left 
alone.  This  is  totally  impossible.  He  needs  continuous  care,  for 
he  has  no  health.  How  often  it  is  necessary  to  rise  at  night  when  he 
has  a  heart  attack,  and  to  help  him.  He  is  weak  like  a  small  child. 
He  is  a  good  boy  and  I  love  him  strongly,  but  unhappily  there  is  no 
great  hope  for  his  future.  He  learns  well.  Now  we  must  pay 
25  roubles  for  his  second  quarter.     [Usual  ending.] 

Wladyslawa  p. 

623  April  20,  1914 

Dear  Father:  [Health;  money  and  letter  received.]  We  were 
very  glad  when  we  received  your  letter  on  Good  Friday,  particularly 
Romek.  He  ordered  us  to  go  at  once,  before  the  holidays,  saying 
that  he  would  be  alone  [for  Easter].  Dear  father,  you  write  for  me 
and  mother  to  come.  Oh,  how  glad  we  should  be  to  go  at  once! 
But,  dear  father,  it  would  be  difficult  for  us  to  part  with  our  sickly 
fellow  Romek.  Although  he  troubles  me  [teases  or  beats  a  little] 
sometimes,  yet  I  love  him  and  it  w^ould  be  difficult  for  me  to  go  away 
from  him,  and  mother  also  cannot  reconcile  herself  with  leaving  him 

alone 

Your  truly  loving  daughter, 

Helena 

624  April  24,  1914 

Dear  Father:  ....  We  received  today  your  letter,  in  which 
you  write  about  having  sent  53  roubles  and  in  which  was  a  silk  hand- 
kerchief. I  thank  you  with  my  whole  heart  for  this  handkerchief. 
I  have  not  even  words  enough  to  thank  you.  Everybody  wanted  to 
have  this  handkerchief,  Romek,  and  even  mother.  Romek  wanted 
me  absolutely  to  give  it  to  him,  but  I  would  not  give  it  even  for  a 
thousand  roubles,  for  it  is  a  token  from  my  dear  beloved  father,  and 
such  a  token  should  not  be  given  to  anybody,  even  to  the  emperor 
himself.  Dear  father,  you  send  me  always  something,  and  what  shall 
I  send  to  you  ?  Now  I  cannot  yet,  but  when  I  grow  big,  I  will  try 
to  reward  you  perhaps,  if  only  with  a  trifle 


PORZYCKI  SERIES 


927 


'  Just  now  we  received  ....  those  53  roubles.  We  thank  you, 
father,  for  this  money,  which  will  be  very  useful  to  us.  Now  I  shall 
enumerate  what  we  shall  spend  it  for.  First  we  must  pay  the  rent 
for  a  quarter,  interest  to  Tanski,  mother  and  Hela  [I]  have  no  shoes, 
Hela  has  no  overcoat.  Don't  be  angry,  father,  for  it  is  obligatory; 
I  have  nothing  to  wear.  Oh!  And  I  have  no  hat!  So  calculate 
please,  how  much  I  alone  will  cost:  shoes  at  least  4  roubles,  overcoat 
some  ID  roubles,  a  hat  about  2  roubles,  together  16  for  me  alone. 
And  mother  and  Romek  ?  Really  it  is  worth  crying  that  you  have 
such  spongers  who  only  spend  your  earnings.  And  I  am  the  worst. 
Now  they  croak  against  me  at  home,  that  they  must  spend  so  much 
for  me.  But  judge  yourself,  father,  can  I  be  the  worst  [dressed]  of 
all?  And  now  mother  is  against  me  for  this  handkerchief  [saying] 
that  you  did  not  send  anything  to  her  [favorite]  child,  but  only  to  your 

[favorite]  child 

Helena 

625  July  6,  1914 

Dear  Father:  ....  I  have  passed  to  the  4th  class  with  a  small 
second  examination  in  German,  but  it  is  no  matter,  for  during  the 
vacation  I  will  learn  and  later  it  will  be  more  easy  for  me  with  the 
German.  Dear  father,  aunt  [Piotr's  wife]  died  on  June  30,  and 
already  people  are  recommending  another  wife  to  uncle.  Hela  has 
finished  her  school  already,  but  we  don't  know  what  to  do  with  her 

now,  and  where  to  place  her Dear  father,  we  have  not  had 

any  letter  from  you  for  a  long  time,  so  we  are  grieved,  for  we  don't 
know  whether  you  are  healthy  or  sick,  or  perhaps  you  have  no  work. 
We  expected  a  letter  from  you  at  least  for  mother's  name-day,  but 
you  did  not  send  any  even  for  the  name-day,  so  we  make  the  supposi- 
tion that  something  bad  happened  to  you,  or  perhaps  you  forgot  about 
us.     But  this  latter  supposition  is  impossible 

ROMUALD 

626  July  29,  1914 

Dear  Father:  First  I  inform  you  that  we  received  your  letter 
and  40  roubles  in  our  new  apartment.  They  were  just  enough  for 
the  apartment,  for  we  had  to  pay  40  roubles  for  half  a  year.  The 
apartment  is  expensive,  but  what  can  we  do  if  all  the  apartments  are 
now  expensive.     We  should  perhaps  have  found  a  cheaper  one,  but 


().>8  rRlMARV-C.ROUP  ORGANIZATION 

wo  learned  too  late  that  Rzezuska  had  rented  [our  old  one].  But, 
never  mind,  here  we  have  at  least  comfort,  and  even  if  you  came  you 
would  have  room  enouj^h  to  work,  and  mother  perhaps  will  haw 
belter  success  than  there,  in  that  hole.  Dear  father,  inform  us  whai 
is  the  news  in  America,  for  here  a  terrible  war  is  probable.  Thcx 
wanted  to  take  Romck  to  prison,  for  he  went  beyond  the  town  witli 
some  companions.  The  border  is  now  open,  and  soldiers  keep  guard 
in  the  fields.  Even  the  farmers  who  bring  their  crops  in  must  ha\c 
papers  from  the  mayor  that  they  have  the  right  to  go.  Perhai)> 
we  shall  be  killed  here,  so  please  send  us,  father,  some  money,  i,ooo 
roubles  at  least,  so  we  shall  be  able  to  fly  somewhere  before  this  war. 
for  it  is  impossible  to  remain  so.  And  if  with  you  there  is  also  sucli 
misery  [as  you  wrote?]  come  rather  to  us;  we  will  put  these  miseries 
together.  We  live  on  Niborska  Street,  facing  the  hospital;  our  house 
is  surrounded  with  a  garden.  Romek  is  so  healthy  here  that  we  can 
hardly  give  him  enough  to  eat,  and  we  eat  also  rather  well;  a  loaf 
and  a  half  of  bread  is  used  every  day,  w'hile  formerly  we  took  half  a 

loaf  for  two  days 

Helena 

627  August  10,  1914 

Dear  Father:  ....  We  find  ourselves  now  in  a  ver}^  critical 
situation,  because  w-e  are  in  the  midst  of  the  greatest  war.  Mlawa  is 
near  the  frontier  and  therefore  it  is  most  disturbed.  We  received 
your  letter  wdth  the  handkerchief  and  3  roubles  on  the  day  before  the 
war,  for  the  next  day  communication  was  interrupted  and  trains  no 
longer  come  to  Mlawa  nor  leave  it.  The  telegraphs  [wires]  are  broken, 
the  post  abandoned,  the  [governmental]  bank  abandoned,  all  the 
officers  and  all  the  officials  have  gone  away.  The  army  has  been 
mobilized,  and  uncle  [Piotr]  was  also  taken,  but  then  set  free  because 
of  his  hand.  The  Russian  army  was  in  Itlowo  and  Dzialdowo  and 
tried  to  take  Nyborg,  but  was  checked  for  they  had  no  infantry. 
On  the  very  first  day  the  Prussian  station  in  Wolka  and  the  bridges 
wer'^:  blown  up,  and  now  larger  or  smaller  battles  are  fought  around 
Mlawa.  The  Russian  army  is  camping  now  in  Mlawa  and  in  its 
neighborhood.  German  aeroplanes  fly  every  day  above  our  Mlawa, 
and  just  now  one  of  them  went  away;  they  are  still  shooting  at  it 
from  guns.  This  morning,  when  a  German  aeroplane  flew  over 
Mlawa  and  they  began  to  shoot  at  it  from  cannons  and  machine- 


PORZYCKI  SERIES  929 

guns,  a  score  of  civilians  and  children  were  wounded,  we  don't  know 
whether  from  the  aeroplane  or  by  the  falHng  bullets.  Up  to  the 
present  we  are  alive,  thanks  to  God,  but  we  cannot  assure  you  that 
we  shall  not  perish  very  soon.  The  wounded  find  no  longer  a  place 
in  the  hospitals,  though  there  are  now  two  or  three  of  them  on  every 
street.  Dear  father,  everything  is  very  dear  here  now,  for  no  supplies 
are  brought.  Many  things  cannot  be  bought  at  all,  for  they  are 
lacking.  Perhaps  we  shall  die  not  of  bullets  but  of  hunger,  for  this 
also  is  quite  possible.  So  we  all  bid  you  farewell,  for  perhaps  we  shall 
see  one  another  never  more  upon  this  earth.     It  is  a  pity  that  you  did 

not  take  us  to  you,  perhaps  there  we  should  be  safer Dear 

father,  we  have  paid  all  our  money  to  the  landlord,  as  rent  for  half  a 

year,  and  now  we  have  nothing  to  live  on 

Your  sincerely  loving  son, 

ROMUALD 

628  August  24,  1914 

Dear  Father:  [Repeats  in  part  the  news  in  the  letter  of 
August  10.]  We  stayed  at  first  in  Mlawa,  hoping  that  things 
would  get  quiet,  and  then  we  had  nowhere  and  no  money  to  fly. 
Later  Mrs.  Wasilewska's  husband,  who  is  a  sergeant  and  knows  about 
the  movements  of  the  army,  said  that  the  Russian  army  would  fall 
back,  and  told  his  wife  to  fly  to  her  family  in  Kosiny.  Mother  knows 
the  Wasilewskis  well,  and  Wasilewska  wanted  to  take  us  with  her,  so 
we  went  also  to  Kosiny,  but  after  two  days  we  returned  on  foot  to 
Mlawa,  as  it  was  a  little  quieter.  Meanwhile  the  Russian  army  fell 
back,  and  Germans,  to  the  number  of  20,000,  entered  Mlawa  and  let 
nobody  out.  They  made  trenches  around  Mlawa  and  began  to 
commit  different  abuses — burned  houses  and  windmills,  robbed  the 
farmers,  and  behaved  as  if  in  their  own  town.  In  such  activities  they 
spent  a  week  in  Mlawa,  and  on  August  20  the  Russian  cavalry  and 

artillery  drove  them  away  from  Mlawa Now  we  need  not 

fear  the  Germans,  but  we  don't  know  what  will  happen  next.  The 
Poles  are  going  with  the  Russians.  The  Germans  threw  proclama- 
tions from  their  aeroplanes  to  the  Poles,  asking  them  to  help  them, 
and  when  they  win,  they  will  give  us  Poland  back.  But  they  work  in 
vain,  for  the  Russians  also  wrote  a  proclamation  in  which  they  promise 
us  autonomy  and  such  laws  as  were  during  the  Polish  times,  and  the 
Poles  believe  the  Russians  rather  than  the  Germans Dear 


,,V1  PR1M.\RV-(]R0UP  ORGANIZATION 

father,  you  can  easily  guess  that  there  is  now  great  misery  here 

We  live  only  on  what  an>I)0(ly  lends  or  gives  us So  we  beg 

\i)U.  if  yi>u  can.  send  us  at  least  a  few  roubles,  or  else  we  shall  die  from 
hunger.  We  send  this  letter  through  Japan,  but  whether  it  will  reach 
\ou.  weiion't  know.     But  a  drowning  man  grasps  even  a  razor 

ROMUALD  PORZYCKI 

629  January  5,  191 5 

Rkspected  Sir:  ....  You  ask  for  details  concerning  my  family. 
I  give  them  to  you.  My  wife  is  now  36  years  old,  my  son  Romek  17, 
my  daughter  Hela  i^.  As  to  my  wife,  you  are  not  mistaken  in  saying 
that  she  is  very  nervous.  Any  insuccess  influences  her  much,  she 
gets  sick  and  does  not  eat  for  a  day  or  two.  As  to  Romek,  he  was  not 
so  sick  when  a  child  ....  he  had  no  heart-disease.  While  I  was 
still  at  home,  I  soothed  and  softened  everything.  W^hen  I  was  leaving, 
my  wife  asked  me  to  bring  them  as  soon  as  possible  to  America.  Dur- 
ing the  first  and  second  year  I  could  not  do  it,  for  I  had  no  steady 
work;  I  could  scarcely  send  them  from  time  to  time  a  few  roubles. 
I  had  borrowed  money  for  my  journey  to  America,  so  there  were  more 
than  200  roubles  of  debt  left.  Thus  my  wife  was  obhged  to  pay  the 
interest  and  from  time  to  time  a  few  roubles  of  the  sum  out  of  my 
small  wages.  Even  today  there  are  more  than  100  roubles  to  pay 
back.  Thus,  during  three  years  I  was  unable  to  send  a  ship-ticket. 
After  3  years  Romek  finished  the  governmental  [town-]  school  and 
wrote  me  that  he  wanted  more  instruction.  I  permitted  him;  I 
could  not  refuse  to  the  child  the  permission  to  learn.  But  the  expenses 
increased,  and  it  was  really  as  bad  as  they  wrote.  With  my  small 
earnings  I  could  not  send  them  much.  And  thus  Romek,  seeing  his 
mother  always  crying  from  longing  and  despair,  might  have  got  his 
heart-illness  even  through  this,  for  he  is  very  sentimental,  Hke  his 
mother,  while  Hela  has  my  iron  nature.  My  wife  wished  at  first  to 
come  to  America,  because  she  would  have  come  wdth  them  both. 
But  later  Romek  did  not  w^ant  for  anything  in  the  world  to  leave  off 
learning,  and  his  mother  did  not  want  to  leave  him  alone  wath  stran- 
gers, for,  as  she  mentions  to  me,  he  needs  care  hke  a  small  child. 
And  I  agreed  and  was  glad  that  he  did  not  want  to  come  to  America, 
only  wants  to  live  in  his  ow^n  country,  for  I  don't  like  the  American 
education  of  children.  Here  the  child  is  not  morally  educated,  it 
knows  no  respect  for  its  elders.     It  knows  only  how  to  throw  snow  or 


PORZYCKI  SERIES 


931 


stones  at  the  passengers.  As  to  me,  I  cannot  become  Americanized, 
for  in  the  old  country  I  had  easier  work.  There  I  was  a  shoemaker, 
while  here  I  must  work  in  an  iron-foundry,  and  even  this  goes  on 
feebly.  For  the  last  few  months  I  have  worked  scarcely  two  or  three 
days  in  a  week.  So  I  sit  here  as  upon  sharp  nails  and  wait  for  the 
incidents  of  the  war  in  Poland.  I  am  longing  for  my  family,  because 
I  have  had  no  news  for  more  than  two  months.  I  don't  know  whether 
they  are  alive  or  not.  Wishing  to  save  my  family  from  hunger,  I  sent 
on  October  24,  80  roubles,  but  I  have  no  certitude  whether  they 
received  them.  Probably  they  did  not,  for  the  governmental  post- 
ofhce  in  Mlawa  is  abandoned,  and  my  family  may  not  be  there,  for 
Mlawa,  as  it  seems,  has  changed  her  proprietors  4  times  already. 
....  As  to  my  verses  [a  humoristic  piece,  printed  in  the  Polish 

paper  Zgoda],  I  thank  you  very  much  for  your  praise I  have 

never  been  a  man  of  letters.  Perhaps  if  I  had  studied  in  that  line 
I  should  have  some  aptitude.  This  one  I  composed  in  free  moments 
and  I  doubted  whether  the  editors  would  deign  to  print  it 

Stanislaw  Porzycki 


jAIU.KC^WSKT  SERIES 

In  the  present  case  we  have  the  only  example  of  a  per- 
fectly solidary  and  harmonious  "natural  family,"  as  the 
result  of  an  evolution  which  has  substituted  individual 
bonds  between  the  members  of  a  marriage-grouj)  for  tradi- 
tional social  bonds  between  the  members  of  the  "large 
family." 

We  see  also  an  important  social  consequence  of  this  evolu- 
tion— the  particularly  marked  isolation  of  the  marriage- 
group  from  the  rest  of  the  community,  even  from  the  relatives 
who  in  the  old  organization  would  be  the  most  impor- 
tant members  of  the  group,  namely,  the  parents  of  the  man 
and  the  woman  and  the  brothers  and  sisters.  On  the  one 
hand,  the  marriage-group,  perfectly  solidary  within  itself, 
acts  in  economic  and  social  matters  toward  the  rest  of 
the  community  as  toward  strangers,  sometimes  even  with 
a  marked  hostility;  on  the  other  hand,  any  action  from 
outside  is  received  as  affecting  the  marriage-group  as  a 
whole.  In  this  respect  the  reactions  to  external  influences 
tending  to  disaggregate  the  group — gossip,  efforts  to  compel 
the  husband  or  the  wife  to  act  in  economic  matters  in  a  per- 
sonal way — are  significant.  These  influences  themselves, 
the  more  or  less  unfriendly  acts  of  neighbors,  acquaint- 
ances, relatives,  which  Jablkowska  attributes  to  "jealousy," 
are  perhaps  better  understood  if  we  take  into  consideration 
the  very  natural  hostile  attitude  of  the  social  environment 
toward  so  isolated  and  impenetrable  a  familial  group.  The 
old  type  of  family,  at  least  in  Poland,  has  no  place  for  such 
an  isolation.  Under  these  conditions  it  is  obvious  that 
when  for  any  reason  the  marriage-group  tends  to  separate 
itself  sharply  from  the  family-group  the  latter  not  only  shows 

932 


JABLKOWSKI  SERIES  933 

a  sharp  resentment,  but  the  smaller  group  is  by  the  fact 
of  the  resentment  thrown  more  and  more  back  upon  itself, 
until  its  isolation  is  greater  than  that  of  the  modern 
family. 

Another  interesting  point  in  this  connection  is  the  im- 
portant part  played  by  the  woman  in  the  constitution  of  the 
new  family.  This  role  is  complicated,  as  is  the  situation  of 
the  woman  itself.  In  the  old  group  the  woman's  position 
in  the  family  was  in  one  respect  more  secure  than  in  the  new 
one,  because  she  was  backed  by  her  group.  But,  on  the 
other  hand,  the  woman's  relation  to  her  husband  and 
children  always  tended  to  be  as  exclusive  and  personal  as 
possible;  she  always  occupied  the  standpoint  of  particular 
individuals,  not  that  of  the  group  as  a  whole.  And  thus  the 
new  group  appears  from  this  point  of  view  as  a  realization 
of  a  certain  tendency  of  the  woman — the  tendency  to  sub- 
stitute a  few  subjective  personal  relations  for  the  many 
objective  social  relations.  In  all  the  cases  in  which  the  new 
group  is  or  tends  to  be  constituted,  the  woman  seems  to  be 
the  principal  factor  of  its  unity  and  isolation.  But  as  she  has 
not  the  help  of  any  social  traditions  her  success  depends 
upon  her  personality. 

The  whole  evolution  in  the  Jablkowski  case  seems 
relatively  recent,  for  the  older  generation  has  preserved 
much  of  the  traditional  peasant  attitude.  Probably  the 
Jablkowskis  are  the  children  of  peasants,  who  settled  in  the 
city. 

630-48,    TO  KONSTANTY  JABLKOWSKI,  IN  AMERICA,  FROM  HIS 
WIFE   AND   CHILDREN,    IN   POLAND 

630  Lublin,  December  28,  1913 

I  Dearest  and  most  beloved  Husband:  I  received  your  letter 
with  Christmas  wishes  and  the  postcard  with  New  Year  wishes,  and 
I  thank  you  heartily.     O  dear  husband,  I  thank  you  once  more  for 


I 


.)34  I'KIMAKV-C.KOUP  ORGANIZATION 

your  lottiTS,  for  I  was  in  ver\'  ^'rcat  sorrow  during  the  whole  holidays, 
because  I  had  no  letters.  I  wondered  much  why,  and  I  thought  so. 
that  perhai)s  you  were  sick  from  all  this  sorrow.     So  when  I  receive! 

the  letter,  I  cried  from  joy You  write  me  not  to  answer  thi:. 

last  letter  of  yours  but  I  do  answer,  for  some  days  have  passed  since 
I  have  written  you  a  ])ostcard,  and  you  would  have  no  letter  from  mi- 
for  a  long  time.  When  I  receive  another  letter  from  you  I  shall  have 
also  something  to  write,  for  now  I  shall  be  a  little  calmer  and  I  will 
calculate  all  the  money  which  I  spent  and  what  I  spent  it  for.  For  I 
tell  you,  dear  husband,  I  was  so  grieved  after  the  letter  which  you 
wrote  me  before  that  I  thought  I  should  never  calm  myself.  And 
after  that  I  had  no  letter  for  almost  2  weeks.  And  moreover  I  got 
a  letter  from  Stasiak  on  December  23,  and  ....  I  did  not  send  him 
that  letter  back,  for  you  told  me  not  to  write  letters  to  anybody. 
Answer  me  whether  you  speak  [are  on  speaking  terms]  with  Stasiak, 
for  he  wrote  me  that  he  is  not  guilty  of  the  offense  against  me  in 
Kozlak's  letter  to  his  wife.  He  excused  himself  that  he  v/rote  what- 
ever Kozlak  told  him  to  write  [dictated],  and  he  said  that  it  was  exclu- 
sively Kozlak's  fault;  he  [Stasiak]  could  not  go  into  a  cellar  and  write 
the  letter  so  that  nobody  might  see  it  [scil.,  somebody  has  read  or 
heard  what  Kozlak  dictated  and  thus  gossip  arose].  He  wrote  man\- 
more  words,  but  I  don't  repeat  ever>'thing  for  it  would  take  too  much 
time  to  write.  But  he  begged  my  pardon  very  much  and  said  that 
he  did  not  [intend  to]  offend  me  in  that  letter  in  any  way.  He  wrote 
that  he  was  not  a  traitor  to  you  and  never  had  been.  He  is  only  very 
pained  that  Janek  [the  writer's  son]  called  him  in  his  letter  a  rascal 
and  a  Ham  [for  having  offended  Janek's  mother],  and  he  wrote  a 

few  words  to  Janek  saying  that  he  would  remember  it Finally 

he  wrote  thus:  "I  won't  write  you  any  more  news;  you  will  learn 
from  your  friend  [husband?]  who  is  a  rascal  toward  us."  And  to 
Janek  he  wrote:  ''Don't  ever  write  such  letters  to  anybody,  for  if  I 
were  really  such  a  rascal  as  you  write,  this  letter  would  have  cost  you 
dear.  If  you  don't  believe  me,  ask  your  father."  And  he  wished  us 
a  Merr>'  Christmas  and  New  Year.  So  I  beg  you,  dear  husband,  very 
much,  don't  quarrel  with  these  swine.  I  beg  you  once  more,  don't 
quarrel.  Forget  your  wrong;  why  should  you  waste  your  health  in 
vain?  .... 

Marcyanna  Jablkowska 


JABLKOWSKI  SERIES  935 

631  February  17,  1914 

Most  beloved  Father:  I  thank  you  very  nicely  for  the  scrap 
upon  which  you  wrote  a  few  words  for  me.  Dear  father,  you  tell  me 
to  learn  to  be  an  iron-moulder.  But  I  won't  learn  to  be  an  iron- 
moulder,  for  it  is  a  hard  speciality.  One  earns  a  few  roubles  more,  but 
he  must  work  like  an  ox.  And  here  if  a  moulder  is  kept  anywhere,  he 
is,  but  if  they  throw  him  away  he  cannot  find  work,  but  must  work  as 
a  simple  laborer.  Thus  it  happened  with  Hojnacki.  You  write  me 
that  any  peasant  can  do  the  work  which  I  do.  But  you  don't  know 
yet  what  work  it  is.  Myka  wanted  to  work  at  the  light  and  said  that 
he  had  worked  at  the  light  in  the  cement-factory,  but  they  refused  to 

admit  him  for  they  were  afraid  he  would  spoil  something I 

learned  for  almost  half  a  year  in  helping  an  electro-technician,  and 
as  he  liked  me  he  explained  to  me  everything  ....  so  that  now  if 
I  got  a  plan,  I  could  instal  the  light  myself,  and  I  can  decompose  and 

recompose  a  dynamo  machine And  if  the  factory  stops  I  can 

do  locksmith's  work I  earn  now  almost  25  roubles,  and  later 

I  shall  have  almost  35  roubles,  or  even  more.  Now,  dear  father,  don't 
trouble  about  me.  I  shall  find  my  way  and  even  help  you.^  Now, 
dear  father,  I  need  a  suit  for  Easter,  for  this  one  which  I  have  is  quite 
spoilt  ....  and  I  need  also  shoes,  for  these  which  I  have  are  torn. 
....  Besides  this,  dear  father,  send  me  some  neckties  ....  and  if 
they  reach  me  I  shall  beg  you  to  send  me  perhaps  2  stiff  shirts,  for  I 
have  only  one  such  ....  and  it  is  not  enough.  I  must  take  it  to 
the  laundry  too  often j^^,  Jablkowski 

632  February  21,  1914 

Most  beloved  and  dearest  Husband:    I  received  your  letter 

....  written  on  February  8 As  to  lending  money,  you  may 

be  calm,  for  I  am  not  so  silly  as  to  lend  money  or  to  warrant  for  any- 
body. You  know  that  I  am  not  very  eager  to  do  such  things.  I 
won't  lend  to  my  brother  either,  for  I  know  how  eager  he  is  in  paying 
back ^     Now  you  ask  about  my  overcoat.     It  is  a  little  worn 

'  We  have  here  the  new  attitude  toward  work— appreciation  of  skill  and 
efficiency — as  stated  in  the  Introduction:   "Economic  Attitudes." 

"  A  sign  of  the  degree  to  which  the  old  solidarity  is  dissolved.  In  peasant  life 
money  should  be  lent,  not  only  to  so  near  a  relative,  but  to  any  member  of  the  com- 
munity, and  the  question  of  his  paying  the  debt  would  hardly  be  raised  as  self- 
evident.  So  the  solidarity  between  members  of  the  family  is  here  weaker  than  the 
traditional  solidarity  between  members  of  the  community. 


.)^V>  rKlMAKV-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

on  Uic  front  side,  about  the  pockets  and  sleeves,  but  it  does  not  lool. 
so  bail  yet.  Vou  write  me,  dear  husband,  to  buy  a  fur  cellar,  hui 
now  I  don't  want  to  buy  any,  for  spring  is  near.  Since  I  did  not  bu\ 
in  the  bcginninu;  of  the  winter  I  won't  buy  now,  for  immediately  sonu 
jHTSons  woulil  be  found  ready  to  say  that  I  did  not  buy  it  for  wintc  r. 

onlv  for  summer And  I  shall  put  this  whole  loo  roubles  in! 

the  savings-bank;  I  won't  divide  it.  As  to  tlie  debts,  I  owe  8  roubK 
to  my  father,  which  I  lacked  to  live,  for  I  have  not  worked  for  ahiiu^L 
a  month  and  Janek's  salary  does  not  suffice  for  our  household,  because 
I  spend  now  on  ever^-thing  one  rouble  a  day.  Yes,  my  dear  husband. 
So  I  took  7  roubles  for  living  and  i  rouble  for  your  mother,  together 
8  roubles.  I  have  not  yet  paid  these  2  roubles  to  your  mother  which 
I  owed  her,  but  I  gave  her  this  i  rouble,  for  she  was  at  the  wedding 
of  your  foster-daughter.  Tomaszewski  came  to  invite  me  and 
mother  to  that  wedding,  but  what  was  the  need  to  them  of  my  going 
there.'  And  now,  dear  husband,  I  owe  still  10  roubles  to  Gelblum 
[Jewish  shopkeeper]  on  the  booklet  [in  which  goods  taken  on  credit 
are  inscribed].  So  I  write  you,  dear  husband,  that  I  shall  put  these 
100  roubles  into  the  bank  and  I  won't  pay  these  debts.^  Father  does 
not  need  money  much  so  I  will  pay  him  i  rouble  on  my  pay  day  and 
I  rouble  on  Janek's  pay  day  and  thus  I  shall  pay  it  back  gradual!}-. 
And  from  Gelblum  I  won't  take  now  on  the  booklet,  but  as  far  as 
possible  for  cash,  until  you  send  me  money  for  the  children's  clothing; 
then  perhaps  a  few  roubles  will  remain  from  the  clothing,  and  these  I 
shall  pay  to  Gelblum.  For  the  children  need  clothes  absolutely. 
Janek  must  have  another  suit  for  going  out,  and  Oles  has  only  one 
which  has  been  repaired  already  and  he  has  nothing  to  put  on  when 
he  goes  to  church.  Now,  as  to  the  Jalozos  [husband's  sister  and 
brother-in-law],  I  shall  write  you  what  a  bryndza  [literally  sheep- 
cheese;  slang  for  "bad  condition,"  "misery"  or  "disorderly  life"] 
there  is  now,  only  in  another  letter,  for  now  I  am  not  particularly 

healthy.     I  have  toothache  and  my  arm  pains  me Goodbye, 

my  dear  Kostus,  for  I  long  very  much  without  you.  I  kiss  you 
heartily  innumerable  times.  y  "f 

Marcyanna  Jablkowska 
Now  I  kiss  you  once  more  strongly.     Now,  dear  husband,  Oles  w^as 

a  little  angry,  because  you  did  not  send  kisses  for  him  in  your  letter. 
»  Another  attitude  which  would  be  quite  incomprehensible  in  a  peasant  group. 
'  In  order  not  to  destroy  the  round  number.     A  vestige  of  the  qualitative 

character  of  economic  quantities.     Cf.  Introduction:   "Economic  Attitudes." 


JABLKOWSKI  SERIES  93; 

633  March  5,  1914 

Dear  and  most  beloved  Husband:  I  beg  you,  don't  forget  to 
write  the  date  of  my  letter,  for  I  don't  know  to  which  of  my  letters 
you  answer.  [Details  about  health  of  herself  and  the  boys.]  Mania 
[daughter]  is  in  good  health,  thanks  to  God,  only  her  eyes  are  a  little 
red,  as  when  you  were  here.  If  she  does  not  cry  they  are  not  red, 
and  as  soon  as  she  cries  a  little  they  become  red  again;  ....  and 

she  is  so  inclined  to  cry  this  daughter  of  yours She  says 

always  that  father  is  not  here  and  there  is  nobody  to  dance  with  her. 
....  And  she  is  so  wrathful  that  you  have  no  idea.  Janek  some- 
times teases  her  or  tells  her  something  [reprimands  her]  or  gives  her  a 
tap — not  very  much,  but  he  wants  her  now,  when  she  is  bigger,  to  be 
more  careful  and  polite,  not  to  play  with  the  first  best,  not  to  run 
about  the  street,  and  to  learn  well.  Thus,  when  he  tells  her  anything 
and  gives  her  a  tap,  she  flares  up  and  jumps  at  his  eyes  and  beats  him 
and  kicks  him  with  her  feet  and  refuses  to  yield.  I  always  make 
remarks  to  her  and  tell  her  not  to  flare  up  at  Janek,  for  he  is  older  and 
big.  And  she  tries  to  beat  Oles  also,  and  he  has  to  run  away  from  her. 
Although  they  strike  her  sometimes  first  she  pays  them  twice  as  much 
back.'^  If  I  strike  her  with  a  "discipline"  [short  whip],  she  begins  to 
cry  awfully  and  runs  into  the  room  and  calls,  "O  my  God,  my  God! 
O  father,  father!"  and  she  calls  as  if  she  were  already  an  orphan. 
So  I  cannot  beat  her  often,  for  I  begin  immediately  to  pity  her;  I 
prefer  rather  to  beg  her.  And  in  the  school  she  is  also  difficult,  for 
her  teacher  told  me  that  she  is  very  self-conceited  and  does  not  allow 
anybody  to  tell  her  anything;  when  anybody  says  a  word,  she  answers 
him.  She  wants  all  other  children  to  respect  her,  and  she  is  still  not 
wise  enough  to  be  proud  and  not  to  talk  with  the  first  best.^     So  I 

'  In  addition  to  possible  constitutional  independence,  the  girl  has  not  been 
brought  up  in  the  custom  of  obeying  her  brothers.  Cf.  the  contrary  attitude  of 
Stasia  in  the  Krupa  series.  The  custom  loses  its  force  in  the  industrial  milieu  and 
in  the  absence  of  the  large  family-group. 

^  Here,  as  at  some  other  points  in  this  scries,  we  see  the  principle  of  social 
hierarchy  applied  to  children  and  carried  to  a  ridiculous  minuteness.  It  did  not 
originate  in  the  country,  but  in  towns.  It  consists,  generally  speaking,  in  the  selec- 
tion of  playmates  for  the  children  by  the  parents.  This  selection  exists  to  some 
extent  in  the  country,  but  there  it  is  based  mainly  upon  the  consideration  of  a 
morally  good  or  bad  example  which  the  child  may  have  in  its  playmates,  not  upon 
any  idea  of  the  latters'  social  position.  Thus,  the  son  or  daughter  of  a  noble  can 
play  freely  with  such  peasant  children  as  are  known  to  be  good  and  not  spoiled 
(particularly  in  sexual  matters).  But  the  background  of  this  liberty  is  the 
unexpressed  and  sometimes  only  half-conscious  idea  that  the  distance  is  too  great 


»)>,S  rRTMARV-C.ROUP  ORGANIZATION 

told  her  that  I  wouUl  write  to  you,  but  she  does  not  know  that  I  write 
really.  So  tlon't  write  to  her  all  this  that  I  tell  you,  for  she  always  says 
tliat  she  will  improve,  and  it  would  be  very  painful  for  her.  For  shr 
is  very  good  and  obedient  when  I  send  her  to  do  anything,  only  she 
is  so  iiasty  and  wrathful.  You  may  always  admonish  her  in  your 
letter  to  learn  well,  to  be  good,  not  to  fight  with  boys  at  home  and  in 
the  schcK)l.  [Details  al)out  health  of  the  family;  page  and  a  half 
about  the  clock  which  is  out  of  order;  two  pages  about  floors,  windows, 
and  humidity  in  tlie  apartment.]  But  perhaps  all  this  will  hold  until 
you  come  back,  for  I  don't  want  to  occupy  myself  [with  repairing]. 
1  have  already  tlie  whole  house  upon  my  head,  for  although,  my  dear 
husband,  you  keep  all  our  home  in  your  memory,  yet  it  is  not  as  if  you 


for  any  undesirable  familiarity  to  arise,  either  between  the  parents  or  between  the 
children  when  they  grow  up.  It  is  the  same  principle  which  allows  the  country 
nobleman  to  be  on  much  more  familiar  terms  with  the  peasant  or  the  Jew  than  with 
anyone  of  the  middle  class,  and  which  gives  the  members  of  the  highest  aristocratic 
families  the  greatest  freedom  in  selecting  friends.  But  in  towns,  where  social 
distinctions  are  very  minute  and  there  is  a  continuous  passage  from  the  lowest  to 
the  highest  class,  the  task  of  keeping  these  distinctions  up  is  a  very  difficult  one, 
the  more  so,  the  lower  the  given  class  and  the  more  insignificant  the  basis  of  dis- 
tinction. And  as  the  intimacy  of  children  may  lead  to  an  intimacy  of  parents,  and 
the  friendship  made  in  childhood  may  last  in  later  days,  the  parents  are  very  care- 
ful to  select  for  their  children  playmates  of  the  same  or  of  a  higher  social  standing 
and  to  keep  them  far  from  any  connection  with  those  of  a  lower  level.  A  second 
factor  acts  here  also  and  compels  parents  to  make  the  selection.  It  is  the  impor- 
tance of  manners.  In  this  respect  the  country  nobility  relies  upon  tradition, 
heredity,  and  the  general  home  atmosphere  and  is  not  afraid  that  the  children  would 
lose  their  good  manners  in  playing  with  peasant  children.  The  same  does  not  hold 
in  towns,  particularly  in  the  lower-middle  class,  where  good  manners  are  an  arti- 
ficial and  imitated  product  and  can  be  easily  lost.  Finally,  the  moral  considera- 
tion plays  in  towns  a  more  important  part  than  in  the  country,  as  town-children  are 
generally  more  spoiled,  and  it  is  more  diflicult  to  avoid  undesirable  contact. 

The  result  of  all  this  is,  that  no  child  of  a  "self-respecting"  family  can  select  its 
companions  without  the  control  of  its  parents,  not  even  in  school;  and  particularly 
no  playing  upon  the  street  is  permitted.  And  as  only  those  who  have  little  or 
nothing  to  lose  in  social  standing  let  their  children  play  upon  the  street,  the  street- 
children  constitute  really  a  dangerous  element  for  the  others,  from  the  moral  point 
of  view. 

Evidently,  there  is  an  incalculable  but  very  strong  influence  of  this  whole 
system  of  control  upon  the  psychology  of  the  young  generation.  It  must  be  noted, 
however,  that  a  movement  of  democratization  in  the  higher  classes  began  some  20 
or  30  years  ago  and  is  growing.  The  control  of  the  children  in  this  respect  still 
exists,  but  is  based  more  and  more  upon  merely  moral  considerations.  But  this 
movement  has  not  yet  reached  the  lower  classes,  who  remain  as  rigid  in  their 
distinctions  as  formerly. 


JABLKOWSKI  SERIES  939 

were  at  home Janek  and  Oles  exchanged  their  watches,  Oles 

himself  wanted  to  change 

Now,  my  dear  husband,  I  want  to  tell  you  a  few  words  about  the 
Jalozos.  Kasia  [the  wife]  does  not  come  to  us;  Michat  came  once, 
but  I  was  not  at  home.  [Your]  mother  goes  sometimes  to  them. 
Once,  when  she  came  back,  she  cried  so  much,  saying  that  they  are 
in  such  misery.  They  did  not  pay  the  rent  and  a  complaint  against 
them  was  made.  The  police  wanted  to  levy  on  their  furniture,  but 
they  carried  it  to  another  house  and  have  only  a  bed  of  boards,  while 
the  children  sleep  upon  the  floor.  And  they  quarrel  among  them- 
selves. Michal  tells  her  to  go  to  work,  but  she  says  that  she  had  a 
fortune  [dowry]  and  won't  go  to  work.  But  he  says  that  he  has  her 
fortune  in  his  buttock  [despises  it].  What  [he  says]  is  a  fortune  worth 
when  she  does  not  know  how  to  manage  the  household  ?  A  woman  is 
worth  more  who  knows  how  to  manage  everything,  although  she  is 
poor.'  And  mother  told  him  to  try  to  get  a  janitor's  job.  She  [Kasia] 
has  sent  a  boy  twice  already  asking  me  to  lend  them  money,  but  let 
her  wait  till  I  do  it.  But  your  mother  would  carry  everything  to 
Kasia.  Your  mother  is  just  like  my  father,  who  would  carry  every- 
thing to ■ — [probably  another  daughter]  and  would  not  say,  "You 

ought  not  to  give."  There  was  a  little  poppy  which  they  brought 
from  Wola;  I  don't  even  know  when  mother  carried  it  out.  But 
never  mind  the  poppy.  She  asked  me  to  give  her  the  old  shoes  of 
Mania,  and  I  gave  them.^  I  shall  describe  more  in  another  letter. 
....  Goodbye,  dear  husband,  I  kiss  you  heartily. 

Your  always  well-wishing  and  loving  wife, 

Marcyanna  Jablkowska 

I  kiss  you  once  more  strongly,  dear  husband,  and  goodbye.  Work 
happily  with  God. 

634  March  17,  1914 

Most  BELOVED  Husband:  [Letters  received  and  written;  descrip- 
tion of  her  sickness.]  Now  I  tell  you,  I  was  so  worried  when  I  lay 
in  bed,  you  have  no  idea,  and  it  is  impossible  to  describe,  because  you 

'  An  appreciation  more  adapted  to  the  conditions  of  town-workmen  than  to 
those  of  farmers,  for  in  the  first  case  fortune  has  merely  an  additional  value  as 
compared  with  the  salary,  while  in  the  second  it  is  absolutely  fundamental  for  the 
whole  life-organization. 

» In  this  connection  the  older  generation  is  simply  carrying  out  the  ideas  of 
familial  solidarity. 


04O  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

were  not  at  home.  For  it  scorned  to  me  Uiat  if  you  said  to  me  even 
a  single  word  1  should  be  lieahhier.     Moreover,  letters  are  now  so 

late  from  you;  they  don't  arrive  normally Now,  dear  husband, 

as  to  the  good  heart,  whether  I  have  a  good  heart  toward  you  or  not, 
I  tell  you  only  this,  that  as  I  love  God  and  want  my  soul's  salvation 
after  nn-  deatli,  I  always  love  you  and  always  have  a  good  and  con- 
stant heart  toward  you.  Yes,  my  dear  husband.  And  I  would 
never  write  any  testy  things  in  my  letters,  but  yourself,  dear  husband, 
you  lead  [incite]  me  to  do  it.  And  I  shall  write  you,  my  dear,  a  few 
words  from  a  good  heart.  My  dear,  when  you  learn  anything  about 
me  and  it  does  not  please  you,  you  ought  to  wTite  me  at  once,  "  So  and 
so,  my  dear  (or  however  else,  in  your  manner),  and  I  hear  that  you 
have  been  where  I  don't  wish  you  to  go."  For  I  even  acknowledge 
that  you  are  right  when  you  write  that  it  is  not  a  j5t  company  for  me, 
and  I  regretted  myself  that  I  was  there  and  I  said  to  myself  that  I 
will  never  more  go  anywhere.  And  you  write  me  about  it  after  a 
year,  as  if  you  had  w^aited  for  something  more  to  make  a  convection 
against  me.  Yes,  my  dear  husband,  I  shall  never  be  angry  with  you, 
even  if  you  WTite  me  something  like  this  in  every  letter  and  if  you 
make  any  remarks  to  me,  for  you  have  the  right  and  you  ought  to 
make  remarks  to  me  without  any  fear,  if  you  are  displeased  with 
anything,  and  I  shall  listen  to  you  at  any  time.  Yes,  my  dearest 
husband. 

[Calculation  of  income  and  expenses.]  My  dear  husband,  once 
more  I  make  this  remark,  for  you  write  precisely  that  you  did  not 
intend  to  answer  my  letter.  It  was  very  bad  of  you  to  think  so,  and 
to  have  written  only  after  listening  to  the  advice  of  Kum  Wierzba. 
My  dear  husband,  I  write  to  you  with  a  good  intention,  without  any 
wrath,  and  it  seems  to  me  that  you  will  agree  with  me.  Answer  me 
whether  I  don't  write  the  truth,  my  dear  husband,  that  you  ought  to 
answer  without  hesitation  every  letter,  good  or  bad  ....  and  that 
you  ought  to  accept  everything  from  me,  whether  it  is  written  good 
or  bad  [praise  or  blame],  and  I  must  also  accept  from  you  good  and 
bad  writing.  We  must  listen  to  each  other  in  order  that  it  may  be 
well,  until  we  are  united  with  each  other,  for  I  wish  our  life  to  be 
happy  as  long  as  we  live  upon  the  world.  x\nd  don't  listen  to  any 
Hams  whatever  they  may  tell  you  against  me,  or  to  any  apes,  whatever 
they  may  write  you  in  their  letters  about  me.  And  if  anything  comes 
to  your  ears  about  me,  write  me  at  once  and  I  will  listen  to  you  and 
won't  be  angry  at  all  if  you  make  any  remark  to  me.     For  I  don't 


I  JABLKOWSKI  SERIES  941 

listen  to  anybody  except  you.  For  if  we  listen  to  everything  that 
people  bark  with  their  tongues,  we  should  be  well  off!  If  I  wrote  to 
you  everything  that  I  hear  from  women  who  have  their  husbands  in 
America!  For  if  their  husbands  are  of  a  bad  conduct,  they  think  and 
say  at  once  that  all  are  the  same.  But  I  don't  listen  to  anybody 
except  you  for  you  have  ever  written  me  not  to  listen.  Yes,  dear 
husband.     [Usual  ending.]  Marcyanna 

My  most  beloved  and  dearest  Father  :  I  am  healthy  and  I  wish 
you  the  same  with  my  whole  heart.  And  now,  dear  father,  you  write 
that  you  won't  come  until  the  next  year.  But,  dear  father,  don't 
think  this;  it  won't  be  so.  For  mother  says  that  she  will  not  stop 
working  until  you  come.  And  do  you  know,  father,  that  mother  is 
sick,  but  goes  to  work  nevertheless.  And  I  beg  you,  father,  very 
much,  earn  for  the  journey  and  come,  for  I  am  very  much  worried. 
When  Sunday  comes,  mother  does  not  go  anywhere,  and  I  have  not 
even  i  companion  and  must  play  alone,  so  I  am  very  much  worried. 
I  have  nothing  more  to  write,  I  kiss  you  innumerable  times,  your  hands 
and  lips.     Goodbye.  Marysia  J. 

635  March  22,  1914 

Dearest  and  most  beloved  Husband:  ....  You  ask  me  why 
were  the  children  not  authorized  by  me  in  [writing]  their  letter.  I 
was  working  at  night  when  they  wrote  the  letter  to  you,  and  when 
I  came  back  they  told  me  that  they  wrote  to  you  for  money  for  clothes. 
I  intended  myself  to  write  you  about  it,  but  they  hastened  for  they 
were  afraid  lest  the  money  should  be  too  late  and  they  could  not  buy 
before  Easter.  They  told  me  about  it,  and  I  see  myself  that  it  is 
necessary  to  buy.     Janek  told  me  to  take  money  from  the  bank,  but 

I  said  that  I  won't  take  it Seeing  that  I  was  not  in  a  hurry 

to  write  to  you,  he  wrote And  Mania  did  not  write  to  you  for 

anything,  for  she  has  with  me  the  4  roubles  which  you  sent  her  for  her 
name-day.     I  took  this  money  for  living  and  now  must  give  it  back, 

for  she  always  asks  for  it  saying  that  father  sent  it Janek  has 

earned  now  11  roubles  for  he  took   night- work He  took  6 

roubles  of  these,  for  he  always  takes  i  rouble  [for  his  personal  expenses] 
and  bought  shoes  for  5  roubles,  so  5  were  left  for  me.  [More 
about  money-matters.'  Now,  dear  husband,  as  to  this  exchange  of 
watches,  Oles  himself  wanted  to  exchange,  for  his  watch  is  more 
difficult  to  wind  up,  and  he  was  afraid  of  spoiling  it;  he  changed 
himself,  voluntarily.     He  has  earned  already  more  than  a  rouble  for 


,)4J  rKIMARV-C.ROUP  ORGANIZATION 

niondinK  shoes You  would  lauij;h  to  see  how  he  mends  and 

(juarn-ls  witli  his  .grandfather.  For  now  your  father  is  here  and  always 
interferes  with  Oles,  as  he  likes  to  interfere  with  everything,  but 
Oles  docs  not  allow  him  to  tell  him  anything,  saying,  ''How  much 
do  you  know  about  it?  I  know  myself  what  to  do."  Now,  dear 
husband,  as  to  the  carbolic  acid,  you  can  be  perfectly  sure,  for  I  have 
jKJurcd  it  out  already.  I  give  you  my  word  of  honor  that  I  tell  the 
truth;  I  used  it  only  sometimes  for  my  teeth.  [Two  pages  describing 
her  sickness;  concern  for  her  husband's  health;  hygienic  advice.]  So 
please  care  for  yourself  that  you  may  come  back  in  good  health  and 
looking  well.  I  beg  you  once  more,  dear  husband,  care  for  your  health, 
for  I  look  bad  now  also  after  my  sickness,  and  thus  we  might  both  get 
overworked,  my  dear  husband,  and  during  our  work  the  grave  might 
cover  us  and  we  might  not  rejoice  with  each  other  upon  this  white 
world.     Yes,  my  dear  and  beloved  husband. 

Now  as  to  Rafalowa,  about  my  going  there  with  my  children. 
When  I  am  there  nobody  else  is  there  except  Rafalowa  and  Mateusz 
and  their  children.  She  buys  a  small  bottle  of  vodka  and  a  bottle 
of  beer,  we  put  our  money  together  [to  buy  it].  Oles  plays  the  accor- 
deon  a  little;  the  children  dance,  we  laugh  at  them,  and  thus  a  little 
time  passes.  Sometimes  they  come  to  me,  also  alone.  But  we  don't 
meet  so  often ;  during  the  whole  summer  I  was  there  3  times  and  they 
were  in  my  house  2  times.  They  are  very  polite  toward  us.  This  is 
the  only  defect,  that  they  are  not  married  and  live  so.     They  intend 

to  marry,  but  they  postpone  it  thus  from  day  to  day 

Marcyanna  Jablkowska 

636  [March  22,  1914] 

Dearest  and  most  beloved  Father:  I  beg  you  very  much,  send 
me  a  cream-white  ribbon  of  the  same  breadth  as  that  one  which  you 
sent  me  for  the  holidays.  Then  I  shall  have  a  scarf  for  my  dress  for 
the  first  communion.  I  beg  you  very  much,  be  so  gracious  and  buy 
it  and  send  it  to  me  as  soon  as  possible  after  you  receive  this  letter. 
I  beg  you  very  much,  and  I  kiss  your  hands,  each  finger,  and  each 
eye,  and  each  ear,  and  your  nose,  and  your  chin,  and  your  cheeks, 
and  your  neck  [all  the  words  in  diminutive  form],  everywhere  and 
everywhere,  my  diamond  little  father,  who  loves  me.  I  am  in  good 
health,  thanks  to  God,  and  then  goodbye.  Written  by  your  loving 
daughter,  Marysia  Jablkowska.  [10  years  old] 

Gud  baj. 


JABLKOWSKI  SERIES  943 

Dearest  and  most  beloved  Father:  I  am  in  good  health, 
thanks  to  God,  and  I  wish  you  the  same  with  my  whole  heart  and  my 
whole  soul.  Now,  dear  father,  I  have  mended  everybody's  shoes,  and 
after  calculation  it  amounts  to  i  rouble,  50  copecks,  and  I  have  cal- 
culated everything  twice  cheaper  than  a  shoemaker  would  take.  So 
I  beg  you,  dear  father,  send  me  either  in  a  letter  2  dollar-notes,  then 
mother  would  go  to  the  bank  and  change  them,  give  me  i  rouble 
50  copecks  and  take  the  rest  herself;  or  when  you  send  money,  send 

also  these  i  r.  50  c.  for  me I  have  nothing  more  to  write  only 

I  kiss  your  dear  hands  and  your  dear  head  and  your  dear  face  heartily 
innumerable  times,  and  once  more  I  kiss  you  innumerable  times. 
Goodbye,  most  beloved  and  dearest  father.  Written  by  your  son, 
loving  and  never  forgetting  you,  and  wanting  to  see  you  and  to  kiss 
you  as  many  times, 

Aleksander  [Oles]  Jablkowski  [12  or  13  years  old] 

637  April  18,  19 14 

Dear  Husband  :  [Long  account  of  renovation  of  house  and  furni- 
ture.] As  to  Easter,  I  was  in  Rafalowa's  home  on  Good  Sunday,  for 
she  sent  a  girl  asking  us  to  come.  On  Monday  I  stayed  at  home  and 
slept  the  whole  afternoon,  for  now  there  are  no  holidays  for  me,  nothing 

rejoices  me  at  all On  Tuesday  the  Rafals  called  on  me,  but 

I  was  going  to  night-work  and  they  stayed  only  one  hour  and  a  half. 

I  brought  5  bottles  of  beer  and  that  was  all Nobody  else 

comes  to  us  and  I  go  nowhere.'  [Calculation  of  income  and  expenses.] 
Now  again  I  must  buy  shoes  for  your  mother,  because  she  has  already 
some  patches  upon  hers  and  she  begins  to  talk  that  she  won't  walk  now 
any  more  in  shoes  with  patches.  I  shall  describe  to  you  some  day 
what  she  says,  for  she  does  not  like  to  be  with  us.  She  wants  us  to 
give  her  the  money  back  and  she  would  rather  be  free.  Yes,  my 
dear  husband.  [Details  about  health.]  Dear  husband,  you  write 
me  to  go  sometimes  with  the  children  to  the  high  mass.  In  winter  I 
never  went,  neither  with  them  nor  alone,  for  it  was  too  cold.  Now 
it  is  warmer,  but  I  have  not  much  to  wear,  and  Mania  has  no  summer 

overcoat,  and  now  the  weather  is  cold My  summer  overcoat 

is  quite  worn  and  not  nice  enough  to  go  to  the  church.  Instead  of 
putting  anything  whatever  on  myself,  I  prefer  to  stay  at  home,  for 

'  Evidently  the  husband  does  not  like  her  to  have  many  social  relations.  The 
egotism  of  the  marriage-group  asserts  itself  even  in  this  matter. 


,)44  PRTMARV-r.ROrr  ORGANIZATION 

at  once  some  people  wouUi  be  found  who  would  say  that  Jablkowska 
walks  in  such  a  worn  and  out-of-fashion  overcoat.  So  I  prefer  to 
Slav  at  home,  for  we  are  everywhere  talked  about,  that  both  the 
Jablkowskis  arc  clever  and  laborious  people,  that  you  are  working  in 
America  and  sending  money  which  we  put  into  the  bank,  that  I  am 
working,  and  Janck  also,  that  we  dress  well  and  the  children  are 
nicely  dressed.  Thus,  they  say,  clever  people  do.'  Now,  dear  hus- 
band, I  should  like  to  buy  a  summer  dress  and  a  nice  skirt  and  a  nice 
overcoat,  and  also  an  overcoat  for  Mania.  Now  I  must  buy  for 
Mania  a  white  dress  and  slippers  for  Pentecost,  because  she  is  going  to 
her  first  confession.  My  head  aches  with  all  this,  that  always  some- 
thing is  needed.  So,  my  dear  husband,  when  you  send  money  some 
day,  if  you  send  me  loo  roubles  and  some  more,  I  will  buy  something, 
but  if  you  send  only  loo,  I  won't  buy  anything;  I  will  sit  at  home  and 
put  those  loo  roubles  into  the  bank,  because  I  want  you  to  come  back 
as  soon  as  possible,  for  I  worry  much  without  you.     Yes,  my  dear 

husband 

Dear  husband,  I  ask  you  whether  it  is  true  that  you  have  killed, 
in  company  with  Wierzba,  a  pig,  that  Wierzba  wrote  thus..  For  once 
Kozak  came  to  me  when  I  was  in  the  factory  and  asked:  "Has  Kum 
[your  husband]  written  a  letter  now?"  I  say:  "Why  do  you  ask? 
He  has."  And  he  laughs:  "And  what  does  he  write?"  I  say: 
"  Nothing  in  particular.  He  is  in  good  health,  thanks  to  God.  And 
what  is  the  matter  ?"  He  says:  "Nothing,  only  mine  [my  wife]  said 
that  Wierzba's  wife  said  that  Wierzba  wrote  that  they  killed  a  pig 
together."  So  I  am  curious,  whether  it  is  true,  for  even  if  you  did  it 
it  is  all  right.     [Usual  ending.] 

Marcyanna  Jablkowska 

638  May  8,  1914 

Dear  Husband:  I  received  your  postcard  for  which  I  thank  you 

heartily Now,  dear  husband,  to  this  postcard  I  answer  you  by 

a  letter,  not  by  a  postcard,  because  I  wrote  you  a  postcard  on  May  i, 
and  I  cannot  send  you  thus  one  postcard  after  another,  for  it  ought 
not  to  be  done  so.     A  postcard  ought  to  be  sent  after  a  letter,  and  not 

'  Compare  the  high  social  standing  of  Jablkowska  with  the  case  of  Borkowska. 
The  community  dislikes  and  opposes  the  isolation  and  egotism  of  the  marriage- 
group  but  must  respect  and  acknowledge  the  superiority  which  solidarity  and 
eflficiency  give  to  this  group.  The  position  of  the  latter  is  weaker  than  that  of  the 
large  family-group,  but  incomparably  stronger  than  that  of  an  isolated  individual. 


JABLKOWSKI  SERIES  945 

two  postcards  one  after  another.  Therefore  I  write  you  a  letter,  dear 
husband,  for  I  long  very  much  without  a  letter.     I  have  had  no  letter 

from  you  for  17  days I  was  so  anxious  and  nervous  that  it 

was  awful,  because  now  there  is  such  trouble  in  America.  I  have  read 
in  the  paper  that  30  Americans  were  shot  in  Mexico,  and  many  other 
things  ....  and  that  a  ship  was  drowned  which  left  America  on 

April  7 So,  my  dear  husband,  I  admonish  you  very  much, 

if  you  intend  to  come  from  America  sooner  or  later  inform  me  exactly 
when  you  will  leave.  And  then  I  shall  write  you  to  bring  us  some 
token  from  America.  For  if  only  things  are  bad  in  America,  I  beg 
you,  come  back.  Now,  dear  husband,  I  dreamed  that  you  returned 
home  and  came  to  me  to  the  factory  and  I  did  not  recognize  you.  It 
seemed  to  me  that  it  was  you,  but  I  was  not  certain.  And  I  asked  the 
women,  "Look  there,  this  man  is  like  my  husband."  And  you  went 
to  the  well  for  water.  And  Pazuchowa  said,  "Evidently,  it  is 
Konstanty."  And  you  came  back,  carrying  water,  and  entered  into 
the  room  and  kissed  me  and  began  to  weep  that  I  did  not  own  you. 
And  I  told  you  nothing,  because  I  was  angry  with  you  for  not  having 
written  to  me  when  you  would  come  back,  for  I  was  pained  that  I 
had  not  met  you  at  the  railway-station.  Then  I  awoke.  So  my 
dream  was  contrary  [bad?],  because  I  dreamed  that  you  kissed  me 
with  your  tongue. 

Miecznik  has  quarreled  with  me.  They  are  all  mean,  for  they 
grudge  this  heavy  work  which  I  have.  All  this  is  through  envy,  for 
whenever  money  comes  [from  you],  their  eyes  sally  out  of  their  heads 
from  envy.  For  we  have  such  luck  that  people  grudge  our  work. 
In  this  quarrel  with  me  he  reproached  me  that  I  ought  not  to  work,  for 
you  send  me  money  from  America.'  He  did  not  say  this  to  my  eyes 
[outright],  only  he  said  that  I  was  working  for  the  sake  of  distraction. 
We  are  4  women  who  work  together,  as  before.  One  of  them  remained 
at  home,  and  Miecznik  went  at  once  to  the  master  asking  him  to  send 
a  woman  to  us.  The  master  refused,  and  the  3  of  us  worked  until 
breakfast.  After  breakfast  he  went  to  the  director  and  said  that 
there  were  three  of  us  and  we  could  not  get  along,  and  the  director 
sent  another  woman  more.  He  was  so  mean  because  he  did  not  want 
us  to  earn  a  zloty  more,  for  he  grudges,  particularly  me.  I  got  very 
angry  at  these  Hams,  for  I  don't  allow  anybody  to  abuse  me  much 

•  It  is  traditionally  not  suitable  to  a  man's  dignity  to  let  his  wife  do  hired  work 
and  to  a  woman's  dignity  to  do  hired  work  if  she  has  a  husband. 


Q46  PRIM ARY-GROUr  ORGANIZATION 

ami  he  cannot  ofTond  mc  in  an>-  otlier  way,  for  I  have  my  honor  and 
I  iUm't  care  alnuit  any  conversations.  So  he  was  very  loud-mouthed 
and  s;iid  that  I  was  too  j,'reat  a  lady,  that  such  a  lady  ought  not  to 
work  in  such  a  l)lack  factory  room  but  to  sit  in  her  apartments.  Yes, 
my  dear  husl)and.  And  I  tell  you  that  I  will  work  only  until  you 
come,  for  it  is  a  pity  for  [me  to  lose]  my  health  working  with  such 
Hams.  [Healtli  details.]  Now  I  write  you  a  few  words  more  about 
Oles.  He  linished  the  school  and  we  ought  to  think  of  his  having 
some  occupation.  So  decide,  please,  and  write  me  ...  .  what  to  do. 
He  always  dreams  either  about  going  to  a  drug-store  and  learning  to 

be  a  salesman,  or  to  a  press,  to  be  a  printer 

[Marcyanna] 

639  May  26,  1914 

Dear  Husband:  ....  I  received  100  roubles  and  put  them  into 

the  bank,  so  now  there  are  700  roubles  in  the  bank And  for 

my  expenses  I  took  a  loan  from  the  bank,'  but  I  am  not  very  much 
satisfied  for  I  have  taken  the  loan  and  have  not  bought  everythin;f 

which  I  needed I  only  got  angry  in  the  worst  way,  nothing 

more.  For  if  both  of  us  had  been  here,  we  should  sooner  have  given 
good  advice  to  each  other,  what  to  do.  So  I  took  a  loan  of  40  roubles. 
....  And  there  was  more  trouble  than  money.  It  is  happy  that 
I  know  how  to  write  and  it  makes  no  difference  to  me,  because  I  had 

to  sign  6  times And  those  who  cannot  sign — what  a  shame  it 

is!  The  official  and  the  doorkeeper  laugh  at  him.  [Enumerates  the 
expenses  and  describes  the  clothing  bought,  upon  4  pages;  adds  a 
detailed  account.]  Now,  dear  husband,  this  small  bottle  of  vodka  and 
the  zakqska  [relishes]  which  you  find  written  upon  the  scrap,  we  drank 
it  with  Syroka's  wife.  I  shall  describe  to  you  in  w^hat  way.  When 
I  had  no  letter  from  you  for  so  long  a  time  ....  I  imagined  God 

»  It  would  be  less  troublesome  and  less  expensive  to  spend  a  part  of  these 
100  roubles  instead  of  taking  a  loan,  for  the  interest,  taxes,  etc.,  on  a  loan  amount  to 
twice  as  much  as  the  interest  which  she  can  get  on  her  own  money.  But  there  is 
evidently  a  remainder  of  the  old  distinction  between  property  as  a  fundamental, 
not  purely  economic  category,  and  incomes  and  expenses.  The  loan  is  classed 
with  the  latter,  and  not  related  to  the  property.  It  is  an  exact  parallel  with  the 
distinction  between  mortgage  and  ordinary  debt.  The  latter,  in  the  peasant's 
eyes,  does  not  harm  the  property  as  such,  only  the  income-and-expense  system. 
The  other  point  here  is  the  predilection  for  a  round  sum;  a  hundred  is  an  entity 
which  would  be  damaged  by  subtracting  anything  from  it.     Cf.  note  2,  p.  936. 


JABLKOWSKI  SERIES  947 

knows  what!  That  you  were  sick,  or  that  you  had  got  so  indifferent. 
And  I  went  to  Syroka  and  said  so:  "Tell  me  my  fortune  from  cards, 
ktima,  whether  my  husband  is  healthy,  for  I  have  had  no  letter 
for  a  long  time."  And  she  laid  the  cards  and  said:  "Kum  is  healthy 
and  works,  and  during  this  week  you  will  receive  a  letter  with  good 
news,  and  a  big  sum  of  money  is  on  the  way,  so  don't  grieve  for  on 
Sunday  you  will  go  [to  the  post-office]  for  money."  And  I  said:  "If 
your  words  prove  true,  kuma,  I  will  treat  you  when  the  money  comes." 
And  thus  it  happened.  I  received  your  letter  on  Thursday  and  the 
post-notification  about  money  on  Monday,  and  I  had  to  treat  her. 
So  when  I  returned  from  the  town  with  Mania  and  Oles,  I  brought  a 
small  bottle  of  spirits  and  zakqska,  and  we  went  to  Syroka  and  drank 

it And  please  answer  me  whether  you  are  angry  with  me  or 

not  for  having  drunk  this  bottle  with  Syroka. 

Dear  husband,  I  write  you  a  few  words  about  this  Wierzba's 
money.  It  is  so,  my  dear  husband:  I  don't  wish  Kum  Wierzba  to 
send  money  to  my  address.  First,  I  don't  wish  to  be  at  the  service 
of  Wierzba.  Second,  she  will  bear  a  savage  claim,  why  Wierzba 
sends  money  to  my  address,  not  to  hers.  For  even  if  I  talk  with  her 
whenever  it  is  necessary,  I  shall  always  remember  those  words  which 
she  threw  against  me  unjustly.  God  is  witness  whether  she  was 
right!  And  so  to  speak,  I  don't  wish  to  cause  Wierzba  this  pain,  for 
you  live  well  with  each  other  and  it  would  not  be  suitable  to  offend 
him,  for  he  is  a  very  fine  man.  But  she  is  an  accomplished  swine, 
although  my  kuma.  So  when  this  money  comes,  I  shall  draw  it 
from  the  post-office  and  immediately  there  I  shall  give  it  to  her.  And 
I  do  it  for  you,  dear  husband,  and  for  the  hum,  for  he  asks  mc  politely. 
[Church-going;  asks  for  prayer-books.]  [Marcyanna] 

640  March  28,  1914 

Dearest  and  most  beloved  Husband:  [Easter  wishes;  money 
received  and  spent.]  Now,  dear  husband,  I  write  you  a  few  words 
about  Lucek  [husband's  brother]  and  his  wife,  for  I  was  with  them 
just  now.  Lucek  began  to  abuse  us,  saying  that  we  lacked  confidence 
in  them  and  were  afraid  to  lend  them  some  money.  He  was  offended 
with  you  for  not  having  written  the  letter  to  him,  but  having  sent  it 
in  my  letter,  for  I  gave  them  this  letter  without  the  envelope,  because 
I  did  not  notice  the  inscrijition,  "To  be  forwarded  to  Lucek"  and 
tore  the  envelope.     I  did  not  give  them  the  envelope  therefore,  but 


Q48  TRI MARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

s;\i(l  that  tlic  lot  tor  was  inclosed  in  mine.  And  why  should  we  turn 
our  heads  |troiil)lc  oursclvcsl  about  the  Luceks?  We  have  enough  of 
our  own  troubles.  We  should  never  come  to  an  end  with  them. 
Lucek  began  at  once  to  worry  me,  asking  me  to  lend  him  loo  roubles 
ni'vortholess,  even  without  your  knowing  it.  I  said  that  I  positively 
wouKI  not  lend  without  your  knowing  it.  Lucek  began  to  laugh  at 
me,  saying  that  I  was  afraid  of  you.  And  I  said:  "Yes,  it  is  true,  I 
am  afraid.  My  husband  wrote  me  that  he  confided  everything  to 
mc  but  on  the  condition  that  I  would  not  lend  money  to  anybody, 
cither  of  my  family  or  of  his  own.  I  write  to  my  husband  about  every 
rouble  which  I  spend.  I  must  listen  to  my  husband  and  nobody  else." 
I  had  to  tind  an  excuse  for  he  worried  me  about  this  loan.  He  said 
that  he  will  write  a  letter  to  you  some  day,  but  I  don't  know  what 
about.  He  said  that  we  shall  still  beg  his  favor  some  day.  Is  he  our 
father  or  what  else  ?     Stupid  Lucek!  .... 

Marcyanna  Jablkowska 

641  April  7,  1914 

Beloved  and  dear  Husband:  ....  I  have  already  bought 
suits  for  the  boys.  But  I  feared  to  do  it  myself  and  Janek  also. 
Janek  said,  "  If  some  man  were  with  us  it  would  be  better,  for  he  would 
see  how  this  suit  looks,  and  whether  it  fits  me  well,  for  you,  mother, 
won't  know  it  as  well."  We  had  nobody  to  ask  to  go  with  us  except 
Adam  Jablkowski.  So  we  went  to  him  and  I  said  to  him  a  few  words 
and  we  went  at  once  to  the  Jew,  and  Janek  selected  a  suit  which 

pleased  him The  Jew  asked  22  roubles  for  this  suit;    Adam 

offered  him  10.  The  Jew  said,  "You  are  joking,"  and  said,  "21 
roubles."  Adam  offered  11.  The  Jew  bargained,  saying  that  he 
could  not  give  it  away  at  such  a  price  and  asked  20.  Then  Adam 
told  him  to  select  another  suit  for  Oles,  then  we  would  come  to  an 
agreement  on  both  together.     So  we  selected  a  suit  for  Oles  from 

black  cloth It  pleased  Oles  and  is  nice  enough.     The  Jew 

asked  20  roubles  for  both,  and  Adam  offered  18.  I  did  not  bargain, 
for  I  did  not  feel  quite  well,  only  Adam.  They  agreed  upon  20  roubles 
and  I  paid  20  roubles,  14  for  Janek's  and  6  for  Oles'  suit.  I  did  not 
e.xpect  that  we  should  buy  at  such  a  price,  for  the  stuff  is  better  than 
in  the  old  ones,  although  they  cost  more.  [Enumerates  other  ex- 
penses.] Now,  dear  husband,  when  we  bought  the  suit,  Janek  said, 
"Now,  mother,  let  us  take  a  drink  on  this  occasion."     Though  I 


I 


JABLKOWSKI  SERIES  949 

could  not  have  acted  otherwise  myself,  for  it  would  not  be  nice  of 
me,  because  Adam  got  muddy  enough  in  walking  with  us,  for  it 
rained — God  forbid!  And  we  felt  cold  all  of  us.  So  we  went  to 
Adam's  house  and  I  bought  a  pint  of  vodka  and  a  pound  and  a  half  of  a 
good  zakqska  [probably  ham  and  sausage]  and  5  bottles  of  beer  and 
rolls  for  10  copecks,  and  I  gave  to  the  children  10  copecks  each,  and 
Mania  asked  me  to  buy  oranges  ....  and  all  this  cost  me  2  roubles 
15  copecks.  [Enumerates  on  3  pages  various  expenses  and  makes  a 
general  calculation.]  So  you  can  calculate,  dear  husband,  whether 
I  have  calculated  well.  Perhaps  I  have  made  some  mistakes,  then 
write  me;   I  won't  be  angry  at  all,  for  we  ought  precisely  to  control 

each  other's  expenses,  for  this  is  good  order I  shall  describe 

to  you  many  other  things,  but  in  another  letter Answer  me 

whether  you  are  quite  healthy  for  I  dream  often  about  you,  and  I 
shall  describe  to  you  how  I  dream  about  you.     But  you  are  always 

bad  toward  me  in  my  dreams  and  I  always  cry  awfully 

Marcyanna  Jablkowska 

642  June  3,  1914 

Dearest  Father:  [Thanks  for  gifts;  describes  how  he  earned 
more  money  by  working  nights.]  I  put  10  roubles  from  this  money 
aside  and  intended  to  add  10  roubles  later  on  and  to  buy  myself  a 
black  suit.  But  it  happened  otherwise.  On  Pentecost  morning, 
coming  from  the  post-office,  I  met  Adam  Jablkowski  and  he  asked 
me  absolutely  to  come  to  him  with  mother  in  the  afternoon.  I  did 
not  want  to  go,  but  he  began  to  talk,  that  we  despise  his  house.  So 
we  went.  We  went,  and  he  had  said  nothing,  and  we  found  a  chris- 
tening [of  his  child].  Adam's  brother  was  to  be  his  kum,  but  he  did 
not  come,  and  Adam  asked  me  absolutely  to  be  his  child's  godfather. 
I  was  not  prepared  and  refused,  but  he  begged  me  and  mother,  and 
I  had  to  hold  the  child  at  the  baptism,  together  with  Majewska,  whose 

husband  had  a  cab And  on  Monday  we  had  a  poprawiny 

[supper  in  celebration],  and  I  spent  6  roubles  of  my  money  on  the 
christening-festival  and  poprawiny.     And   to   the  4  roubles  which 

were  left  I  added  2  roubles  more  and  bought  shoes Now  I 

will  begin  to  work  at  night  again  and  will  buy  a  black  suit 

Then  I  will  get  6  photographs  in  my  summer  suit  and  6  in  my  black 
suit  and  I  will  send'you  one  of  each;  you  will  see  what  suits  I  have  and 
how  I  look  now j^n  Jablkowski 


gjo  PRlMARV-r.ROUP  ORGANIZATION 

643  June  7,  19 14 

Dearest  and  most  nELOVED  Husband:  [Letters  delayed.]  I 
write  you  a  few  words  precisely  about  this  christening  in  Adam's 
house.  I  am  not  satisfied  with  it  at  all,  for  I  grudge  these  6  roubles 
which  we  have  spent,  for  each  rouble  is  a\vfully  necessary  to  me.  But 
it  was  impossible  to  act  otlierwise  for  there  would  be  more  talking 
than  all  this  is  worth.  For  if  he  had  said  to  Janek  that  it  was  a 
christening  wc  should  not  have  gone  at  all.  But  I  cannot  say  that 
the>'  have  treated  us  badly — God  forbid!  They  behaved  very 
politely,  for  the  christening  was  on  Sunday,  and  on  Monday  poprawiny 
and  we  returned  rather  late  on  both  evenings,  about  midnight,  and 
he  brought  us  home  in  a  cab  both  times.  I  was  there  and  Janek  and 
Mania,  while  Oles  ....  was  in  the  country  with  his  companion. 
[Describes  with  whom  and  how  long  he  stayed;  why  she  permitted 
him  to  go,  etc.]  And  these  Majewskis  [Adam's  friends]  admired 
[wondered]  that  I  am  still  so  young  and  have  such  big  and  handsome 
and  good  children.  And  they  wondered  that  Janek  was  going  out 
with  me;  they  said  that  another  boy  would  not  be  willing.  [Money- 
matters;  choice  of  career  for  Oles.] 

Now,  dear  husband,  I  write  you  a  few  words,  that  Golasiowa  has 
asked  my  pardon,  for  she  was  in  Cz^stochowa  [on  a  pilgrimage],  and 
after  this  she  came  to  me  and  began  to  cry  and  to  beg  my  pardon, 
and  she  wanted  to  kiss  my  hand,  but  I  did  not  allow  her,  and  we 
kissed  each  other  in  the  face.  And  she  asked  me  to  beg  your  pardon, 
that  you  might  not  be  angry  with  her.     Now  I  inform  you,  dear 

husband,  what  a  misfortune  befell  Brzozowski He  went  also 

to  America  and  his  wife  died  here  ....  and  4  small  children 
remained.  People  wrote  for  him  to  come.  Only  don't  be  impressed 
with  it,  my  dear  husband,  for  we  are  in  good  health,  thanks  to  God. 
If  I  am  a  little  unwell,  never  mind,  for  I  am  not  very  sick  either;  I 
walk,  I  work,  perhaps  gradually  this  sickness  will  pass.  I  write  you 
on  a  separate  scrap  what  is  the  matter  with  me.  [The  scrap  was 
probably  destroyed  by  the  sender  of  the  letters.]  And  if  I  write  you 
that  she  is  dead,  why,  you  don't  need  to  grieve  about  anybody  else 
except  yourself  and  your  family.  So  don't  mind  it  much.  I  write 
you  this  news  that  you  may  know,  for  I  am  also  curious  when  you 
write  me  anything  like  this.  Now,  dear  husband,  I  write  you  about 
this  sickness  of  mine,  since  what  time  I  have  not  felt  well.  My  dear 
husband  [it  has  been]  since  you  wrote  me  disagreeable  letters  about 


JABLKOWSKI  SERIES  951 

this  whole  trouble.  When  Wierzba's  wife  told  us  nothing,  and  you 
were  in  such  a  wrath  against  me  unjustly.  Only  don't  be  angry  with 
me  again  for  mentioning  this,  for  I  don't  remember  it  any  more  [I 
have  forgiven].  But  when  you  ask  me  since  what  time  I  have  been 
unwell,  I  write  you  the  positive  truth.  If  you  had  not  asked  me  I 
would  not  have  written  at  all.  So  it  was,  my  dear  husband,  that  I 
cried  very  much  and  could  not  eat  and  could  not  sleep,  only  grieved 
that  you  had  so  little  confidence  in  me  and  listened  to  gossip.  And  I 
worked  more  than  ever.  [Describes  her  work;  writes  what  the 
factory-doctor  prescribed.]  And  the  doctor  told  me  that  if  I  don't 
feel  better,  I  must  go  to  a  specialist  for  women's  diseases,  and  I  should 
go  and  should  not  grudge  the  money,  but,  to  tell  the  truth,  dear  hus- 
band, I  am  ashamed 

[Marcyanna] 

644  June  17,  1914 

Dearest  and  most  beloved  Husband:  [Two  pages  describing 
receipt  of  a  letter  in  a  torn  envelope  and  asking  him  not  to  send  such 
thick  letters  because  the  post-officials  think  they  contain  money. 
Three  pages  itemizing  expenditures,  etc.]  I  write  you  a  few  words 
about  Mania.  Write  a  sheet  to  her  and  admonish  her  to  be  more 
polite  and  not  to  fight  with  Janek,  for  when  he  makes  any  remark 
to  her  and  pushes  her  a  little,  she  begins  at  once  to  cry  awfully  and 
jumps  at  him.  Once  he  told  her  not  to  eat  in  the  courtyard,  for  I 
worked  at  night,  and  she  went  into  the  courtyard  with  a  pot  [of  food]. 
She  did  not  listen,  and  he  struck  her  a  little  on  the  face.  She  came 
immediately  to  me  to  the  factory,  weeping,  and  said  that  Janek  had 
beaten  her  on  the  face.  I  got  angry,  went  home  and  asked  who  was 
guilty.  They  told  me  so  and  so.  Thus  she  had  merited  to  be  struck 
a  little.  I  got  angry  and  said  that  by  the  love  of  God  I  would  write 
to  you.  And  I  must  write  because  I  have  said  so.  Now  write  her 
not  to  cry  thus  about  any  trifle,  for  I  tell  you,  dear  husband,  that  she 
is  such  a  weeper  that  it  is  awful.  She  cries  about  anything.  When 
I  have  worked  over  night,  I  am  unwilling  to  go  anywhere,  I  lay  down 
and  tell  her,  "Mania,  don't  go  anywhere  into  the  field  alone."  Then 
she  begins  to  weep  at  once  saying  that  she  is  worried,  and  sometimes 
she  listens,  sometimes  not,  and  does  not  tell  me  where  she  is  going. 
And  I  am  afraid,  for  now  different  accidents  happen;  I  read  in  the 
paper  what  is  going  on  in  the  world.     Therefore  I  don't  allow  her  to 


,);j  l"KIM.\KY-i;ROlT  ORC.AXIZATION 

go  alone  into  the  field.  But  she  says:  "When  the  boys  go  out  you 
are  not  anijry."  And  T  say:  "It  is  permitted  to  the  boys,  for  they 
are  hoys,  and  you  are  a  girl,  you  ought  not  to  walk  alone."  So,  my 
dear  husband,  admonish  her  always,  perhaps  then  she  will  sooner 
listen,  for  this  crying  of  hers  angers  me  awfully.  More  than  once  I 
got  so  angry  that  I  had  to  strike  her,  but  I  should  prefer  to  have  her 
listen  to  me  when  I  tell  her  anything,  rather  than  to  beat  her,  for  it  is 

not  a  pleasure  to  beat  a  child 

Now.  dear  husband,  I  write  you  about  Oles,  that  he  finished  his 
schotil  and  received  a  very  good  certificate  ....  nothing  but  fives 
and  two  fours  [5  is  the  highest  mark].  He  received  a  book  as  reward 
for  having  learned  well.  This  book  costs  perhaps  2  roubles,  but 
unhappily  it  is  Russian.  When  he  was  leaving  the  teacher  kissed  him 
on  the  head  and  said  that  he  would  try  perhaps  to  get  a  job  for  him. 
And  Oles  came  home  and  said:  "Well,  mother,  give  me  a  few  copecks 
for  having  passed  the  examination."  And  he  was  so  glad  that  he  had 
passed  it  I  I  kissed  him  and  gave  him  only  15  copecks,  for  I  had  little 
money,  but  he  was  glad  even  thus,  went  at  once  and  hired  a  bicycle 
and  took  a  ride.  And  you,  dear  husband,  when  you  send  money,  set 
aside  a  rouble  or  a  half  for  him,  for  his  having  passed  the  examination; 

then  he  will  be  glad He  wants  to  go  to  the  country  for  a  week. 

I  permit  him;  let  him  rest  a  little.  [Relates  how  she  tried  to  get  a 
job  for  him  at  once.]  Now,  dear  husband,  I  write  you  a  few  words 
about  Kicm  Wierzba  and  this  pig.  You  ought  to  have  known  your- 
self that  you  are  not  in  your  own  home  but  with  strangers,  and  that 
this  does  not  pay;  for  you  write  that  it  did  not  pay.  Nowadays 
nobody  is  ever  to  be  believed.  When  I  hear  [read]  what  you  write  I 
say  [to  myself]  that  I  did  not  expect  anything  like  this  from  Wierzba — 
that  you  would  not  come  to  an  understanding.  But  such  are  the 
times  today.  Describe  to  me  everything  you  had  between  yourselves 
[the  whole  quarrel].  But  I  would  beg  you,  dear  husband,  not  to 
quarrel.  Let  him  manage  his  own  pocket  and  not  profit  from  you. 
And  don't  ever  hasten  to  such  common  undertakings.  Yes,  my  dear 
husband.  But  it  is  always  more  pleasant  to  have  somebody  to  talk 
with.  Manage  things  as  your  reason  advises  you,  that  it  may  be 
well.     Don't  have  any  common  undertakings  and  don't  quarrel  with 

each  other Now,  dear  husband,  as  to  Syroka,  don't  fear  that 

I  tell  anything  there.  I  only  listen  to  what  she  tells  me  and  I  laugh, 
for  she  says  that  those  two  [women]  are  very  angry  because  you  send 
100  roubles  every  two  months,  and  they  write  to  their  husbands,  and 


I 


JABLKOWSKI  SERIES  953 

these  are  angry  that  you  send  so  much,  for  their  wives  write  them  that 
you  send  money  and  they  do  not.  Petruniowa  has  only  100  roubles. 
Syroka  said  it  herself,  for  I  don't  ask 

Marcyanna  Jablkowska 

645  June  28,  1914 

Dearest  and  most  beloved  Husband:  ....  Your  last  letter 

was  also  half-opened  and  then  sealed  by  the  post I  inform  you 

what  a  question  I  had  with  the  factory-porter  about  that  letter  which, 
as  I  wrote  you,  was  opened;  I  write  it  upon  a  scrap  and  when  you 
read  this  scrap,  burn  it.     Now  I  write  you,  dear  husband,  a  few  words 

about  Oles He  began  to  work  in  the  same  factory  as  Janek; 

instead  of  loafing  about,  let  him  rather  work,  then  he  will  even  eat 
better.  For  when  he  did  nothing  he  ate  little,  for  he  had  no  time 
because  of  loafing.  He  has  no  hard  work  ....  and  earns  50  copecks. 
....  Mania  passed  the  examination  to  the  second  division,  but  her 
certificate  is  not  very  good;  she  is  so  unwilling  to  learn  that  it  is  awful. 
[Six  pages  of  money-accounts;    2  pages  of  health;   usual  ending.] 

Marcyanna  Jablkowska 

Now,  dear  husband,  I  write  you  a  few  words  about  this  porter. 
He  has  read  my  letter.  I  made  him  awfully  ashamed  and  talked 
much  [abused  him]  and  said  that  he  ought  not  to  be  curious  to  read 
my  letters  for  I  receive  letters  from  my  husband,  and  my  husband 
writes  his  letters  home  and  they  are  not  interesting  to  him.     This  is 

fortunate,  that  he  did  not  tell  anything  more  to  this [illegible 

word,  probably  a  contemptful  term  for  a  woman  about  whose  husband 

Jablkowski  wrote  something  bad]  except  that [her  husband  ?] 

suffers  such  misery.  He  [the  porter]  told  her  that  I  had  read  this  aloud 
in  the  factory.  And  I,  far  from  reading  your  letters  to  anybody,  don't 
even  tell  what  you  wrote.  I  guessed  at  once  that  he  had  read  my  letter 
and  said  to  him:  "How  did  you  dare  to  read  my  letter  and  moreover 
to  spread  gossip  among  the  women  ?"  ....  He  excused  himself  and 
said  that  he  will  not  do  it  any  more.  So  I  beg  you,  if  you  write  any- 
thing bad  about  anybody,  send  this  letter  registered 

646  July  5,  1914 

Dearest  and  most  beloved  Husband:  ....  I  received  from 
you  money,  no  roubles  ....  only  I  am  very  anxious  why  I  have 
got  no  letter The  porter  went  to  the  country  for  a  few  days, 


,,;4  PRTMARV-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

and  tJie  iloorkeeper  who  took  his  place  may  have  opened  and  read  it 

from  curiosity For  some  people  lie  in  wait  for  iJiese  letters 

like  doi^s,  because  they  can  learn  notliing  from  me.  Other  men  who 
are  in  America  don't  send  so  much  money,  so  they  are  curious  why 
you  send  so  often.  Parzuch  has  sent  only  200  roubles,  a  watch  and 
a  pin  during  a  year Now,  dear  husband,  I  inform  you  what 

1  did  with  this  money  for  I  have  no  letter  and  I  don't  know  your 

decision I  asked  you  for  120,  but  evidently  you  could  not; 

nothing  can  be  done I  put  100  roubles  into  the  bank,  and  we 

have  there  already  800 

Oles  is  still  working  in  the  factory I  shall  write  you  when 

he  gets  some  other  job.  Only  I  beg  you,  dear  husband,  write  Oles 
a  few  words  and  tell  him  to  listen  to  me,  for  when  he  goes  to  the 
town  and  I  tell  him  to  be  back  at  such  a  time  for  dinner,  he  does  not 
listen;  twice  already  he  has  not  been  in  time  for  dinner.  And  he 
smokes  cigarettes  secretly.  He  kept  company  with  Lutek.  I 
abused  him,  and  he  got  a  little  away  from  Lutek,  but  now  again  he 
walks  [associates]  with  Stadolak.  I  am  not  satisfied  with  it,  for  the 
boy  is  not  orderly;  I  don't  need  to  explain  much,  but  [the  fact  is 
that]  he  is  not  orderly  and  everything  pleases  him.  Therefore  I 
don't  want  Oles  to  walk  with  him.  [Oles]  had  a  good  companion, 
but  he  is  now  with  his  father  in  the  country.     [News  about  poultry; 

2  pages  about  her  health.]  So  I  must  go  to  a  specialist  for  women's 
diseases,  but  for  me  it  is  a  great  shame,  for,  as  you  know,  up  to  the 
present  I  have  never  known  such  a  doctor,  and  it  makes  a  terrible 
impression  upon  me.  Stanislawowa  was  sick  and  went  to  such  a 
doctor,  and  she  told  me  that  there  is  a  sofa  and  he  orders  to  lie  down 

and    puts   his  hand   inside,   for  he   must   inspect But   you 

know  me  [and  you  imderstand]  that  it  is  for  me  fearful  and  dis- 
gusting  » 

Marcyanna  Jablkowska 

"47  July  22,  19x4 

Dearest  AND  MOST  BELOVED  Husband:  [Letter  received;  thanks 
for  a  prayer-book;  health.]  As  to  my  not  going  to  work,  don't 
write  me  anything  about  it  and  don't  stir  up  Janek  still  more,  for 
even  now  I  must  dispute  with  him.     He  does  not  want  me  to  work, 

'  The  attitude  of  the  peasant  woman  on  this  point  is  even  more  extreme.  Not 
only  is  the  idea  of  medical  inspection  revolting,  but  she  would  not  venture  to  write 
of  it  to  her  husband. 


JABLKOWSKI  SERIES  955 

he  says  that  he  is  ashamed  that  I  am  working.  He  has  talked  so  for 
a  year.  And  more  than  once  he  gets  angry,  particularly  if  I  am  sick. 
Now  also  he  has  talked  much  when  he  read  this  letter  saying  that  you 
don't  allow  me  to  go  to  work.  I  did  not  want  him  to  read  this  letter 
and  I  hid  it  in  a  drawer,  but  he  found  it.  And  they  all  began  to 
clamor:  "Mother  won't  work  any  more,  father  writes  well;  enough 
of  this  work."  And  Janek  said:  "Father  writes  you  not  to  work, 
and  you  don't  listen."  And  he  talked  much,  and  said  that  if  I  work 
he  won't  give  me  all  his  money,  only  4  roubles  [on  each  pay  day]. 
But  he  has  said  so  more  than  once,  and  still  I  work  and  he  gives  me  his 
money.  So  I  write  you  thus,  dear  husband.  I  should  like  myself 
not  to  work  any  more,  for  you  know  that  people  often  abuse  those 
women  who  work  in  the  factory.  Even  now  more  than  one  tell 
[bad  things]  about  Parzuchowa  and  Piotrowska,  because  they  are  so 
hot  tempered.  And  people  say:  "Jablkowska  alone  is  an  orderly 
[good]  woman,  and  it  is  a  pity  for  her  to  work  here  with  them."  But 
I  should  like  to  help  you  still  to  put  these  1,000  roubles  aside,  as  you 
desire  yourself.  So  if  I  work  for  some  time  still  it  is  some  help  for 
you,  because  I  have  fuel  and  a  few  roubles  for  living,  and  the  expense 
is  big,  for  everybody  wants  to  dress  and  to  eat  well,  and  here  every- 
thing is  expensive.  Yes,  my  dear  husband.  You  see,  we  still  lack 
200  roubles.  So  I  will  work  for  some  time  still,  we  shall  put  it  aside 
sooner.  And  I  should  like  you  to  come  back  at  last,  for  I  am  tired 
already  with  all  this.  I  don't  promise  you  to  work  for  a  long  time, 
only  till  you  come  back.  Yes,  my  dear  husband.  Now  you  write  me 
not  to  go  to  work  and  not  to  do  anything  [at  home],  for  there  are 
people  to  do  the  work  for  me.  Well,  bad  is  my  "ladyship"  now. 
When  you  come,  then  I  shall  be  a  lady  [do  no  housework].  But  now 
grandmothers  want  to  be  ladies.  Well,  my  mother  may  be  excused 
sometimes,  for  she  is  right  when  she  complains  that  [your  mother] 
does  not  want  to  help  her  to  do  anything  in  the  kitchen.^  When  we 
drink  tea  in  the  evening  your  mother  takes  her  own  pot  and  washes  it, 
but  leaves  the  glasses  from  which  I  and  the  children  drank.  And 
it  is  always  so.  I  don't  say  anything  until  you  come  back;  let  all 
this  go  on,  for  it  is  nearer  than  farther  [nearer  to  the  end  than  to  the 
beginning].  And  she  always  holds  up  her  nose  saying  that  she  gave 
her  money  here,  that  she  is  not  here  from  pity.     If  there  is  sometimes 

'  Both  the  grandmothers  are  kept  in  the  home,  the  wife's  in  return  for  doing 
the  housework,  and  the  husband's  in  return  for  money  lent.  The  latter,  therefore, 
does  not  feel  obliged  to  help  with  the  work. 


956  I'RI MARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

somcthinR  worse  at  diiiiuT,  they  all  know  how  to  be  squeamish — the 
ehildren,  particularly  Janek  and  Oles,  and  your  mother  also  lets  her 
nose  tall.  1  tK>n't  wonder  at  the  children  ....  but  your  mother 
wants  to  be  a  lady.  Now  she  does  not  know  herself  how  to  walk 
[she  is  so  proud].  If  you  were  at  home  you  would  laugh.  And  she 
always  rejiroaches  us  about  tliis  money,  saying  that  we  have  risen 
to  our  feet  for  her  money.  And  she  says  that  she  ought  to  have 
interest  on  these  300  roubles.  And  she  does  not  like  to  be  with  us; 
she  wants  only  to  have  those  300  roubles  back,  and  she  does  not 
know  herself  how  to  tear  this  money  away.  For  once  she  said  that 
Tomaszewski  wanted  her  to  lend  him  300  roubles  and  promised  her 
to  take  her  to  his  home.  Then  again  she  said  that  Antek  wants  to 
borrow  this  money  and  will  give  a  big  interest.  But  I  say  so:  I  won't 
lend  until  you  come  back,  and  then  it  will  be  as  you  do.  And  she  is 
tired  of  staying  with  us,  she  wants  to  go  to  Jozef.  She  was  always 
calling  on  Kasia,  until  once  they  almost  fought  about  this  money. 
For  she  [your  mother]  said  that  she  had  lost  her  money.  And  she 
[Kasia]  said:  "Where  do  you  have  your  money?  Why  have  you 
given  me  nothing."  And  so  always.  Once  she  began  to  reproach 
me  about  this  money,  and  I  told  her  to  be  silent,  when  you  come,  you 
will  give  her  these  300  roubles  back  and  let  her  go  wherever  she  will 
be  better  off.  And  she  said:  "What  does  it  matter  if  I  have  300 
roubles?  And  where  is  my  interest ? "  And  she  said  that  you  went 
to  America  on  her  money,  and  that  money  makes  money.^  And 
thus,  dear  husband.  But  she  has  got  calmer  since  I  told  her  that  you 
will  pay  her  back  and  now  she  says  nothing,  only  that  if  she  doesn't 
stay  with  us  she  will  go  to  Jozef.  Only  I  beg  you  very  much,  don't 
be  angry,  for  I  write  to  you  as  to  my  husband,  for  I  have  nobody  to 
talk  to.     [Four  pages  about  Oles'  apprenticeship  in  a  jeweler's  shop.] 

Marcyanna  Jablkowska 

648  August  28,  1914 

Dearest  and  most  beloved  Husband:  ....  I  thank  you  once 
more  [for  the  letters]  for  I  don't  know  what  will  be  our  further 
destiny.     Perhaps  because  of  this  trouble  [war]  it  will  be  difficult  to 

'  She  gets  her  living  instead  of  interest  and  this  is  three  or  four  times  as  much  as 
the  money  would  bring  in  cash.  But  the  mother  retains  the  attitude  of  the  peasant, 
with  whom  the  lending  of  money  is  not  considered  as  a  purely  economic  investment 
but  as  a  f)ersonal  help  to  be  subjectively  appreciated. 


JABLKOWSKI  SERIES  957 

get  even  a  letter.  But  nothing  can  be  done,  we  must  comply  with 
God's  will,  we  must  bear  steadfastly  everything.  Pray  to  God  that 
He  may  keep  us  all  in  good  health,  and  you,  my  dear  husband, 
remember  about  your  health  and  be  steadfast,  don't  grieve  about  us. 
Why,  we  are  not  alone,  whatever  happens  to  everybody  else  here  will 
happen  also  to  us.  And  I  write  you  once  more  and  beg  you,  dear 
husband,  don't  grieve,  that  you  may  not  fall  sick,  for  you  know  very 
well  that  I  want  to  see  you,  and  the  children  want  it  also.  Yes,  my 
dear  husband,  pray  only  to  the  Holiest  Mother  to  care  for  us  and  to 
defend  us,  and  don't  grieve  so,  dear  husband.  For  when  I  received 
the  postcard  with  your  last  farewell,  I  fell  upon  my  knees  before  the 
image  of  God's  Mother  and,  crying,  I  prayed  to  God  and  to  God's 
Mother  to  guard  you  from  any  misfortune,  as  well  as  our  children 
and  our  parents.  And  you  see  that  up  to  the  present  God  keeps  us 
in  His  care  and  in  health,  so  He  won't  leave  us  further  on.  Dear 
husband,  be  steadfast  and  work  happily  with  God,  and  care  for  your- 
self and  don't  forget  us And  I  beg  you,  dear  husband,  don't 

send  any  money  at  all  ...  .  although  I  wrote  you  in  my  preceding 

letter  for  money Now  I  receive  a  few  roubles  from  the  bank 

every   week I  have   taken   already  40   roubles.     Yes,   dear 

husband,  there  is  no  work,  and  living  must  be  bought If  we 

had  no  money  in  the  bank,  we  should  perhaps  die  from  hunger,  for 

it  would   be   impossible   even  to  borrow Our  bad   enemies 

rejoiced  [thinking]  that  when  there  is  no  work  and  I  take  the  money 
from  the  bank  they  would  come  surely  and  rob  me  of  the  money. 
But  I  went  to  the  cashier  and  asked  him  what  to  do,  whether  I  should 
take  money  from  the  bank.  But  he  reprimanded  me  and  said,  God 
forbid  me  to  take  money,  for  some  misfortune  might  befall  me.     He 

said  that  the  money  in  the  bank  will  never  be  lost So  I  write 

you,  dear  husband,  don't  grieve  about  our  money,  for  not  we  alone 
have  those  few  hundred  roubles.     People  from  the  high  sphere  have 

thousands  and  they  don't  get  it  all,  only  a  few  roubles  at  once 

So  don't  send  me  any  money,  put  it  into  the  bank,  don't  keep  it  with 
you,  so  that  somebody  may  not  take  it.  And  keep  the  bank  book 
carefully.     Care  for  your  labor's  fruit,  dear  husband,  for  you  work 

hard Don't  be  angry  with  me,  dear  husband,  for  not  sending 

you  any  money-accounts,  but  I  have  not  a  calm  head And  if 

sometimes  letters  don't  reach  you  and  you  have  no  news  from  us,  I 
beg  you  for  God's  sake,  don't  grieve,  only  pray  to  God  for  patience 


058  PRIMARV-C'.ROUP  ORGANIZATION 

and  health,  ami  I  must  he  patient  here  also  witJi  our  children 

Goodhyc,  my  dear  and  l)cloved  husband.  Be  calm  about  us,  I  beg 
you  very  much,  dear  husband.  Don't  lose  your  courage,  comply 
with  God's  will,  and  I  and  our  children  we  must  also  comply  with 
God's  will,  since  we  have  lived  to  see  such  things.'  I  kiss  you  and  I 
press  you  in  my  embrace,  and  I  kiss  your  face,  the  dearest  one  for 
me.  And  once  more  I  kiss  you  heartily,  my  dear  husband. 
Your  wife,  always  well-wishing  and  loving  you, 

Marcyanna  Jablkowska 

'  Compare  the  fortitude  of  this  letter  with  that  in  Starkiewicz  series,  No.  525, 
Kluch  series,  No.  532,  and  Porzyclii  series,  No.  627. 


PERSONAL  RELATIONS  OUTSIDE  OF  MARRIAGE 
AND  THE  FAMILY 

We  have  seen  that  the  familial  and  communal  system  of 
life  does  not  leave  much  place  for  relations  of  individual 
friendship  and  love.  The  closeness  of  friendship  is  deter- 
mined by  the  strength  of  social,  objective  bonds  which 
exist  between  the  individuals,  and  not  by  their  personal 
affinity.  Friends  are,  first  of  all,  members  of  the  family, 
then  any  inhabitants  of  the  village,  parish,  community. 
Of  course  there  is  some  liberty  of  individual  selection,  but 
only  in  so  far  as  it  does  not  interfere  with  the  recognized 
objective  bonds.  The  subject  can  be  in  a  closer  friendship 
with  one  inhabitant  of  his  village  than  with  another,  or  with 
one  cousin  than  with  another,  but  he  has  no  right  to  prefer 
a  cousin  to  a  brother,  an  unrelated  inhabitant  of  his  village 
to  a  cousin,  a  member  of  another  community  to  a  member  of 
his  own  community,  a  foreigner  to  a  Pole.  Since,  evidently, 
such  norms  seldom  completely  determined  the  real  conduct, 
we  find  the  interesting  fact  that  in  all  cases  where  individual 
preference  is  not  based  upon  the  objective  bonds  certain 
other  social  bonds  are  substituted  to  justify  it,  and  assume 
thus  a  social  importance  which  they  would  hardly  attain 
otherwise.  Here  belongs,  first  of  all,  the  god-relation.  A 
kum  is  equivalent  to  a  relative,  under  the  pretext  that  it  is 
spiritual  relationship.  Therefore,  a  man  who  has  a  close 
friend  sanctions  this  friendship  by  asking  him  to  be  his 
kum  or  by  holding  his  child  at  baptism.  He  then  has  the 
right  to  prefer  him  to  his  real  relatives.  Another  objective 
bond  used  to  justify  friendship  is  that  between  a  swal 
(matchmaker)  and  the  bride,  the  groom,  or  their  parents. 
If  neither  of  these  social  bonds  is  available,  there  remains  the 

959 


960  rRiMARv-r.Rorr  organization 

weakest  and  least  recognized  one,  companionship  in  some 
social  activity  -school,  military  service,  work.  Perhaps  the 
freciuent  endeavor  to  have  a  friend  marry  one's  relative  is 
in  a  large  measure  due  to  the  desire  to  sanction  the  friend- 
ship by  a  familial  relation. 

Naturally,  when  the  family  dissolves,  personal  friendship 
assumes  a  greater  independence.  But  again,  as  we  have 
seen,  the  constitution  of  a  strong  marriage-group  puts  new 
hindrances  in  its  way.  (Cf.  Jablkowski  series.)  Thus  it 
seems  that  free  friendship  is  hmited  socially  to  the  inter- 
mediary period  between  the  dissolution  of  the  old  family  and 
the  constitution  of  the  independent  marriage-group.  Indi- 
\'idually  the  only  favorable  time  for  it  is  the  time  before 
marriage,  and  sometimes  there  are  friendships  in  old  age, 
after  retiring  from  the  active  family  life. 

As  to  love,  we  know  that  it  is  always,  in  the  traditional 
organization,  related  to  the  question  of  marriage,  and  since 
marriage  is  a  familial  matter,  love  remains  subordinated  to 
familial  considerations  and  to  the  control  of  the  community. 
Here  again  a  partial  dissolution  of  the  family  and,  moreover, 
a  disintegration  of  the  forms  of  social  control  are  necessary 
in  order  to  make  place  for  a  free  individual  relation  which 
may  last  for  a  certain  time  before  culminating  in  marriage. 
And,  of  course,  a  certain  degree  of  individual  culture  is  also 
indispensable  to  make  this  relation  interesting  in  itself. 

The  follo^\dng  series  do  not  lend  themselves  to  a  sys- 
tematic arrangement,  but  we  place  first  the  cases  in  which 
the  personal  relations  are  still  somewhat  under  the  influence 
of  the  traditional  attitudes. 


HEJMEJ  SERIES 

It  will  be  noted  that  each  letter  is  from  a  different  person 
and  shows  a  different  kind  of  relation.  They  are  from  (i) 
cousin  and  friend,  (2)  sister,  (3)  mayor  of  the  commune, 
(4)  a  Jew,  (5)  father.  All  these  relations  are  here  still 
typical  for  the  primitive  social  organization  of  peasant  life; 
no  evolution  toward  the  modern  individualistic  form  is 
manifested. 

649-53,   TO  WOJCIECH   HEJMEJ,    IN   AMERICA,    FROM    FAMILY- 
MEMBERS   AND   FRIENDS,   IN   POLAND 

649  MOKRAWIES,  1 9 13 

Dear  Wojciech:  [Usual  beginning;  health  and  success.]  You 
ask  how  I  am  getting  on  with  my  work.  You  can  know  yourself, 
that  formerly  there  were  two  of  us  and  now  I  am  alone,  so  more  than 
once  I  have  to  do  without  breakfast  or  even  dispense  with  dinner, 
because  there  is  no  time  to  eat.  You  ask  about  your  wife,  but  I  don't 
know  anything.  I  have  been  there  often,  every  second  or  third  day, 
but  I  don't  see  anything  [wrong];  I  see  only  that  she  bought  one  calf 
and  put  another  to  suckle,  and  is  managing  [the  farm-work]  well. 
If  she  buys  sometimes  a  pound  or  two  of  flour,  don't  be  angry,  because 
now  everybody  buys;  you  know  well  how  the  grain  is  now,  that  it  is 
impossible  to  bake  any  bread  without  buying  flour  [and  mixing  it 
with  the  homemade  flour].  It  is  not  well  to  believe  everything  that 
people  say,  for  you  would  never  come  to  the  truth  by  this  way.  At 
present  there  are  people  who  write  even  if  they  did  not  see  [anything 
bad],  while  they  ought  to  think  well  before  they  begin  to  write  without 
knowing  the  thing  with  certainty.  And  then  you  are  tormented 
without  need,  because  you  cannot  learn  [the  truth]  exactly  at  once, 
for  it  is  far  away.  You  ask  what  people  say  about  you.  Nobody  says 
anything,  and  your  parents-in-law  don't  say  anything  bad  either. 
And  as  to  myself,  since  I  undertook  this  work,  I  must  do  it,  although 
it  is  very  hard  ....  you  are  to  understand,  that  I  do  it  only  for 
your  sake.     [Weather.] 

961 


96j  prim arv-c.roup  organization 

I  don't  have  anything  more  to  write  you,  dear  Wojtus,  because 
I  don't  want  to  write  you  lies  and  don't  want  to  invent,  and  I  don't 
know  an\thing  bad.  Wlien  I  don't  know  anything  with  certainty, 
I  don't  bcHeve  anybody;  but  here  I  did  not  even  hear  anything  from 
anxbody '  Franciszek  Witkowski 

650  December  28,  1913 

"Praised  be  Jesus  Christus!"  .... 

Now,  dear  brother,  I  thank  you  for  the  letter  and  for  these  100 
crowns  which  you  sent  us  We  were  very  glad  because  they  will  be 
very  useful  to  us  now.  This  year  was  very  wet  and  all  the  grain  got 
rotten  in  the  field  ....  and  there  is  a  great  misery  among  us. 
And  now  we  inform  you,  dear  brother,  that  on  Christmas  we  had  a 
nice  young  man  from  America!  He  came  with  our  father  when  he 
was  returning  from  Nowy  Sq,cz,  and  he  said  that  he  married  Kaska 
in  New  York,  that  she  came  with  him  and  is  now  in  Stary  S^cz,  and 
brings  a  big  trunk  which  they  cannot  lift,  and  there  are  60  crowns  to 
be  paid  for  it,  and  she  has  no  change,  only  a  whole  3,000,  and  nobody 
in  the  town  can  change  it.  But  our  father  did  not  want  to  give  him 
[money]  nor  to  believe  him,  but  said:  "Come  here  both  of  you. 
Then  we  will  go  for  this  trunk  and  pay  for  it."  Then  he  went, 
saying  that  he  would  bring  Kaska.  But  he  did  not  go  to  S^cz,  only 
to  the  house  of  Paszon  in  Osowo,  and  there  told  him  the  same — that 
he  married  Paszon's  daughter  Halka  in  Cleveland  in  America,  that 
he  is  his  son-in-law.  Paszon  drew  the  money  out  and  gave  it  him. 
He  took  it  and  went.     Paszon  waited  one  day,  two  days,  three  days — 

'  The  friendship  between  Hejmej  and  Witkowski  is  certainly  based  upon  some 
kind  of  relationship,  probably  cousinship;  the  allusions  to  common  work  prove 
that  there  was  also  some  business-partnership,  perhaps  renting  of  land.  The 
relation  is  close  enough  to  involve  some  sacrifice  and  interference  with  the  marriage- 
group.  The  control  which  Hejmej  exerts  upon  his  wife  through  his  relatives  and 
friends  is  not  an  isolated  case;  we  have  seen  other  instances  of  it.  It  does  not 
mean  that  the  relation  between  the  husband  and  the  controlling  friend  is  closer 
than  that  between  the  husband  and  the  wife,  but  merely  that  since  marriage  is 
a  familial  and  social  matter,  the  conjugal  relation  can  be  controlled  by  any  member 
of  the  family  or  community,  even  spontaneously,  the  more  so  when  in  the  name  of 
the  husband.  The  friend  acts  as  substitute  of  the  husband  and  representative  of 
the  group.  And  accordingly  the  husband  never  asks  that  the  side  of  his  wife's 
life  be  controlled  which  is  reserved  for  conjugal  privacy  and  has  not  a  social  char- 
acter, i.e.,  sexual  fidelity.  There  is  gossip,  of  course,  when  a  break  of  fidelity  is 
suspected,  but  only  because  such  a  break  brings  the  sexual  problem  out  of  the 
sphere  of  conjugal  privacy. 


HEJMEJ  SERIES  963 

neither  son-in-law  nor  daughter!  It  was  some  thief.  Only  he  must 
have  learned  somewhere  what  he  knew — that  our  Kaska  is  in  New 
York  and  Paszon's  Halka  in  Cleveland.     Paszon  did  not  even  have 

the  money  but  borrowed  it  and  gave  it  to  such  a  thief ' 

And  now  the  price  of  vodka  has  gone  up  here  to  i  crown  20  hellers 
for  a  liter,  and  formerly,  as  you  know,  it  was  40  cents  [80  hellers]. 
And  there  are  much  fewer  taverns  than  formerly,  and  now  it  is 
no  longer  called  a  tavern,  but  a  consens,  as  formerly  propinacya. 
And  therefore  they  have  imposed  higher  taxes,  and  whoever  makes 
anything,  either  tailor  or  shoemaker  or  blacksmith  or  potter,  when  he 
wants  to  work  must  have  a  trade-permission  which  costs  up  to  30 
gulden  or  60  crowns.  And  whoever  does  not  pay,  all  his  tools  are 
taken  away  from  him,  and  a  constable  with  a  mayor  goes  to  him  and 
he  can  make  nothing  until  he  has  paid  the  tax.     Such  a  misery  is  now 

here,  in  this  poor  Galicia 

Your  sister, 

RozALiA  Hejmej 

651  January  22,  1914 

Respected  Wojciech:  We  speak  to  you  these  words:  "Praised 
be  Jesus  Christus,  born  of  the  Holiest  Virgin  Mary"  [rhymed]. 

Dear  Wojciech,  we  write  to  you  this  letter  and  we  ask  you  about 
your  dear  health  and  success.  As  to  us  all  in  the  commune,  we  are 
in  good  health,  except  Michal  Bodziony  who  is  ill,  and  our  success  is 
as  usual  in  Mokrawies. 

Now  we  inform  you  that  we  received  your  letter  for  which  we  are 
very  glad  in  the  whole  community,  and  we  thank  you  for  writing  to  us. 
Dear  Wojciech,  we  inform  you  that  winter  is  severe  in  our  country, 
severe  cold  and  enough  of  snow-hills,  for  we  cannot  go  through  by 
any  way.     Now  we  inform  you  that  we  divided  the  birchwood  near 

'  The  credulity  of  the  old  man,  so  contrary  to  the  usual  suspiciousness  of  the 
peasant,  is  due  to  the  revolution  which  American  emigration  has  brought  into  the 
peasant  life.  While  in  normal  condition  a  marriage  of  the  daughter  without 
the  parents'  knowledge  and  with  a  man  absolutely  unknown  would  be  impossible, 
everything  seems  possible  in  America.  As  we  have  said  elsewhere,  the  peasant's 
ideas  and  prepossessions  are  so  completely  adapted  to  his  normal  conditions  of  life, 
that  once  outside  of  these  conditions  he  loses  all  feeling  of  proportion,  all  apprecia- 
tion of  probability  and  improbability.  Extremely  difficult  to  cheat  witliin  the 
sphere  of  his  habitual  acts  and  conceptions,  he  becomes  the  prey  of  any  stupid 
combination  when  he  can  no  longer  apply  his  usual  criteria. 


964  rRlMARY-C^.ROUr  ORGANIZATION 

Wrzary.  but  not  the  pinewood,  because  winter  interrupted  us.  As  to 
Franck,  up  to  tlie  present,  he  manages  well  enough,  and  we  don't 
know  how  it  will  be  further.  Now  we  inform  you  that  Jozek 
Hejniejak  is  getting  married  in  Gostwina,  in  the  house  of  Plata, 
and  Wojick  Stawczak  married  Kubalanka,  that  one  in  the  house 
of  Jasick  Bodziony. 

Dear  W'ojciech,  we  are  glad  that  you  intend  to  stay  only  long 
enough  to  pay  back  your  worst  debts.  We  all  wish  you  it  with  our 
whole  heart,  may  God  the  Holiest  help  you  and  grant  you  happiness, 
health  and  good  success,  that  you  may  return  sound  to  your  native 
village,  because  although  it  seems  that  there  is  misery  in  the  village, 
at  least  it  is  gay. 

We  end  our  words  and  we  all,  farmers  and  friends,  greet  you, 
together  with  our  wives,  most  heartily  innumerable  times,  and  we 
wish  you  for  this  New  Year  happiness,  health,  fortune  and  after 
leaving  this  world  a  Heavenly  crown  [rhymed]. 

Now  I  greet  you,  Wojciech,  I,  son  of  Macius  from  Rogi,  i.e.,  the 

Mayor,  and  I  greet  you  also  heartily,  I,   the   Mayor's  wife,   i.e., 

Zwolinska.     Now  I  greet  you,  Wojtus,  I,  Jan  Hejmej,  very  heartily. 

Be  healthy,  dear  Wojciech,  until  we  see  you  again.     May  God  grant  it.' 

Yours  forever  well-wishing, 

Jan  Zwolinski,  Mayor 

I  signed, 

J[an]  H[ejmej] 
Our  [J.  H.'s?]  grandmother  greets  you. 

[Communal  seal.] 

652  WojAKOWA,  July  15,  1914 

Dear  Wojciech:  First  I  thank  you  for  your  letter  which  I 
received  on  July  2,  and  I  thank  you  for  remembering  us.  As  to  our 
health,  about  which  you  ask,  it  is  as  usual,  and  our  success,  as  in 
Galicia;  it  cannot  be  praised,  because  in  Galicia  there  has  been  always 
misery  and  there  will  be  further  misery.     Money  is  always  lacking. 

'  The  letter  is  written  in  the  name  of  the  whole  commune.  In  Galicia,  where 
the  commune  is  autonomous,  it  plays  a  much  greater  role  than  in  Russian  Poland, 
where  it  is  controlled  by  the  Russian  government.  We  have  no  other  example  of 
such  a  letter,  and  probably  in  this  case  the  fact  that  it  was  written  is  due  to  the 
familial  relation  between  the  secretary  of  the  commune  and  Wojciech  Hejmej.  It 
is  a  ver>'  good  manifestation  of  the  attitude  of  the  social  community  toward  its 
individual  member. 


HEJMEJ  SERIES  965 

There  is  nothing  new.     As  to  weddings  ....  we  covered  [with  a 

veil  =  married]  today  the  daughter  of  Kacola  from  Moskowka.     We 

have  a  new  priest.     And  there  is  nothing  more  of  interest  to  write. 

We  have  very  nice  crops,  and  harvest  is  beginning.     And  I  inform  you 

that  I  received  120  crowns  by  money-order  from  you  on  July  15,  for 

which  I  thank  you  heartily.     And  there  is  great  heat  in  our  country. 

And  you  ask  why  I  did  not  want  to  accept  20  gulden  from  your  wife. 

You  ought  to  know  yourself  that  she  did  not  offer  me  any.     If  she 

had  offered  me,  I  would  surely  have  accepted,  even  a  single  gulden, 

for  who  is  the  Jew  who  does  not  want  money?    And  you  write  me 

not  to  give  anything  on  credit  [to  your  wife].     I  don't  want  to  give 

on  credit  much,  and  your  wife  owes  me  already  for  a  shawl  and  for 

different  smaller  things.     And  if  you  send  any  money  for  me,  send 

it  to  my  address,  it  will  be  the  best.^  ....  My  wife  greets  you  and 

thanks  you  for  the  letter  that  you  wrote  to  us,  and  we  beg  you  to 

write  us  more,  whether  your  condition  is  getting  better.     And  when 

you  have  money,  send  it  to  us,  because  we  need  it  much  and  we  have 

waited  a  long  time.     And  when  God  grants  you  to  come  back  to  our 

country,  then  I  will  relate  to  you  everything.     And  I  write  you  that 

you  have  a  nice  daughter,  because  when  there  was  a  May-festival,  she 

came  to  us  for  candies. 

I  finish  this  letter.     Be  healthy  and  please  answer  to  your  Jew 

who  is  very  well-wishing  for  you. 

Kalman  Metzendorf 

Git  baj  [goodbye].  

653  September  i,  1914 

....  Dear  Son:  ....  Don't  be  angry  with  us  for  not  having 
answered  you  at  once,  but  we  had  no  time  at  all.  We  managed  as 
we  could,  because  now  it  has  been  very  narrow  [much  work]  during 
the  harvest  and  up  to  the  present,  because  men  have  been  taken  to 
the  army.  And  now  we  inform  you  that  we  gave  Kaska  away  [lost] 
for  eternal  times.  But  don't  grieve,  because  she  had  suffered  enough, 
poor  girl.  She  was  sick  for  more  than  a  year,  and  so  she  knew  so 
much  [suffering]  that  she  was  weary  of  living  upon  the  world.     We 

»  This  second  expression  of  a  lack  of  confidence  docs  not  necessarily  mean  more 
than  that  the  woman  does  not  usually  occupy  so  consistently  the  familial  point  of 
view  as  the  man  and  is  more  likely  to  yield  to  individual  interests  or  to  the  tempta- 
tion of  the  moment. 


q66  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

inform  you  that  she  died  on  August  23,  but  don't  grieve,  dear  son,  for 
all  this  comes  from  God.  When  somebody  said  that  your  arm  was 
torn  awav  this  poor  girl  wept  so  much  because  of  you  that  we  could 
not  appease  her  in  any  way.  When  she  was  dying  she  asked  about 
you,  where  you  were,  because  she  had  already  forgotten  herself 
(her  mind  wandered].  So  she  asked  where  you  were,  and  when  we 
told  her  that  you  were  in  America,  she  said:  "Then  we  shall  not  see 
each  other  any  more."  She  kept  her  reason  up  to  her  death.  But 
don't  grieve,  dear  son,  because  she  is  happy  already,  since  she  died, 
for  she  won't  have  any  more  terror,  while  we  don't  know  of  what  a 
death  we  shall  perish  [because  of  the  war].  I  don't  write  you  any 
more  about  it,  for  you  know  better  than  we  do,  only  I  inform  you 
that  there  is  no  man  among  us  except  the  old  ones;    all  the  others 

went  to  the  army Now  we  beg  you,  answer  us  at  once  when 

you  receive  this  letter,  because  we  are  curious  where  you  find  yourself. 
If  you  are  getting  on  well,  thank  God,  if  badly,  then  it  is  the  same  as 
here. 

We  greet  you,  all  of  us,  dear  brother.  Answer  us  at  once  in 
order  that  we  may  still  read  a  letter  from  you.  Don't  be  angry,  dear 
brother,  with  me  for  having  not  written  nicely,  but  all  this  is  from 
grief.     Amen. 

[Your  father, 

Hejmej]' 
•  Dictated  by  the  father  to  the  daughter. 


PEDEWSKI  SERIES 

A  typical  situation,  showing  the  persistence  of  the  old 
attitudes  in  courtship.  The  girls  in  question  evidently  do 
not  lack  suitors,  as  they  have  two  proposals  within  a  short 
time  from  America.  This,  upon  the  ground  of  the  familial 
psychology,  explains  the  lack  of  encouragement  of  which 
Pedewski  complains  in  his  letters.  At  the  same  time 
Pedewski's  own  attitude  is  also  characteristic.  He  wants 
to  marry  into  the  family,  and  it  is  for  him  a  secondary 
matter  which  one  of  the  sisters  accepts  him,  though  he 
shows  a  marked  preference  for  one  of  them.  His  rival, 
although  he  asks  explicitly  for  the  favor  of  one  of  the  sisters, 
puts  the  matter  upon  a  familial  basis. 

654-56,      FROM      STANISLAW     PEDEWSKI     AND      BRONISLAW 

KOWALSKI,    IN    AMERICA,    TO    THE    FAMILY    JAZOSKI 

AND   TO    OTHERS,   IN   POLAND 

654  TiTUSviLLE,  Pa.,  April  27,  1913 

In  the  first  words  of  my  letter  I  speak  to  you,  Julcia  and  Kostusia, 
with  those  godly  words:   "Praised  be  Jesus  Christus." 

Now  I  inform  you  about  my  success.  Thanks  to  God,  I  am  doing 
very  well  because  there  is  sufficient  work,  and  it  will  continue  so  in 
America,  and  bosses  will  go  out  to  Castle  Garden  seeking  workmen. 
Now  I  beg  you  to  write  me  what  is  to  be  heard  in  the  old  country. 
And  now  I  ask  you  what  I  am  [what  you  take  me  for]  and  what  is 
this  you  are  speaking  against  me.  I  do  not  think  that  I  have  merited 
so  badly.  I  never  did  you  any  harm.  When  I  was  at  home,  I  would 
have  given  everything  to  you,  even  if  you  had  asked  for  my  blood. 
And  now,  when  I  wrote  you  a  letter,  you  go  about  the  village  and  you 
tell  everybody  that  if  it  were  not  for  your  dislike  of  making  something 
of  nothing  you  would  send  it  back  to  America.  Was  there  something 
disagreeable  in  that  letter?  I  do  not  know.  See  here,  you  know 
that  I  am  such  a  man  that  if  somebody  turns  me  in  any  way,  I  go 

967 


9^8  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

tluTc.  Vou  a<ko(l  mo  to  write.  T  wrote.  But  if  you  ladies  are  not 
quite  satist'icd  with  it,  then  I  can  do  nothinc;  more.  I  shall  still  find 
a  girl  for  me.  The  reason  of  my  writing  is  only  the  fact  that  I  called 
so  often  upon  you,  Kostusia,  that  I  considered  your  parents  like  my 
own.  I  always  said  that  I  must  be  a  son-in-law  of  the  Jazoskis. 
AlUiough  Julcia  did  not  care  for  me,  I  said  that  if  not  her,  I  should 
marrv'  Kostusia.  But  clearly  you  despise  me,  because  Julcia  turned 
up  her  nose  at  me  too,  when  I  was  in  the  old  country.  [Unintelligible 
sentence.]  But  I  do  not  care  what  people  are  saying  and  I  do  what 
I  wish.  And  now,  dear  Julcia  and  Kostusia,  don't  mind  about  what 
I  wrote;  you  answered  me  and  so  I  write  this  letter.  But  as  to  the 
Michalskis  [the  girls  who  did  the  gossiping],  I  wish  that  as  they  have 
already  become  old  they  may  further  become  public  women,  as  a 
reward  for  this  barking  of  theirs,  for  it  is  the  Michalskis  who  barked 
all  this.  When  Siembozak  left  they  told  him  that  you  spoke  badly 
about  me,  and  Siembozak,  when  he  came  here,  repeated  it  to  me. 
And  now,  if  you  have  the  wish  to  come  to  me,  write,  but  not  directly, 
only  after  I  send  you  a  second  letter,  because  I  am  going  to  another 
city  and  your  letter  will  possibly  not  find  me.  I  have  nothing  more 
to  write,  only  I  salute  you  and  your  parents.  I  hope  to  see  you  soon 
and  happy  in  America. 

Stanislaw  Pe[dewski] 
[An  unintelligible  sentence  follows.] 

655  September  2,  1913 

[Usual  greetings  to  his  friends  Franciszek  and  Juliusz.]  I  got 
your  letter  for  which  I  thank  you  heartily.  And  now,  dear  compan- 
ion, you  ask  me  about  my  success  in  America.  Well,  let  God  help 
you  in  our  country,  that  you  may  do  as  well;  then  you  would  not 
lack  anything.  I  do  very  well.  In  the  beginning  I  was  a  little 
homesick,  but  now  I  have  already  forgotten  about  it.  I  have  ver}- 
good  and  easy  work;  I  can  say  that  I  don't  work  at  all,  I  only  stand 
in  an  iron-foundry.  I  am  working  in  a  bolersap  [boiler-shop],  I 
have  26  roubles  wages  weekly,  counting  in  our  country's  mone}-. 
Time  goes  on  very  quickly  in  America,  you  don't  notice  when  the 
week  is  passed,  and  of  money  we  have  our  pockets  full.  Three  of  us 
are  here  from  one  village,  Siembozak,  and  Wojteczek  Zegleniak. 
We  have  music  every  day.  Wojteczek  organized  a  quartet,  taking 
besides  himself  a  clarinet,  an  accordeon  and  a  trumpet,  and  they  play 


PEDEWSKI  SERIES  969 

in  saloons.     If  they  played  in  our  country  the  whole  village  would 

listen.     Dear  companion,  now  that  I  am  acquainted  with  America, 

for  no  money  would  I  return  to  our  country,  because  there  on  Sunday 

it  is  not  so  joyful  as  here  every  day.     You  ask  me  to  inform  you  about 

your  sister.     What  information  can  I  give  you?     When  your  sister 

came,  I  saw  her,  but  now  we  don't  see  each  other.     They  are  far  from 

us.     When  I  was  there  she  said  all  was  well,  but  now  I  don't  know. 

And  now,  dear  companion,  you  ask  me  to  send  you  some  gift,  but  I 

can  send  you  nothing  by  letter.     When  somebody  goes  home,  then  I 

shall  know  what  to  send  you,  but  now  I  don't  know,  because  by  letter 

nothing  will  arrive.     And  what  you  write  about  the  Jazoskis,  why 

should  I  write  to  them  in  vain  ?     If  I  write  they  do  as  if  they  would 

not  know  me  at  all.     Were  it  not  for  [a  word  erased]  even  now  there 

would  be   nothing.     Old   [Jazoski]   and   Kostusia   seem   not   to  be 

acquainted  with  me.     Well,  I  didn't  expect  it.     I  don't  mind  it  very 

much,  only  it  is  painful.     And  now,  my  companion,  I  beg  you  to 

inform  me  what  is  the  news  with  you  and  at  the  Jazoskis,  and  inform 

me  what  do  they  say  about  me,  and  how  everything  goes  on  in  the 

country.     Please  write  me  everything  that  is  to  be  heard  and  who 

are  your  companions,  because  you  two  will  not  remain  companions 

for  a  long  time.     And  say,  what  do  the  Jazoskis  say  about  me,  good 

or  ill  ?     I  have  nothing  more  to  write,  only  I  greet  you  and  giul  baj 

[goodbye].  ^  _, 

Stanislaw  Pedewski 

And  now  I  write  to  Franek  Jazoski  [brother  of  the  girls].  I  write 
to  you,  my  companion,  about  my  success.  My  success  is  pretty  good, 
only  it  is  terribly  sad,  there  is  not  a  single  girl;  boys  alone.  And  so 
perhaps  we  shall  soon  see  ourselves  as  brothers-in-law.  Don't  be  in  a 
hurry  in  coming  to  America  before  I  come  back. 

My  Julcia,  I  don't  know  if  you  will  become  my  sister. 

My  dearest  sister  Kostusia,  do  you  remember  how  we  loved  each 
other  one  Sunday?     Why  do  you  not  answer  me?     Oh,  how  I  like 

you,  my  Kostusia!  c,  „ 

^     '     ^  Stanislaw  Pedewski 

656  Bayonna,  June,  1913 

In  the  first  words  of  my  letter  I  speak  some  words  to  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Jazoski,  and  before  all  these  godly  words:  "Praised  be  Jesus  Chris- 
tus,"  and  I  hope  that  you  will  answer  me  "For  centuries  of  centuries. 
Amen." 


()70  TRIM ARV  CROUP  ORGANIZATION 

And  now  I  si)cak  to  your  daughters  and  sons  and  in  general  [sic] 
to  Miss  Konstancva.  Very  politely  I  beg  you  to  excuse  me  for  not 
writing  for  so  long  a  time,  but  it  was  because  I  have  the  intention  of 
returning  to  our  country  and  then  we  shall  speak  together  by  words. 
Ami  now  I  announce  to  Miss  Konstancya  and  to  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Jazoski  that  I  should  be  glad  to  live  in  the  family  Jazoski,  but  I  do 
not  know  sufiiciently  if  I  can  beg  very  politely  Miss  Konstancya  to 
give  me  a  good  word,  and  also  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Jazoski,  because  I  think 
now  of  returning  soon  to  my  country.  That  is  the  end  of  my  letter. 
What  more  I  have  to  write  I  shall  do  it  in  another  letter,  only  I 
request  you  to  answer  me  quickly.  And  now  I  have  nothing  more 
to  write.     [Usual  greetings.] 

BrONISLAW  KOWALSKI 


KAZIMIERZ  F.  SERIES 

This  is  the  only  case  we  have  in  which  a  girl  plans  to 
bring  her  betrothed  to  America,  and  we  have  never  heard 
of  a  similar  case.  At  any  rate,  a  manor-servant  like 
Kazimierz  F.,  lacking  strong  familial  consciousness  and 
having  the  habit  of  dependence,  would  lend  himself  more 
readily  to  a  situation  of  this  kind  than  the  farming  peasant, 
with  his  characteristic  pride  in  money  matters.  The  girl 
who  sent  us  the  letters  evidently  felt  some  shame  in  doing 
so,  as  she  had  attempted  to  erase  the  phrases  relating  to 
the  marriage  question,  as  well  as  everything  indicating  a 
familiar  relation.  But  the  erasures  are  not  complete  and 
not  systematic.  A  remnant  of  this  feeling  is  left  in  the 
man  also,  but  rather  in  the  form  of  yielding  to  social  opinion. 
(Cf.  Nos.  659,  660.) 

The  girl  married  another  man  two  years  later,  and 
Kazimierz  came  to  America  helped  by  his  relatives.  The 
girl's  husband  has  read  the  letters,  as  it  was  he  who  sent 
them  in  her  name.  Clearly  there  is  no  retrospective 
jealousy,  since  he  allowed  her  to  keep  them  after  the 
marriage. 

657-60,   FROM  KAZIMIERZ  F.,  IN  POLAND,   TO  HIS 
BETROTHED,    IN   AMERICA 

657  Lazy,  October  10,  1910 

Dear  Manieczka:  I  received  the  postcards  from  you  on  the  way 
and  also  one  from  America.  Pardon  me,  dear  Manieczka  for  not 
having  answered  you  at  once,  but  I  expected  soon  to  have  a  letter 
[from  you],  but  I  have  none  and  I  am  obliged  to  write.  Dear 
Manieczka,  don't  believe  that  I  forgot  about  you,  or  anything  like  this. 
No,  I  don't  expect  ever  to  forget  you.  If  you  knew  how  I  am  longing 
without  you!     Not  a  single  hour  passes  without  my  thinking  of  you, 

971 


972  rRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

not  an  evening  passes  without  my  remembering  those  moments  which 
we  spent  in  the  garden  every  evening  ["which  ....  evening" 
eraseci  by  the  owner  of  tlie  letters].  Don't  forget  about  me,  don't 
allow  anybody  to  turn  your  head.  Be  true  to  mc  in  America  as 
[you  were]  in  our  country  [''as  ...  .  country"  erased].  You  are 
for  me  ["You  ....  me"  erased]  the  only  one,  and  I  ["and  I" 
erased]  ought  to  be  also  [the  only  one]  for  you.  Dear  Manieczka, 
such  is  my  love  for  you  ["such  ....  you"  erased],  that  wherever 
I  am,  whether  at  some  entertainment  or  in  some  conversation,  I  am 
always  thinking  ["always  thinking"  erased]  about  you.  Yes,  dear 
Manieczka,  nothing  interests  me  now  any  more.  I  think  only  of  you, 
m>-  thoughts  fled  with  you.  Dear  Manieczka,  on  the  following 
Sunday,  October  23,  I  shall  go  to  Turek  [military  call].  What  will 
be  the  result  for  me,  I  don't  know  yet.  As  soon  as  I  learn  I  will 
write  you  at  once.  I  beg  you  for  an  answer.  Write  me  how  do  you 
like  America.  Are  you  merry,  have  you  already  any  job  and  how 
much  do  you  earn  ["job  ....  earn"  erased]?  Please  write  me 
.  .  .  .  about  your  journey,  how  long  did  you  both  go?  Send  me 
your  photograph,  only  the  soonest  possible.  I  have  now  nothing 
more  to  write,  only  I  send  you  salutations  from  [your?]  parents.  I 
send  also  salutations  for  your  brother  and  sister-in-law,  and  for  you, 
Manieczka,  hearty  greeting,  a  low  bow,  a  kiss  ["low  ....  kiss" 

erased]  and  a  hearty  hand  shake I  wish  you  good  success 

and  [I  add]  the  old  Polish  "God  make  you  happy." 

With  respect, 

I,  your  ["I,  your"  erased] 

Kazimierz 

658  November  20,  1910 

Dear  Merka:  [erased;  probably  because  pet  name  for  "  Marya," 
"Manieczka."]  I  received  your  letter  ....  and  I  answer  you  at 
once.  First  I  must  write  you  about  my  military  service,  how  I 
succeeded.     I  can  now  be  happy.     I  don't  know  whether  our  Lord 

God  guarded  me  or  what  else,  but  I  was  exempted Don't  be 

angry,  dear  Merka  [erased],  for  my  not  having  written  to  you  any- 
thing from  Turek,  but  I  was  not  sure  of  your  first  address  ....  only 
now  I  can  write  to  you  more  often  ["I  can  ....  often"  erased]. 
I  am  very  glad  that  you  arrived  so  happily  ....  and  that  you  got 
work  at  once.     Dear  Manieczka,  I  was  about  a  month  in  Turek,  but 


ICAZIMIERZ  F.  SERIES  973 

1  did  not  amuse  myself  at  all.  First,  my  head  was  turned  with  the 
military  service,  secondly,  my  thoughts  fled  after  you,  and  nothing 
interests  me,  except  the  wish  to  come  to  you  the  soonest  possible. 
....  You  ask  me  for  my  photograph.  Well,  I  will  send  you  one, 
but  ....  later  on,  not  now,  for  I  look  very  bad;  you  know  how  I 
looked  last  year,  and  this  year  I  am  still  worse  ["you  ....  worse" 
erased].     As  soon  as  I  recover  a  little,  I  will  think  about  it 

Kazimierz 

659  January  27,  191 1 

Dear  Manieczka:  ....  Your  letter  rejoiced  me  much,  but  not 
completely.  For  I  expected  that  you  would  say  something  about 
the  ship-ticket  or  that  you  would  send  me  money  for  the  journey, 
while  you  write  me  in  a  totally  different  way.  You  write  me,  dear 
Manieczka,  that  for  America  a  man  must  be  healthy  and  strong  in 
order  to  earn.  But  how  many  people  go  to  America,  and  everybody 
works  and  comes  back  healthy,  and  brings  nice  money  with  him 
besides.  Why  should  it  be  the  worst  with  me  ?  Don't  think,  dear 
Manieczka,  that  I  am  so  weak  or  sickly.  Don't  fear.  It  is  not  so 
bad.  I  was  sick  only  before  the  [call  to]  military  service,  but  now  my 
illness  is  over,  it  is  not  so  bad.'  And  it  seems  that  in  America  I 
should  not  have  more  work  than  I  must  often  work  here  in  vain.  You 
write  me,  dear  Manieczka,  that  it  is  not  worth  while  to  come,  for  in 

2  years  the  president  will  be  elected.  But  do  you  think,  dear 
Manieczka,  that  I  would  go  there  for  some  ten  years  ?  I  should  like 
to  go  for  just  two  years,  in  order  to  earn  a  few  roubles.  Moreover,  I 
should  like  to  see  something  of  the  world,  for  today  people  say: 
"Don't  try  to  be  educated  behind  the  stove."  Moreover,  I  should 
like,  dear  Manieczka,  to  have  a  few  roubles  when  we  marry.  If  you 
have  money,  I  must  have  some  also,  for  it  is  not  nice  at  all  if  the  boy 
marries  and  has  no  money  for  what  he  needs  to  get  married  [wedding- 
expenses]. 

You  see,  dear  Manieczka,  such  are  my  intentions,  and  it  seems  to 
me  that  you  will  agree  with  me.  Dear  Manieczka,  I  hope  that  you 
will  certainly  find  some  way,  that  I  may  be  with  you  in  America.     I 

beg  you  for  it  very  much,  and  I  believe  that  you  cannot  refuse 

Don't  be  anxious  about  my  finding  work.     I  shall  find  my  way,  and 

'  The  illness  was  evidently  caused  intentionally,  in  order  to  avoid  the  military 
service. 


1)74  rRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

it  will  W  .uood  for  us  both  some  day.     You  know  well  my  thoughts, 

my  dear  Mania,  I  don't  need  to  write  you  much,  for  I  think  always 

one  and  the  s;ime.     I  would  write  you  more,  but  I  leave  it  for  another 

time 

Kazimierz 

660  March  i,  191 1 

Dear  Manieczka:    I  received  both  your  letters After 

receiving  the  first  I  was  somewhat  grieved,  but  when  I  got  the  second 
I  was  relieved  and  very  glad.  Evidently  you  wanted  only  to  frighten 
me  with  that  first  letter.  But  I  did  not  lose  hope  even  so,  because  I 
knew  that  you  only  feigned,  that  you  wanted  to  convince  yourself 
what  thoughts  I  have.  Dear  Manieczka,  don't  think  that  I  am  also 
feigning  like  some  clown.  No,  it  is  not  so  bad!  I  remember  up  to  the 
present  what  we  so  often  spoke  about,  and  up  to  the  present  I  keep 
the  same  line  of  conduct.  Dear  Manieczka,  you  write  me  that  you 
intend  to  send  me  S50.  I  thank  you  very  much.  My  father  here  will 
give  me  the  rest.  $50  would  not  be  enough  but  I  will  try  to  get  the 
remainder  ["to  send  ....  remainder"  erased],  so  that  I  may  have 
money  enough  for  the  journey  and  something  left  in  America.  Dear 
Manieczka,  I  beg  you  also,  as  soon  as  you  get  this  letter,  write  me  at 
once,  that  I  may  be  sure  how  to  manage.  As  to  sending  money 
[home],  why  are  you  so  much  disturbed,  while  I  don't  hear  your  father 
murmuring  at  all.  If  you  are  afraid  people  will  talk  too  much  about 
us  in  Lazy,  I  advise  you  to  send  the  money  to  Lotka's  address.  She 
will  go  to  Slupca  to  the  post-office,  will  get  it  and  nobody  will  know. 
I  beg  you,  dear  Manieczka,  don't  disappoint  me,  for  I  confide  in  you 

totally  and  I  think  that  I  can  do  so,  that  I  don't  err  in  this 

Dear  Manieczka,  I  won't  wTite  you  any  love-words  about  this.  We 
will  talk  when  we  see  each  other  in  America.  What  is  the  use  of 
scribbling  this  upon  the  paper?  Nothing  can  result  from  it.  But  1 
give  you  my  word  of  honor  that  all  will  be  well.  I  beg  you,  dear 
Manieczka,  for  a  speedy  and  good  answer,  that  we  may  see  each  other 

the  soonest  possible 

Kazimierz 


ARCISZEWSKI  SERIES 

These  letters,  written  by  and  addressed  to  various  per- 
sons, have  one  common  feature.  They  show  a  very  general 
type  of  friendly  relation  among  young  boys  of  the  present 
generation  who  have  already  dropped  most  of  the  traditional 
attitudes  and  feel  rather  free  from  familial  rigorism,  who  are 
in  a  period  of  life  when  practical  interests  do  not  yet  con- 
stitute the  main  aim  of  life,  and  who  have  neither  tendencies 
to  self-development  nor  social  ideals.  In  these  conditions, 
their  main  interest  is  amusement — ^dancing,  flirting,  merry 
conversations,  etc.  And  this  is  also  the  basis  of  their 
friendship.  An  interesting  point  is  that  all  three,  at  the 
period  when  these  letters  were  written,  have  confronted  for 
the  first  time  different  serious  problems  of  Hfe — Stefan,  the 
problem  of  adaptation  to  American  conditions;  J.  Wiater, 
that  of  military  service;  Borowski,  the  problems  which  the 
revolution  of  1905  put  before  the  Polish  youth.  And,  as 
should  be  expected,  all  three  of  them  react  negatively. 
Wiater's  reaction  is  rather  normal,  but  Stefan  shows  a  more 
than  normal  inaptitude  for  sentimental  adaptation,  while 
Borowski  remains  almost  completely  passive  in  the  midst  of 
powerful  national  and  social  movements. 

The  love-relation,  which  constituted  so  important  a  part 
of  the  content  of  the  letters,  has  also  the  character  of  play. 
It  is  no  longer  a  mere  preparation  for  marriage,  and  not  yet 
a  serious  matter  in  itself. 


975 


076  I'KIM ARV-GROrr  ORGANIZATION 

OCM  05.  KKDM  STEFAN  ARCISZEWSKI,  IN  AMERICA,  TO 
FRIENDS,  IN  POLAND,  AND  TWO  LETTERS  (664,  665) 
REPRESENTING  THE  SAME  TYPE  OF  ATTITUDES  IN  OTHER 
BOYS 

661  Bremen,  November  28  [1913I 

[Greetings  and  wishes.] 

Dear  Companion:  I  inform  you  about  my  health  and  success. 
1  am  in  good  health,  which  I  wish  to  you  also  with  all  my  heart.  Now, 
dear  companion,  Czesio,  I  am  now  near  the  sea,  in  Bremen;  the  city 
is  so  called.  I  got  over  the  frontier  all  right,  and  from  lUowo  also  I 
got  on  well  enough,  and  I  don't  know  how  it  will  be  from  now  on. 
Dear  companion  Czesio,  please  write  me  the  news  about  yourself.  As 
to  me,  I  am  very  sad  here.  And  I  request  you,  dear  companion,  learn 
how  my  betrothed,  Miss  Helena  is  behaving,  whether  she  is  pining 
or  not.  I  beg  you,  my  companion,  write  me  about  her,  because  I  am 
very  sad  without  her.  You  know  well  that  I  love  her.  But  no 
matter,  the  dog  may  have  her.  [I  don't  care.]  When  you  write  to 
me,  get  her  address,  and  I  request  you,  dear  companion,  send  me  the 
address  of  Miss  Zaleska.  I  beg  you  once  more,  dear  companion,  let 
me  know  how  Helena  is  behaving.  I  request  you,  Czesio,  write  to 
me  whether  she  wept  or  not  after  my  departure.  I  have  nothing 
more  to  write,  but  only  I  send  you,  dear  companion,  and  to  all  my 
acquaintances,  the  lowest  bow. 

I,  truly  well-wishing, 

Stefan  Arciszewski 

662  Amsterdam,  N.Y.,  March  2,  1914 

Respected  Companion:  Since  the  moment  we  parted,  I  have 
received  one  letter  and  have  no  tidings  since.  I  came  to  this  massive, 
golden  whore  [America],  but  I  feel  terribly  sad,  because  here  if  you 
have  no  money,  "Don't  put  your  nose"  [anywhere].  I  am  sitting 
without  work  and  I  don't  know  what  will  happen,  whether  things  will 
get  better  or  not.  A  terribly  great  number  of  people  walk  about 
without  work.  Now,  before  Zapusty  [last  six  days  before  Lent]  they 
go  and  break  railway-cars,  because  they  have  nothing  to  eat.  Michal 
works  a  little,  but  I  cannot  get  work.  What  is  the  news  in  our 
country?  Is  there  any  probability  of  war?  For  here  it  is  heard 
that  in  our  country  there  will  be  war.     If  onlv  there  were  a  change 


ARCISZEWSKI  SERIES  977 

in  our  country!  I  wish  I  could  return  home  at  once,  because  here  I 
have  nothing  to  do.  Now,  dear  companion  Czesio,  please  tell  me 
what  is  the  good  news  about  yourself.  Rumors  have  reached  me  that 
Helena  got  married,  but  I  don't  know  with  whom,  whether  with 
Kozak  or  with  somebody  else.  Please  write  me  whether  there  will 
be  a  call  now,  in  March,  to  military  service,  or  not,  and  whether  any 
girls  got  married  or  not.  With  us  now,  on  the  14th  and  15th  of 
February,  terrible  snows  fell,  so  that  it  was  impossible  to  crawl  out 
from  home. 

I  sent  a  letter  to  Miss  Klimaszewska  on  February  24,  but  she  has 
not  yet  answered  me.  I  don't  know  what  it  means.  It  seems  as  if 
she  did  not  know  me,  and  as  if  she  was  afraid  on  that  account.  And 
perhaps  Serafin  saw  her  and  did  not  allow  her  to  send  her  address. 
In  April,  I  think  of  going  nearer  to  New  York;  perhaps  there  I  shall 
learn  something  more. 

Now  I  am  complimenting  [flirting]  with  Miss  Szewczak,  She 
lives  not  far  from  me,  in  Philadelphia.  We  write  each  other  terrible 
[declarations  of]  love.  She  believes  that  I  write  all  this  in  earnest. 
I  request  you,  Czesio,  send  me  the  address  of  Julka  Zaleska.  I  beg 
you,  write  to  me  what  you  hear  about  town,  how  the  boys  amuse 
themselves  there.  Because  when  I  recall  those  plays,  how  often  we 
amused  ourselves  together,  tears  stand  in  my  eyes.  Please  tell  me 
what  is  to  be  heard  with  us  at  home  [what  is  the  news].  Once  more 
I  ask  you,  what  about  Helena,  how  does  she  do,  whether  her  success 
[with  boys]  is  good  or  bad,  and  how  many  amusements  [dances]  there 
were.    Here  I  was  at  two  dances  and  was  lucky  enough  at  them.    End. 

My  lowest  bow  to  all  our  acquaintances,  to  Miss  Piotrowska  and 
Miss  Bojarska. 

I  remain,  truly  well-wishing,  yours.     I  kiss  you. 

Stefan 

663  [1914] 

Respected  Companion:  ....  Now  dear  companion,  I  am 
writing  you  a  second  letter  and  I  have  no  answer  to  my  first,  so  I 
don't  know  how  it  is  with  you  and  in  our  country.  Here  with  us  it  is 
very  sad.  I  am  without  work  and  Michat  also  works  irregularly, 
because  factories  are  closed.  I  have  received  a  letter  from  Kostek 
and  Pawel.  They  have  no  work.  Kostek  has  not  worked  for  6 
weeks  and  Pawel  for  12.     And  so  it  is  very  bad  with  us,  I  don't  know 


i)j>^  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

what  will  ha])pin;  had  limes  are  coming.  Now,  dear  Czesio,  I  beg 
you,  (icsiril)c  what  is  the  news  about  yourself,  because  I  am  curious. 
If  I  had  not  listened  to  my  mother  I  should  have  earned  more. 
Mother  wanted  mo  to  go  to  America,  and  I  didn't  want  to  go.  If 
I  had  not  come,  I  sIkhiKI  have  done  better.  I  didn't  intend  to  come 
to  America  before  spring  and  now  here  it  is  very  bad.  Factories 
are  stopped,  there  is  no  work.  Now,  dear  companion  Czesio,  write 
to  me  about  the  girls,  whether  they  long  for  me  or  not,  because  I  am 
ver)'  curious.  Tell  me  about  them,  and  particularly  about  Miss 
Sobierajska.  Is  she  longing  for  me  or  not  ?  I  beg  you  with  all  my 
heart.  My  best  companion,  I  beg  you  now  once  more,  Czesio,  what 
success  does  my  old  girl  have  now  in  the  carnival  ?  If  there  are  to 
be  weddings,  please  inform  me  who  has  got  married  either  near  the 
barracks  or  in  the  town,  or  in  the  village  among  our  acquaintances. 
Here  I  have  no  acquaintance,  and  therefore  I  am  very  sad  and  I  long 
terribly  for  my  native  country. 

Now,  dear  companion  Czesio,  I  beg  you,  send  me,  if  you  can,  some 
nice  Polish  recitals  [poems  for  recital]  and  some  new  waltzes. 

Lowest  bow  to  you,  Czesio.     Lowest  bow  from  MichaL 

I,  truly  well-wishing, 

Stefan 

Now,  dear  companion  Czesio,  please  salute  from  me  Miss 
Bronislawa  Piotroska,  and  all  the  girls  with  whom  we  are  acquainted. 
Now,  dear  companion  Czesio,  you  have  no  idea  what  a  longing  got 
me.  I  don't  regret  anything  else,  but  only  the  carnival.  Now  in 
our  country  they  will  amuse  and  rejoice  themselves,  and  myself,  I  am 
sitting  here,  as  in  a  prison.  If  I  had  known  it,  I  would  never  in  the 
world  have  sacrificed  myself  and  come  to  America. 

Now,  dear  companion  Czesio,  lowest  bow  to  yourself  and  to  your 
sister  and  parents,  and  to  Wladyslaw  and  Franus,  and  to  all  our 
acquaintances. 

I,  truly  well-wishing,  and  loving  you, 

Stev  Arter 

"64  Zamostek,  October  27,  1913 

Dearest  Companion:  First  I  thank  you  for  your  memory 

I  got  your  address  from  your  brother  Stanistaw  and  I  answer  you. 
....  I  have  been  at  home  for  6  weeks  after  coming  from  America. 


ARCISZEWSKI  SERIES 


979 


As  to  the  lots,  I  drew  No.  51  and  I  am  received  into  the  army 

Know  it,  dear  companion,  that  if  I  had  not  to  go  to  the  army  I  should 
not  hold  out  at  home ;  there  are  no  companions,  nowhere  to  go.  Our 
Gorzkow  has  quite  declined.'  But  what  a  girl  I  have  found  now! 
I  will  write  you  in  another  letter,  for  I  don't  know  yet  whether  she 
will  wait  for  me  [until  my  return  from  the  army]. 

[Enumerates  those  taken  into  the  army  and  those  exempted.] 
We  shall  have  still  9  days  for  revelry  at  home,  and  then  to  Chelm. 
[Enumerates  the  marriages  and  betrothals.]  People  marry,  dog's 
blood!  [Psiakrew,  popular  oath.]  And  I  shall  also  have  a  wedding 
in  Chelm,  but  with  the  accursed  Kacap  [nickname  for  "Russian"]. 
Send  me  to  the  army  10  gallons  of  whiskey.  I  will  feed  these  Mos- 
covites  so  that  cholera  will  take  them!  Pardon  me,  dear  companion, 
for  writing  you  in  such  an  ugly  way,  but  the  devils  almost  take  me 
[I  am  furious].  Why  should  I  serve  these  whores'  sons?  Dam 
it.^  .... 

I  wish  you  every  good  with  my  whole  heart. 

Yours, 

Jan  Wiater 

665  Przasnysz,  October  12,  1906 

Dear  Stas:  I  begin  this  letter  with  the  words,  "Praised  be 
Jesus  Christus,"  and  surely,  were  it  not  for  the  far  space  which  does 
not  let  me  hear  your  answer,  I  should  hear,  "In  centuries  of  centuries. 
Amen."  .... 

I  have  been  working  for  two  months  in  a  notary's  office.  I 
have  had  not  much  work  up  to  the  present,  but  although  I  have  a 
little  free  time  I  cannot  enjoy  evening  walks  as  during  your  presence 
here,  for  there  is  a  state  of  war  and  it  is  forbidden  to  walk  without  a 
lantern  and  a  passport.     There  are  patrols  upon  the  street  who  arrest 

those  who  walk   without  lanterns I  do  it  and  I  succeed. 

Terrible  things  are  going  on  in  our  country,  beyond  description.  In 
Warsaw  nothing  but  bombs  and  brownings Constables  are 

'  It  is  an  evident  sign  of  the  decline  of  the  old  territorial  group  when  young 
people  need  the  attraction  of  companionship  and  amusements  in  order  to  stay  at 
home.  This  decline  is  one  of  the  factors  making  emigration  so  easy  and  is  itself 
hastened  by  emigration. 

'  The  hate  of  the  Russians  is  particularly  strong  among  the  peasants  of  this 
province,  which  sufTered  a  very  violent  religious  i)ersccution  during  the  second  half 
of  the  nineteenth  century.     It  was  mainly  inhabited  by  Uniates. 


980  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

killed,  as  well  as  the  bigger  fishes Not  long  ago  our  military 

governor  was  killed.  In  Lodz  there  is  a  general  strike  and  court- 
martial.     Every  day  a  few  men  are  hung  or  shot.     The  prisons  are 

overtiUed In  our  town  a  school-association  has  been  organized, 

but  the  Sokols  have  been  dissolved  by  the  government 

The  girls  look  very  well,  particularly  Walercia.     Boles  K.  preaches 

morals  to  her  in  a  way  which  seems  very  pleasant  for  her 

Polcia  looks  as  you  have  never  seen  her — a  dress  two  yards  and  a 
half,  a  hat  three  yards  in  circumference,  and  herself  grown  up,  a  yard 
and  a  half  tall,  and  she  dreams  already  about  everything  that  is 
suitable.  In  general  the  girls  are  nice,  but  they  will  probably  be 
obliged  to  hire  us  for  talking,  for  they  are  eager  to  talk,  and  the  boys 

won't Walercia  feels  a  terrible  sympathy  for  you.     And  how 

is  the  matter  with  you  ?  Inform  me,  for  if  you  feel  anything  toward 
her  I  will  try,  for  my  friend's  sake,  to  send  Boles  away  in  some  way; 
why  should  he  spoil  the  matter  ?  It  seems  to  me  that  the  thing  ought 
to  be  taken  up  at  once,  for  he  tramples  much  around  her.     May  he 

not  succeed  at  last 

Your  truly  loving  companion, 

BOROWSKI 


KOWALSKI  SERIES 

This  series  is  interesting  in  two  respects :  (i)  The  famihal 
relation  has  degenerated  to  a  mere  business  relation,  so 
that  the  two  letters  from  brother  and  sister-in-law  can  be 
used  as  typical  examples  of  business  letters.  (2)  Personal 
friendship  has  assumed  the  function  traditionally  performed 
by  the  familial  relation;  there  is  much  more  community  of 
interests  between  Antoni  Kowalski  and  Stanislaw  than 
between  Antoni  and  his  brother,  and  much  more  real  affec- 
tion. Stanislaw  is,  indeed,  a  cousin  of  Antoni  Kowalski, 
but  by  its  personal  character  their  connection  is  qualitatively 
different  from  traditional  cousinship. 

The  evolution  is  probably  due  to  the  influence  of  the 
middle-class  environment  in  Posen.  The  family  is  begin- 
ning to  get  into  this  class. 

666-71,    TO   ANTONI   KOWALSKI,   IN   AMERICA,  FROM   FAMILY- 
MEMBERS  AND  A  FRIEND,   IN  POLAND 

666  MiLOSLAw,  June  15,  19 13 

Dear  Brother  [-in-law]:  We  received  your  letter  ....  but 
you  wrote  us  so  little.  We  don't  know  whether  they  inspected  your 
things  [baggage]  or  not,  and  how  it  was  on  the  ship.  Kazimierz 
[husband  of  the  writer]  is  still  working  in  Nerengow,  but  he  will  have 
only  four  weeks  more  to  work  and  he  is  afraid  that  after  this  he  will 

have  no  work Nothing  worth  writing  has  happened  during 

this  time I  thought  that  Kazimierz  would  think  more  about 

everything  and  would  exert  himself  more  [with  regard  to  their  com- 
mon property]  when  you,  Antoni,  were  not  here.  But  now,  just  as 
before,  he  does  not  think  anything  beforehand  and  he  has  not  done 
anything  yet,  because  when  he  comes  late,  he  says  that  he  won't. 
It  was  I  who  painted  the  door,  and  everything  that  was  left  [I  did]. 
Nobody  has  bought  the  table  yet  ...  .  and  the  wheel  [?].  Now 
times  are  hard  and  everybody  does  without.     And  Kazimierz  goes 


982"  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

nowhere  and  speaks  with  nobody,  so  nobody  knows;    but  perhaps 

stimelwily   will   yet   hapi)en   [to  buy   them].     When   anything   new 

happens  I  will  write.     I  urged  Kazimierz  to  write,  but  the  lazy  fellow 

did  not  wish  to  do  it;    he  preferred  to  read  papers  and  told  me  to 

write * 

Kazimierz  and  Wladyslawa  [Kowalski] 


667  March  15,  1914 

Dear  Brother:  ....  Before  all  I  must  answer  about  this 
contract.  You  say  that  it  is  our  own  fault,  for  renting  it.  It  is  true. 
But  if  Kazimierz  had  looked  into  it  himself  and  had  relied  upon  nobody 
else,  it  would  not  be  so  bad.  But  he  relied  upon  our  uncle;  he  took 
uncle  with  him  and  was  sure  that  ever}'thing  was  all  right.  But  it 
is  not  as  when  you  were  here,  Antoni,  because  you  did  [for  us]  as 
for  yourself,  and  our  uncle  cannot  know  how  it  will  fall  out  for  us, 
whether  good  or  bad.  And  then,  all  this  was  done  without  any  reflec- 
tion, because  it  was  so:  One  afternoon  Nowicki  came  with  the 
Neumanns  and  asked  whether  we  would  not  rent  [the  property], 
but  [said]  that  they  wanted  absolutely  to  live  in  it  themselves.  But 
as  the  Maslinskis  intended  to  move  away  we  said  to  each  other  that 
it  would  be  very  well,  since  it  happened  that  one  person  wanted  to 
take  it  all  [the  whole  place]  and  at  least  there  would  be  no  trouble  with 
the  lodgers.  We  were  to  reflect  how  to  do,  and  they  went  away.  In 
the  evening  they  came  back  and  said  that  it  would  be  w^ell  to  make  the 

contract  at  once Kazimierz  went  directly  to  our  uncle  in 

order  to  ask  his  advice,  and  took  uncle  with  him  and  relied  upon 
him  entirely,  thinking  that  when  he  looked  into  it  everything  would 
be  all  right.  But  with  imcle  it  is  not  as  with  you;  uncle  does  not 
mind  much  what  is  better  and  what  worse  for  us.  He  knows  only 
how  to  say  [after  the  thing  is  done]  what  somebody  did  bad  and  what 
good If  Kazimierz  had  more  thought  about  ever^'thing  him- 
self instead  of  looking  to  and  relying  upon  other  people,  everything: 
would  have  turned  out  differently,  because  nobody  can  advise  him 
[properly]   in  everything;    he  alone  can  know  evers-thing  himseK, 

since  he  knows  all  his  own  conditions  the  best He  complains 

that  you  told  him  always  to  ask  uncle's  advice,  and  that  uncle  did  not 

'  The  complaint  in  this  and  the  following  letter  of  the  negligent  behavior  of 
the  husband  is  to  be  qualified  by  the  fact  that  she  addresses  herself  to  the  husband's 
brother  and  not  to  an  outsider.     Even  so,  it  is  not  in  accordance  with  the  tradition. 


KOWALSKI  SERIES  983 

advise  him We  had  no  time  to  ask  your  advice,  and  we  did 

not  think  that  the  contract  was  already  vaUd;  we  thought  that  it 
must  still  be  approved  by  the  court,  and  that  up  to  that  time  it  was 

possible  to  draw  back Since  you  went  away  we  have  been 

in  a  worse  situation  than  in  the  year  when  we  got  married,  because 
we  had  to  pay  all  the  expenses  alone,  and  Kazimierz  did  not  work  in 
the  winter  and  worked  badly  in  the  summer,  ....  and  there  is  no 
other  income.     If  I  only  could  earn  something !     But  in  Miloslaw  there 

is  nothing  to  be  done;   I  will  not  go  and  steal  from  the  forest 

Zosia  Kups  got  married  in  the  winter And  Marynia  is 

getting  ready  to  go  to  the  convent.  She  sends  greetings  to  you  and 
said  that  you  caused  her  much  grief  ....  but  she  is  no  longer  angry. 
Perhaps  you  want  to  see  the  last  of  her;  I  have  her  photograph,  taken 
not  long  ago  ....  so  I  send  it  to  you  ....  but  please  send  it 
back,  because  if  I  don't  have  it  she  can  be  angry  with  me  for  having 
sent  it  so  far  away.  In  a  year  she  will  certainly  [she  says],  go  to  the 
convent,  but  I  don't  know  whether  it  is  not  feigned.     A  man  courted 

her  lately,  but  she  refused  him If  you  wish,  write  some  words 

to  Marynia;   she  will  be  glad,  I  think.^ 

Kazimierz  and  Wladyslawa 

668  Palczyn,  January  5,  19 13 

Dear  Antoni:  ....  I  ask  you  now  whether  you  spent  the 
holidays  happily  and  gaily,  and  what  served  for  amusement,  cards  or 
dances.  But  that  is  perhaps  not  fashionable  in  America.  We 
played  cards  during  both  holidays,  for  what  could  we  do  ?  It  rained 
and  snowed — impossible  to  go  anywhere.  On  the  first  day  we  could 
hardly  get  to  Mr.  Przybysz's  to  amuse  ourselves  a  little  there.  It  is  a 
pity,  dear  Antoni,  that  you  are  not  here.  But  nothing  can  be  done. 
Perhaps  we  shall  yet  live  together  and  amuse  ourselves,  as  we  did 
formerly.  Lucyan  came  also  for  the  holidays,  but  for  3  days  only. 
We  have  amused  ourselves  for  the  last  time  in  the  house  of  the 
Przybyszs,  because  I  must  also  inform  you  that  poor  Mr.  Przybysz  is 
very  unfortunate.     He  has  convulsions,  and  therefore  he  ceased  to 

'  The  romantic  attachment  here  is  completely  different  from  what  we  find 
normally  among  peasants.  No  peasant  girl  would  be  heartbroken  through  the 
failure  of  the  man  for  whom  she  cared  to  marry  her,  because  no  strong  love  can 
grow  out  of  mere  acquaintance  on  the  basis  of  the  traditional  peasant  attitude, 
unless  it  has  terminated  in  sexual  relations,  and  wc  have  no  ground  to  assume  that 
this  is  the  case  here. 


.)S4 


TRIMARY-GROUr  ORGANIZATION 


perform  his  [government  ?]  service  and  must  move  away  from  here. 
So  after  the  holidays  I  went  with  him  to  the  house  of  Drzewiecki. 
He  lives  now  (luietly  there.  He  is  not  so  bad,  but  after  these  attacks 
he  sjHMks  waiulerini^ly.  It  is  a  pity,  because  he  was  a  good  man; 
lie  wished  nobody  any  wrong.  Miss  Bronia  was  also  with  the 
Przyb\-szs  until  Christmas,  so  I  went  there  often  and  we  amused  our- 
selves nicely.  But  now  all  this  has  come  to  an  end;  Mr.  Przybysz 
is  in  Miloslaw,  Bronia  in  Jaworow.     It  is  a  pity,  for  all  is  over. 

Yesterday  I  was  also  with  Kazimierz  and  his  wife,  and  I  saw  at 
last  that  they  had  decided  to  answer  your  four  letters — so  they  said. 
Isn't  that  a  villany!  When  they  want  something  they  know  how  to 
write  but  when  they  have  got  what  they  want  it  is  difficult  for  them 
to  send  you  their  note  [promise  to  pay].  As  if  you  did  not  figure  in 
it  at  all!  I  told  them  it  was  not  nice  of  them.  Wladzia  answered 
tliat  it  was  the  affair  of  Kazimierz.  But  I  said  that  they  both  deserved 
a  good  beating,  because  Kazimierz  is  an  exceedingly  negligent  fellow, 
and  she  is  such  a  bad  "muzzle."  But  you  know  yourself,  my  dear, 
how  it  was;  it  is  the  same  now.  She  read  me  your  letter,  and  they 
said  that  you  want  a  note  from  them  but  according  to  their  calculation 
you  still  owe  them  300  marks.  But  what  is  the  need  of  those  other 
expenses  besides  the  new  building  ?  A  nice  administration  is  it  not  ? 
Do  as  you  will,  but  I  tell  you  that  you  will  never  come  to  an  under- 
standing with  them.  When  you  were  here  you  had  trouble  and  grief 
more  than  once,  and  now  they  do  as  they  please.  If  I  were  you,  after 
receiving  that  note  I  would  send  them  nothing,  but  I  would  demand 
the  interest,  and  then  we  should  see  how  it  would  go  with  them.  As 
long  as  you  associate  with  them  you  will  never  have  money;  you 
will  work  for  the  benefit  of  others.  Evidently,  it  is  not  my  affair,  but 
as  I  promised  you,  I  inform  you.  But  please  don't  betray  me,  because 
Janczak  lives  in  good  friendship  with  them 

Your  true  and  well-wishing  friend, 

Staniseaw  R. 

669  October  10,  1913 

[Greetings;  generalities  about  health;  letters  written  and  received; 
harvest  was  good.]  Now  I  write  you  about  Kazimierz  and  his  wife. 
As  you  know  already,  they  rented  that  farm.  For  10  years  he  [the 
tenant]  will  pay  700  marks  yearly.  My  father  assisted,  so  I  inform 
you  more  exactly  about  it,  because  from  what  you  wrote  to  them  and 


KOWALSKI  SERIES  985 

to  Janczak  I  see  that  you  did  not  understand  it  well  and  that  you  are 
very  angry.  It  is  true  it  is  too  cheap,  but  they  have  it  as  they  wished 
it.  They  thought  only  about  America,  and  they  did  not  think  about 
reserving  a  lodging  for  themselves.  Afterward  they  asked  for  the 
lodging  upstairs,  and  the  tenant  allowed  them  to  live  there,  but  I 
think  that  it  will  not  go  well.  My  father  advised  them  to  ask  850 
marks  rent,  but  Kazimierz  would  have  been  glad  to  have  even  600, 
and  my  father  could  not  say  anything  against  it,  since  he  is  neither 
a  child  nor  a  woman.  But  Kazimierz  and  his  wife  are  not  fit  to 
manage  this  property.  It  would  be  the  best  to  let  them  be  simply 
lodgers,  and  to  give  them  no  right  to  dispose  of  it,  because  they  don't 
do  as  they  promised.  He  works,  it  is  true,  but  his  work  amounts  to 
nothing.     [Detailed  conditions  of  the  rent-contract.] 

Now  I  write  you  about  our  neighbors.  Marynia  Przybysz  got 
married.  The  wedding  was  August  19.  We  were  at  the  marriage- 
feast  and  had  a  pretty  good  time.  There  is  nothing  else  new.  Please 
write  me  how  it  is  in  America,  whether  you  really  do  not  like  it,  and 
whether  you  wish  me  to  come  and  to  earn  well.    But  write  me  from 

your  true  heart 

Stanislaw  R. 

670  November  19,  1913 

Dear  Friend:  With  us  everything  is  as  from  old.  I  would  gladly 
go  to  you,  but  my  father  is  opposed  to  it.  He  says  that  although  I 
could  get  out,  the  Germans  would  afterward  take  my  part  [confiscate 
my  fortune].  Even  if  I  refused  to  be  a  German  citizen  it  would  not 
help.  But  no  matter,  let  it  be  so  till  spring,  and  then  I  shall  know 
how  it  will  be  with  my  military  service.  Lucyan  says  that  it  is  not 
so  bad  in  that  nice  army,  but  he  says  that  he  regrets  those  two  years. 
He  is  getting  on  well;  every  four  weeks  he  is  at  home.  Last  week  we 
were  in  Ciesle  at  a  wedding.  Lucyanek  was  also  there;  he  had  a  leave 
of  8  days.  He  butchered  for  the  feast,  and  soon  after  he  butchered 
also  for  another  neighbor.  He  earned  some  money  and  amused  him- 
self. He  would  have  been  at  the  second  wedding,  but  he  had  no 
leave  for  so  long  a  time.  The  wedding  was  very  nice,  we  amused 
ourselves  "up  to  the  ears."  It  lasted  two  days — time  enough  to 
dance.  It  was  not  as  in  Skotniki  or  with  the  Przybyszs,  because 
while  it  was  nice  with  the  latter  it  was  short;  we  could  not  amuse 
ourselves  so  well It  is  sad  among  us;   the  dances  are  ended. 


<)86  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

....  I  live  like  Adam  driven  away  from  Paradise.  I  have  few 
friends,  so  I  don't  know  where  to  go.  Sometimes  I  go  tx)  Janczak 
and  we  pkiy  the  violin  a  little.  As  to  those  tenants,  they  are  getting 
on  badly.  It  seems  to  me  that  they  will  not  remain  for  a  long 
time.  He  paid  little  to  Kazimierz,  because  his  situation  is  bad. 
....  Now  I  ask  you,  dear  Antoni,  whether  that  gun  has  been  of 
any  use  to  you  ....  and  whether    that  suit  is  fashionable  now 

in  America Here  it  rains  continually  ....  mud  up  to  the 

knees.  Frost  and  snow  would  be  preferable;  one  could  kill  some 
game  more  easily.  But  the  hares  have  all  been  shot,  and  there 
are  very  few  deer.     My  shooting  is  bad  tJiis  year.     I  have  a  bad 

gun.     I  miss  yours 

Stanislaw  R. 

671  April  6,  1914 

Dear  Friend:  First  of  all  I  wish  you,  dear  friend,  healthy  and 
merry  holidays.  Perhaps  you  will  spend  better  holidays  than  I  here, 
and  particularly  Kazimierz,  for  an  accident  happened  to  him,  because 
he  is  too  good,  and  moreover  a  fool.  On  the  first  of  the  month  he 
needed  money.  He  went  to  his  tenant,  who  owed  him  350  marks  of 
rent  for  half  a  year.  But  Neumann  was  not  at  home.  He  went  on 
the  2d.  Neumann  was  eating  dinner  and  said  that  he  must  finish 
it.  All  this  because  he  had  no  money.  On  the  third  day  at  7  o'clock 
P.M.  [Neumann]  sent  his  servant-girl  asking  Kazimierz  to  come  for 
the  money.  Kazimierz,  as  you  know,  is  good  natured.  Though  it 
was  the  duty  of  Neumann  to  bring  him  money,  because  the  law"  is  so, 
Kazimierz  went  for  the  money.  Neumann  put  the  money  on  the 
table  and  told  him  to  take  it.  Kazimierz  said:  "I  must  first  count 
it,  whether  there  is  enough."  ....  And  K.  counted  the  money. 
Suddenly  N.  seized  him  and  pushed  him  away  from  the  table.  They 
began  to  push  each  other  and  suddenly  N.  seized  a  stick  and  wounded 
K.  on  the  head  badly  enough.  K.  went  bleeding  to  the  doctor,  and 
the  next  day  also  he  wanted  the  doctor  to  come.  So  Wladzia  came 
here  and  related  all  this  to  my  father.  And  father  said:  "You  see, 
that  is  what  you  get  for  your  kindness.  Why  did  not  Kazimierz 
take  a  chair  and  split  his  head?  Moreover,  what  do  you  want? 
You  wished  to  go  to  America,  and  now  you  complain  [you  were  in  a 
hurry  to  rent  the  house  and  to  leave]."  Then  Wladzia  said:  "You 
were  present  when  we  made  the  contract.     Why  did  you  not  sa}- 


KOWALSKI  SERIES  987 

anything?"     Father  got  so  angry  that  he  cursed  her  and  swore  at 

her,  for  you  know  how  he  can  do  it.     Wtadzia  fled The  next 

day  K.  went  to  a  lawyer  and  told  the  whole  matter.  Neumann  had 
already  entered  a  suit  on  the  ground  of  the  invasion  of  his  home.  I 
don't  know  how  it  will  end.  I  will  write  you  more  later.  Neumann 
is  a  strong  antagonist  and  it  is  a  pity  that  you  are  not  here;    you 

would  perhaps  defeat  him '     I  called  yesterday  on  Kazimierz, 

but  I  did  not  find  him  or  his  wife  at  home,  but  my  aunt  [mother  of 
Antoni  and  Kazimierz]  told  me  the  whole  affair  and  asked  me  to 
inform  you.  She  said  that  she  herself  took  the  money  for  the  holy 
mass  [to  the  priest].  She  said  that  with  you  she  had  it  much  better 
and  that  she  does  not  like  very  much  [to  live  with  Kazimierz]. 

Stanislaw  R. 

'  This  whole  quarrel  has  probably  also  a  racial  background.     Neumann  is  a 
German  or  of  German  extraction. 


FRYZOWICZ  SERIES 

T^pc  of  sentimental  friendship,  rare  among  countr>- 
pcople  but  found  sometimes  among  town  people  of  the  hand- 
worker class.  This  form  of  sentimentaUty  is  probabl}- 
due  to  the  influence  of  religious  life  in  to\vns — ^bigotr}-, 
ceremoniousness,  fraternities  with  their  superficial  humani- 
tarianism,  complicated  devotion,  and  lack  of  practical 
interests.  At  the  same  time  the  sedentary  occupation 
favors  reflective  attitudes.  Consequently  among  this  class 
of  people  sentiment  as  such  assumes  a  value  which  it  never 
has  among  peasants,  w^here  it  is  immediately  converted 
into  a  motive  of  action.  The  same  can  be  said  about 
intellectual  Ufe.  An  impersonal  interest  in  the  same 
phenomena  is  sufficient  to  create  a  communion  between 
individuals,  while  among  peasants  there  must  be  alwa}'s 
a  certain  soHdarity  of  personal  interests  to  give  rise  to  a 
friendship. 

In  the  present  case  the  type  is  not  perfectly  pure. 
Fryzowicz  is  indeed  a  small  handworker  and  a  typical  to\Mi 
inhabitant,  but  his  correspondent,  Wojciech,  besides  his 
handwork  has  a  farm,  as  frequently  happens  in  smaU  towns. 
These  townsmen-farmers  are  the  natural  intermediary  class 
between  the  peasants  and  the  low-er  bourgeoisie,  although 
they  are  not  numerous  enough  to  play  an  important  part 
in  social  organization. 


988 


FRYZOWICS  SERIES  989 

672-75,   JAKOB   FRYZOWICZ,   IN  POLAND,   TO    A    FRIEND,     IN 
AMERICA.      THE  FRIEND  IS  ADDRESSED  AS" BROTHER"; 
HE   IS  POSSIBLY  A  COUSIN 

672  GoSTWiCA,  February  23,  1914 

"Praised  be  Jesus  Christus."  .... 

My  heartily  beloved  Brother:  [Greetings;  wishes;  letter 
received.]  I  love  you  also  very  much,  because  you  are  always  well- 
wishing  toward  me.  I  remember  the  day  of  September  23,  it  was 
very  sad  for  me,  because  on  that  day  you  left  for  America,  and  more- 
over you  did  not  come  to  us  to  bid  us  goodbye.  I  had  prepared  some- 
thing for  you,  in  order  to  thank  you  for  having  always  made  things 
for  me,  without  accepting  any  payment.  I  expected  you  to  come  on 
that  day  and  I  waited  for  you  from  morning  till  noon,  and  you  did 
not  come.  I  said:  "Ah,  perhaps  he  did  not  go  today,"  and  our  host 
said:  "He  went  probably,  because  I  saw  somebody  going  in  a  wagon, 
and  two  men  following  the  wagon."  I  was  afraid  and  ran  to  your 
house.  I  entered  and  asked  your  wife  what  was  the  news,  and  she 
said:  "Well,  there  is  the  news  that  he  went."  And  she  said  to  me: 
"It  is  well  that  you  came,  because  you  will  take  your  watch;  he  told 
me  to  take  it  directly  to  you."  And  so  on  the  one  hand,  I  was  glad 
that  I  had  the  watch  repaired,  and  on  the  other  hand,  I  was  very 
grieved  that  you  did  not  come  to  us  at  least  for  half  an  hour  to  bid  us 
farewell,  because  perhaps  we  shall  see  one  another,  and  perhaps  not. 
I  thank  you  very  nicely  for  this  letter  because  I  have  expected  it 
the  whole  time  with  great  longing,  and  when  I  read  it  it  seemed  to  me 
as  if  my  health  had  increased.  Because  now,  since  Christmas,  I  have 
been  seriously  ill.     I  thought  that  I  must  die ;  my  legs  were  so  swollen 

that  I  could  not  move Now  I  can  walk  with  a  stick  .... 

and,  thanks  to  our  Lord  God,  I  can  sew  already,  a  little  sitting  and  a 
little  standing.  And  now  I  thank  you  very  much  for  wanting  to  give 
me  that  diamond  for  cutting  glass,  but  it  is  no  longer  there,  because 
somebody  has  stolen  it  from  you.  Our  Jasiek  went  with  your  letter 
to  your  wife  that  she  might  believe  that  you  want  to  give  me  this 
diamond  indeed.  She  searched  for  it  but  she  did  not  find  it.  Surely 
somebody  has  stolen  it.  This  was  a  man  without  conscience.  I 
thank  you  also  very  nicely  for  this  panorama.  I  wished  to  give  it 
back  to  your  wife,  but  she  said:   "If  he  gave  it  to  you,  keep  it."     So 


()<)0  PRIM ARY-GROUr  ORGANIZATION 

may  our  Lord  God  ^ive  you  health  for  a  hundred  years,  since  you  treat 
me  so  nicely ' 

Nmv  I  inform  >-ou  ....  that  the  winter  here  is  very  good  .... 
nice  weather  durinu;  the  whole  carnival;  so  beautiful  that  it  is  a  joy 
to  live  in  the  world! 

.\nd  then  I  inform  you  who  got  married.  [Enumerates  lo 
weildings.]  And  Jozek  Hejmejak  [son  of  Hejmej]  was  to  marry  in 
Gostwica,  in  the  house  of  [the  daughter  of]  the  former  mayor  Plata; 
tlie  wedding  was  to  be  on  Wednesday  before  the  end  of  the  carnival. 
But  it  got  spoiled  because  they  could  not  come  to  an  understanding, 
for  Hejmej  refused  to  will  [to  his  son]  the  whole  polrolek  [ancient 
division  of  land;  literally  "half  a  field";  now  it  means  a  farm  of  a 
certain  size]. 

And  then  I  inform  you  who  died.  [Enumerates  seven  persons. 
Greetings  and  wishes.] 

Jakob  Fryzowicz 

673  April  19,  1913 

....  Go,  little  letter,  on  the  journey,  because  I  cannot  go  myself. 
Fly,  little  letter,  across  mountains  and  valleys  to  the  distant  country, 
fly  across  waters  and  rivers  as  far  as  America.  When  you  find  the 
house  of  my  brother,  stand  at  the  threshold  and  praise  our  Lord  God. 
When  you  are  near,  bow  low  to  my  brother,  and  when  you  are  nearer, 
bow  still  lower,  and  stand  in  a  corner  and  say  in  a  low  voice  into  my 
brother's  ear  that  you  come  from  Little  Kubina  [contemptful  form 
of  Kuba,  itself  diminutive  form  of  Jakob]  from  LyskowTiice,  from  the 
one  who  sews  gdrnice  [kind  of  clothes]  and  beg  him,  little  letter,  to 
accept  you,  beg  my  brother  to  take  you  in  his  hands,  and  tell  him  that 
Kuba  wrote  below  whatever  [news]  he  heard.^ 

First  of  all,  my  heartily  beloved  brother  I  greet  you My 

legs  are  not  yet  quite  well,  but  perhaps  I  shall  recover  slowly.  May 
God  reward  you  a  hundred  fold  for  your  advice,  what  to  do  in  order  to 
recover  sooner.  And  [I  wish]  heartily  that  God  may  reward  you  for 
your  letter And  I  thank  you  very  nicely  for  the  snuff-tobacco 

'  Accepting  the  gifts  in  this  case  puts  the  man  in  a  certain  situation  of  inferi- 
ority. He  is  a  komornik,  without  land,  while  his  friend  is  a  farmer.  The  gifts 
belong  to  the  class  of  property,  not  of  income,  and  the  reason  for  giving  them  is  not 
social  solidarity,  but  personal  friendship. 

'  The  whole  of  the  preceding  introduction  is  in  verse. 


FRYZOWICS  SERIES 


991 


which  you  sent  me  in  the  letter.  I  laughed  that  you  are  such  a  frolic- 
some fellow  and  knew  how  to  rejoice  me.  And  I  thank  you  for  answer- 
ing me  at  once. 

And  now  I  must  speak  with  you  and  have  an  explanation.  Why 
are  you  not  satisfied  when  I  speak  or  write  to  you  ivy  and  not 
ty  ["you"  and  not  "thou"].  I  think  it  [W.]  is  a  very  nice  letter. 
Why  do  you  not  like  it  ?  You  cannot  do  without  it  at  any  rate,  be- 
cause how  can  anybody  omit  it  in  speaking  to  you,  either  "  Wojciech  " 
[more  reverential,  full  form  of  the  name]  or  "Wojtek"  [more  familiar 
form].  But  I  cannot  agree  with  you  [about  speaking  "thou"  instead 
of  "you"],  unless — if  our  Lord  God  gives  health  to  us  both  and  we 
live  long  enough — when  you  return  from  America  we  shall  both  tend 
hornless  animals  [pigs].  Then  I  shall  have  more  boldness  and 
I  will  say  "thou"  to  you.'  So  now  I  love  you  with  my  heart  and 
I  respect  you  with  my  love,  and  I  wish  you  every  good.  [More 
wishes.]  Now  I  inform  you  that  in  Kalwarya  "f  Priest  Podworski 
is  dead,  the  same  who  sent  us  images  ....  and  in  Lwow  "f  is  dead 
Priest  Adam  Weszolicki,  editor  of  Gazeta  Niedzielna.  [Four  more 
priests  who  died.]  And  now  in  Podegrodzie  we  have  another  priest- 
vicar And  in  Nowy  S^cz  a  student  tried  to  drown  himself  on 

a  fair-day And  in  Stary  S^cz  a  thief  stole  400  crowns  from  a 

shoemaker And  the  weather  is  very  beautiful And 

the  watches  which  you  repaired  keep  going And  the  highway 

is  made  now  near  Jozek  Duda['s  farm].     [Wishes  and  greetings.] 

KuBA  Fryzowicz 

674  June  12,  T914 

[General  introduction  in  very  bad  verse;  greetings;  health;  etc.|. 
I  love  you  heartily,  so  I  ought  to  write  more  often  to  you,  but  I  am 
so  hindered,  because  I  must  sew  the  whole  day,  and  when  Sunday 
comes  I  have  also  occupation;  some  come  to  speak  about  work, 
others  to  lake  the  clothes.  So  I  write  you  down  whatever  I  heard 
from  other  people.     In  Podegrodzie  there  will  be  a  cloister  [a  church] 

founded,  on  the  spot  where  Mrs.  Stroska  has  a  small  shop 

They  will  pay  her  as  much  as  she  asks,  but  she  must  move  away  from 
that  place  and  field,  because  at  that  place  was  born  Jan  Papczynski, 

'  "Did  he  tend  pigs  with  you?"  is  a  proverbial  saying,  used  when  an  inferior 
assumes  undue  familiarity  with  his  superior.  The  whole  paragrajjh  is,  of  course, 
a  manifestation  of  the  writer's  humility. 


()«)j  PRIMARY  liROl'P  ORGANIZATION 

ami  ho  is  a  saint.  He  was  horn  213  years  ago,  he  founded  a  cloister 
of  Marians  under  the  Muscovite,  and  now  two  are  left  from  this 
congregation.  The  Muscovite  drove  them  away  from  his  land,  and 
thev  came  to  Cracow  and  they  are  in  Cracow,  and  on  St.  Jakob's 
Dav  thev  will  come  to  Podegrodzie,  and  one  of  them  will  preach,  and 

they  will  settle  in  Podegrodzie  forever And  this  I  inform  you, 

that  our  priest  went  witli  pilgrims  from  Cracow  to  Jerusalem,  to 
Hethlohem,  to  Nazareth,  to  the  mountain  of  St.  John.     The  land 

Palest ina  is  in  Turkey And  further  I  inform  you  that  in 

Podegrodzie  there  is  an  orchestra  of  twenty  musicians And 

further  I  inform  you  that  7  men  have  been  called  to  the  army  from 
Gostwica And  our  Jasiek  lost  his  watch;  they  went  for  birch- 
wood  ....  and  he  lost  it  in  the  bushes.  He  went  twice  to  search 
for  it,  but  he  did  not  find  it,  and  he  promised  the  people  who  gather 
wood  money  for  finding  it  ...  .  and  he  went  to  a  fortune-teller  in 
Sacz  that  she  might  foretell  whether  he  would  find  it  or  not,  and  she 
told  him  that  he  would  find  it,  and  indeed  3  weeks  later  ....  a  man 

found  it  and  Jozef  gave  him  2  szdsiki  and  got  the  watch And 

Blasiak  Michal  ....  sits  in  prison He  is  to  sit  4  months 

for  having  wounded  the  hands  of  Plata  with  a  knife,  and  he  is  also  to 
pay  him  150  gulden  for  cutting  his  hands.  [Describes  in  two  pages 
how  the  man  was  arrested.] 

Jakob  Fryzowicz 

675  August  2,  1914 

My  dearly  beloved  Brother:  ....  I  was  very  glad  w^hen  I 
received  your  letter  and  I  read  it  with  joy,  but  when  I  came  to  the 
passage  about  your  accident,  your  misfortune,  that  your  leg  has  been 
so  injured,  then  I  wept.  But  nobody  saw  it  except  our  Lord  God 
alone,  because  nobody  was  looking  when  I  read  the  letter;  nobody 
knows  and  nobody  will  know  what  you  wrote  to  me,  because  not  every- 
body ought  to  know  what  your  condition  is.^  I  love  you  heartily 
and  I  pity  you  because  your  strength  is  so  weakened  for  how  can  you 
walk  and  work  when  your  legs  are  aching.     But  nothing  can  be  done. 

'  We  find  here  the  implicit  admission  that  sickness,  and  misfortune  in  general, 
are  things  to  be  ashamed  of  and  not  to  be  spoken  of  before  strangers.  This  attitude 
may  be  perhaps  explained  by  individual  psychology,  but  it  is  possible  that  it  points 
back  to  the  more  primitive  social  identification  of  physical  and  moral  evil  in  a 
unique  magical  evil  principle. 


FRYZOWICS  SERIES  9(^3 

We  must  agree  with  the  will  of  God,  because  whom  God  loves  upon 
him  He  sends  crosses.  My  leg  pained  me  also  very  much,  but  our 
Lord  God  granted  me  to  recover  passably.     [Crops  and  weather.] 

And  further  I  inform  you  that  the  parish-festival  on  St.  Jakob's 
Day  had  three  meanings.  The  first  meaning,  as  usually,  every  year. 
The  second  meaning,  that  on  this  day  900  years  had  passed  since  the 
first  church  was  established  in  Podegrodzie.  The  great  portal  was 
adorned  with  flowers  and  pine  trees,  and  of  them  the  figures  1014- 
igi4  were  made.  The  third  meaning  is  the  reception  of  these  Marians 
about  whom  I  wrote  in  the  last  letter  that  they  would  come  on 
St.  Jakob's  Day.  Two  of  them  came,  one  had  a  sermon  about 
this  St.  Jan  Papczynski  and  St.  Kunegunda.  [Details  of  the  cere- 
mony.] They  brought  from  Cracow  many  books,  biographies  of 
St.  Jan  Papczynski,  and  whoever  gave  2  crowns  for  the  cloister-fund 
received  this  book,  and  our  priest  had  pictures  of  St.  Jan  P.  printed. 
People  took  so  many  of  these  books  and  pictures  that  a  big  fund  was 
gathered,  and  I  don't  know  who  gave  money  for  a  big  picture  of 
St.  Jan  P.  in  a  gilded  frame.     [Description  of  the  service.] 

And  now,  when  I  write  this  letter,  I  inform  you  what  is  going  on 
in  our  country.  Well,  a  terrible  war  has  begun  with  Servia,  and  on 
August  2,  when  I  write  this,  all  the  recruits  and  reservists  belonging 

to  the  army  have  gone  to  Bosnia  to  the  war What  a  crying 

and  lamenting  there  is  in  our  country!  It  cannot  be  described. 
From  Stodoly  a  ferryman  was  taken  with  his  boat  somewhere  to 
the  Vistula;  he  will  there  carry  the  army  across  the  river.  Chmura 
has  been  taken,  the  same  who  came  from  America.  He  had  sold  his 
farm  and  intended  to  go  back  to  America;  meanwhile  he  was  seized 
and  taken  to  the  war.     Now  they  are  to  take  from  the  farmers, 

horses  for  transports  and  cattle  for  meat In  Wieliczka  and 

Bochnia  the  salt  [mines]  will  be  closed  and  people  will  eat  gruel, 
cabbage,  etc.,  without  salt.  If  only  the  Muscovite  goes  to  help 
Servia,  there  will  be  a  terrible  war.  And  I  inform  you  that  our  host 
has  been  called  to  the  army  and  designated  to  be  a  constable.  It  is 
somewhat  better  because  he  won't  go  under  fire,  only  he  will  go  where 
he  is  ordered.  And  now  I  inform  you  who  died.  [List  of  dead; 
repetition  of  the  same  news  about  the  war,  and  particularly  about  the 
taking  of  horses  and  cattle  from  the  peasants.]  On  August  i,  tele- 
grams came  for  all  those  who  belong  to  the  army  to  go  at  once  .... 
and  so  some  of  them  threw  away  scythes,  others  sickles,  others  rakes, 


()t)4  I'Kl  MARY-CROUP  ORGANIZATION 

;mil  wont  to  tlu- 1  liiin  h,  tt)  toiifcssion,  and  on  Sunday  to  the  army  and 
to  tlu"  war! 

And  so.  dear  brother,  it  looks  in  our  country.  What  will  follow, 
God  only  knows — how  it  will  end.  The  priests  and  the  papers  say 
that  people  oujjht  not  to  care  about  it,  because  such  is  the  will  of  God, 
and  exorybody  must  agree  with  the  will  of  God. 

And  now  ....  you  write  me  not  to  pay  for  my  letters.  But  I 
should  be  ashamed  to  do  it;  even  if  the  postage  cost  a  crown,  what 
does  it  mean  in  comparison  with  brotherly  love.  You  pay  also  when 
\ou  write  to  me,  and  surely  you  don't  regret  it,  because  it  is  done 

willingly  and  freely,  without  any  compulsion 

Jakob  Fryzowic/ 


OSINIAK  SERIES 

The  letters  of  Osiniak,  with  the  introductory  letter  of 
his  friend,  Leon  Mazanek,  present  in  an  isolated  and  mag- 
nified form  two  attitudes  which,  while  seldom  quite  con- 
scious, play  an  important  part  in  the  life  of  the  Polish 
country-people,  particularly  when  it  comes  to  an  adjust- 
ment to  modern  conditions.  Those  attitudes  are  love  of 
nature  and  love  of  personal  independence. 

The  aesthetic  love  of  nature  arises  when  for  some  reason 
the  utilitarian  and  the  mythical  attitudes  disappear."  One 
example  of  this  evolution  is  shown  in  the  peasant  literary 
production.  Here  the  imitation  of  existing  literary  models 
develops  an  aesthetic  attitude,  and  immediately  we  find  a 
very  intense  productivity  in  the  line  of  descriptions  of 
nature.  Another  example  is  the  life  of  which  Osiniak's 
letters  give  us  a  description — the  life  of  poachers,'  foresters, 
bee-keepers,  etc.,  whose  utilitarian  attitude  toward  nature 
finds  a  much  narrower  field  than  that  of  a  farmer,  and  in 
whom  some  instruction  has  destroyed  the  mythical  beliefs 
without  destroying  the  feelings  which  accompanied  them. 
In  the  case  of  Osiniak  and  his  friend  the  aesthetic  attitude 
could  develop  particularly  easily  because  they  are  sons  of 
town  inhabitants  and  had  not  the  traditional  utilitarianism 
of  the  farmer  to  overcome. 

As  to  the  love  of  personal  independence,  it  is  perfectly 
natural  among  handworkers  of  a  small  town,  who  have  for 
many  generations  worked  at  their  own  risk  and  profit  in 
their  own  small  shops.  It  would  seem,  on  the  contrary, 
that  this  feature  could  hardly  have  developed  among 
peasants  under  conditions  of  serfdom.     But  this  is  not  the 

995 


996  TRIM  \RV-r,ROur  organization 

case,  and  for  tlio  following  reasons:  (i)  Serfdom  had  innu- 
nierahlc  degrees,  from  the  absolute  subordination,  amount- 
ing to  slavery,  of  the  landless  i^ersonal  servant  of  the  lord, 
uj)  to  the  alnK>st  complete  liberty  of  the  crown  and  church 
peasants.  (2)  In  the  normal  type  of  serfdom  the  peasant- 
farmer  had  only  to  give  a  part  of  his  time  to  the  lord,  while 
he  disjiosed  freely  of  the  rest,  and  this  continual  contrast 
between  compulsory  work  and  free  work  must  have  helped 
to  originate  and  to  keep  alive  a  conscious  appreciation  of 
indeiiendence.  (3)  The  interference  of  the  lord  or  the 
government  with  the  peasant's  personal  life  w^as  limited  to 
imjwrtant  and  rare  occasions,  while  in  his  everyday  life 
the  peasant  was  bound  only  by  the  social  opinion  of  his 
equals.  This  explains  the  fact  that  the  peasant  appreciates 
much  more  this  liberty  of  the  everyday  life  than  more 
important  social  and  political  liberties,  and  at  the  same  time 
the  seeming  paradox  that  he  hates  the  detailed  organization 
and  limitation  of  individual  life  in  modern  industrial  cities, 
while  he  complies  with  it  almost  without  opposition.  He 
hates  it  because  he  sees  no  equivalent  in  free  citizenship  for 
the  lost  independence  of  everyday  life,  and  he  complies  with 
it  because  he  is  accustomed  to  comply  with  any  authority, 
for  during  centuries  the  authority  had  exerted  itself  only  on 
important  occasions  and  inspired  a  hereditary  awT. 

So  in  this  respect,  as  well  as  in  the  attitude  toward 
nature,  Osiniak  and  Mazanek,  although  of  the  handworker 
class,  are  good  representatives  also  of  the  peasants.  The 
usually  less  marked  misadaptation  of  Polish  country-people 
to  city  life  is,  howTver,  magnified  in  their  case  almost  to  a 
tragical  degree.  Osiniak  never  became  adapted  at  all,  while 
Mazanek,  through  his  marriage,  seems  forced  to  bear  it. 
And  certainly,  in  many  of  the  non-specified  complaints 
which  we  find  in  letters  from  America,  as  wtII  as  in  the  long- 
ing of  Polish  city-workers  for  country  and  land,  the  two 


OSINIAK  SERIES  997 

elements  analyzed  above — love  of  nature  and  love  of  inde- 
pendence— play  an  important  role. 

The  nature  of  the  friendship  which  united  the  men  is  of 
interest.  While  the  actual  homosexual  relation  seems  to  be 
almost  never  found  among  the  Polish  peasants,  there  is 
evidently  in  the  present  case  a  distinct  feeling  of  the  homo- 
sexual kind.  In  Osiniak  it  expresses  itself  in  the  lack  of  any 
heterosexual  relation  (stated  in  a  letter  of  his  friend  to  the 
authors)  and  in  the  distinct  jealousy  with  which  he  dissuades 
his  friend  from  marrying.  In  Mazanek  we  find  a  romantic 
idealization  of  his  friend,  of  the  classical  type.  This  idealiza- 
tion, as  contrasted  with  the  prosaic  attitude  toward  his  own 
married  life,  is  evidently  assisted  by  the  poetical  remem- 
brance of  the  surroundings  in  which  they  had  spent  their 
youth,  as  well  as  by  the  subsequent  death  of  his  friend. 
Nevertheless  it  is  an  interesting  manifestation,  in  relatively 
primitive  conditions  of  life,  of  the  "Greek  love." 

As  to  poaching,  described  in  detail  in  some  of  these 
letters,  there  is  of  course  little  prejudice  against  it,  since 
game  is  not  considered  the  property  of  anyone.  The  spirit 
of  adventure  was  not  developed  among  the  peasants  until 
some  thirty  or  forty  years  ago,  and  poaching  was  quite 
sufficient  to  satisfy  it. 


676-82,  FROM  WLADEK  OSINIAK,  IN  GALICIA,  TO  LEON 
MAZANEK,  IN  AMERICA,  WITH  A  LETTER  (676)  FROM  THE 
LATTER  TO  THE  AUTHORS 

676  Chicago,  III.,  November,  1914 

Dear  Sir:  Having  read  the  advertisement  in  Dziennik  Zwiqzkowy 
I  send  you  six  (6)  letters  which  I  received  from  the  friend  of  my  first 
youth,  who  has  not  been  ahve  for  some  years.  If  you  can  profit  from 
them,  please  notice  that  in  the  first  letter,  of  May  26,  1903,  some 
phrases  are  written  in  numbers,  which  can  be  read  by  putting  numbers 
to  correspond  with  the  letters,  i.e.,  i-a,  2-b,  3-c,  etc.     The  author  of 


998  PRIMXRY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

thoso  IfttiTs.  W'hulyslaw  Osiniak,  as  well  as  myself,  signed  below,  was 
horn  in  Cilo^ow.  ("iiiHcia,  i]  [Polish]  miles  from  Rzeszow.  Glogow  is 
a  small  town  inhabited  by  poor  but  independent  handworkers,  who 
have  not  e\en  an  idea  of  the  slavery  of  an  American  factory  workman. 
The  town  is  situated  in  a  very  beautiful  country,  groves  and  j)ine 
forests  surround  it  with  a  green  and  black  ring,  ponds  overflowing 
with  tish  glisten  in  some  places.  Streams  and  rivulets  flow  from  the 
forests  into  the  ponds  and  out  of  them,  gathering  themselves  into  a 
river,  S/lachcianka.  (This  river  is  called  ''Szlachcianka"  [noble  girl] 
because  the  daughter  of  a  nobleman,  proprietor  of  a  manor,  was 
drowned  in  it — so  says  the  legend.) 

Wladek  (so  I  briefly  called  my  friend)  was  the  son  of  a  shoemaker, 
I  was  the  son  of  a  tailor.  We  lived  in  the  same  street,  our  houses 
faced  each  other.  Our  parents  lived  in  great  friendship.  My  father 
and  Wladek 's  father  were  seated  every  summer  evening  in  the  garden 
under  an  old  widespreading  lime  tree  (near  every  house  in  the  town 
there  is  a  smaller  or  larger  orchard,  even  the  public  roads  are  planted 
with  fruit  trees)  smoking  their  pipes.  My  father  took  part  in  the  last 
Polish  revolution  [1863]  and  he  related  his  adventures  during  this 
revolution  and  his  12  years  of  service  in  the  Austrian  army.  Wladek, 
a  great  dreamer,  as  a  boy  14-15  years  old  roamed  with  me  around  the 
neighboring  forests.  Often  we  slept  in  the  forest.  In  the  morning, 
about  sunrise,  we  arose,  awakened  by  the  morning  cold,  we  admired 
the  sunrise,  sitting  upon  big  oak  trunks  on  the  highest  hillock,  situated 
above  a  pond.  In  the  east  cultivated  fields  are  seen  and  a  rising  sun 
which  is  reflected  in  the  pond;  in  a  half-circle  a  glade  planted  -vA-ith 
young  pines,  about  6  years  old,  and  farther  another  half-circle,  all 
this  inclosed  by  a  great  mixed  forest  of  oaks,  pines,  firs,  alders,  full  of 
big  game.  In  the  brushwood  are  hidden  hundreds  of  hares,  foxes, 
martens.  Oh,  what  a  delightful  impression  one  felt  in  walking  during 
the  night,  by  the  light  of  the  moon,  along  the  hills,  ^\^th  a  true  friend 
at  one's  side  who  adored  nature — playing  flute  and  ocarina !  The  moon 
reflected  itself  in  the  pond;  the  echo  of  the  flute  flowed  far  away  up 
the  dew.  Sometimes  we  could  hear  the  barking  of  foxes,  or  the 
bleating  of  roes  who  called  one  another,  or  the  hooting  of  an  owl.  We 
dreamed  about  far  countries,  about  travels  among  American  prairies, 
African  deserts,  and  the  jungles  of  India.  These  dreams  drew  me  here, 
where  bad  fortune  torments  me,  penury  annoys  me,  3  children  cr>' 
for  bread,  a  wife  complains,  and  I  myself  have  lost  all  shame  to  such 


OSINIAK  SERIES 


999 


a  degree  that  for  the  vain  profit  of  a  few  cents  I  send  those  letters  from 
my  best  and  only  friend,  which  I  have  kept  in  a  good  hiding-place  for 
many  years  and  read  hundreds  of  times.     But  I  hope  that  I  shall 

receive  them  back 

Leon  M. 

677  Glogow,  May  26,  1903 

Dear  Friend  :  You  ask  what  is  the  news  in  Glogow.  Everything 
is  as  it  has  been  from  old;  one  can  say,  "Old  misery."  [Letter.; 
written  and  received;  general  news  about  acquaintances.]  As  I  see, 
you  want  to  fill  your  pocket  at  once  with  dollars,  for  when  you  had 
easy  work  you  kept  it  for  a  short  time,  and  now  you  remain  longer 
in  the  factories,  which,  I  believe,  must  be  like  hell.  Perhaps  you  have 
now  more  money;  it  ought  to  be  so.  But  perhaps  not?  It  is  also 
true  that  writing  is  tiresome  enough,  particularly  for  the  eyes.  I 
don't  even  want  to  read  books  any  more,  and  I  marvel  how  you  could 
read  so  much  when  you  were  writing  [as  a  clerk]  in  Glogow.  When 
I  arise  from  this  paper  I  go  home  in  the  evening  like  a  blind  hen. 
Oh,  there  is  no  better,  more  joyous  moment  than  to  go  with  a  stick 
[a  gun;  poachers'  jargon]  to  the  forest.  But  they  guard  it  well!  I 
shall  write  you  below  about  different  adventures,  because  now  I 
should  hke  to  find  something  to  say  about  Glogow,  but  I  can  find 
nothing;  without  joking,  I  cannot.  [Some  news  about  people  who 
intend  to  go  to  America.]  In  your  home  all  are  in  good  health.  This 
winter  we  celebrated  in  Glogow  the  40th  anniversary  of  the  insurrec- 
tion of  1863.  In  the  town  there  is  no  news  at  all.  If  you  write  soon, 
use  numbers  in  some  words.  And  now  I  will  tell  you  something  about 
shooting  [the  word  ciphered].  First  I  tell  you  the  fate  of  Fr.  Morarski, 
like  that  which  happened  to  us.  Somebody  from  Glogow,  probably 
W.  M.,  killed  a  deer  [cipiier]  in  January  and  the  gamekeeper  [cipher] 
drove  him  away,  so  that  he  had  to  throw  the  gun  away,  or  he  hid  it 
after  shooting,  and  the  keeper  saw  this  and  found  it  later.  It  was 
a  double-barreled  gun.  He  imagined  that  it  was  Fr.  Mor.  And 
moreover,  the  deer  disappeared,  because  another  companion  of  the 
man  fled  and  carried  it  away  while  the  keeper  was  pursuing  the  first 

one The  keeper  took  the  gun  to  the  chief  forester  and  drew 

up  a  complaint  against  Morarski,  who  proved  that  he  was  in  Rzeszow 
at  the  time,  and  the  keeper  will  probably  sit  [in  i)rison  for  false  com- 
plaint].    Then  he  drew  up  a  complaint  against  Bartuzcl,  but  this  also 


1000  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

rosultod  in  nothinj;.  Then  against  the  man  who  was  there  really. 
Hut  wlio  can  prove  it  ?  The  only  result  is  that  they  now  guard  the 
forest  of  Cito.iiow  i)etter.  The  second  thing  will  be  interesting  enough. 
Listen.  St.  /.aj.  and  Wl.  Zaj.  killed  a  roe  ...  .  about  5  o'clock  in 
the  evening  and,  as  they  like  to  do,  wanted  to  take  it  home  right  then. 

They  came  to  the  meadow  near  the  spring Suddenly  about 

20  paces  back  of  them  somebody  called:  "Hello,  thieves!"  and  so  on. 
What  could  they  do  ?  It  was  not  very  dark,  so  they  could  only  leave 
[the  roe]  and  fly,  before  he  recognized  them.  And  so  they  did.  He 
(the  keeper]  could  indeed  have  tried  the  plan:  " Stop,  or  I  will  shoot," 
but  he  did  not  think  of  it.  Only  later  we  learned  that  it  was  [not  the 
keeper  but]  Jozef  Jaronski  and  Jan  Domanski  who  were  setting  traps 
for  martens.  They  took  the  roe  and  ate  it,  but  at  least  everything  was 
quiet.  Now  another  [story]  still.  On  Sunday  evening  after  10  o'clock 
we  went  to  the  forest  on  the  other  side  of  the  fields,  by  the  Hght  of  the 
moon.  We  were  4:  two  had  to  drive  [the  game],  two  to  stand  [and 
shoot].  When  we  came  to  the  fields  there  was  fog.  You  could  not 
see  another  man  at  5  paces.     So  we  walked  close  to  one  another  in 

order  not  to  get  lost We  came  to  the  forest,  but  in  the  fog 

we  did  not  see  much;  it  was  cold — snow  up  to  the  knees.  If  I  had 
not  remembered  to  take  the  compass  we  should  not  have  found  the 
way  to  the  forest.  After  i|  hours  of  driving,  those  who  stood  were 
frozen  and  moved,  intending  to  go  home,  and  only  then  we  came, 
having  driven  nothing.  We  hastened  then  to  our  house  as  to  a 
friend.  As  to  the  gamekeeper,  with  whom  we  are  acquainted,  prob- 
ably you  don't  know  him.  He  often  comes  to  Mr.  R's  ....  with 
a  cart;  he  is  keeper  in  his  forest.  He  was  a  good  fellow  more  than 
once  with  us.  I  shot  only  once  at  the  deer,  and  it  was  so:  I  walked 
a  long  time  about  the  forest,  I  went  beyond  the  last  hill  .  .  .  .  ; 
they  were  there.  I  moved  toward  them  for  half  an  hour  perhaps,  and 
it  was  difficult,  because  there  were  5  of  them,  2  lying  dowTi  and  the 
others  loafing  around.  It  was  necessary  to  conceal  myself  carefully 
and  to  advance  cautiously,  lest  they  notice  me.  I  cam.e  to  45  paces, 
I  leaned  against  a  tree  and  shot.  I  missed,  as  it  proved  afterward — 
about  10  inches  too  high,  for  the  bullet  was  in  the  tree  under  which  the 
deer  lay.  But  nothing  could  be  done,  I  had  to  be  reconciled  to  my 
fate.  At  other  times  it  was  different.  Once  we  ran  through  the 
whole  forest  of  Glogow  following  the  traces  of  a  bleeding  deer  which 
did  not  fall.     Then  it  stopped  bleeding,  and  that  was  the  end  of  our 


OSINIAK  SERIES  lOOi 

chase.  Even  worse  things  happened.  Not  long  ago,  on  March  8, 
"it"  [a  deer]  got  a  good  one.     "It"  could  not  jump  a  moat  and  fell 

into  the  water  and  was  no  more  to  be  seen And  another  time 

things  did  not  go  better.  St.  Zaj.  and  Wl.  Zaj.,  on  Good  Friday 
afternoon,  went  to  the  forest  in  search  of  "this."  They  came  across 
a  "big  one."  The  first  time  the  gun  did  not  go  off,  only  the  second 
time,  but  he  missed,  being  in  a  hurry,  and  this  saved  him.  He  hid  the 
gun  and  marked  [the  place]  by  breaking  a  branch.  They  went  a  few 
steps  and  suddenly  the  gamekeeper  appeared  from  behind  a  thicket. 
They  could  not  run,  because  he  was  near.  He  approached  and 
whistled.  The  son  of  the  chief  forester  appeared  with  a  gun  and 
threatened  to  shoot  at  them.  But  as  they  found  nothing,  they  only 
quarrelled  and  wanted  to  take  [the  poachers]  with  them,  but  they  did 
not  go,  and  so  the  question  was  left.  But  they  [the  keepers]  went  to 
search  for  the  gun,  and  because  there  was  a  branch  broken,  they  found 
it,  as  they  are  practiced  in  the  matter.  There  was  a  lawsuit,  but 
nothing  can  be  proved  against  them.  If  they  had  looked  into  their 
pockets  and  found  the  peas  and  sand  [buck-shot  and  powder],  it  would 

have  been  worse 

Your  friend, 

Wl.  Osiniak 

678  Przemysl,  March  29,  1905 

Dear  Friend:    Well,  so  you  are  still  ahve I  could  not 

believe  I  saw  your  handwriting.  Perhaps  you  reminded  yourself 
about  our  young  years?  Alas,  they  won't  return  again!  But 
nevertheless  you  could  have  written  at  least  once  in  half  a  year.  I 
think  that  you  don't  regret  a  few  cents,  and  if  indeed  you  have  little 
time  there,  you  can  still  make  an  hour's  sacrifice  for  your  old  friend. 
You  don't  need  to  make  efforts  to  write  poetically  or  in  some  new  style, 
but  quite  simply.  I  cannot  explain  to  myself  what  was  the  reason 
of  your  long  silence — whether  you  cannot  get  accustomed  to  the 
American  ink  or  pen,  or  perhaps  you  belong  to  some  sect  which  abhors 

writing,  because  in  the  New  World  even  this  is  possible What 

do  you  expect  to  do  about  the  military  service  ?  Write  me  what  you 
think  about  it.  I  am  now  in  Przemysl,  in  the  post-office.  It  is  not 
so  bad,  only  there  are  no  holidays,  only  half  a  day  every  Sunday. 
They  pay  for  it,  it  is  true,  but  it  would  be  better  to  get  a  few  gulden 
less  and  to  be  freer.     It  is  so  difficult  to  get  a  leave  that  I  could  not 


lCK->2  TRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

even  he  at  home  for  Christmas,  although  it  is  only  12  [Polish]  miles 
from  home.  I  am  in  a  storehouse,  delivering  parcels,  because  I  read 
well ;  so  sitting  in  the  lawyer's  ofBce  has  proved  of  some  use.  Besides, 
I  have  learned  to  read  Ruthenian.  I  do  nothing  but  deUver  parcels, 
sometimes  i ,000,000  crowns  worth.  After  New  Year  I  hope  to  deliver 
letters  in  Przemysl.  Evidently  I  have  no  time  now  to  amuse  myself 
like  a  nobleman  [to  poach].  On  the  day  before  going  to  Przemysl  we 
got  horns  [killed  a  hart].  It  was  on  Easter,  in  the  thicket  where 
hazel-shrubs  grow,  with  St.  Zajg,c.     Since  then  nothing  more;    he 

is  in  the  army  in  Rzeszow,  and  I  am  here You  see  that  I 

know  how  it  tastes  to  be  alone  in  a  strange  town;  how  much  worse  it 
must  be  in  a  foreign  country^  But  I  hope  that  you  are  getting  on 
better  now,  because  you  can  speak  more  easily.  Describe  what 
vicissitudes  of  fortune  }'ou  have  passed  through  during  this  time. 
Are  you  not  married  perhaps,  like  Jozef  Podo  and  Dragulski?  I 
should  not  wish  it  so  soon  to  you,  as  to  a  friend.  But  don't  conclude 
that  I  experienced  it  upon  my  own  skin ;  I  am  still  free  as  a  bird  in  the 
sky.  I  don't  know  what  to  write  further,  nor  what  you  want  to  know. 
....  I  wait  for  a  big  letter 

WtADYSLAW 

679  June  9,  1906 

Dear  Friend:    ....  Don't  despise  wTiting;    force  yourself  to 

do  it.     To  me  you  can  write  with  a  pencil  upon  any  bit  of  paper 

I  won't  be  angry,  and  it  will  cost  you  much  less  trouble.  It  happens 
sometimes  that  you  sit  somewhere  in  a  garden,  you  are  bored,  you 
have  nothing  to  do  and  nobody  to  speak  with;  there  is  a  pencil  and 
paper — because  you  don't  wear  ink  wdth  \'ou.  You  compose  a  letter, 
you  come  home  and  either  copy  it  with  ink  or  put  the  sam.e  WTiting 
into  a  cover,  address  it  with  ink  and  on  the  first  occasion  put  it  into 
a  mail  box.  I  perform  this  duty  in  this  way  even  in  writing  to  my 
people  in  Glogow.  I  don't  lose  my  free  moments  on  yoiir  letter,  I 
write  it  during  the  time  I  am  on  duty  in  the  post-office.  Even  now  a 
salesman  is  interrupting  me.  The  devil  brought  him  to  annoy  me, 
but  I  must  be  patient. 

You  are  right  in  not  thinking  of  returning  home  for  military 
service  and  wasting  the  precious  time  in  putting  your  mouth  under  the 
fist  of  Mr.  Sergeant.  Something  can  still  happen  during  your  pursuit 
of  happiness  [e.g.,  you  might  become  crippled],  and  then  they  must 


OSINIAK  SERIES 


1003 


free  you  from  this  honor  of  serving  the  "fatherland";  and  if  not,  you 
will  still  have  time  to  receive  such  dainties.  Even  the  dog  does  not 
put  his  back  under  the  stick;  how  much  less  the  man  who  is  not 
menaced  by  the  honorable  authorities  [who  is  out  of  reach].  Think 
of  it  as  if  a  trap  had  been  set  here,  and  be  careful  not  to  step  into  it,  at 
least  not  at  once.  I  don't  find  anything  interesting  around  me,  as 
in  service  one  always  tries  to  rise  above  the  others.  I  have  been 
beaten  enough  in  my  youth  [disciplined  by  the  rough  life  of  a  poacher] 
so  that  I  don't  need  to  take  much  pains  in  competition  with  an  old 

gendarme  or  an  ex-corporal You  ask  what  I  am  doing  now. 

Well,  it  is  enough  to  say,  as  in  any  post-office.  I  don't  know  what  I 
shall  do  in  the  future,  I  live  without  any  aim  and  I  don't  try  to  find 
any — if  only  for  that  reason  that  I  missed  once.  You  can't  imagine 
perhaps  how  hard  it  is  to  resign  a  thing  about  which  one  has  thought 
for  a  long  time.  I  kill  my  free  time  going  on  a  bicycle  around  the 
neighboring  villages  and  towns.  Up  to  the  present  I  could  not 
beUeve  that  Lajos  Dragulski  is  bound  [married]  already,  but  I  must 
beUeve  your  words.  Perhaps  he  will  regret  it  some  day — or  perhaps 
not;  it  cannot  be  foreseen.  My  sister  Bronka  got  married  also  .... 
and  I  could  not  even  be  at  the  wedding  because  it  was  difficult  to  get 

leave I  can  go  home  very  seldom,  though  it  is  only  12  miles 

and  the  fare  is  5  crowns  there  and  back.  I  am  quite  bound — free  time 
only  on  Sunday  afternoon — and  every  day  I  must  rise  at  5  in  the 
morning;  two  hours  for  dinner;  till  6  in  the  evening.  It  is  perhaps 
better  than  to  do  handwork,  but  one  is  not  free.  I  am  paid  i  gulden 
15  kreuzer  a  day  and  the  uniform;  on  the  side  I  get  only  a  few  crowns 
a  month  [tips].  But  here  everything  is  so  expensive  that  almost 
nothing  is  left,  and  when  holidays  come,  Christ  our  Lord!  one  becomes 
almost  enraged.  Other  people  amuse  themselves,  and  the  post- 
officials  labor  in  the  sweat  of  their  brow,  so  that  one  does  not  want  to 
eat  when  he  comes  home  for  half  an  hour  at  noon.  I  think  that  you 
don't  work  there  much  more  heavily  in  your  factory.  Well,  in  a  mine 
evidently  one  must  labor  hard 

W.  OSINIAK 

680  September  21,  1906 

Dear  Friend:  I  received  your  letter  for  which  I  thank  you  most 
heartily.  I  am  glad  that  you  did  not  begrudge  the  time  or  paper,  as 
before,  to  your  old  friend.     But  perhaps  we  shall  yet  see  one  another 


1004  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

once  more.  What  do  >-ou  think  ?  It  seems  improbable  indeed,  but 
nothing  in  the  world  is  impossible;  so  perhaps  even  here  the  govern- 
mont  will  change  some  day,  and  then  perhaps  it  won't  be  so  difficult 
to  live  as  it  is  now.  Well,  and  perhaps  the  Polish  girl  [you  are  to 
marr>-]  in  America  won't  be  able  tinally  to  bear  the  wandering  in  a 
strange  land.  Take  this  also  into  account,  because  you  would  be 
badh-  otT  if  she  sweetened  your  free  moments  with  dreams  about 
returning  home.  And  I  should  not  advise  you  either  to  marry  one 
who  is  born  there,  because  it  would  be  like  fastening  one's  self  with  a 
nail  to  that  world  there.  Again  as  to  character  and  birth  there  are 
great  ditliculties;  the  man  ought  to  know  the  woman  well  before 
marr%-ing  her.  Well,  I  think  that  you  won't  bind  yourself  so  soon, 
because  it  was  only  a  hasty  thought,  a  consequence  of  your  longing 
for  your  country-.  But  you  must  persevere.  And  perhaps  you 
want  to  deceive  me  ?  For  a  year  or  three,  since  people  say  that  it  is 
possible  there  [to  marry  for  so  short  a  time]  I  should  like  to  try  such 
delights,  in  spite  of  the  Christian  principles.  I  ought  not  to  be 
afraid,  because  in  your  preceding  letters  you  wTOte  that  at  least  you 
don't  think  of  doing  this  foolish  thing  just  now.  It  is  also  not  right 
[to  object],  because  the  world  could  not  exist  if  all  those  [who  marry] 
were  fools.     But  one  ought  to  look  soberly  at  such  questions. 

In  Glogow  there  is  not  much  news.     Dragula,  Balaban,  Grodecki 
....  and  other  men  of  my  age  have  already  come  back  from  the 

army,  having  served  three  years  each Wladek  Grodecki  plans 

only  now  to  marry  Kosciuszkowna;  he  ought  to  know  her  well  enough, 
even  from  under.  This  year  big  rains  have  fallen,  the  pond  in 
Stykow  overflowed  its  banks,  so  that  water  ran  through  the  road. 
The  beech  tree  upon  which  you  cut  your  name  for  the  last  time  stands 
safe,  the  spring  is  in  the  same  place,  only  we  are  farther  away  from 
it  than  before.  I  have  not  forgotten  the  last  day  either.  Don't 
drop  the  thought  of  returning  just  because  you  don't  know  any  trade. 
You  can  set  up  a  shop  or  a  tavern  if  you  have  a  few  ten-gulden  pieces, 
and  you  can  Uve  freely,  as,  for  example,  Sokolow^ski,  iiywiec,  Pado, 
and  many  others  in  Glogow.  It  is  easier  than  handwork  and  does  not 
need  protection.  Only  look  into  this  American  citizenship,  so  that 
it  may  not  be  anything  like  a  mousetrap  [whether  American  citizen- 
ship frees  from  the  duties  of  an  Austrian  subject].  So  you  could  come 
back,  and  I  say  it  is  worth  while,  though  I  don't  try  to  persuade  you 
to  do  it.     [You  say]  "Learn!   learn!"     We  cannot  take  all  the  fault 


OSINIAK  SERIES  IO05 

upon  us  [for  not  having  learned],  although  we  are  also  guilty  a  little. 
Only  think,  what  did  my  father  or  your  father  earn!  Could  we  have 
learned,  even  in  a  bursa  [where  poor  boys  are  boarded  and  schooled]. 
I  could  have  realized  my  dreams  even  without  learning,  I  could  have 
been  happy  in  simplicity,  but  bad  fortune  persecutes  me  even  here, 
so  that  I  look  unwillingly  and  almost  with  anger  upon  this  world,  as 
you  noticed  in  that  last  letter.  I  would  undertake  mad  things  which 
would  guarantee  a  rapid  end.  And  you,  fall  mortally  in  love  if  you 
will,  but  after  some  weeks  of  love,  don't  marry,  but  when  the  first 
love  passes,  then  reflect,  look  well  at  this  creature  before  and  behind, 
and  then  act  according  to  your  will. 

I  forgot  to  write  you  that  I  have  seen  living  Indians  here  in 
Przemysl.  There  was  an  American  circus  named  Buffalo  Bill. 
[Describes  the  performance;  admires  particularly  the  good  shooting.] 
What  is  the  news  in  America  ?  In  Russia  there  is  revolution.  No- 
body in  Warsaw  is  sure  of  the  next  day,  and  the  government  does  not 
want  to  give  the  constitution  and  we  cannot  foresee  what  will  come 
of  it.  Every  day  some  policemen  and  their  superiors  perish.  But  the 
"heroism"  of  the  Russian  soldiers  shows  itself  upon  the  innocent 
population;  those  who  make  the  attempts  are  usually  safe,  and 
the  innocent  people  are  arrested.  You  can  guess  how  the  Russian 
officials  treat  them  there  [in  prison] ;  it  needs  not  to  be  explained  to  a 
man  who  reads  the  papers.  They  are  braver  now  than  against  the 
Japanese!  .... 

Wladek  Osiniak 


681  December  17,  1906 

Dear  Friend:  I  received  your  letter.  Oh,  what  a  wedge  you 
drove  into  my  head  [distressed  me]!  But  don't  let  us  lose  our 
balance,  but  discuss  things  in  their  order.  First,  I  rejoice  that  your 
health  is  good.  As  to  weariness  or  despair,  don't  think  that  I  am 
free  of  them.  If  I  am  not  at  least  three  times  more  weary  than  you 
I  ought  to  thank  God.  Perhaps  you  no  longer  believe  in  such  a  being 
from  beyond  the  world,  but  you  mentioned  something  about  the 
devil  in  your  letter,  and  since  you  believe  in  the  latter,  you  ought  the 
more  in  the  former.  I  am  almost  alone  here,  like  a  fmger,  because 
my  associates  look  crossly  at  me,  and  if  I  had  not  been  beaten  [and 
hardened  as  a  poacher],  more  than  once  I  should  be  ready  to  weep.     It 


KX-)6  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

is  also  dilluult  to  find  such  a  friend  as  I  want.  Here  I  think  fre- 
(jucntly  about  m>sclf,  whether  I  am  so  fit  for  nothing,  or  why  I  have 
such  a  bad  opinion  of  this  world,  and  I  can  find  no  other  reason  except 
that  1  have  a  feeling  of  beauty  and  a  love  of  beautiful  views  of  nature 
too  strongly  imi)lanted  in  my  soul.  We  spent  too  much  time  in  the 
forest,  dear  friend,  when  we  were  young,  and  it  is  difficult  to  tear  these 
memories  out.  I  see  here  well-instructed  men  who  have  not  one 
huntlrelh  part  of  such  aspirations  [love  of  nature],  and  how  much 
more  diihcult  is  it  to  find  a  desirable  friend  among  the  "paupers" 
[intellectually  poor]  or  how  else  do  you  call  them?  And  I  don't 
expect  to  find  an}-,  except  ....  I  meet  somebody,  for  example,  and 
say,  "Let  us  go  outside  of  the  town."  "Why,"  he  answers  "isn't  it 
all  right  here?"  "Well,"  I  answer,  "if  you  are  suited,  then  good- 
bye." And  the  devils  take  him!  Let  thunder  strike  such  a  life, 
since  you  wish  it  also!  I  no  longer  expect  to  find  happiness,  it  is  not 
suitable  to  dream  about  it.  To  see  the  world  ?  At  present  it  is  an 
unrealizable  wish  for  me,  so  I  did  not  even  mention  it  to  you.  There 
is  only  one  reason  why  I  hope  that  it  won't  be  too  late,  that  is  if  only 
I  don't  marry,  I  shall  have  free  will,  and  then  we  shall  see.  I  don't 
want  to  work  up  to  my  death  either,  I  don't  even  think  of  it.  Some 
years  ago  I  should  have  clung  to  such  words  without  reflection 
[probably  to  the  invitation  to  come],  but  just  then  there  was  no 
money.  Now  money  is  more  easy  to  get,  but  the  conditions  are  such 
that  I  must  consider  everything  well.  It  is  true  that  I  did  not  bind 
myself,  but  what  of  that?  We  are  matched,  it  is  true;  we  suffer 
through  it;  this  is  also  true.  And  what  will  happen  later  on — I  am 
stupid  and  I  don't  know,  as  I  don't  know  what  I  shall  be  in  the  other 
world,  a  horse  or  a  dog.  You  speak  about  getting  sickly  [in  order  to 
become  free  from  military  service].  It  seems  to  me  also  that  I  got 
too  sickly,  I  am  not  quite  well  now  with  my  breast,  perhaps  it  will 
pass  away;  I  don't  know.  This  call  to  military  ser\dce  made  me 
suffer  much.  I  did  not  spare  my  health,  I  thought:  "Either  [I  will 
be  free] — or  [I  wdll  risk  my  life?]."  I  walked  during  severe  cold  at 
night,  my  toes  froze,  and  who  knows  whether  I  had  not  inflammation 
of  the  lungs,  but  did  not  He  in  bed.  The  military  examination  passed 
happily,  but  I  can  no  longer  believe  in  my  health.  Well,  but  I  don't 
mind  it  much,  perhaps  in  this  way  I  shall  reach  the  end,  because  why 
should  I  live  ?  If  it  were  only  for  this  reason,  I  cannot  say  "  Yes  "  or 
"No"  [to  your  proposal  to  come  to  America].     Don't  be  angry  or 


OSINIAK  SERIES  IO07 

discouraged  from  living  because  of  this,  and  at  least  don't  stop 
writing,  because  I  should  like  to  have  at  least  your  address  from  time 
to  time,  because  nobody  can  guess  the  future.  So  I  don't  need  to 
write  you  more  clearly.  At  present  I  cannot  answer  or  undertake 
anything  positive.  You  ought  to  forgive  me  and  to  understand  why 
I  am  a  little  too  lazy.  I  hope  that  it  will  pass.  Finally,  I  wish  you 
happiness  and  good  luck  in  1907. 

Your  true  friend, 

Wladek 

682  February  2,  1907 

Dear  Friend:  I  received  such  a  letter  as  I  did  not  even  expect, 
and  I  am  very  grateful  to  you  for  it.  I  am  doubly  sad  that  I  dis- 
appointed your  expectation,  but  in  spite  of  my  best  wish  I  cannot 
fulfil  our  old  promises  at  the  present  time.  Perhaps  God  will  grant 
that  it  will  be  possible  later  on.  Don't  imagine  that  I  have  changed 
completely.  I  have  only  passed,  or  rather  experienced,  some  dis- 
appointments, and  therefore  it  is  possible  that  I  am  somewhat  more 
peevish  than  during  my  youth,  but  I  hope  that  you  will  forgive  me 
such  a  sin.  I  wrote  that  I  don't  think  of  marrying,  and  you  need  not 
suspect  me  of  falling  in  love  with  an  inhabitant  of  Przemysl,  although 
it  is  not  a  crime  and  I  would  confess  it  to  you,  my  most  tender  friend, 
at  the  first  occasion.  As  to  carrying  letters  [becoming  postman]  it 
is  also  very  doubtful.  I  don't  see  anything  ahead.  I  stand  as  before 
a  cross-way.     I  believe  it  will  be  necessary  to  do  any  silly  thing  in 

order  to  end  this  uncertainty And  don't  forget  me  entirely 

even  in  California.  I  thank  you  for  the  photograph.  I  will  perhaps 
put  it  into  a  frame  and  will  wear  it  hanging  with  my  watch;  it  is 
suitable  for  that.  You  have  changed  hardly  at  all  in  these  2  or  3 
years,  biit  as  you  say  yourself,  it  was  made  2  years  ago.  I  expected 
rather  to  see  big  whiskers,  and  I  see  a  young  American.  Well,  may 
fortune  favor  you.  I  can  inform  you  also  ....  that  our  Milka 
[probably  younger  sister]  has  also  got  married.  Here  in  Galicia  there 
is  nothing  new,  only  at  the  university  [of  Lemlierg]  Ruthenian  stu- 
dents, hajdamaki  [  =  robbers;  old  nickname  of  Ruthenian  insurgents] 
beat  the  professors,  broke  and  tore  valuable  pictures,  and  now  sit 
[in  prison].  There  is  even  the  son  of  an  usher  from  Przemysl,  a 
Ruthenian,  who  sits  on  account  of  the  Polish  university  in  Lemberg. 
His  father  does  not  mind  it  very  much,  but  he  will  probably  be  driven 


IOo8  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

au-ay  from  LomlxTg.     Well,  in  the  devil's  name,  this  won't  cost  mi 
anything:. 

I  am  tired  of  such  a  life  under  an  ax  [like  a  slave].  Neither 
holiday  nor  freedom.  Let  the  clear  lightning  strike  it!  When 
holidays  come,  other  people  breathe  [rest],  even  a  horse,  even  a  Jewish 
one,  has  holidays  sometimes,  and  here  in  this  post-office  one  goes 
almost  mad.  For  example,  I  have  not  been  in  a  church  at  mass  for 
almost  a  year.  Well,  I  shall  get  to  heaven!  I  have  nothing  more  to 
write,  especially  since  I  have  written  six  letters  this  evening — home 
sending  wishes  for  the  wedding  at  which  I  was  not  present,  to  Jaslo, 
etc.     I  greet  you  most  heartily. 

Your  friend, 

Wladek 


KRUPA  SERIES 

We  place  this  series  at  this  point  as  ilKistrating  the 
friendship  arising  between  members  of  the  same  family,  in 
addition  to  the  familial  relation,  upon  the  basis  of  a  com- 
munity of  cultural  life. 

The  situation  in  the  Krupa  family  is  that  of  a  growing 
separation  between  the  old  and  the  young  generations  and 
a  new  kind  of  solidarity  (although  only  a  partial  one) 
between  the  young  people.  We  find  this  dissociation  of 
interests  between  parents  and  children  in  some  other  series 
(Markiewicz),  but  there  its  basis  is  the  struggle  of  different 
social  and  economic  forms  of  life  (familial  organization  and 
individualism,  old  and  new  class-divisions,  property  and 
salary  as  foundations  of  economic  life),  while  here  the  dis- 
sociation has  its  source  in  new  moral  ideals  which  the  young 
generation  develops,  and  other  differences  are  only  sec- 
ondary. 

The  essential  ideals  of  the  young  generation  are  those  of 
individual  intellectual  development  and  of  active  service  to 
the  national  idea — both  rather  strange  to  the  parents. 
We  have  translated  three  letters  of  the  latter  in  order  to 
show  how  completely  their  circle  of  interests  is  limited  to 
the  traditional  conditions  of  peasant  life.  The  only  reason 
compelling  the  parents  to  give  their  children  instruction  is 
the  economic  one;  they  have  too  many  children  to  keep  at 
home  and  they  hope  that  through  education  the  children 
will  be  able  to  attain  a  better  position  in  life.  But  even  this 
consideration  is  not  always  sufficient  to  move  them  to 
spend  money  on  instruction.  Thus,  only  through  the  i)rom- 
ise  of  Jozia's  help  are  the  old  Krupas  moved  to  send  their 
third  daughter,  Basia,  to  a  school,  and  over  Stasia's  going 

1009 


lOlO  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

to  Kriis/\iu>k  tluTc  has  been  a  long  struggle,  while  the 
inircnts  of  Karolcia  S.  [a  cousin]  refuse  to  send  her  at  all. 
As  to  the  national  idea,  in  the  old  Krupas  there  is  a  passive 
clinging  to  the  Polish  nationality,  but  not  a  trace  of  any 
thought  of  contributing  actively  to  Poland's  progress  or  to 
Poland's  liberty. 

On  the  contrary,  the  young  people  show  a  real  enthusiasm 
for  both  ideals.  In  Jozia  this  enthusiasm  is  already  equili- 
brated and  self-conscious;  she  is  the  oldest  and  best  in- 
structed. The  advice  and  the  occasional  scolding  which  she 
gives  to  her  brother  show  her  eagerness  to  see  him  become  an 
educated  man  and  an  active  patriot.  In  Stanislawa  (Stasia) 
the  enthusiasm  is  still  naive.  Her  admiration  of  the  country 
between  Cracow  and  Warsaw  (aestheticalh'  the  ugliest  part 
of  Poland),  the  pride  with  which  she  enumerates  the  sub- 
jects she  is  beginning  to  study  (whose  names  she  cannot 
even  record  without  error),  her  plans  as  cpickly  formed  as 
dropped,  show  that  the  desire  to  attain  some  superior  ends 
is  formed  before  the  ends  themselves  are  clearly  conceived. 
Finally,  in  the  brother  there  is  evidently  a  great  vitality 
and  enthusiasm,  but  connected  with  an  adventurous  spirit 
and  an  insufficient  determination  of  his  o'wn  attitudes  with 
regard  to  various  possible  ends. 

These  three  individuals  are  t}'pical,  each  in  his  o^^^l  way, 
for  the  development  of  this  kind  of  idealistic  attitudes,  both 
in  the  lower  classes  under  the  influence  of  the  higher  classes 
and  in  young  people  of  any  class  under  the  influence  of  their 
elders.  The  simplest  case  is  that  in  which  the  individual 
by  his  previous  life  has  been  prepared  to  accept  consciously 
a  determined  end— intellectual  or  moral  self-development, 
realization  of  certain  social  and  political  desiderata^and 
gradually  subordinates  to  it  his  lower  egotistic  tendencies 
and  his  traditional  attitudes.  This  case  seems  to  be 
realized  exactl}^  in  Jozia,  whose  moral  and  social  ideals  are 


KRUPA  SERIES  I  Oil 

such  that  they  could  be  fully  adopted  by  any  individual  of 
the  peasant  class  as  soon  as  he  understood  the  necessity  of 
substituting  conscious  efforts  toward  individual  and  social 
development  for  passivity  and  tradition.  Her  intellectual 
and  patriotic  ideals  are  limited  and  determined  by  a  strong 
religiosity  (of  a  more  profound  and  personal  character  than 
the  usual  peasant  religiosity).  The  qualities  which  she 
wants  to  see  her  brother  develop  are  those  most  useful  in  a 
peasant  community — laboriousness,  parsimony,  sobriety, 
practical  energy,  and  wisdom.  Aesthetically  she  enjoys 
most,  in  full  consciousness,  those  phenomena  which  appeal 
the  most  to  the  half-conscious  aesthetic  sense  of  the  peasant 
— nature  and  religious  ceremonies. 

The  second  typical  way  in  which  idealistic  attitudes  are 
developed  (most  frequent  in  women)  is  represented  by 
Stanislawa.  The  individual  becomes  conscious  of  the 
existence  of  a  certain  sphere  of  interests  and  aspirations 
higher  than  his  own.  He  understands  at  first  only  its 
superiority,  without  really  understanding  its  content,  with- 
out discriminating  between  various  ideals.  A  desire  to  rise 
to  this  higher  sphere  develops,  and  with  it  the  consciousness 
(often  exaggerated)  of  his  own  imperfection  in  comparison 
with  the  superior  men  who  are  at  home  in  this  higher  sphere. 
Then  come  strenuous  efforts  toward  self-development, 
always  accompanied  by  the  feeling  of  humility.  The 
nature  of  the  ideals  which  the  individual  will  make  his  own 
depends  in  this  case,  not  upon  the  individual's  past,  but 
almost  exclusively  upon  the  content  of  the  set  of  ideal 
interests  and  tendencies  which  he  has  first  begun  to  under- 
stand, i.e.,  ultimately  upon  the  group  of  intellectual, 
aesthetic,  moral,  or  religious  workers  which  he  happened  to 
encounter  and  which  first  introduced  him  into  this  new 
world.  Of  course  it  may  hapi:)cn  later  that  the  individual 
meets   a  different  set  of  men   and  ideals  which  seem    to 


loij  TRIM ARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

hini  a,<j;ain  superior,  and  then  the  same  process  is  repeated, 
bill  il  is  the  first  awakening  of  ideal  interests  as  we  find  it 
here  \\hicli  is  particularly  important  for  further  develop- 
ment. 

The  third  t>'pe  (more  frequent  among  men)  is  given  in 
tlic  brother  to  whom  the  letters  are  written.  Here  the  atti- 
tudes are  determined,  not  with  regard  to  the  higher  sphere 
of  idealistic  interests,  but  with  regard  to  the  lower  sphere 
abo\-e  which  the  indi\'idual  rises.  Any  new  and  higher 
idealistic  attitude  acquired  appears  as  the  ground  of  an 
attitude  of  superiority  assumed  toward  the  materialistic 
tendencies,  the  apparent  meanness  of  everyday  Hfe,  the 
traditional  customs  and  beliefs,  etc.,  and  toward  the  men 
who  are  their  representatives.  Sometimes  a  mere  theoreti- 
cal or  verbal  acknowledgment  of  a  higher  end,  without  any 
effort  toward  its  practical  realization,  satisfies  the  individual 
and  sutTices  in  his  own  eyes  to  justify  his  superiority.  There 
is  in  the  beginning  hardly  any  selection  of  the  idealistic 
attitudes;  any  attitude  may  be  accepted  which  fulfils  the 
condition  of  being  a  basis  of  superiority  in  any  regard,  and 
frequent  and  apparently  illogical  changes  may  occur,  de- 
termined often  by  the  fact  that  the  influence  of  a  given 
attitude  has  been  exhausted,  that  it  has  ceased  to  provoke 
admiration  or  to  make  the  individual  feel  his  superiority — 
as  every  emotional  reaction  is  w^eakened  by  habit.  If  the 
individual  finally  selects  a  definite  end,  it  is,  consciously  or 
not,  the  end  which  seems  best  to  justify  the  permanent 
attitude  of  a  superior  man,  a  reformer,  a  prophet,  etc. 
Evidently,  there  may  be  more  or  less  sincerity  mixed  with 
vanity,  and  frequently  an  evolution  toward  a  greater  sin- 
cerity is  noticeable  as  the  individual  progresses  in  age. 

The  solidarity  among  the  young  people  upon  the  basis 
of  their  new  ideals  as  against  the  old  generation  is  well 
expressed  in  its  evolution.     Jozia  is  first  alone.     Then  she 


KRUPA  SERIES 


I013 


sees  with  particular  joy  that  her  brother  has  developed  a 
sphere  of  interest  more  or  less  common  with  hers,  and  she 
tries  to  make  this  community  as  close  as  possible.  She, 
and  in  a  measure  her  brother,  are  glad  to  see  that  Stasia 
will  soon  become  one  of  them,  and  Stasia  understands  it 
and  feels  proud  and  humble  at  the  same  time,  until,  in  her 
last  letter,  she  begins  to  show  a  greater  independence  and 
self-consciousness.  Finally,  Jozia  helps  to  attract  Basia 
into  their  circle.  This  solidarity  is  not  limited  to  their 
immediate  family.  Franciszek,  the  instructed  peasant, 
sends  at  his  own  expense  his  betrothed,  Karolcia,  to  the 
school  when  her  parents  refuse  to  do  so. 

Nevertheless,  the  solidarity  is  not  perfect.  The  brother 
in  America  not  only  shows  tendencies  to  develop  certain 
attitudes  in  disaccord  with  those  of  young  people  in  his  own 
country,  but  does  not  seem  to  acknowledge  fully  Stasia's 
rights  to  independence  of  views  and  of  life.  Perhaps  it  is 
his  situation  as  presumptive  heir  of  the  farm  which  leaves,  in 
spite  of  all  his  "progressiveness,"  a  certain  background  of 
the  plain  peasant  materialism  in  economic  and  familial 
matters. 

These  attitudes,  here  only  incidentally  mentioned,  will 
be  illustrated  in  another  collection  of  materials  (Part 
II),  treating  the  actual  evolution  of  the  peasant  and  the 
movement  of  social  ideahsm. 

683-94,    TO   WOJTUS    KRUPA,    IN   AMERICA,    FROM 
FAMILY-MEMBERS    IN   POLAND 

683  Krosnica,  November  30,  191 2 

Dear  little  Brother:  I  intended  to  write  you  long  ago,  but 
I  was  always  hindered  by  the  lack  of  your  exact  address.  I  have 
received  it  from  home  only  now.  So  I  hasten  to  talk  with  you  by 
letter,  since  it  is  impossible  to  do  it  by  speech.  And  I  want  so  much 
to  have  this  talk  with  you,  but  a  sincere,  hearty  talk,  a  truly  brotherly 
one.     I  should  like  to  tell  you  what  lies  upon  my  heart,  and  to  receive 


mi 4  PRLMARV-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

your  lontVssion  in  turn.  I  hope  that  you  won't  refuse  my  request  and 
that  this  letter  will  be  the  beginning  of  our  understanding.  Do  you 
agree  ? 

Time  has  flown  already  since  we  saw  each  other.  When  you  were 
going  to  .Vniorica  we  could  not  even  bid  goodbye  to  each  other. 
\\'hen  I  learned  from  our  parents  that  you  had  gone  away  I  was  very 
much  grieved,  for  knowing  your  hot  nature  I  was  afraid  some  mis- 
fortune might  befall  you,  which  is  not  difficult  in  a  strange  country 
for  a  young  and  inexperienced  man.  But,  thanks  to  God,  I  hear  that 
ever^^thing  is  going  on  well  with  you,  and  I  pray  always  the  Holiest 
Mother  to  keep  you  under  her  protection.  Meanwhile,  thanks  to 
the  help  of  God,  I  passed  my  examination  happily  and  am  working 
now  for  the  second  year  as  a  teacher.  I  teach  in  the  district  of 
Nowy  Targ;  so  it  is  among  mountaineers.  I  am  alone  in  a  small 
mountain  village.  The  work  is  rather  difficult  and  tedious,  but  the 
people  and  the  children  are  very  well-disposed  toward  me.  And  so  we 
are  both  working  independently  for  our  piece  of  bread,  we  are  thinking 
of  our  future.  We  are  both  far  away  from  the  native  home  but  I  am 
at  least  among  my  own  people  while  you  are  far  away  beyond  the 
ocean,  surrounded  by  people  who  speak  to  you  a  strange  language,  and 
often  pray  to  a  different  God.  So  don't  wonder,  brother,  if  I  feel 
often  anxious  lest  you  forget  that  you  are  a  Pole  and  a  Catholic.  But 
this  will  never  happen.  You  will  always  remember  our  native  village 
and  the  small  church,  our  old  house  and  our  parents.  Stasia  wrote 
to  me  just  now  that  you  have  joined  the  Polish  "sokols."  This  is 
precisely  a  proof  that  you  remember  that  you  are  a  Pole.  I  hear  also 
that  you  learn  English.  Evidently  this  will  make  your  stay  in 
America  easier,  but  don't  forget  to  read  Polish  books  also.  Dear 
Wojtus,  I  hope  that  you  will  answer  me  at  once.  I  shall  wait  impa- 
tiently for  your  letter.  Write  me  at  length,  how  and  where  you  work, 
and  how  you  are  succeeding.  Are  you  in  good  health?  What  do 
you  do  on  Sundays  ?  Whom  do  you  visit  there  ?  And  in  general 
everything  about  yourseK.  In  our  country  there  is  trouble  now; 
everybody  speaks  of  war  which  may  come.  The  Christmas  hoHdays, 
so  dear  to  us,  are  approaching.  I  wish  you  to  spend  them  in  the 
merriest  possible  manner,  and  remember  how  they  are  spent  in  our 
country.     I  wish  you  so,  as  if  I  broke  the  wafer  with  you  at  Christmas 

eve  dinner I  embrace  you  and  greet  you  heartily. 

Your  loving  sister, 

JOZEFA 


KRUPA  SERIES  IO15 

684  February  17,  19 13 

Dear  little  Brother:  ....  I  inform  you  that  your  letter 
rejoiced  me  very  much,  for  I  see  from  your  words  that  although  in  a 
foreign  country  and  among  so  many  dangers,  you  have  still  remained  . 
true  to  all  that  you  took  with  you  from  your  native  home.  I  am  glad 
that  you  always  feel  a  Pole  and  a  Catholic,  that  you  work  and  econo- 
mize in  the  thought  of  your  fatherland  and  family,  that  you  avoid  bad 
society  and  try  to  instruct  yourself  and  to  develop  intellectually.  We 
need  precisely  such  men  today,  who  are  not  only  able  to  work  hard, 
but  also  to  economize  and  to  use  their  money  properly.  And  this  will 
come  as  soon  as  our  people  get  at  least  enlightenment  enough  to 
understand  that  a  man  ought  not  to  work  simply  in  order  to  drink 
and  to  waste  his  money  later.  Unhappily  today  it  is  usually  so,  both 
here  in  our  country  and  there  in  foreign  countries.  So  nothing  more 
is  left  for  me  than  to  encourage  you  to  go  farther  on  the  way  which 
you  have  chosen.  Read  and  learn  as  much  as  you  can,  particularly 
in  your  native  language,  though  the  English  may  be  useful  to  you 
there.  And  then,  put  aside  as  much  money  as  you  can,  of  course  not 
being  too  parsimonious  about  your  food  or  any  honest  amusement. 
And  God  preserve  you  from  the  idea  that  you  might  remain  in  America 
forever!  How  many  of  the  strongest  and  healthiest  men  our  father- 
land loses  every  year!  Oh,  may  nobody  make  this  already  large 
number  still  larger,  but  after  earning  some  money  and  getting  more 
experience  may  everyone  return  speedily  to  his  native  threshold  and 
use  them  here  in  an  intelligent  work  for  the  good  of  his  fatherland! 

Probably  they  have  written  you  from  home  that  Stasia  went  to 
an  agricultural  school  in  the  Kingdom  [Russian  Poland].  It  is  of 
course  very  happy  news  to  us,  for  our  Stasia  will  be  able  to  learn 
farming  and  housekeeping.  And  today  everybody  is  proclaiming  that 
an  agricultural  school  is  indispensable  for  country  girls.  But  I  was 
quite  astonished  that  our  parents,  particularly  father,  agreed  to  it. 
At  any  rate  it  leads  to  expenses,  and  we  both  know  that  when  money  is 
mentioned  in  our  home  the  question  goes  as  upon  clods.  [Proverbial.] 
Well,  thanks  to  God,  that  it  ended  so.  May  she  only  happily  fmish 
this  school,  then  the  three  of  us  could  talk  among  ourselves  about 

everything  and   understand   one   another Aunt   Grabowska 

will  perhaps  come  to  me  in  the  spring,  for  now  I  am  very  lonely 
among  the  mountaineers.  I  live  alone  in  the  school,  but  I  am  not 
bored,  for  there  is  always  work.     I  have  80  children,  so  my  head 


TOir>  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

scarcely  holds  out.  Wo  have  now  severe  winter;  sledging  is  very 
good.  If  you  know  how  iiloasant  it  is  to  go  thus  with  sledges  on  Sun- 
day to  church  in  the  midst  of  these  white  fields  of  ours,  and  then  to 
kneel  down  before  our  Lord  Jesus  and  to  sing  with  one's  full  voice, 
Gorzkie  zale!  ["  Bitter  Regrets,"  a  religious  hymn  for  Lent].  Do  you, 
Wojtus,  ever  hear  there  our  beautiful  Gorzkie  tale?  Probably  not, 
for  where  should  you  ?     [Rumors  about  Balkan  war.] 

JOZEFA 

685  May  19,  1913 

My  DEAR  LITTLE  Brother:  ....  Accept  for  your  letter  a  hearty 
'■  God  reward."  Every  one  of  your  letters  causes  me  an  enormous  joy, 
and  makes  me  still  nearer  to  you,  if  it  is  possible.  I  am  still  more 
thankful  to  you  because,  though  not  having  much  time,  you  never- 
theless write  me  such  long  letters  and  confide  to  me  ever}^thing 
so  willingly.  I  wait  impatiently  for  each  letter,  and  when  I  receive 
it,  I  read  it  more  than  once.  I  am  very  glad  that  your  health  serves 
you  well.  Still  I  would  advise  you  to  change  your  occupation  and, 
if  possible,  to  work  somewhere  in  the  fresh  air,  the  more  so  as,  accord- 
ing to  your  own  words,  you  intend  to  visit  America  a  little;  so  per- 
haps you  will  find  somewhere  such  an  occupation,  even  if  for  smaller 
wages.     For,  you  see,  nothing  spoils  health  so  much  as  staying  in  a 

sultry  place And  remember  that  you  are  still  a  young  boy  and 

that  our  fatherland  needs  healthy  and  strong  sons.  I  not  only  do 
not  blame  your  [intention  of]  visiting  America  and  becoming  better 
acquainted  with  it,  that  is  with  the  United  States,  but  on  the  contrary, 
I  encourage  you.  Trips  and  changes  of  this  sort  are  very  instructive. 
So  if  there  is  no  difficulty  about  it,  do  it.  Probably  you  will  regret 
leaving  your  druzyny  sokole  [friendly  sokol  associations],^  but  it  seems 
to  me  likely  that  there  are  also  branches  of  the  sokols  in  other  locaU- 
ties.  As  to  the  English  language,  certainly,  since  you  are  there  and 
have  the  opportunity  to  learn,  it  is  worth  while  to  profit  by  it,  for 
everything  you  learn  may  be  useful  at  an  opportune  moment.  How 
glad  I  am  that  my  brother  is  a  driih  sokol,  for  our  whole  hope  today 
is  in  these  "friendly  associations."  I  would  beg  you  also  very 
earnestly  to  send  me  your  photograph  in  a  sokol's  uniform— for 
probably  you  are  having  yourselves  photographed.     Or  if  you  have 

■  The  word  sokol  means  "falcon,"  and  under  the  name  are  organized  societies, 
mainly  of  young  men,  for  athletic  and  patriotic  purposes.  Druh  is  an  old  Polish 
word  meaning  "friend";   dritzyna,  "associations  of  friends." 


KRUPA  SERIES 


1017 


none  of  that  kind,  then  send  me  any.     You  sent  some  home,  but  I  did 

not  see  them What  did  they  write  you  from  home  ?    To  me 

nothing,  and  I  don't  wonder,  for  father  is  busy  from  dawn  till  dark 
with  work  in  the  field  and  has  no  time  to  take  up  a  pen.  How  do  they 
manage  there,  poor  people  ?  Here  it  is  now  very  nice,  for  this  is  the 
month  of  May,  the  most  beautiful  in  the  year,  consecrated  to  the 
HoUest  Virgin,  the  Polish  queen.'  Therefore  children  adorn  her 
statues  and  pictures,  and  everywhere  songs  in  her  honor  resound. 
....  It  is  splendid  everywhere,  the  larks  sing,  the  cuckoo  calls,  the 
frogs  croak,  and  a  single  great  choir  resounds.  In  our  Krosnica  it  is 
so  beautiful,  so  green,  that  I  want  always  to  run  about  the  fields  and 
mountains.  Alas!  I  must  sit  in  the  cabin,  for  primo  [I  must]  teach 
the  children,  secundo  prepare  myself  for  the  examination  which  I  have 
to  pass  in  the  autumn.  But  though  I  sit  at  home,  I  see  through  the 
windows  splendid  mountains  around  me.  I  hear  the  murmur  of  the 
stream  and  the  singing  of  the  birds.  I  tell  you  beforehand  that  as 
soon  as  you  come  back  you  must  at  once  come  to  me,  and  then  we  shall 
enjoy  different  mountain-trips.  Staska  intends  now  to  come  to 
Zakopane  and  visit  the  Tatras,  of  course  with  a  tourist  party.  Only 
she  is  anxious,  poor  girl,  whether  she  will  have  the  time. 

For  the  news  about  Wtadek  W.,  I  thank  you  heartily.  I  was  very 
pained  when  I  read  it.  For  I  believe  (and  it  seems  to  me  that  I  make 
no  mistake)  that  Wladek  is  lost  to  us.  For,  as  a  married  man,  he 
surely  will  not  wish  to  go  to  the  army,  and  this  awaits  him  certainly 
if  he  comes  back.  And  if  he  does  not  serve  his  time  he  will  never  be 
able  to  come  back.  And  what  a  grief  it  is  for  his  parents,  who  had 
quite  different  hopes  about  him.  I  won't  tell  it  to  anybody,  for  only 
gossip  would  result.  It  is  a  sad  fact,  for  in  this  way  hundreds  of 
Polish  men  and  women  are  lost  to  their  fatherland,  settling  forever 
in  America,  or — what  is  worse — getting  morally  lost  there.  And 
meanwhile  in  our  fatherland  there  are  simply  not  hands  enough  to 
work.  In  recent  times  emigration  has  even  increased  because  of 
these  different  troubles.  Here  in  our  country  [Galicia]  as  in  the  whole 
empire,  the  disorder  is  terrible— the  struggle  of  parties,  our  local 
parliament  dissolved,  new  elections,  a  new  governor.  May  God  only 
grant  that  the  Poles  get  no  harm  from  all  this.  May  the  Polish 
Catholics   win,   and   not   the  Jews   and   Socialists Did  you 

'  Allusion  to  the  symbolic  crowning  of  the  Virgin  as  Polish  queen  by  King 
John  Casimir  in  the  seventeenth  century. 


KM 8  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

cilchralo  tlu-re  iho  anniwrsary  of  the  constitution  of  May  3  ?'  Here 
it  was  oNcrvwlioro  solemnly  celebrated 

JOZEFA 

686  August  I,  1913 

Dkar  little  Brother:  ....  I  received  your  letter  and  photo- 

grajih Judging  by  the  photograph  you  are  a  nice  boy,  but 

very  childish.  I  thought  that  you  were  already  more  serious.  And 
see  here,  such  a  child  wants  to  consider  himself  already  as  a  citizen 
of  the  United  States,  and  dreams  I  don't  know  what  projects.  You 
will  think  probably,  what  do  I  want  from  you?  Nothing  more, 
dear  brother,  than  that  you  may  not  forget  there,  in  this  exile,  about 
our  holy  faith  and  our  mother-country,  that  you  may  be  always  a  true 
Catholic  and  Pole.  For,  O  my  dear,  whoever  is  not  a  good  Catholic 
will  not  be  a  good  Pole.  Without  God  there  is  no  fatherland,  and 
even  if  we  bring  I  don't  know  what  offerings  to  this  fatherland,  we 
shall  not  get  our  liberty  back  without  God's  blessing.  Dear  Wojtus, 
I  w^as  very  much  pained  to  learn  that  you  do  not  fulfil  there  in  the 
foreign  country  our  religious  practices  and  duties,  which  every 
Christian  Cathohc  ought  to  fulfil.  But  it  is  really  impossible!  I 
cannot  believe  that  my  brother  has  forgotten  his  prayers,  which  his 
mother  taught  him.  It  is  true  that  you  are  young  and  inexperienced 
and  bad  society  can  do  much  evil,  but  I  don't  beUeve  that  you  went 
so  far  as  to  lose  your  faith.  Oh,  this  would  be  worse  than  anything! 
And  another  question,  no  less  disagreeable.  I  learn  that  you  intend 
to  become  an  American  subject  [sic],  and  then  again  to  join  the 
American  army.  It  would  mean  the  same  as  to  renounce  your 
fatherland.  My  dear,  in  America  only  the  men  can  settle  who  have 
here  nothing  to  lose,  but  you  have,  I  think,  your  whole  future  here. 
There  is  work  enough  and  honest  earning  in  our  country,  only  people 
don't  know  how  to  take  care  of  their  money.  And  if  you  want  to 
serve  in  the  army,  here  you  won't  escape  that  pleasure  either.  I 
think  so:  earn  as  much  as  you  can,  learn  as  much  as  possible;  in  a 
word,  profit  well  from  your  stay  there,  and  then  back  to  us,  and  don't 

'  The  constitution  of  Maj^  3,  1791,  was  an  endeavor  to  reorganize  Poland  upon 
a  new  basis.  It  failed  because  of  the  subsequent  division  of  Poland.  The  anniver- 
sary is  alwaj's  celebrated  in  Poland  as  a  claim  that  (after  a  century  of  decay)  the 
nation  gave  proof  of  its  capacity  for  self-government  (by  the  provision  of  a  more 
democratic  and  centralized  organization)  and  that  the  partition  was  contrived  by 
hostile  states  precisely  because  Poland  had  demonstrated  that  capacity. 


KRUPA  SERIES 


IO19 


look  again  at  America.  For  it  is  not  worth  regretting.  And  I  think 
it  is  more  gay  here,  in  spite  of  our  misery,  than  there,  with  their 
riches.  You  guess  probably  that  I  got  the  news  about  you  from 
Kasia  W.,  whom  I  met  in  Podgorze.  Well,  she  is  quite  fit  for  America! 
I  beg  you  very  much,  Wojtus,  don't  give  her  my  letters  to  read  and 
don't  tell  her  what  I  write  you,  particularly  about  her,  for  there 
would  be  only  useless  anger.  It  is  true  that  they  are  our  family,  but 
they  belong  to  those  who  don't  care  about  their  native  country  and  see 
their  happiness  only  in  America.  We  cannot  improve  them,  so  let 
us  rather  be  silent  and  do  what  is  our  duty  without  listening  to  their 
principles,  often  erroneous.  And  I  should  prefer  if  you  kept  far 
from  them,  though  politely.  Were  it  not  true,  what  I  heard  about 
you !  I  shall  wait  impatiently  for  your  answer  to  this  letter.  And  I 
beg  you  very  much,  as  your  loving  sister,  write  me  the  sincere  truth, 
confide  in  me  everything,  as  a  good  brother  to  his  sister,  for  I  am  very 
much  grieved 

JOZEFA 

687  GoEOTCZYZNA,  March  2  [1913] 

Dear  little  Brother:  How  happy  I  am  that  I  can  at  last  write 
to  you.  You  don't  know  how  I  was  pained  that  in  such  an  important 
change  of  my  life  I  could  neither  talk  with  you  nor  even  write  to  you. 
....  I  took  your  address  from  home  ....  but  unhappily  I  lost 
it  ...  .  and  only  now  that  Jozia  sends  it  to  me  I  hasten  to  write  and 
to  describe  to  you  everything,  and  also  to  learn  how  you  get  on,  how 

you  succeed Dear  brother,  how  do  you  like  my  going  to  this 

school  ?  Are  you  perhaps  very  dissatisfied  ?  For  on  the  one  hand 
the  fee  in  this  school  costs  somewhat  too  much,  and  a  year  of  time 
will  be  wasted.  But  I  think  that  I  shan't  regret  it.  For  now  learning 
gives  the  means  to  live  and  is  everywhere  the  best  foundation,  particu- 
larly when  this  enlightenment  is  lacking  among  our  women  in  the 
country.  Now,  when  people  begin  to  think  about  learning,  it  begins 
to  get  better  and  better  in  this  world.  But  unhappily  there  is  still 
very  little  of  this  learning.  And  then,  I  did  not  decide  alone  about 
myself.  I  wanted  very  much  to  go  and  I  begged  [my  parents]  for 
a  long  time  to  be  permitted.  And  they  did  not  wish  to  give  their 
consent,  but  only  when  Karolka's  betrothed  began  to  persuade  them. 
Perhaps  you  remember  him,  Franciszek,  who  was  farm-manager  in 
Czaslaw.     He  had  been  himself  in  such  a  school,  and  he  held  out  very 


lOJO  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

much  for  Karolka  and  mc  to  go  to  the  school,  and  he  made  different 
efforts  to  this  effect.  And  our  uncle  and  aunt  from  Kamienice 
praised  [the  plan]  much  and  advised  us  to  go.  And  when  Jozia 
N\Tote  a  letter,  that  if  I  went  her  [greatest]  wish  would  be  accomplished, 
and  that  she  would  help  me  all  in  her  power  [they  agreed].  But  we 
were  to  go  and  then  again  not,  from  fear  of  the  war  which  might 
break  out  from  moment  to  moment.  As  things  became  quieter,  we 
went,  but  what  of  it,  since  that  war  was  not  settled  finally,  but  it  can 
still  break  out,  and  will  almost  certainly  do  so  in  March.  Oh,  it  is 
horrible.  In  GaUcia  they  begin  to  take  [to  the  army]  boys  from  i8 
\-ears  up.  May  God  the  Good  keep  this  war  far  from  us,  for  it  never 
brings  happiness,  even  if  it  is  the  best.  Were  it  at  least  a  war  for  our 
country-,  for  our  Poland!  But  for  the  sake  of  some  ports,  etc.,  it  is 
not  vev}'  pleasant  to  go  to  war.  But  you  are  probably  more  curious 
about  other  things,  so  I  will  describe  my  journey,  the  surroundings 
here,  and  whatever  I  can. 

Perhaps  you  received  my  letter  in  which  I  wTOte  you  that  I  go 
to  an  agricultural  school  in  the  Kingdom.  I  wTote  you  that  we  were 
going  to  Kruszynek,  but  in  Kruszynek  there  was  no  more  room,  so 
we  came  to  Golotczyzna.  We  left  on  January  15,  amid  leave-taking 
and  cr}-ing,  so  losing  our  heads  that  we  did  not  know  which  way  to 
take,  whether  to  go  or  not.  Some  people  began  to  dissuade,  others 
frightened  us  with  war,  others  still  that  it  is  hard  to  cross  the  frontier. 
Well,  but  we  went,  and  upon  the  frontier  there  was  no  big  terror  at  all, 
we  were  treated  politely.  We  went  through  Cz^stochowa  and  War- 
saw, for  Golotczyzna  is  in  the  province  of  Plock,  and  the  province  of 
Plock  is  still  far  enough  beyond  Warsaw.  If  you  knew,  dear  brother, 
what  a  beautiful  country  it  is,  such  plains  that  you  cannot  see  the  end, 
big  villages,  a  multitude  of  brick  houses,  one  village  far  enough  from 
another,  and  exceedingly  many  of  the  most  various  mills,  wdndmills, 
factories.  The  farmers  are  richer  than  in  Galicia.  In  some  houses 
the  order  is  quite  exemplary.  In  a  word,  we  were  well  pleased  here. 
We  saw  the  cloister  of  Cz^stochowa,  and  we  were  in  Warsaw  for  some 
hours,  and  saw  many  things.  It  is  a  very  beautiful  city,  this  Warsaw, 
situated  in  a  splendid  lowland  and  the  Vistula  flows  near  it  as  a 
wonderful  wide  girdle.  Dear  brother!  How  happy  I  should  be  if 
you  could  come  to  me,  visit  this  countr}-.  But  alas!  these  are  dreams 
which  will  turn  into  nothing.  Jozia  MTote  me  that  she  washed 
greatly  to  come  to  the  Kingdom,  but  that  she  cannot,  for  you  know 


KRUPA  SERIES  1 02 1 

what  she  is  occupied  with,  and  in  vacation  she  must  pass  her  examina- 
tion, and  surely  nobody  will  come  here  to  me.  Well,  nothing  can  be 
done,  the  journey  to  me  is  too  far.  If  God  grants  me  to  pass  this  year 
happily  I  shall  see  everybody  again,  and  perhaps  you  will  come  then — 
so  you  also.  But  now  I  must  think  about  study  and  work,  for  here 
we  have  study  and  work  above  the  ears,  so  that  we  have  not  even  time 
to  worry.  For  the  first  month  we  worried  [were  homesick]  a  Uttle, 
but  now  already  less  for,  as  I  wrote,  we  have  plenty  of  work  and  many 
companions.  I  have  a  few  such  good  and  hearty  companions  that 
if  we  had  to  leave  one  another  now  we  should  surely  cry.  Now,  as 
to  the  studies,  we  are  studying  many  things.  Besides  the  usual  farm- 
studies,  we  have  lectures  about  agriculture  and  we  learn  all  the  natural 
sciences,  i.e.,  geology,  chemistry,  physics,  astrology  [sic],  and  so  on; 
also  writing,  arithmetic,  geography,  sewing,  cutting,  and  different 
small  handicrafts,  so  that  the  whole  day  is  filled,  and  there  is  not  even 
time  to  write  letters.  But  this  does  not  matter,  for  on  Sundays  we 
have  a  little  time,  and  then  we  write  letters.  On  ordinary  days  we 
rise  at  6,  on  Sundays  at  7.  We  go  to  sleep  at  10.  We  go  every 
Sunday  to  the  church;  we  have  a  church  near.  Besides  this,  the 
Sundays  are  spent  merrily;  we  make  trips  to  different  places,  we 
arrange  different  theatrical  plays.     [Greetings,  request  for  letters,  etc.] 

Stanislawa 

688  April  10,  19 13 

Dear  little  Brother:  ....  I  was  very  glad  on  receiving  your 
letter  and  the  news  that  you  are  in  good  health  and  not  displeased 

with  all  this Your  letter,  though  short,  is  so  kind,  good,  and 

sincere  that  it  was  a  pleasure  for  me  to  read  it.  So  once  more  I  thank 
you  a  hundred  fold  for  your  letter,  for  your  recognition  of  me,  your 
advice,  and  the  proofs  of  your  brotherly  love  and  good  will.  You  even 
guess  [more  than  I  expressed],  dear  little  brother.  Up  to  the  present,  in- 
deed, I  did  not  need  money  very  much,  so  I  did  not  beg  for  it  expressly; 

and  then,  I  was  afraid  that  my  letter  would  not  reach  you 

But  you  must  know  that  whatever  you  send  ....  you  must  send 
it  to  the  address  of  the  school-superior.  [Exact  address  and  details.] 
Perhaps  'A  will  seem  ridiculous  that  I  give  you  only  addresses  [without 
asking  what  I  want].  But  it  did  not  suit  me  to  write  [more  clearly]. 
Well,  though  I  did  not  ask  you  formerly,  now  I  beg  you  very  much 
indeed.     It  is  true  that  our  parents  send  money  to  pay  the  school,  but 


1022  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

this  year  tlurc  is  to  he  a  general  excursion  of  the  students  to  Galicia, 
and  this  will  cost  about  20  crowns.  So  I  am  afraid  to  ask  our  parents, 
for  indeed  there  might  be  too  much  of  all  this  for  them.  If  you  are 
so  kind,  dear  brother,  as  to  fulfil  my  request,  I  shall  be  very,  very 
grateful  to  you.  Tor  I  want  very  much  to  be  on  that  trip,  and  I 
reilectcd  to  whom  I  might  address  my  humble  request,  and  I  men- 
tioned it  in  my  first  letter  to  you,  When  you  expressed  the  readiness 
to  do  it  I  rejoiced  very  much  that  I  can  beg  you  and  not  be  dis- 
appointed. 

Dear  brother,  how  is  your  life  going  on,  whether  sad  or  gay,  or 
simply  monotonous  and  indifferent?  Have  you  got  accustomed  to 
your  life  ?  For  up  to  the  present  I  had  no  idea  of  any  other  life  than 
that  which  I  led  at  home.  Well,  and  now  I  have  got  a  Httle  acquainted 
with  a  dilTcrent  life.  For  some  people  it  may  be  splendid,  for  others 
merr\',  for  others  indifferent,  for  still  others  sad.  My  life  here  is 
various;  sometimes  merry  in  a  group  of  companions,  satisfied  while  I 
am  studying,  and  at  other  moments  if  not  sad,  then  indifferent.  And 
the  days  pass  with  a  mad  rapidity;  I  don't  know  whether  yours  also  ? 
I  have  not  any  pains  here;  we  live  in  rather  good  concord.  I  have 
only  some  contrarieties  about  religion,  for  here  some  subversive  spirit 
pre\-ails.  I  shall  describe  it  more  exactly  another  time.  As  to  my 
study  about  God  [of  theolog>'],  it  goes  on  well  enough.  I  have  nothing 
more  of  interest  to  WTite  you,  only  I  embrace  you  heartily 

[Staniseawa] 

689  June  3,  1913 

Dear  little  Brother:  Hiding  myself  in  the  garden  (for  if  I  did 
not  I  should  have  to  work  in  the  garden  and  there  would  be  no  time 
to  write),  holding  the  letter  upon  my  knee,  I  begin  to  \vrite.     Pardon 

me,  if  it  is  so  scribbled I  am  very  glad  that  you  are  healthy 

and  that  you  succeed  well,  for,  as  I  see  from  your  letter,  God  the 
Merciful  does  not  desert  you,  and  though  }'ou  must  work  heavily  the 
fruits  of  }our  labor  are  to  be  seen.  And  the  work  did  not  make  you  a 
light-headed  man  nor  a  spendthrift,  for  when  one  has  to  work  hard  for 
his  money  he  learns  better  how  to  manage  it.  It  seems  to  me  that 
you  don't  look  upon  this  question  in  a  different  way,  for  it  manifests 
itself  in  many  things.  You  don't  act  as  other  emigrants,  our  acquaint- 
ances, do,  but  on  the  contrary,  you  remember  your  fatherland,  for 
you  joined  the  sokols.     I  hke  it  very,  very  much,  and  surely  it  won't 


KRUPA  SERIES  1 02  3 

have  bad  results  for  you,  for  it  makes  your  life  more  various,  gives 
you  various  knowledge  and  develops  your  spirit  and  your  courage. 
Moreover  you  remember  to  learn,  and  in  these  times  it  is  perhaps  still 
more  important  than  the  preceding  thing,  for  now  the  struggle  by 
means  of  knowledge  is  easier  than  with  the  fists.  At  any  rate,  knowl- 
edge is  indispensable.  And  then,  dear  brother,  you  remember  about 
your  parents  and  send  them  money,  for  perhaps  now  they  need  it, 
and  when  you  return  they  will  give  it  back  with  interest.  I  heard 
something  like  this,  that  you  intend  to  remain  in  America,  but  I 
don't  believe  it,  for  what  would  then  be  the  use  of  sending  money 
home  ?  And  moreover  should  you  not  long  for  your  country,  would 
it  not  be  hard  to  work  during  your  whole  life  and  never  to  breathe  any 
more  the  free  air  of  your  fatherland  ?  No,  dear  brother,  it  cannot  and 
ought  not  to  be  so.  I  think  that  you  work  there  heavily  only  in  order 
to  enrich  your  country,  your  family  and  yourself,  but  not  to  leave  this 
money  in  the  foreign  land.  Well,  I  will  give  you  here  a  plan.  Perhaps 
it  will  seem  ridiculous  to  you,  but  I  consider  it  very  suitable.  Save, 
dear  brother,  as  soon  and  as  much  money  as  you  can;  then  come  back 
and  we  will  go  to  Lithuania  and  buy  land  there,  for  there  is  land 
enough  and  cheap — no  more  than  150  gulden  a  morg.  I  have  here 
a  few  companions  from  Lithuania.  They  are  very  rich  and  honest 
girls.  They  tell  me  everything  and  persuade  me  to  go  with  them  to 
Lithuania.  I  should  like  to  persuade  our  parents  also  to  do  it,  but  it 
would  be  difficult,  for  they  are  no  more  in  the  strength  of  their  age 
and  cannot  so  easily  leave  their  country.  And  it  seems  to  me  that  for 
us  it  would  be  very  well,  for  there  in  Galicia,  particularly  in  our 
district,  the  land  is  expensive  and  there  is  very  little  of  it,  so  that 
farming  is  not  splendid  there  at  all;  one  must  continually  add  one 
penny  to  another  in  order  to  defend  one's  self  against  misery.  It  is 
difficult  even  to  think  about  enlarging  one's  farm.  For  me  therefore 
nothing  is  left  except  to  choose  some  career,  to  study  a  little  more  after 
leaving  the  school  and  to  work  in  my  chosen  career,  for  there  is  not 
much  at  home  to  return  for,  while  thus,  by  putting  our  strength  and 
our  fortunes  together,  we  could  buy  something.  But  more  about  it 
later;  we  have  time  enough.  Meanwhile  I  would  learn  whether  it  is 
true  that  Wladek  W.  got  married  ?  They  have  written  it  to  me  from 
home.  We  will  not  go  on  a  trip  to  Galicia,  but  we  will  travel  about 
the  Kingdom,  but  this  is  good,  that  we  shall  learn  to  know  the  Kingdom 
well. 


IOJ4  rRIMARV-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

I  have  luTo  SIR  h  rclii:;ious  contrarieties,  because  there  is  too  great 
a  subversion.  Some  of  my  companions,  though  not  all  of  them, 
believe  that  man  is  created  from  the  ape.  Besides  this,  they  consider 
(litTerenl  jirayers  useless,  etc.  And  it  troubles  me  much,  for  it  is  not 
so.  liut  now  things  are  greatly  changed,  and  when  they  learn  better 
Uien  such  absurdities  will  evaporate  from  theh  heads.  I  did  not 
write  anything  home  about  it.  I  wrote  only  to  Jozia,  and  don't  you 
write  either.  You  wonder  perhaps  why  I  don't  mention  anything 
about  money  up  to  the  end  of  my  letter,  but  I  knew  nothing  yet  up 
to  tlie  last  moment,  till  the  post  came  and  brought  the  money,  for 
which  I  thank  you  most  heartily,  my  golden  little  brother. 

Your  loving  sister, 

S[tanislawa] 

690  July  14,  1913 

Dear  little  Brother:  ....  What  lies  upon  our  heart,  we 
write  it  first.  So  you  did,  and  I  will  do  the  same.  As  you,  dear 
brother,  cared  most  about  cleaning  yourself  from  the  reproaches  which 
people  made  to  you,  even  so  I  must  present  to  you  more  clearly  the 
conclusion  which  you  drew  from  my  own  letter. 

My  dear  brother,  don't  think  at  all  that  the  thought  of  leaving 
my  native  roof,  my  native  home,  the  parents,  etc.,  is  so  pleasant  to  me. 
If  you  knew  how  hard  a  struggle  I  must  fight  [with  myself  when  I 
think]  that  this  will  happen  really  some  day  and  that  I  must  go  away — 
if  you  knew  all  this,  surely  you  would  not  think  that  I  don't  want  to 
return  home. 

But  I  don't  wonder  at  all  at  your  thinking  that  my  head  is  turned 
and  therefore  I  don't  wish  to  come  back  home,  for  from  my  letter  this 
was  clearly  to  be  seen,  and  you  don't  know  the  conditions  well  enough 
on  the  basis  of  which  I  came  to  this  school,  so  I  will  explain  them  a 
little  better. 

As  you  know,  our  parents  don't  get  on  easily  [alone]  and  surely 
they  would  prefer  if  I  remained  at  home,  but  the  economic  conditions 
don't  permit  it.  Our  parents  have  reflected  enough  about  it  even 
before  my  departure  to  the  school,  and  they  were  convinced  before- 
hand that  it  won't  be  worth  while  for  me  to  come  back  home  after 
finishing  this  school.  Mother  advised  me  to  choose  some  career,  and 
our  parents  almost  agreed  that  I  shall  not  return  home,  except  for  a 
short  time.     Then  I  wished  more  to  be  somewhere  in  the  world,  but 


KRUPA  SERIES 


1025 


now,  on  the  contrary,  I  have  a  hot  wish  to  return  home.  And  perhaps 
I  shall  return,  for  it  is  not  yet  at  all  decided  that  I  am  not  to  return. 
It  will  depend  upon  our  parents,  and  upon  this — where  I  shall  be  able 
to  use  better  the  learning  which  I  shall  acquire  here,  whether  at  home 
in  farming  or  in  some  other  occupation. 

Dear  brother,  pardon  me  for  writing  all  this,  but  please  don't 
think  that  you  have  such  an  unreasonable  sister  in  whose  head  sits 
only  worldly  emptiness.  Forget,  little  brother,  everything  that  I 
wrote  in  that  letter,  for  it  was  written  perhaps  too  unreasonably  and 
mechanically,  so  it  is  useless  to  attach  a  great  importance  to  it.  And 
don't  take,  God  forbid,  that  which  I  wrote  formerly  and  what  I  write 
now  in  bad  part,  for  I  write  you  all  this  heartily  and  truly,  as  to  a 
brother.  Don't  think  that  I  am  perhaps  offended  for  these  few  words. 
As  many  admonitions  as  you  may  give  me,  I  will  be  only  grateful  to 
you.  I  should  like  to  explain  all  this  to  you  the  best  possible,  only 
it  is  too  difficult  in  a  letter. 

But  probably  you  are  weary  of  reading  these  excuses,  which  are 
much  like  reproaches,  so  let  us  pass  to  another  subject.  Dear  brother, 
how  is  your  work  ?  It  seems  to  me  that  it  goes  on  pretty  well,  since 
you  earn  nice  money.  They  wrote  me  from  home  that  you  sent 
money  and  how  much  you  sent.  Jozia  is  very  much  satisfied  with  you. 
She  wrote  me  that  she  noticed  from  your  letters  that  you  did  not  get 
spoiled  at  all  in  the  world,  but,  on  the  contrary,  you  are  an  orderly 
[good]  boy.  And  Aunt  Grabowska  is  proud  that  you  are  among  the 
sokols.  Basia  wrote  that  you  intend  to  send  them  your  photograph 
in  a  sokol  uniform.  I  would  beg  you  very  much  to  send  me  also  such 
a  photograph  if  you  can;  I  should  be  very  glad.  I  wanted  to  take 
your  photograph  from  home,  but  they  did  not  permit  me.  Karolka 
here  adds  her  rec^uest  to  mine,  for  she  also  wants  you  to  send  a 
photograph 

I  have  nothing  more  of  interest  to  write,  for  different  trifles  about 
the  school  probably  don't  interest  you,  such  as,  for  example,  that  we 
arrange  organization-meetings  and  we  want  to  organize  a  scouting 
association.  I  don't  know  whether  you  have  heard  anything  about 
such  associations.  Their  end  is  also  a  better  lot  for  Poland.  Then, 
we  pubUsh  a  paper  in  common  called  Dzwignia  ["The  Lever"]. 

Your  loving  sister, 

S[tanislawa] 


I026  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

691  Radziechowice,  July  12,  1914 

Dhar  Wojtus:  ....  \Vliy  don't  you  write?  Have  you  really 
fori^olton  us?  Perhaps  you  are  angry  mth  us.  But  I  consider  it 
impossible.  What  should  you  be  angry  for?  Such  trifles  as,  for 
example,  that  we  don't  answer  your  letter  soon?  Perhaps  I  have 
expressed  myself  a  little  inconsiderately,  for  such  things  may  be  very 
unpleasant,  even  painful.  But  even  to  strangers  such  things  can  be 
forgiven  to  some  extent,  and  it  is  so  unjustified  to  be  angry  with  one's 
parents  or  sisters  for  such  things  that  I  cannot  believe  that  you  would 
doit. 

But  I  suppose  another  cause  of  anger,  which  I  don't  know  even, 
only  guess.  It  may  be  possibly  our  home  conditions,  magnified  by 
human  talking  and  presented  to  you  in  a  colored  light.  I  don't  %vrite 
it  clearly,  do  I  ?  But  it  is  only  because,  first,  it  is  simply  difficult  to 
explain  it  clearly  in  a  letter.  Secondly,  I  don't  know  w^hether  this 
letter  will  fall  at  once  into  proper  hands  (i.e.,  yours).  So  you  must 
remember  and  guess  many  things,  and  ask  for  others  in  a  letter,  and 
then  I  will  explain  them  better 

I  came  from  the  school  in  Januar\^  and  will  return  to  the  Kingdom 
in  August.  This  time  I  shall  go  to  Warsaw,  to  tlie  Teachers'  Semi- 
nary. If  I  finish  this  course,  which  lasts  3  years,  I  shall  receive  a 
place  in  the  Kingdom  as  a  teacher.  All  this  business  will  cost  me 
about  500  gulden.  It  is  a  big  sum  indeed,  but  what  can  I  do  ?  I 
shall  have  at  least  a  secure  existence  and  shall  be  able  to  help  our 
parents  at  some  moments 

You  have  heard  perhaps  that  Karolka  Stoyka  is  getting  married 

in  two  weeks She  marries  Franciszek,  the  man  whom  you 

knew,  I  think,  and  who  sent  her  to  that  school. 

Stanislawa 

092  January  i,  191 2 

....  Dear  Son:  [Letters  received  and  written.]  Jozia  is 
already  a  teacher;  she  is  in  the  mountains,  3  miles  beyond  Nowy  Targ 
and  12  miles  from  us.  She  did  not  come  for  the  holidays  to  us,  but  to 
your  aunt  in  Podgorze  [either  because  it  was  nearer,  or  because  of 
disharmony  between  her  and  her  parents].  We  heard  that  she  has 
30  renski  of  salar>'  [a  month],  but  she  did  not  wTite  how  she  succeeds 
there,  she  WTote  only  a  small  card,  "Merry  hoHdays,"  and  nothing 

inore Now  your  uncle  from  Biezanow  is  selling  that  cabin 

with  that  piece  of  land  and  we  are  buying  it.     So  if  you  can  earn  some 


KRUPA  SERIES 


1027 


money,  dear  son,  send  it  to  us,  then  I  would  buy  it  at  once  in  your 
name.  Even  if  you  don't  send,  we  shall  buy  it,  but  it  would  be  better 
if  you  sent  us  something,  for  your  uncle  wants  225  [gulden]  for  it  and 
we  have  only  a  little  more  than  a  hundred,  and  we  must  borrow  the 
rest.  I  don't  write  anything  more  of  interest.  Thanks  to  God, 
nobody  among  your  relatives  and  acquaintances  died.  At  home  we 
are  in  good  health,  thanks  to  God,  only  Joziek  was  a  httle  sick.     He 

caught  cold  when  he  went  to  church  on  Sunday Now  I  ask 

you  still  about  one  thing.  When  you  write  to  us,  tell  us  whether  you 
have  seen  anywhere  Wladek  Wolski,  or  heard  about  him,  where  he  is, 
for  your  aunt  Wolska  begs  you  very  much.  He  has  not  written  to 
them  since  last  spring,  and  people  send  various  news  about  him  that 
he  is  getting  on  [or :  behaving  ?]  very  badly  there.  They  had  informed 
us  in  the  same  way  about  you  when  you  did  not  write  to  us  for  so 
long  a  time,  having  lost  your  work.  They  said  that  Jgdrek,  your 
uncle's  [son]  pushed  you  down  from  a  tramway,  that  you  lay  sick  in  a 
hospital.  Was  it  true  ?  We  are  very  curious.  I  asked  you  about 
the  same  in  the  preceding  letter,  but  you  write  that  you  have  not 

received  any  letter I  wonder  very  much  who  devours  or  holds 

up  all  those  letters 

Jakob  and  Franciszka  Krupa 

693  '  October  20  [19 12] 

....  Dear  Son:  [Letters  sent  and  received;  farm- work; 
weather.]  Now,  dear  son,  I  beg  you,  if  you  can  put  aside  some 
money,  send  it  to  me.  I  would  buy  a  colt,  for  now  we  have  gathered 
hay  and  clover  enough  at  the  second  harvest,  only  I  lack  money,  for 
we  have  spent  on  that  piece  of  land  which  we  bought  from  your  uncle, 
and  we  spent  those  100  rehski  which  you  sent  also  on  this.  We  had 
borrowed  about  that  much  money,  and  we  paid  the  debt  as  soon  as 
you  sent  it.  And  if  you  send  some  money  now,  even  if  not  for  the 
horse,  we  may  put  it  into  the  bank,  for  your  uncle  wanted  us  abso- 
lutely to  put  those  200  crowns  of  yours  [100  rehski]  also  into  the  bank, 
and  if  our  Lord  God  grants  it,  we  shall  put  them  yet.  For  when  you 
went  away  people  said  that  it  was  a  pity  that  we  had  sent  you,  that 
you  won't  pay  us  back  even  the  journey.  So  now,  when  you  send 
money,  everybody  wonders.  And  we  need  much  for  our  farming, 
as  it  usually  happens.  Moreover,  this  year  the  crops  are  bad.  The 
grain  is  not  very  bad,  but  we  did  not  dig  more  than  20  korcy  of  pota- 
toes.   As  to  Jozia,  she  does  not  need  any  more  money.     She  sent  a 


lO->8  TR I  MARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

nice  gift  on  motlicr's  name-day  and  asked  us  now  to  give  Basia  to  the 
school,  promising  to  help  her.  So  we  gave  her,  and  this  will  also  cost. 
.\nd  now  I  also  [Stanislawa]  prepare  to  go  to  an  agricultural  school. 

We  i)olh,  I  an»i  Karolka  Stoyka,  will  go  to  Kruszynek If  we 

can  anil  if  my  parents  allow  me,  we  shall  go  perhaps  on  New  Year. 
It  will  cost  us  150  crowns  each,  Karolka's  father  won't  allow  her  to 
go  and  won't  give  her  any  money,  but  her  sister-in-law's  brother,  who 
is  a  post-ofScial  in  Biala,  advises  her  to  go  and  will  send  her  money. 
And  I  have  hope  in  you.  [Family  news;  marriages.]  Dear  brother, 
mother  is  glad  that  you  are  learning,  and  does  not  blame  you  at  all 
for  having  inscribed  yourself  [in  a  school?],  only  she  is  still  curious 
whether  }-ou  read  any  Polish  books  and  go  sometimes  to  the  church 
and  hear  sermons.  Our  parents  request  you  to  go  to  the  church 
as  much  as  possible,  for  without  God  all  your  efforts  will  be  of  no 

^^'^^^ [Parents] 

694  May  II  [1913] 

Dear  Son:   We  received  your  letter  ....  and  the  money,  410 

[wTitten:   400  10]  crowns  for  which  we  thank  you Now,  dear 

son,  we  think  about  it,  how  to  use  this  money,  whether  to  put  it  into 
the  savings  bank  or  to  pay  our  useless  debt  back.  For  if  I  put  this 
money  into  the  bank,  I  should  have  only  20  crowns  of  interest  in  a 
year,  while  I  must  pay  26  crowns  on  400  crowns,  so  in  this  way  6 
crowns  a  year  would  be  saved.  For  you  I  can  put  money  into  the 
bank  in  partial  payments,  or  to  buy  a  piece  of  land  if  there  is  some 
opportunity,  for  this  is  most  secure.  Last  year,  when  we  bought  this 
half  a  morg  from  your  uncle  it  cost  250  renski  and,  thanks  to  God, 
we  have  paid  it  already  and  now  we  have  a  ^\'ider  lot  in  a  single  piece. 
But  there  is  now  no  opportunity  to  buy  a  small  piece  of  land,  and  for 
a  large  one  we  have  no  money.  Antek  and  Joziek  thank  you  for  that 
money  which  you  sent  [for  them].  We  bought  clothes  and  shoes  for 
them.  Zoska  and  Stefka  thank  you  also  and  rejoice  that  mother  will 
buy  for  them  some  nice  stuff  for  dresses.  [Weather;  farm- work.] 
We  greet  you  heartily,  we  your  parents  and  all  your  sisters  and 
brothers,  and  the  grandmother  from  near  the  forest  and  the  [paternal] 
uncle  from  near  the  forest  and  the  [paternal]  uncle  and  aunt  from  the 
field  and  the  [maternal]  uncle  and  aunt  from  the  big  house,  and  all 

your  relatives  and  acquaintances 

Jakob  and  Franciszka  Krupa 


PIOTROWSKI  SERIES 

The  man  Walenty  Piotrowski,  to  whom  these  letters  are 
written,  is  a  type  whose  characteristic  features  are  present 
to  some  degree  everywhere  at  a  certain  stage  in  the  process 
of  rising  from  a  lower  class  to  a  higher  level.  Two  varieties 
of  this  type  have  found  their  expression  in  the  French  terms 
rastaquouere  (or  rasta)  and  cahotin.  The  rastaquouere  imi- 
tates the  refined  attitudes  of  the  aristocratic  class  while 
lacking  the  innate  refinement  of  character  which  would 
make  these  attitudes  natural;  the  cahotin  assumes  the 
intense  and  refined  feelings,  the  high  ideals,  and  heroic 
efforts  of  a  superior  man,  while  he  is,  in  fact,  essentially 
commonplace.  As  the  aristocratic  refinement  finds  its 
expression  in  social  forms,  the  rastaquouere  begins  by 
imitating  these  forms;  as  the  type  of  a  superior  man  is 
most  explicitly  and  accessibly  expressed  in  literature  and 
art,  the  cahotin  begins  by  using  these  expressions.  The 
rasta  and  the  cahotin  have  to  be  distinguished  from  the  snob 
and  the  hypocrite.  The  snob  seeks  mainly  to  get  recogni- 
tion or  toleration  from  a  group  to  which  he  does  not  hope 
fully  to  belong  (the  dog  is  the  pre-eminent  snob);  the 
hypocrite  uses  the  socially  sanctioned  attitudes  of  his  own 
class.  Neither  of  them  tries  really  to  assimilate  any  supe- 
rior attitudes  and  to  get  thus  into  a  higher  class.  Both  lack 
one  interesting  feature  of  the  rasta  and  cahotin,  who  play 
the  comedy  of  higher  attitudes  not  only  before  others  but 
before  themselves. 

There  is  a  great  field  for  cabotinism  among  the  lower 
classes  of  Polish  society,  because  the  higher  classes  have 
developed,  in  addition  to  their  rcfinemxcnt  of  manners,  many 
attitudes  which  in  the  lower  classes  are  almost  lacking,  or 

1029 


u>30  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

wtTo  lacking  until  half  a  century  ago.  These  are,  particu- 
larly, intollcttual  and  artistic  interest  (to  a  certain  extent 
jircscnt  among  tlie  peasants,  but  without  the  tendency  to 
dcNclop  along  these  hnes);  social  idealism  (nationalistic 
and  also  recently  socialistic  ideals);  romantic  love;  and, 
finalh',  the  general  attitude  of  superiority  toward  the  lower 
classes,  based  upon  the  preceding  attitudes.  Now,  when- 
e\'er  an  individual  of  a  lower  class  tries  to  get  into  a  higher 
class  he  has  not  only  to  rise  economically  and  intellectually 
and  to  imitate  the  external  forms  of  the  life  of  the  higher 
class,  but  he  must  also  assimilate  the  attitudes  of  this  class. 
And  this  always  gives  rise  to  a  certain  amount  of  cabotinism. 
Sometimes  the  attitudes  are  assimilated  really  and  easily 
(Z}'gmunt  and  Hanka  in  this  series)  because  of  a  natural  or 
social  preadaptation  in  the  individual,  or  the  assimilation 
of  some  attitudes  may  be  real  and  sincere,  while  in  others 
the  individual  becomes  a  cahotin. 

But  Walenty  P.,  as  he  appears  in  this  correspondence,  is 
a  perfect  cahotin  along  all  lines.  First,  he  imitates  the 
intellectual  interest;  he  writes  about  general  problems;  he 
probably  reads  a  little.  But  in  comparison  with  Zygmunt 
it  is  evident  that  this  interest  exerts  no  real  influence  upon 
his  life.  In  spite  of  Zygmunt's  advice  and  the  example 
of  his  enthusiasm  for  knowledge  and  intellectual  self- 
development,  it  does  not  seem  that  Walenty  tries  seriously 
to  develop  himself.  His  work,  amusements,  and  excessive 
letter-writing  leave  him  hardly  any  time  for  this.  His  own 
letters  show  a  much  lower  degree  of  culture  than  those  of 
Zygmunt,  who  is  younger.  His  display  of  interest  in  this 
line  is  evidently  artificial.  Nor  is  there  more  of  sincerity 
and  depth  in  his  aesthetic  interests.  He  takes  part  in 
amateur  plays,  but  without  real  interest,  as  Zygmunt 
points  out.  He  shows  off  in  the  literary  hne  and  sends 
poetical  letters  to  everybody.     But  we  have  a  good  proof 


PIOTROWSKI  SERIES 


103 1 


of  the  lack  of  originality  of  his  Hterary  composition,  for  we 
find  among  his  papers  a  rough  draft  of  a  letter  in  verse 
which  he  sent,  or  planned  to  send,  to  his  parents,  and  it  is 
nothing  but  a  copy  of  one  of  the  schematic  poetic  addresses 
to  parents  printed  upon  the  sheets  of  letter-paper  sold  in 
America.  Walenty,  instead  of  sending  a  letter  with  such  a 
printed  introduction,  evidently  copied  the  latter  in  order  to 
pass  it  ofif  as  his  own  composition. 

Again,  in  the  line  of  social  ideahsm,  he  pretends  to  be 
interested  in  the  socialistic  idea.  But  he  does  nothing  for 
this;  he  does  not  even  belong  to  a  party,  for  this  requires 
some  sacrifice.  He  is  satisfied  with  occupying  in  form  the 
attitude  of  an  enlightened  and  self-conscious  workman,  and 
he  does  not  even  try  to  rise  higher  in  the  workman  class,  nor 
to  exert  any  positive  influence  upon  others. 

The  attitude  of  romantic  love,  sincere  with  Hanka,  half- 
sincere  with  Stasia  (who  seems  to  be  much  of  a  female 
cabotin),  is  clearly  imitated  and  insincere  with  Walenty, 
who  is  continually  playing  before  the  girls,  his  friends,  and 
himself  the  fine -role  of  lover.  Flirting  with  both  girls  at 
the  same  time,  he  affects  heartbreak,  first,  after  the  marriage 
of  Stasia,  and  then  after  the  death  of  Hanka. 

We  have  no  data  as  to  his  imitation  of  the  refined 
manners  of  the  higher  classes.  But  there  are  many  hints 
about  the  attitude  of  superiority  which  he  occupies  toward 
his  fellow-workmen  in  America  and  of  the  isolation  in  which 
he  pretends  to  find  himself  because  of  the  low  cultural 
level  of  his  environment. 

Finally,  there  is  one  general  feature  of  the  cabotin  which 
Walenty  has  to  the  highest  degree.  It  is  the  interest — the 
only  sincere  one — which  the  cabotin  naively  takes  in  himself 
and  in  his  various  attitudes.  It  is  the  necessary  accompani- 
ment of  the  whole  process  of  conscious  imitation  of  a  higher 
type  of  life. 


1  o ;  J 


rRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 


The  situation  found  in  the  letters  of  Stasia  and  Hanka  is 
peculiar.  Each  of  the  girls  knows  of  Walenty's  flirtation 
with  the  other;  both  are  in  love  with  him,  Stasia  more 
superficially,  Hanka  more  profoundly.  There  is  jealousy 
between  them,  but  neither  dares  to  claim  the  man  exclusively 
for  herself;  each  accepts  his  indecision  as  a  matter  of  fact. 
And  the  man  hesitates  to  the  end.  He  does  not  seem  to  be 
\-ery  much  in  love  with  either  of  the  girls,  and  still  he  is 
serious  with  both.  His  relation  wdth  Hanka  is  closer  and 
more  friendly;  his  attitude  toward  Stasia  more  romantic. 
And  while  he  makes  declarations  of  love  to  both,  he  proposes 
to  neither. 

This  situation  can  be  fully  understood  only  if  we  con- 
sider the  social  background  upon  which  it  developed.  The 
persons  involved  are  of  the  working  class,  passing  into  the 
lower  middle  class.  Now  the  traditional  set  of  attitudes  in 
the  working  class  is  dra\vn  from  two  sources — the  peasant 
life  and  the  life  of  the  crafts-corporations.  Into  this 
mixture  is  here  infused  the  ideology  of  the  upper  classes, 
partly  through  books,  partly  through  the  medium  of  the 
lower  middle  class.  And  it  is  this  mixture  of  heterogeneous 
elements  which  explains  the  present  situation. 

As  we  know  from  the  peasant  letters,  love,  as  idealization 
and  individualization  of  sexual  attraction,  does  not  exist 
in  peasant  life  in  the  form  of  a  socially  acknowledged  and 
sanctioned  attitude — though  this  does  not  mean  that  it 
does  not  exist  as  individual  fact.  The  fundamentally 
sanctioned  attitude  before  marriage  is  "liking"  (friendship) ; 
after  marriage  "respect."  The  sexual  hfe  before  marriage 
is  socially  condemned,  after  marriage  ignored.  (Incident- 
ally, this  may  also  explain  to  a  certain  extent  why  the  loss 
of  virginity  is  not  so  definite  an  obstacle  to  marriage  as  in 
social  groups  where  sexual  Hfe  itself  is  socially  acknowledged 
as  a  basis  of  marriage.) 


PIOTROWSKI  SERIES  1 03  3 

But  the  relation  of  "liking"  demands  no  exclusiveness. 
The  claim  for  exclusiveness  appears  only  as  a  result  of  a 
contractual  relation — marriage  or  official  betrothal — or  of  a 
concrete  sexual  relation  (if  the  latter  has  results),  because 
through  the  child  the  sexual  relation  becomes  mediately 
a  social  fact.  Thus  a  man  may  court  many  girls  and  a  girl 
may  have  many  suitors — not  only  may  but  ought  to  do  so — 
each  knowing  about  the  others,  and  the  indecision  has  to  be 
accepted  as  a  matter  of  fact.  No  claim  to  exclusiveness  is 
put  forward  and  no  feeling  of  personal  dignity  can  object 
to  hesitation  in  the  other  party. 

But  if  the  peasant  tradition  acted  alone  in  the  present 
case,  it  would  not  be  sufficient  to  explain  the  situation. 
Indeed,  the  peasant  courtship  requires  much  finer  distinc- 
tions, much  more  weighing  of  words,  etc.,  than  we  find  in 
these  letters.  Expressions  as  far-going  as  are  used  here 
would  certainly  be  equivalent  to  betrothal  if  used  among 
peasants.  They  are  in  fact  imitated  from  the  higher  classes 
and  mainly  derived  from  books.  But  in  a  higher  class  also 
they  would  be  equivalent  to  a  proposal,  and  at  this  point  we 
must  take  into  account  the  other  body  of  tradition— that 
of  the  old  lower  bourgeoisie,  i.e.,  the  craftsmen  and  hand- 
workers. 

In  certain  respects  there  is  incomparably  more  freedom 
in  sexual  matters  within  this  class  than  within  the  peasant 
class,  though  this  freedom  is,  of  course,  only  before  marriage, 
as  in  the  corresponding  German  (lower  middle)  class. 
Perhaps  also  there  has  been  an  influence  of  the  German 
mores,  as  a  part  of  this  class  is  of  German  extraction  and 
the  town-organization  was  imitated  from  Germany.  But 
certainly  the  wandering  life  of  the  journeyman  and  the  small 
trader  must  have  contributed  to  the  development  of  the 
freedom  of  sexual  relations  by  lessening  the  responsibility 
of  the  man  and  by  allowing  him  to  break  off  any  engagement. 


u\U  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGAmZATION 

Marriage  itself  is  here  more  an  individual  than  a  familial 
matter— at  least  more  so  than  in  peasant  life.  The  economic 
basis  of  marriage  is  also  different;  work  and  craftsmanship 
count  more  in  comparison  with  property  than  in  peasant 
life,  and  in  general  the  personal  Hfe  has  much  more  impor- 
tance. These,  and  perhaps  other  factors,  have  contributed 
to  the  result  that  in  the  lower  bourgeoisie  sexual  relations 
with  girls  are  much  more  frequent  than  among  peasants,  and 
engagement  and  betrothal  have  a  much  less  definite 
character.  Nevertheless,  while  the  relation — courtship,  be- 
trothal, sexual  intercourse — lasts  it  is  exclusive;  it  may 
be  broken  off,  but  not  shared  ^^ath  another.  Thus  the 
situation  which  we  find  in  the  present  case  would  be  scarcely 
possible  if  the  traditions  of  the  lower  bourgeoisie  were  acting 
alone,  not  in  combination  with  the  peasant  traditions. 

Finally,  we  have  a  third  element — the  expression  of 
romantic  love,  imitated  from  the  upper  classes.  And  it  is 
curious  how  insufficiently  assimilated  this  form  is.  There 
is  a  peculiar  lack  of  harmony  and  of  adequate  expression 
in  every  letter,  and  judging  from  certain  statements  the 
same  feature  must  have  characterized  the  letters  of  the  man. 
A  perfectly  cold  and  formal  letter  may  be  followed  by 
another  in  which  love  is  expressly  declared.  Or  in  a  single 
letter  a  quite  ceremonious  form  of  address  may  be  followed 
by  declarations  which  would  require  the  dropping  of  all 
formalities  (particularly  in  Stasia's  letters).  Or,  again, 
phrases  of  love  may  alternate  with  others  which  seem  to 
exclude  any  love-relation.  Phrases  which  express  confidence 
in  the  man's  reciprocity  are  found  along  mth  others  in  which 
the  contrary  opinion  is  stated,  and  without  any  adequate 
transition.  Or  the  most  burning  expressions  of  gratitude 
and  devotion  are  wasted  upon  such  trifles  as  receiving 
cards,  photographs,  or  a  ribbon,  while  constraint  and  cold- 
ness characterize  many  phrases  which  should  be  ^\Titten 


PIOTROWSKI  SERIES  1035 

in  a  totally  different  way.  In  short,  the  real  situation 
would  require  letters  intermediary  between  more  or  less 
ceremonious  friendship-  and  acquaintance-letters  and  open 
love-letters — a  type  which  in  the  upper  classes  would  char- 
acterize the  beginning  of  a  love-relation.  But  here  no 
intermediary  form  is  found.  Instead,  there  is  a  most 
unharmonious  mixture  of  isolated  expressions,  each  of 
which  would  be  adequate  only  in  either  a  love-letter  or  a 
ceremonious  letter.  It  seems  as  if  there  were  in  the  girls 
and  in  the  man  a  strange  alternation  of  contrary  attitudes 
following  one  another  immediately  and  without  transition, 
while  in  reality  we  see  here  only  the  result  of  the  inadequacy 
of  the  form,  imitated  from  the  upper  classes,  to  the  content, 
originating  in  the  attitudes  of  the  lower  classes. 

Curiously  enough,  both  girls  attain  finally  a  more  or  less 
adequate  expression  and  in  quite  contrary  ways.  Stasia 
finds  it  by  eliminating  the  element  of  love  and  by  dropping 
into  an  attitude  of  cold  acquaintance.  Hanka,  on  the 
contrary,  finds  it  by  rising  above  all  the  traditional  attitudes 
of  her  class  and  by  developing  really  and  unreservedly  the 
attitude  of  romantic  love  characteristic  of  the  higher  classes. 
Her  evolution  is  due  to  two  factors — book-culture  and  an 
isolation  from  her  usual  milieu,  which  in  the  beginning  may 
have  been  affected  but  finally  becomes  real.  Perhaps  her 
sickness  has  contributed  also,  for  we  notice  more  than  once 
a  higher  refinement  developing  in  sick  girls,  precisely  because 
they  are  more  isolated  and  live  a  more  intense  sentimental 
and  intellectual  life. 

The  main  interest  of  the  letters  of  Zygmunt  lies,  (i)  in 
the  kind  of  relation  which  unites  the  two  men;  (2)  in  the 
type  of  Zygmunt  as  a  "chmber"  in  the  better  sense  of  the 
word. 

I.  The  relation  is  one  of  close  friendship,  with  a  back- 
ground of  homosexual  affection  on  the  part  of  the  older 


u\^()  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

Walenty  which  Zygmunt  evidently  does  not  share.  As  far 
as  ho  is  conscious  of  the  other  man's  tendencies  he  tries  to 
clicck  tlicm  at  once  and  to  give  to  their  relation  a  character 
of  normal  friendship.  The  relation  as  we  find  it  here  is 
t>-]-)ical.  (Compare  the  Osiniak  series.)  Perhaps,  indeed, 
there  is  a  little  of  homosexual  affection  in  every  close  friend- 
ship which  is  not  based  essentially  upon  a  community  of 
interests.  A  mediate  proof  of  it  seems  to  be  that  marriage 
usually  either  interrupts  friendship  or  changes  its  character, 
makes  it  more  like  a  business  friendship.  On  the  other 
hand,  a  proof  that  the  homosexual  tendency  almost  never 
passes  into  act  is  that  the  closest  friendship  does  not  interfere 
with  normal  relations  with  girls.  The  existence  of  this 
homosexual  element  is  more  easily  detected  in  Poland  than 
elsewhere  because,  particularly  in  the  lowTr  classes,  there  is 
no  inhibition  imposed  upon  the  expression  of  a  man's 
feelings  in  general.  In  this  respect  it  is  interesting  to 
compare  Zygmunt  and  Walenty.  The  first  begins  to 
develop  such  inhibitions  owing  to  the  influence  of  a  higher 
intellectual  milieu,  of  his  social  ideals,  and  mainly  of  his 
aspirations  to  self-development,  and  he  tries  to  impart  the 
same  inhibitions  to  his  friend — not  very  successfully,  as  it 
seems.  Walenty  appears  here,  as  well  as  in  his  corre- 
spondence with  the  girls,  as  an  effeminate,  vain,  impression- 
able person,  devoid  of  self-control,  and  living  for  show^ 

2.  Zygmunt  is  not  a  peasant,  but  a  workman.  It  is 
therefore  not  strange  if  very  few  of  the  typical  peasant 
attitudes  are  found  in  him.  But  it  seems  strange  that  not 
even  the  workman  psychology  can  characterize  him.  He 
has  indeed  workman  ideas,  explicitly  socialistic,  and  a  few 
attitudes  which  could  hardly  be  found  in  another  class,  but 
his  stock  of  traditional  characters  is  very  limited.  This  is 
the  fundamental  difference  between  him  and  such  men  as 
^Maks  or  Waclaw  Markiewicz,  who  in  order  to  chmb  the 


PIOTROWSKI  SERIES  IO37 

social  ladder  must  get  rid  of  a  great  deal  of  the  traditional 
elements.  This  (in  addition  to  the  irreducible  individual 
difference  of  character)  explains  the  fact  that  the  "cUmbing" 
in  Zygmunt  assumes  the  particular  form  in  which  the  tend- 
ency to  rise  socially,  to  get  instruction  in  order  to  pass  into 
a  higher  class  and  get  a  higher  position,  is  closely  allied 
with,  and  partly  subordinated  to,  a  general  disinterested 
tendency  to  self-development,  while  both  these  tendencies 
were  dissociated  in  Maks  and  Waclaw  M.,  each  of  whom 
developed  only  one  of  them.  There  is  more  plasticity  in 
Zygmunt,  and  the  intellectual  and  moral  influence  to  which 
he  is  subjected  can  act  more  freely  upon  him.  For  example, 
the  economic  problem,  which  determines  to  such  an  extent 
the  Hfe  of  peasant  climbers,  plays  a  very  small  part  with 
him.  He  has  neither  to  develop  nor  to  overcome  the 
traditional  yearning  for  property.  Again,  he  does  not  need 
to  spend  his  energy  on  the  religious  problem,  as  the  religious 
life  never  determined  his  personality  to  such  an  extent  as  it 
does  with  the  peasant.  But  he  remains  in  a  general  way 
religious,  and  his  socialism  does  not  interfere  with  his 
religious  tendency,  such  as  it  is. 

Henryk  is  a  more  ordinary  fellow  than  Zygmunt,  but  has 
come  under  the  same  general  influences.  His  life-plans  are 
much  more  determined  by  his  actual  situation  and  by  the 
problem  of  work  than  by  his  aspiration  to  a  higher  culture. 
In  love  matters  his  attitude  is  tyi^ically  that  of  a  workman. 
His  behavior  in  matters  of  gossip  is  that  of  a  man  whose 
sphere  of  interest  is  inclosed  by  the  limits  of  his  community, 
although  it  is  not  so  fixed  a  community  as  that  of  the  peasant. 

The  girl  A.  P.  is  Walenty's  cousin.  She  is  also  much 
more  of  a  peasant  than  Walenty  himself,  or  the  two  girls 
Hanka  and  Stasia.  The  introduction  in  verse  to  the  first 
letter,  the  religious  attitude,  the  attitude  toward  priests,  the 
manner  in  which  she  speaks  of  her  wedding,  the  importance 


U13>S  TRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

i;ivcn  to  k-tlcr-wriling  and  to  the  photographs— all  this  is 
\nu\'W  iK\isant.  Even  the  closeness  of  the  familial  relation 
is  so. 

Jula's  letters  are  the  only  example  we  have  of  a  mere 
friendly  correspondence  between  girl  and  boy.  In  all  other 
cases  there  is  either  family-relation  or  flirtation,  or  at  least 
a  relation  preliminary  to  an  eventual  engagement.  None 
of  all  these  relations  exists  here.  Such  a  correspondence  as 
we  find  here  would  be  hardly  possible  in  a  pure  peasant 
milieu. 

695-747,  TO  WALENTY  PIOTROWSKI,  IN  AMERICA,  FROM 
VARIOUS  PERSONS  IN  POLAND.  695-705,  FROM  STASIA 
G. ;  706-17,  FROM  HANKA;  718-36,  FROM  ZYGMUNT; 
737-40,  FROM  HENRYK;  741-42,  FROM  A.  P.;  743-45, 
FROM  JULA;    746-47,  FROM  THE  PARENTS  OF  WALENTY 

695  Zagloba,  June  9,  1912 

Respected  Sir:  I  thank  you  very,  very  much  for  the  card.  For 
indeed  I  don't  know  how  I  merited  your  remembrance.  There  is  no 
news  with  me,  except  that  I  long  for  Rytwiany,  and  still  more  for 
your  society,  in  which  my  time  was  spent  so  pleasantly  and  agreeably 
as  it  never  can  be  spent  in  Zagloba. 

Andzia  iHankal  intends  to  go  to  Rytwiany  for  a  church  festival.  I 
should  be  glad  to  go,  but  alas!  my  duties  don't  allow  me  to  take  this 
pleasure. 

I  should  like  to  write  more,  but  I  must  be  satisfied  with  this  until 
we  get  better  acquainted,  or  rather  until  you  know  me  better,  for  I 
know  already  very  well  your  upright  character  from  the  represen- 
tation of  Andzia,  and  also  a  little  personally.  Then  I  shall  write 
you  very  much,  though  I  don't  know  whether  it  will  give  you  any 

pleasure 

Stasia  G. 

096  August  2,  191 2 

Respected  Sir:  In  the  introduction  to  my  letter  I  beg  your 
pardon  very  much  for  daring  to  delay  my  answer  for  so  long  a  time. 


PIOTROWSKI  SERIES  1 039 

But  please  forgive  me  this  fault,  for  I  could  not  answer  because  of 
lack  of  time. 

Respected  sir!  I  send  you  my  hearty  thanks  for  your  letter,  so 
dear  to  my  heart.  Sir!  You  wrote  so  wonderfully  and  charmingly 
about  love  that  your  letter  may  be  read  with  a  true  satisfaction.  I  tell 
you  that  more  than  one  renowned  poet  could  envy  you  this  faculty. 
For  who,  who  would  represent  to  himself  love  so  attractively  ?  (Per- 
haps only  the  man  who  has  already  once  loved.)  But  as  to  myself,  I 
do  not  believe  much  in  it,  for  love  is  often  deceitful  and  without 
reciprocity,  though  it  happens  that  it  is  also  holy  and  innocent;  yet 
in  these  times  that  is  very  seldom.  Respected  sir!  You  write  me 
precisely  that  you  feel  unhappy  to  the  highest  degree  because  of  not 

possessing  the  reciprocity  of  Miss .     Sir!     You  ought  not  to  lose 

hope,  you  ought  not  to  give  yourself  up  to  despair.  Only  you  ought 
to  try  with  all  your  power  that  everything  might  be  again  as  it  was 
before.  And  because  you  are  a  man,  all  this  will  come  easily. 
(Respected  sir!  The  greatest  burden  fell  from  my  heart  at  the  moment 
when  I  learned  from  your  letter  that  you  have  not  yet  a  betrothed.  In 
that  case  I  won't  be  afraid  lest 

Respected  sir !  I  never  thought  that  your  heart  and  your  recipro- 
cal love  must  be  conquered  with  such  difSculty  as  you  write.  If  so,  it 
seems  to  me  that  nobody  will  conquer  your  heart,  for  a  woman  has 

not  strength  enough  for  such  a  heroic  effort,  while  a  man Please 

tell  me  with  what  weapons  can  your  heart  be  conquered  ?  Whether 
with  humihty,  or  with  jealousy,  or  with  flattery,  or  with  kindness, 
etc.  ?  Or  with  the  most  dangerous  arms  of  a  woman — tears  ?  Please 
write  me,  with  what  ?  Perhaps  I  will  adapt  myself .  Respected,  sir! 
You  ask  whether  " I  have  at  least  a  spark  of  love  ? "  Sir!  If  I  knew 
how  to  give  love  such  a  charming  shape,  how  to  make  it  so  beautiful, 

it  is  possible  that  you  would Alas!    The  gracious  Heaven  did 

not  grant  me  any  poetical  faculty.     So  I  can  tell  you  only  one  word — 

that  I ["love  you"  omitted,  but  marked  by  as  many 

points  as  there  are  letters  in  the  respective  PoHsh  words]  more  than  my 
life.  But  these  words  are  not  cold  although  breathing  simpHcity. 
Although  they  are  short,  yet  for  a  lov[cr]  they  contain  very,  very 
much.  Respected  sir,  I  beg  you  very  much,,  answer  me  kindly  by  a 
letter  soon.  For  I  shall  wait  for  it  with  an  enormous  impatience  and 
lon[ging].  Your  letter  is  the  only  medicine  against  my  lon[ging]. 
Oh,  blessed  be  the  hour  in  which  I  knew  you.     I  owe  this  hai)pincss 


1040  rKIMARV-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

to  Andzia  and  I  am  infinitely  grateful  to  her  for  having  made  me 
acquainlfd  with  you.     I  commend  myself  to  your   kind    memory. 

Respectfully  yours, 

Stasia  G. 

More  news  about  you,  respected  sir,  A[ndzia]  will  furnish  me,  for 
I  don't  yet  know  anything  certain.     I  will  write  her  a  letter  on  Sunday. 

And  perhaps  there  is  no  woman  who  is  worthy  of  possessing  your 
heart  ?     In  such  a  case I  beg  your  pardon.     [Irony.] 

697  September  9,  191 2 

Respected  Sir:  I  received  your  letter  and  your  cards,  for  which 
I  thank  you  much.  I  beg  your  pardon  for  having  let  you  wait  so  long 
for  my  letters.  But  I  hope  that  you  won't  take  it  in  bad  part,  for  it 
was  difficult  for  me  to  answer,  having  such  a  terrible  sorrow,  about 
which  you  heard  probably  from  Miss  Anna  [Hanka]. 

Respected  sir!  Your  letter  before  the  last  one  grieved  me  much, 
for  you  wrote  it  with  a  terrible  irony;  every  word  in  this  letter  wounds 
my  heart  profoundly.  But  what  can  I  do  ?  I  tried  to  be  sincere  and 
open-hearted,  and  you  took  all  this  for  false  money.  But  now  I  will 
calculate  my  words,  in  order  surely  not  to  offend  you  for  the  second 
time. 

Again,  with  your  last  letter  you  comforted  me  much.  Respected 
sir!     You  write  me  not  to  mind  that  you  did  not  inform  me  about 

your  leaving  Wil .     I  did  not  mind  it  at  all,  for  I  understand  and 

know  the  proverb,  "The  heart  is  not  a  servant"  ...  But  at  any 
rate  it  would  be  more  agreeable  for  me  if  I  had  received  the  news  also. 
And  so  I  learned  only  by  accident,  from  Andzia,  that  you  had  left. 

It  is  painful  to  me  that  you  have  so  bad  an  opinion  of  me,  that  you 
believe  me  deceitful.  Oh,  no!  I  am  completely  constant,  incon- 
stancy is  unknown  to  me.  In  order  to  make  you  sure  of  it  I  should 
like  to  give  you  a  proof,  but  unhappily  I  don't  know  in  what  way  to  do 
it,  and  for  that  very  reason  you  can  be  sure.  For  if  I  knew  it  would 
be  a  sign  that  I  have  spoken  already  with  somebody  about  things  like 
this. 

How  do  you  spend  your  time  ?  I  think  very  pleasantly,  because 
in  the  presence  of  your  beloved.  With  my  whole  heart  I  wish  you 
amusement  and  a  pleasant  passage  of  your  time.     I  have  no  further 


PIOTROWSKI  SERIES 


IO41 


news  at  all.     Only  I  beg  you  for  a  kind  answer,  for  which  I  shall  be 
very  grateful  to  you.  ^.^  ^^^p^^^^ 

-. Stasia  G. 

698  November  18,  191 2 

Respected  Sir:  I  inform  you  that  I  had  the  happiness  to  receive 
the  letter  which  you  sent  me  from  America.  For  this  letter  and  for 
your  remembering  me  I  express  to  you  my  hearty  thanks. 

Respected  sir!  What  good  did  you  gain  by  leaving  your  country  ? 
You  were  getting  on  here  pretty  well ;  why  do  you  search  for  happiness 
among  foreign  gods  ?  It  seems  to  me  that  here  in  Poland  it  can  also 
be  found.  But  this  depends  upon  the  form  in  which  one  finds  it. 
Some  people  consider  happiness  in  the  form  of  money,  others  in  the 
form  of  something  else.  You  belong  surely  to  the  former,  since 
everybody  goes  to  America  only  for  money.  But  money  does  not 
always  give  happiness.  With  my  whole  heart  I  wish  you  may  put 
aside  much,  much  money  and  come  back  to  our  country  as  soon  as 
possible.  How  long  do  you  intend  to  stay  in  America?  Have  you 
any  friend  there,  or  do  you  spend  your  time  lonely  ?  You  are  very 
impoHte,  for  you  did  not  write  any  letter  for  so  long  a  time,  and  this 
one  which  you  sent  could  therefore  have  been  written  somewhat  more 
at  length.  And  in  general  you  used  to  write  your  letters  in  a  some- 
what different  way.  Evidently  America  is  beginning  to  change  you. 
But  alas!  not  for  the  better.  In  your  letter  you  mentioned  something 
about  a  photograph.  So,  if  you  are  so  gracious,  I  would  ask  for  it 
very  urgently  and  the  soonest  possible.  I  am  curious  whether 
America  has  changed  you.  It  could  not  have  changed  you  for  the 
better,  for  in  your  person  culminate  all  the  good  qualities,  and  in 
general  you  can  be  counted  among  the  best,  etc.  You  will  think 
probably  that  this  is  an  empty  compliment,  but  I  speak  the  sincere 
truth.  And  I  am  not  the  only  one  who  has  this  opinion  about  your 
person,  but  another  very  near  to  your  heart,  Miss  A[ndzia],  also 
praises  you  to  the  skies.  There  is  no  news  with  me,  everything  is  as 
it  was.     I  am  not  marrying  yet,  for  nobody  wants  me. 

Up  to  the  time  I  received  your  letter  I  was  very  longing  and  sad. 
But  your  letter  rejoiced  me  completely.  And  if  I  receive  your 
photograph  also  I  shall  feel  completely  happy. 

If  you  spend  as  few  hours  on  your  work  as  you  write,  then  I  beg 
you  to  write  me  many  letters,  at  least  twice  a  month;  it  would  not  be 


104J  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

so  vcr\-  muih.     Is  it  true?     I  don't  send  you  Christmas  wishes  yet, 
for  surely  you  will  write  again  before  the  holidays. 

I  have  nothing  more  of  interest  to  communicate.  I  wish  you 
success  and  merry  distraction  with  my  whole  heart.  I  beg  you  for  a 
kind  answer  as  soon  as  possible.  I  shall  wait  with  long[ing]  both  for 
your  letter  and  for  your  photograph.     I  send  you  a  hearty  handshake. 

I  remain  always  one  and  the  same, 

Stasia  G. 

699  December  4,  19 1 2 

Influential  [Wielmozny]  Sir:  I  inform  you  that  I  had  the 
honor  of  receiving  from  you  a  few  days  ago  a  new  letter  from  America. 
[Letters  sent;  asks  for  answer.]  Please  describe  to  me  ever\'thing. 
How  do  you  succeed  in  America  ?  Do  you  amuse  yourself  merrily  ? 
And  then,  when  do  you  intend  to  come  back  to  our  country?  And 
perhaps  you  think  of  remaining  there  forever  ?  It  would  be  a  pity  if 
you  settled  there.     Rather  come  back  to  our  country. 

Please  be  so  kind  and  send  me  your  photograph.  You  asked 
whether  I  correspond  with  Miss  Anna  [Hanka].  Well,  I  must  tell 
you  that  since  you  left  Rytwiany,  I  sent  her  no  less  and  no  more,  but 
eight  letters.  But  she  did  not  even  begin  to  answer  any  of  them. 
Then  I  ceased  writing  to  her.  And  now  I  don't  know  at  all  what  is 
going  on  with  her.  With  me  there  is  no  news  either.  Mortal  tedious- 
ness.  Your  letters  are  the  only  distraction  for  me.  So  I  beg  you  very 
much,  be  so  kind  and  write  to  me  as  soon  as  possible.  With  great 
longing  I  shall  wait  for  your  letter.  And  I  beg  you,  don't  refuse  me 
this  grace.  Probably  you  \rill  receive  this  letter  before  Christmas. 
So  I  send  you  my  best  wishes  for  the  approaching  hohdays.  I  have 
nothing  more  to  write,  only  I  commend  myself  to  your  kind  memory. 

I  remain  always  the  same. 

Stasia  G. 
P.S.     I  remind  you  about  the  photograph. 

700  January  9,  1913 

Respected  Sir:  I  inform  you  that  I  received  your  letter,  for 
which  I  give  you  hearty  thanks.  Sir!  I  am  very  grateful  to  you  for 
this  letter.  But  while  on  the  one  hand  you  gave  me  much  pleasure 
with  it,  on  the  other  hand  it  was  very  painful  to  me.     For  how^  could 


PIOTROWSKI  SERIES 


1043 


you  have  suspected  me  of  anything  like  this,  that  I  am  so  indelicate 
as  not  to  answer  your  letters.  You  offended  me  much,  for  I  did  not 
even  think  about  anything  like  this,  much  less  realize  it.  I  inform  you 
that  I  send  answers  at  once  after  receiving  every  one  of  your  letters. 
Why  you  did  not  receive  the  former  remains  a  puzzle  to  me.  To  your 
letter  before  the  last  I  sent  answers  twice,  but  having  no  news  from 
you  I  did  not  write  any  more.  I  thought  that  you  were  occupied 
with  somebody  and  I  did  not  want  to  interrupt  a  pleasant  idyl  with 
my  tedious  letters.  In  a  word,  I  did  not  wish  you  to  suspect  me  of 
importunity.  This  was  the  reason  why  I  did  not  dare  to  send  you 
wishes  for  New  Year.  Now  please  accept  my  late  wishes.  And  I 
wish  you  to  get  as  soon  as  possible  renown  and  miUions  in  America  and 
to  come  as  soon  as  possible  back  to  our  country. 

I  was  pained  when  for  so  many  months  I  had  no  letter  from  you. 
I  thought  that  you  had  already  forgotten.  You  ask  me  whether  I 
wish  to  stop  ray  correspondence  with  you.  Sir!  If  it  were  possible, 
I  would  correspond  with  you  steadily.  But  this  evidently  depends 
only  upon  you.  I  count  my  correspondence  with  you  among  the 
greatest  pleasures.  So  I  hope  that  you  won't  refuse  me  this  pleasure, 
but  that  you  will  reciprocate  by  correspondence. 

With  me  there  is  no  news.  I  have  not  married  yet,  unfortunately, 
and  it  is  not  likely  to  happen  soon,  for  it  is  now  more  and  more  difficult 
to  find  a  husband. 

What  is  the  news  with  you  ?  Do  you  remain  a  bachelor  up  to  the 
present  ?  I  beg  you  once  more,  send  me  your  photograph.  In  the 
name  of  my  parents  I  thank  you  for  the  greetings  which  you  sent. 
They  reciprocate  in  the  same  way 

I  commend  myself  to  your  kind  memory. 

With  respect. 

Stasia  G. 

P.S.  I  wish  you  to  amuse  yourself  merrily  during  the  whole 
carnival. 

7or  January  29,  1913 

Sir:  A  month  has  passed  and  I  have  no  news  from  you.     Don't 

forget  that' a  month  has  many,  many  more  days  when  they  are 

counted  with  impatience  and  anxiety.     So  I  will  still  wait  and  deceive 

myself  that  perhaps  I  don't  wait  in  vain. 

Stasia  G. 


1044  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

702  March  14,  1913 

Rkspected  Sir:   [Letters  received.]     I  beg  your  pardon  for  not 

havini,'  answered  your  letters  for  so  long  a  time.     But  please  forgive 

mc  this  momentary  inconsistency.     I  could  not  answer  sooner  because 

I  was  \-or\-  sick  for  almost  a  month,  and  in  spite  of  my  wish  I  was 

unable  to  answer  sooner.     But  now,  when  I  am  in  health,  my  first 

act  is  to  take  a  pen  in  order  to  excuse  myself  to  you How  do 

you  spend  your  time?     Certainly  more  merrily  than  I  do,  for  in  a 

city  one  can  amuse  himself  better  than  in  the  country.     With  me 

everything  is  as  formerly.     I  am  bored,  nothing  more.     And  the 

time  passes  so  monotonously.     I  have  nothing  more  to  write 

I  take  the  Uberty  of  bidding  you  goodbye I  send  you  a  hearty 

handshake. 

With  respect, 

Stasia  G. 

703  May  14,  1913 

Respfxted  Sir:   I  inform  you  that  I  received  your  letter,  your 

cards,  a  photograph,  and  ribbons Answer  me  please,  how  did 

I  merit  to  be  remembered  by  you  so  particularly  ?  For  besides  the 
letters  and  the  photograph,  these  ribbons  have  confused  me,  for  I 
don't  know,  in  fact,  under  what  pretext  I  may  accept  them.  They 
will  be  for  me  a  very  dear  remembrance.  I  don't  think  that  you  will 
be  angry.'  As  to  the  photograph,  I  thank  you  very  much.  It  was 
a  very  pleasant  surprise  for  me.  I  have  asked  for  it  so  often,  and 
nevertheless  I  did  not  receive  it,  and  I  thought  already  that  I  should 
not  have  the  honor  of  owning  your  photograph;  meanwhile,  I  received 
it  on  my  name-day.  I  must  confess  that  you  look  very  well  upon  it. 
....  With  me  there  is  no  news  at  all;  always  the  old  story 

I  thank  you  once  more  for  your  kind  remembrance  ....  and 
for  all  these  objects,  which  caused  me  an  incomparable  pleasure. 

With  respect, 

Stacha  G. 

704  [Without  date] 

Respected  Sir:  I  have  the  honor  to  inform  you  that  I  received 
your  postcard  a  few  days  ago  and  your  letter,  for  which  I  send  you 
hearty  thanks. 

'  She  will  treat  them  as  a  gift  too  precious  to  be  used.  Cf.  the  behavior  of 
Hanka  under  similar  circumstances  (No.  716). 


PIOTROWSKI  SERIES 


1045 


You  ask  me  why  I  have  not  written  to  you  for  so  long  a  time. 
Well,  I  must  inform  you  that  in  this  case  I  am  not  led  by  anything 
particular,  only  one  day  passes  after  another  and  then  weeks  pass. 
I  am  now  somewhat  occupied  with  work,  for  a  few  months  ago  I 
accepted  the  place  of  salesgirl  in  the  local  shop,  so  my  duties  are  much 
greater.  And  so  on  working  days  I  have  no  time,  and  Sunday  passes 
so  rapidly  in  amusing  myself  in  a  very  agreeable  society  that  I  have 
absolutely  never  the  time  to  think  about  correspondence.  You  write 
something  about  anger.  I  don't  even  think  of  being  angry.  God 
forbid!  For  in  general  I  don't  like  to  be  angry  with  anybody.  I 
prefer  to  live  in  harmony  with  everybody.  As  far  as  it  seems  to  me 
you  have  no  reason  either  to  be  offended  with  me.  For  if  I  don't 
write  letters  often  it  is  not  a  cause  to  be  angry.  What  is  the  news 
with  you  ?  How  do  you  amuse  yourself  ?  As  to  me,  you  can  envy 
me,  for  I  spend  the  time  very  merrily.  I  have  a  small  group,  but 
well  adapted  to  one  another,  and  perfectly  satisfying  my  demands.^ 
I  am  just  now  writing  to  Andzia  one  letter  after  another,  asking  her 
to  come  also.  But  it  seems  to  me  that  she  will  not  come.  In  case 
she  does  not  come,  I  intend  to  go  to  her  when  there  is  a  parish-festival 
in  Rytwiany.  Perhaps  then  you  will  be  present  also?  I  have 
nothing  more  to  write,  I  mention  only  that  if  you  wish  me  to  send  you 
my  photograph — for  I  have  just  been  photographed — then  please 
send  me  yours  first I  beg  you  for  a  word  of  news. 

With  respect, 

Stasia  G. 

P.S.  I  am  charmed  with  these  cards  which  you  send  me.  If 
you  are  so  kind,  please  send  me  more.  Anything  of  the  same 
kind 

'  This  letter  is  clearly  intended  to  break  off  the  relation.  Particularly  the 
phrases  concerning  her  amusements  and  the  "pleasant  society"  aim  at  this.  And 
if  we  compare  this  letter  with  Hanka's  letters  in  which  she  protests  against  sup- 
positions that  she  is  going  into  society,  or  excuses  herself  for  having  amused  herself, 
we  see  the  real  meaning  of  social  life  and  entertainment  in  this  class — the  same  as  in 
the  peasant  class,  although  still  more  evident  in  the  latter.  A  social  entertainment 
in  which  both  sexes  take  part  is  seldom  disinterested,  as  far  as  young  people  are 
concerned,  i.e.,  the  mere  pleasure  of  society  is  never  the  real  end.  AH  parties  are 
either  traditional  ceremonial  meetings  with  a  religious  background  (wedding, 
christening,  funeral,  holiday,  festival)  or  they  develop  out  of  the  reception  of  the 
eventual  bridegroom  or  matchmaker  in  the  eventual  bride's  house,  and  retain 
vilways  the  character  of  virtual  or  actual  matching.     This  is  the  meaning  of  all 


m  JO  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

705  [July  or  August  1913] 

Respkctkd  Sir:  ....  You  ask  me  what  is  the  news  with  me. 
Well,  first  I  must  inform  you  that  I  am  getting  married.  This 
information  will  not  be  news  to  you,  for  from  your  letter  I  learned 
tliat  you  arc  very  well  informed  about  it.  I  wonder  who  was  so 
serviceable  and  saved  me  the  trouble  of  informing  you  about  this 
fact.  Excuse  me  for  not  informing  you  about  it  sooner,  but  I  did 
not  believe  myself  that  it  would  happen.  My  banns  have  only  just 
been  published,  and  the  wedding  will  be  on  August  10.  You  wonder 
that  I  am  getting  married  so  young.  But  I  believe,  on  the  contrary, 
that  it  is  time  for  me  to  get  married.  I  have  begun  my  eighteenth 
year  already,  twenty  is  not  so  far,  and  I  am  ver}^  much  afraid  of 
remaining  an  old  maid.  Moreover,  I  don't  marry  because  forced  to, 
only  from  love.  I  get  an  ideal  husband,  who  satisfies  all  my  demands 
— modest  enough,  evidently.  You  are  interested  to  know  whence 
my  future  husband  comes  ?  He  was  born  in  the  province  of  Radom, 
and  educated  in  Warsaw.  We  have  kno^\^l  each  other  more  than  a 
year  and  a  half,  for  he  now  works  in  Zagloba.  He  is  a  railway  engineer 
and  locksmith.  We  will  not  remain  here  long.  I  think  that  we  shall 
go  to  Warsaw.  I  regret  very  much  that  you  are  not  in  our  country. 
I  hope  that  you  would  not  ha\-e  refused  me  the  pleasure  and  would 
have  been  at  my  wedding.  While  now,  unhappily,  too  wide  a  space 
divides  us. 

I  intended  to  go  to  Rytwiany,  but  now  I  will  not  go,  for  Andzia 
will  come. 

I  have  nothing  more  to  write  you.  I  want  only  to  beg  your 
pardon  if  I  ever  caused  }-ou  any  pain,  and  to  ask  your  forgiveness. 
Write  me  that  you  are  not  angry  with  me.  But  I  believe  that  I  have 
not  merited  your  anger. 

Perhaps  this  is  the  last  letter  which  I  shall  wTite  you.  For  now  of 
what  use  would  my  letters  be  to  you  ?  Surely  they  would  give  you 
no  pleasure,  for  as  long  as  I  was  a  girl  it  was  different,  but  now  my 


the  receptions  in  private  houses  (outside  of  ceremonial  festivals),  of  all  dances, 
walks,  etc.  Therefore  a  girl  or  a  boy  "amusing"  himself  is  always  understood  to  be 
in  search  of  a  match,  and  therefore  a  girl  or  a  boy  engaged  or  half-engaged  ought 
never  to  "go  into  society"  or  to  seek  "amusement"  when  the  other  is  absent. 
Stacha's  explicit  acknowledgment  that  she  amuses  herself  means  therefore  that  she 
no  longer  e.xpects  a  proposal  from  Walenty,  but  is  in  search  of  another  match 
or  even  already  engaged. 


PIOTROWSKI  SERIES  1 047 

role  is  completely  changed.     So  I  must  be  satisfied  with  one  thing. 
I  have  no  more  news.     I  bid  you  farewell,  respected  sir. 

With  respect, 

Stasia  G. 
I  beg  you,  do  not  refuse  me  this  grace,  and  destroy  all  my  letters. 

706  Rytwiany,  November  8,  191 2 

Respected  Sir:  Oh,  how  happy  I  feel  after  receiving  your  letter, 
for  which  I  waited  with  much  longing,  but  with  uncertainty.  I 
imagined  that  when  you  went  to  America,  I  should  have  to  bid  you 
farewell  forever,  so  this  day  of  separation  was  for  me  as  [illegible; 
terrible  ?]  a  day  as  if  I  bade  farewell  to  everything  that  was  dear  to 
me  upon  the  earth,  as  if  I  were  at  the  funeral  of  my  happiness  and 
nothing  were  left  for  me  except  to  put  on  mourning  and  to  wear  it 
the  rest  of  my  life  upon  the  earth. 

Dear  sir,  I  have  no  words  to  describe  and  I  cannot  even  express 
all  that  I  feel,  so  terrible  is  your  departure  for  me.  So  whenever  I 
met  your  brother,  I  always  asked  him  to  give  me  your  address  if  you 
wrote  first  to  your  parents.  I  intended  to  write  the  first,  but  since 
I  received  a  letter  myself,  I  have  your  address.  Dear  kum,"^  you 
wrote  me  about  those  strikes,  and  while  nobody  knew  yet  that  you 
wrote  to  me,  on  the  same  day  I  learned  that  you  wrote  to  your 
parents  also,  and  that  your  parents  grieve  very  much  about  your 
being  in  such  misery.  It  would  be  the  best  if  you  could  refrain  from 
writing  to  your  parents  [such  things],  for  when  you  write  you  cause 
only  grief,  weeping,  and  nothing  more.  This  is  perfectly  useless  and 
your  parents  grieve  enormously  about  you.  But  as  to  me,  you  can 
be  sure  that  nobody  will  learn  [that  you  have  written]  anything  bad; 
if  I  tell  anybody  that  you  wrote  I  will  always  say  that  it  is  all 
right.  For  not  even  my  parents  know  what  you  write  to  me.  As 
to  the  money,  you  may  not  trouble  yourself,  for  we  don't  need  it. 
You  will  give  it  back  when  you  can.  You  may  keep  it  with  you, 
for  in  the  case  of  some  accident  it  may  always  be  useful.  Don't 
send  it  back  until  you  think  that  you  are  in  such  a  good  condition  as 
no  longer  to  be  afraid  of  misery.  [Send  it]  only  then,  or  else  I  would 
be  ready  to  send  it  back.     Dear  friend,  you  ask  about  Miss  Stanislawa 

'  Probably  the  god-relation  exists,  if  at  all,  only  between  the  parents  of  the 
boy  and  girl,  and  she  transfers  it  half  jokingly  to  their  relation. 


1048  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

[Stasia].  I  don't  know  anything,  for  since  she  wrote  me  that  letter 
wliicli  >-ou  saw,  she  afterward  wrote  only  one  postcard.  After  your 
departure  I  wrote  her  a  letter,  registered,  and  she  did  not  answer. 
Then  I  wrote  2  cards,  and  she  did  not  answer  either.  Sister-in-law 
lias  wTitten  me  two  letters  aheady,  and  she  [Stasia]  did  not.  So  I 
don't  write  to  her  any  more  and  don't  intend  to  unless  she  writes  to 
nie.  Then  I  will  inform  you  about  anything.  If  you  want  me  to  be 
the  intermediary  [between  you]  further  I  will  sacrifice  myself  [half 
ironical  ?]  with  pleasure.  Dear  sir,  please  excuse  me  for  not  having 
answered  at  once,  but  you  understand  that  I  desire  so  much  to  answer 
vou  immediately,  on  the  same  day  on  which  I  receive  your  letter. 
But  everything  was  so  unfavorable  that  I  could  not  answer  at  once, 
and  now  I  have  answered  you,  but  not  to  everything.  My  mother 
has  been  sick  with,  inflammation  of  the  kidneys  for  5  weeks,  and  I  am 
so  occupied  with  the  household  and  with  sewing  that  really  it  is 
difficult  for  me  to  afford  waiting  a  letter.  You  must  comply  with  it, 
and  you  will  kindly  forgive  me.  In  the  next  [letter]  I  will  write  more 
and  I  will  try  [to  write]  a  Uttle  better,  for  I  wrote  this  one  so  badly 
that  I  am  ashamed  to  send  it.  Really  I  don't  know  what  is  the  fault, 
whether  the  pen  is  bad,  or  the  ink,  or  the  one  who  wrote.  Probably  it 
is  my  fault,  that  I  don't  know  how  to  write  [nicely],  but  I  will  try 
some  day.  We  thank  you  heartily  for  having  sent  the  photograph, 
for  from  sister  we  had  a  letter  in  which  they  wrote  that  they  received 
your  photograph  and  letter,  and  asked  me  to  come. 

Greetings  from  my  parents,  and  from  me  hearty  embraces.  [The 
PoUsh  word  for  "shake"  (hands)  and  "embrace"  is  the  same — from 
sciskac,  "to  press."  Here  it  means  formally  "handshake,"  really 
"embrace."]    I  beg  you  for  a  kind  answer. 

[Your]  1 [oving], 

•  Anna  [Hank^a.] 

707  January  30,  1913 

Dear  Sir:  I  inform  you  that  I  received  on  January  16  the  letter 
for  which  I  had  waited  with  great  impatience  and  uncertainty.  I 
send  you  a  hearty  "God  reward"  for  it,  and  for  the  good  wishes. 
Dear  sir,  that  letter  comforted  me  very  much,  so  I  thank  you  very 
much  for  the  reciprocal  feelings  expressed  in  it,  and  about  which  I 
doubted  much,  for  you  did  not  give  any  sign  for  so  long  a  time.  Dear 
sir,  I  am  really  very  pained  and  I  regret  very  much  that  I  sent  you  a 


PIOTROWSKI  SERIES  IO49 

letter  which  made  upon  you  a  sad  impression  and  took  away  from  you 

a  merry  moment  in  which  you  could  have  felt  yourseU  happy. 
Though  you  may  be  confident  that  the  feelings  which  I  share  with  you 
are  sincere.  I  Hve  alone  also.  I  keep  company  with  absolutely 
nobody,  I  go  nowhere,  to  no  parties,  and  nobody  comes  to  me,  so 
I  have  got  accustomed  to  being  interested  in  no  society.  I  take  no 
walks  either.  If  I  have  a  moment  free,  I  spend  it  in  reading  books. 
If  you  do  not  believe  me  I  can  confidently  appeal  to  your  brother. 
He  can  inform  you.  Dear  sir!  perhaps  you  will  not  believe  what  I 
write,  but  I  feel  such  a  lack  of  you  that  I  can  never  forget  for  a  moment 
what  you  did  in  going  to  America.  When  you  were  in  Rytwiany  I 
walked  every  evening,  I  wanted  always  to  see  you,  to  exchange  a  few 
words,  and  so  I  spent  my  time  pleasantly.  But  now  it  is  a  veritable 
grave  in  Rytwiany  for  me.  But  nothing  can  be  done,  I  must  accept 
my  fate  and  be  patient,  and  perhaps  our  Lord  God  will  grant  moments 
like  those  to  return  again.  What  do  you  think  ?  I  should  have 
much  to  write,  but  I  am  afraid,  for  you  begin  immediately  to  think 
too  much,  and  something  still  worse  may  result  from  it.  If  I  thought 
about  you  and  about  a  stranger  [the  writer]  at  the  same  time  it  would 
be  too  much  for  you.  Why,  you  find  yourself  in  a  rather  disagreeable 
situation,  for  if  you  are  not  working,  you  have  enough  to  think  about. 

Dear  sir,  I  want  to  justify  myself,  so  that  you  will  forgive  me  for 
having  postponed  my  answer  somewhat  long.  My  sir,  on  the  evening 
when  I  received  your  letter  my  mother  was  very  sick.  She  almost 
struggled  with  death;  so  I  was  very  much  impressed  with  it.  More- 
over, during  the  whole  night  I  ran  Uke  mad,  now  to  the  surgeon- 
assistant,  now  again  to  the  factory,  to  my  father,  and  so  on.  I  had 
to  go  wherever  it  was  necessary.  I  did  not  cover  myself  as  I  ought 
to  in  winter,  only  as  if  it  were  spring,  and  I  caught  a  rather  serious 
cold,  so  that  I  was  afraid  I  should  go  to  the  cemetery.  But  I  was 
well  cared  for  at  once,  and  in  some  way  it  passed  off,  so  that  I  am  in 
good  health  now.  Mother  cannot  yet  rise  from  her  bed,  for  she  is 
very  weak.  I  won't  bore  you  longer  with  this  story,  I  only  wanted 
to  explain  to  you  why  I  did  not  answer  at  once.  It  was  only  because 
I  was  sick,  and  my  mother  was  even  very  sick;  so  I  could  not  write, 
for  I  had  no  time. 

And  now  I  inform  you  what  you  asked  me  about.  Stacha  writes 
to  me  very  seldom,  for  when  she  does  I  have  never  any  time  to  answer 
her.     But  now  I  have  written  to  her  and  I  asked  whether  she  had 


1050  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

written  to  you.  I  don't  know  yet  what  she  will  answer.  As  to 
Miss  N.,  wo  arc  not  anj^^ry  with  each  other,  but  we  don't  keep  com- 
pany since  I  came  from  ZagJoba.  Only  when  we  meet,  we  have  to 
talk  with  each  other.  Since  you  left  I  have  spoken  only  3  times  with 
her.     She  is  [j^retends  to  be]  a  lady,  and  I  cannot  bear  such  people. 

[Information  about  acquaintances.] 

Your  lov[ing], 

Anna 

708  February  18,  1913 

Worthy  Friend:  I  inform  you  that  I  received  2  letters  and  a 
card.  [One  page  about  writing  letters  and  answering.]  Your 
brother  is  ver}'  anxious  lest  you  marry  some  pretty  American  girl,  and 
I  think  also  much  about  it,  that  perhaps  you  will  fall  in  love  and  get 
into  a  marriage  bond  there  in  America.  [News  about  marriages  and 
acquaintances].  T.  Sz.  WTote  that  she  does  not  wdsh  to  her  worst 
enemy  to  make  the  journey  to  America.  She  was  very  seasick  upon 
the  ship,  and  in  America  she  is  immeasurably  homesick.  My  brother 
wrote  now  that  if  I  wanted  to  see  America  he  would  take  me  in  the 
spring.  But  I  would  decide  to  go  solely  in  order  to  see  more  often 
my  beloved,  i.e.,  my  kum,  but  my  parents  don't  allow  me  to  dream 
about  America,  and  mother  faints  at  the  mention  of  it.  So  it  seems 
that  I  shan't  see  America.  As  long  as  my  parents  are  alive  I  must 
remain  nearer  to  them.  [Repeats  the  news  about  Miss  N.  playing  a 
lady;  news  about  other  friends.] 

[Hanka] 

709  March  2,  19 13 

Dear  Sir:  I  inform  you  that  I  answered  your  letters  very  long 
ago,  and  I  am  sure  that  you  must  have  received  them.  And  you 
don't  deign  to  answer  me. 

Dear!  In  spite  of  not  receiving  any  answ^er,  I  cannot  wait  longer, 
for  my  heart  which  is  wounded  since  the  moment  of  your  departure 
shows  me  itself  the  way  to  pen  a  few  words  far  away  beyond  the  sea, 
where  the  man  is  who  could  heal  it.  [Evidently  imitated.]  But 
when,  when  ?    Alas ! 

Now  I  sit  musing  alone  and  I  think  how  often  I  had  the  pleasure 
of  spending  such  evenings  as  this  one  in  talking  with  you.  Oh,  how 
pleasant  it  was   to  live   then!    Today   the   tediousness  is  beyond 


PIOTROWSKI  SERIES 


1051 


description.  I  am  tortured.  Wherever  I  look — emptiness  every- 
where. Always  I  feel  the  lack  of  someone.  Nothing  can  make  me 
cheerful.  Nothing  except  this  one  thought,  when  I  remember  that 
perhaps  sometime  we  shall  see  each  other.  But  this  will  not  come 
soon  probably,  will  it  ?  And  I  do  not  know  how  I  shall  be  able  to 
live  thus  any  longer.  I  imagine  it  will  not  be  very  cheerful.  But 
nothing  can  be  done.     I  must  accept  my  fate. 

Then  I  want  to  know  of  your  health.  I  am  in  good  health,  thanks 
to  our  Lord  God,  and  I  wish  you  the  same,  with  a  true  heart.  I  beg 
you,  deign  to  inform  me  how  you  are  succeeding,  how  you  spend  your 
moments,  whether  merrily,  surrounded  by  pretty  foreigners  or 
acquaintances.  I  am  curious  what  influence  [impression]  the  Ameri- 
can girls  have  made  upon  you  ?  I  think  not  a  bad  one,  for  there  all 
the  women  are  elegant,  though  I  should  not  envy  them,  for  perhaps 
I  could  also  be  in  their  company.  My  sister  in  America  and  her 
husband  wrote  me.  I  received  their  letter  this  week.  They  ask  me 
to  come  without  fail.  They  almost  implore  me.  Moreover,  my  sir, 
they  wrote  me  that  they  had  there  for  me  a  boy  who  knew  me  from 
my  photograph,  and  is  so  rich,  for  he  has  $2,000,  and  when  I  came,  he 
would  marry  me  at  once.  But  I  answered  them  that  if  he  had  so 
many  thousands  let  him  search  for  a  wife  more  worthy  of  him,  for 
I  will  not  marry  for  the  sake  of  thousands,  but  of  love.  I  always 
repeat  it  to  myself,  that  happiness  is  only  in  love,  not  in  any  amount  of 
money,  for  money  is  a  thing  which  may  be  accjuired,  while  nothing 
will  change  me.  I  asked  them  where  he  got  his  assurance  that  I 
would  marry  him  at  once,  since  he  let  them  write  so?  It  is  not 
enough  that  I  pleased  him,  for  I  don't  know  him,  and  I  don't  know 
whether  he  would  please  me.  Well,  I  don't  know  what  they  will 
answer  to  this.  In  this  way,  dear  sir,  I  could  have  seen  America. 
But  I  don't  know  whether  this  nice  gentleman  who  is  so  sure  of  himself 
will  still  want  me  after  what  I  answered  them,  and  so  I  have  a  fresh 
grief.     [Irony.] 

With  the  approaching  Easter  holidays  I  wish  you  the  fulfilment 
of  your  dearest  wishes  and  merry  amusement  in  the  most  numerous 
society  possible.'     But  please  do  not  forget  your  truly  l[oving] 

Hanka 

*  This  paragraph  shows  clearly  the  modesty  of  Hanka's  claims.  A  girl  claim- 
ing exclusive  rights  to  the  man  would  never  wish  him  "merry  amusement  in  a 
numerous  society,"  because  of  the  meaning  of  social  entertainments,  explained 
above. 


io;j 


PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 


710  [Probably  end  of  March  or  beginning  of  April  1913] 
Dear  Kiim:   You  wite  that  I  have  forgotten  you  already,  for 

I  don't  write  to  you.  Oh,  it  never  was  so  and  I  am  sure  that  it  never 
can  happen,  for  it  is  not  permitted  to  forget  about  such  a  true  friend 
as  you  are  to  mc.  You  suspect  me  of  getting  married  perhaps,  and 
that  therefore  I  don't  write.  It  is  a\\'ful  to  tease  in  so  terrible  a  way 
one  who  can  love  nobody  besides  you  and  who  certainly  would  never 
decide  to  marry  some  man  whom  she  could  never  love!  And  even 
if  I  married,  I  could  not  always  feign  that  I  love  him,  while  thinking 
about  someone  else.  This  would  not  be  right.  It  is  much  better  to 
suffer  now  instead  of  suffering  later,  making  somebody  else  suffer 
besides,  and  betraying  him— which  would  be  more  probable  than  the 
contrary.  Therefore  I  promised  myself  to  marry  no  sooner  than  you 
come  from  America,  and  perhaps  not  at  all.  Since  you  went  to  this 
unhappy  America,  I  prepare  myself  seriously  for  the  life  of  an  old 

maid,  and  as  far  as  it  seems,  I  shan't  be  deceived 

Please  don't  forget  me  and  write  as  soon  as  possible.     Your 

letters  are  my  only  comfort  and  distraction And  don't  write 

me  any  more  that  you  bore  me  with  your  letters,  for  it  offends  me 
much.     I  wait  for  your  letters  as  for  salvation,  and  you  write  such 

taunts 

Your  loving, 

Hanka 

711  [April]  30,  1913 

Dear  Sir:  I  have  the  honor  to  inform  you  that  before  the  hoU- 
days,  on  Good  Thursday,  I  received  your  letter  w4th  the  wishes,  and 
3  cards.  Today  I  received.another  letter  and  I  am  very  much  pleased. 
After  reading  these  letters  I  feel  very  happy.  Because  your  letters, 
dear  kum,  make  upon  me  a  very  kind  impression.  I  read  them  with 
great  pleasure  every  evening,  for  they  alone  can  calm  my  heart.  For 
these  letters,  so  dear  to  me,  and  for  your  reciprocal  feelings  expressed 
in  them,  I  have  the  honor  to  thank  you  heartily,  dear  him.  For  the 
cards  I  give  you  also  a  hearty  ''God  reward."  I  should  be  glad  to 
thank  you  in  a  more  hearty  manner,  but  really  I  don't  know  how  to 
express  how  grateful  I  feel  to  you,  dear  kum,  for  these  cards,  for  they 
have  a  great  value  for  me  and  I  wiU  keep  them  in  remembrance.  I 
am  very  much  pained  that  I  cannot  reciprocate  in  the  same  way,  but 
it  seems  to  me  that  our  Kingdom  has  no  cards  like  these. 


PIOTROWSKI  SERIES  1 05  3 

Then  I  inform  you,  dear  kum,  about  my  dear  health  and  success. 
Well,  thanks  to  God  the  Highest,  I  am  in  good  health,  and  I  wish  you 
the  same  with  my  whole  heart  and  soul.  As  to  my  success,  it  is  not 
the  worst,  but  I  cannot  say  that  it  is  good.  We  live  so  as  to  push 
misery  before  us  and  to  go  along  in  some  way  or  other,  though  it  is 
useless  for  me  to  describe  it.  You  know  how  it  has  always  been  in 
Rytwiany,  and  so  it  is  now.  I  work  faithfully,  but  I  have  little 
profit  from  my  work.  Therefore  I  am  so  discouraged  that  I  don't 
even  want  to  work,  although,  to  tell  the  truth,  I  did  not  get  discour- 
aged [merely]  because  I  profit  little  from  my  work.  You  are  probably 
curious  why.  Well,  if  I  may  tell  you,  or  rather  confess  truly,  I  have 
been  in  so  strange  a  disposition  for  some  time  that  wherever  I  go, 
wherever  I  look,  I  see  nothing  which  amuses  or  distracts  me.  I 
remember  only  the  moments  long  ago  which  we  often  spent  so  pleas- 
antly together.  Everything  makes  upon  me  such  a  painful  impression 
that  really  life  itself  has  no  attraction  for  me.  I  am  so  lonely  that 
I  would  go  to  the  end  of  the  world  to  find  the  person  who  is  so  dear 
to  me  and  to  confess  this  terrible  torture  and  suffering  which  my  heart 
sufifers  after  the  loss  of  the  person  who  made  a  glimmering  small  spark 
in  my  heart  glow  into  a  burning  fire  of  love.  [Evidently  from  a 
romance.]  And  your  absence  has  made  it  [the  love]  so  strong  that 
nobody  will  be  able  to  separate  [me  from  you]. 

Dear  Mr.  Walenty!  How  did  you  spend  your  holidays,  merrily 
or  not  ?  For  I,  though  I  was  in  my  hum's  [Walenty's  parents]  and 
our  neighbors'  houses  and  they  were  in  our  house,  yet  I  only  pretended 
to  be  merry,  and  in  reality  I  was  as  sad  as  I  seemed  merry.  Nothing 
amused  me.  I  did  it  only  in  order  not  to  make  any  enemies,  else 
I  would  have  gone  nowhere.  On  the  third  day  of  Easter  your  mother, 
my  kiim,  was  with  us.  The  time  passed  pleasantly  enough.  Your 
brother  was  to  come ;  I  looked  for  him  during  the  whole  holidays,  but 
he  did  not  come.  Whenever  I  meet  him  I  ask  him  to  come,  but  he 
always  promises  me  and  never  comes.  I  have  already  abused  him  a 
Httle,  but  he  does  not  seem  to  be  very  much  afraid  of  me.  Your 
mother,  Mr.  Walenty,  is  in  despair  about  your  going  so  far  away,  and 
because  she  cannot  see  her  dear  son.  Dear  kum,  really  I  envy  you 
that  your  mother  loves  you  so  much,  even  more  than  my  own  mother 
loves  me.  That  a  man  should  have  such  luck  with  certain  persons, 
is  really  to  be  envied.  I  told  your  mother  not  to  grieve,  that  our 
Lord  God  will  help  her  to  Uve  until  you  come  with  some  pretty  rich 


1054  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

Amcruan,  i.e.,  daii.uliter-in-law,  and  she  will  feel  happy  by  the  side 
of  your  wilo.  I  see  that  your  mother  has  nothing  against  it;  on  the 
contrar>-.  she  sa>-s  that  she  would  like  to  see  you  happy,  and  to  have 
a  daugiucr-in-Iaw.  Dear  Mr.  Walenty,  I  thank  you  much  for  the 
money  which  >-ou  sent  back,  but  I  am  much  astonished  that  you  were 
so  anxious  about  these  few  roubles  and  sent  them  so  hurriedly.  You 
hurried  quite  uselessly.  It  would  be  better  if  you  had  kept  them  until 
I  go  to  America;   then  you  could  send  them  for  my  journey. 

Dear  Mr.  Walenty,  I  won't  write  any  more  today,  but  in  the  next 
letter.  I  have  been  sitting  too  long  already.  It  is  night,  one  o'clock, 
and  if  my  mother  awakes  she  will  scold  me  for  not  sleeping.  My 
parents  send  you  greetings  and  salutations,  and  I  a  hot  kiss. 

Thy  truly  loving, 

Hanka 

712  May  20,  19 13 

Respected  Sir:  I  have  the  honor  to  inform  you  that  I  received 
your  letter  and  your  photograph,  for  which  I  give  you  a  hearty  "  God 
reward." 

Dear  Mr.  Walenty!  How  glad  I  am  that  at  every  moment  I  can 
look  at  least  upon  a  picture  of  a  person  so  dear  to  my  heart.  Dear 
Walek!  I  lack  the  words  to  express  how  happy  I  felt  after  receiving 
those  photographs  and  also  after  reading  your  letter,  for  this  letter, 
written  by  you,^  my  Walek,  is  my  only  comfort.  Perhaps  you  are 
offended  with  me  for  having  postponed  the  answer,  but  if  you  knew, 
my  Walek,  how  sad  it  is  to  Uve  without  you,  you  would  not  wait  for 
an  answer,  but  would  come  yourself.  Then  I  am  sure  that  I  could 
send  a  letter  to  you  to  Rytwiany  every  day,  while  now,  when  I  sit 
down  to  write  a  letter  to  you,  my  dear,  I  first  read  all  your  letters,  and 
before  I  think  what  to  write  a  late  hour  approaches  and  so  a  day 
passes  after  another.  Today  I  at  last  decided  to  pen  a  few  words 
which  might  assure  you  that  I  love  you  more  than  life.  But  what 
of  it,  since  God  the  Merciless  separated  us  and  condemned  to  long 
sufferings?  Though  this  which  happened,  my  Walek,  is  your  fault 
only,  for  I  did  whatever  I  could;  it  was  not  suitable  for  me  to  do  more. 
But  you  did  not  mind  anything.  You  believed  that  if  you  went  to 
America  you  would  forget  there  your  country  and  your  friends  and 

'  At  this  point  Hanka  uses  the  form  "thee"  (used  also  at  the  end  of  the  pre- 
ceding letter),  and  continues  to  use  "thee"  and  "thou"  to  the  end. 


PIOTROWSKI  SERIES 


I05: 


would  be  happy  then.  Though  perhaps  it  is  so,  I  think  that  still  if 
you  come  back  and  the  persons  whom  you  know  stand  before  your 
eyes,  then  you  will  be  obliged  to  live  as  we  do  now,  my  Walek.  Dear 
Walek,  you  ask  me  what  is  the  use  of  my  longing  for  you.  I  see  that 
you  don't  like  it  much,  since  you  advise  me  to  gather  society  [about 
me].  Well,  I  will  try  to  do  it  as  I  can,  for  up  to  the  present  I  have  still 
none.  And  to  you,  my  Walek,  I  won't  describe  any  more  my  feeUngs, 
even  if  I  am  mad  with  despair.  Now  I  will  only  describe  what  is  the 
news  in  Rytwiany,  and  in  general  about  acquaintances.  Do  you 
agree  to  it  ?  I  must  still  mention  about  that  unknown  American. 
As  to  this,  you  can  be  calm,  my  Walek,  that  you  won't  have  any  rival. 
The  matter  is  not  about  some  marvel  of  beauty  that  there  might  be 
rivalry.  The  one  from  America  does  not  write  since  I  answered  them, 
and  here  in   Rytwiany   and   the   neighborhood   nobody  gives  any 

attention  to  me 

Your  truly  loving, 

Hanka 

713  June  4  [1913] 

Dear  Walek:  ....  I  see  from  your  letters  and  you  also  write 
me  on  these  postcards  some  reproaches  about  something.  I  see 
that  for  some  time  you  are  very  nervous.  I  don't  understand  why. 
You  write  to  me  with  so  great  "respect"  that  really  it  causes  me  great 
pain.  If  you  think,  my  Walek,  that  it  is  not  suitable  for  us  to  write 
"thou"  to  one  another,  say  so,  for  it  was  I  who  began  it,  and  I  can 
change  it.  I  will  write  you  in  the  same  way  as  you  write  on  the  cards. 
Listen,  my  Walek!  You  are  offended  because  I  did  not  write  you 
what  you  asked — what  people  say  about  you.  Well,  my  dear,  I 
tried  to  do  it.  I  saw  Mr.  M.  and  Mr.  Dz.  and  in  general  the  others, 
and  I  began  to  speak  with  them  about  different  subjects,  and  I  did 
not  notice  anything.  Everybody  expressed  himself  so  well  about  you 
that  there  is  no  suspicion  whatever  [of  their  thinking  anything  bad]. 
So  I  noticed,  at  least.  As  to  Mr.  M.  who  lives  near  the  main  road, 
I  have  spoken  with  him  more  than  once,  and  I  hear  also  from  Hela  P., 
who  always  tells  me  what  she  knows  about  you  from  M.  As  far  as 
I  know,  M.  always  expresses  himself  in  a  very  flattering  manner;  he 
does  not  find  words  enough  to  praise  you  and  he  speaks  always  of 
you  as  of  a  progressive  man.  And  what  other  people  say,  never  mind. 
Let  them  talk.     You  cannot  be  an  exception,  my  Walek.     They  have 


1056  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

something  to  say  about  everybody,  so  what  does  it  matter  if  they  talk 
a  little  about  you  also  ?  And  you,  my  Walek,  be  a  little  less  sensitive 
about  these  thinj,'s.  It  will  be  better  for  you.  Don't  be  impressed 
with  such  things,  for  it  is  not  worth  while.'  You  ask  me,  my  Walek, 
whether  I  will  go  to  Zagloba.  Well,  be  calm,  for  if  it  matters  anything 
to  you,  perhaps  I  won't  go,  for  I  am  not  very  anxious  to  go  there  and 
my  parents  don't  allow  me  either,  only  Stacha  always  asks  me  to  come, 
and  my  sister-in-law  wants  me  also  to  come  and  to  see  her  new  son, 
who  will  be  only  3  months  old  on  June  8.  I  did  not  want  to  go  as  a 
kuma  [of  the  sister  =  godmother  of  the  baby],  so  they  want  me  to 
come  now  to  them,  and  only  then  they  will  come  to  Rytwiany  with 
all  their  children,  and  Stasia  also  intends  to  come.  But  probably 
I  won't  go.  Dear  Walek!  I  am  curious  why  you  do  not  want  me 
to  go  to  Zagloba.  Surely  you  have  nothing  to  fear,  for  I  am  not  a 
man  and  I  won't  fall  in  love  with  Stasia,  and  if  I  read  the  letters  which 
you  wrote  to  her  it  would  be  nothing,  for  I  know  even  now  what  you 
write  to  her  and  still  I  don't  mind  it.  On  the  contrary,  I  am  pleased 
that  you  correspond  with  each  other.  So  be  calm  about  this,  for 
nothing  bad  will  result  from  it.  Don't  be  angry,  my  dear,  for  I  feel 
that  there  is  something  the  matter  with  you,  but  really  I  don't  know 
what.  I  should  be  very  grateful  to  you  for  kindly  informing  me. 
Dear  Walek  I  Y'ou  write  me  something  about  burning  of  photographs, 
so  I  beg  you  very  much,  don't  write  such  things  any  more,  for  they 

cause  me  great  pain  unless  you  want  to  tease  me,  then  do 

So,  my  dear  Walek,  if  you  burn  my  photograph,  I  '^\-iU  do  then  as  you 
advise  me  to  do.  Then  you  ask  me  whether  I  have  weU-suited  com- 
pany. Up  to  the  present  I  have  none  and  I  don't  know  what  will 
be  further  on.  What  does  it  mean,  this  well-suited  company  ?  For, 
so  to  speak,  I  am  too  stupid,  I  cannot  understand  what  it  means. 
And  I  am  also  at  a  guess  to  know  why  you  asked  me  to  answer  you 
during  this  season.  I  don't  know  what  is  the  matter  at  this  point, 
for  I  have  written  more  than  once  during  this  summer  and  before  the 
season  ends  you  will  receive  more  than  one  letter  from  me,  and  you 
will  even  not  want  to  answer  me  any  more,  for  you  will  certainly  be 
bored  if  I  begin  to  write  too  much.  There  is  no  news  at  all,  every- 
thing is  the  same.  Only  this  is  new,  that  Miss  Nowak  is  married. 
'  The  fellow  is  exceptionally  vain,  but  his  interest  in  public  opinion  is  perfectly 
normal  and  tj^pical  for  his  class.  Its  origin  lies  in  peasant  life,  not  in  to^na  life. 
The  attitude  of  the  girl  is  above  the  normal,  in  this  respect  as  in  others,  and  even 
she  is  later  most  profoundly  affected  by  the  gossip  about  herself. 


PIOTROWSKI  SERIES 


1057 


I  envy  her,  for  they  love  each  other  much.  And  Stefcia  feels  as  happy 
as  if  she  were  in  the  seventh  heaven.  I  was  at  her  wedding,  but  I  did 
not  amuse  myself  very  merrily.  I  did  not  want  to  go  at  all,  .... 
but  it  was  impossible,  for  she  was  dressed  in  my  home  and  she  refused 
to  go  without  me.  I  wanted  to  go  as  a  guest,  but  they  refused  also, 
and  at  last  I  had  to  agree  to  be  a  best  maid.  I  had  a  groom  [best 
man]  for  whom  I  did  not  care  at  all.  It  was  a  certain  Mr.  S.  Well, 
never  mind  how  it  was,  but  he  asked  for  my  hand  even  there,  without 
waiting,  but  1  asked  him  how  old  he  was,  and  I  told  him  that  he  was 
too  young  for  such  things,  let  him  still  grow  to  be  a  comfort  to  his 

mamma 'I  envy  you  very  much,  my  dear,  your  spending  your 

time  there  so  merrily.     Who  knows  whether  I  won't  go  to  you  some 

day 

I  send  you  a  few  kisses. 

Your  loving, 

Hanka 

714  June  30,  1913 

Respected  Sir  :  I  inform  you  that  I  am  now  in  Zagtoba.  Before 
leaving  Rytwiany  I  received  your  letter  with  wishes,  and  at  the  same 
time  a  ribbon,  for  which  I  thank  you  heartily.  From  Rytwiany  I 
sent  you  a  letter.  When  you  receive  it,  please  answer  me.  I  wait 
for  your  answer  in  Rytwiany.  What  is  the  news  with  you  ?  With 
me  nothing.     I  am  healthy,  and  merry  enough  in  Zagloba.^ 

With  respect, 

Hanka 

715  July  20,  1913 

My  dear  Walek:    ....  Forgive  my  postponing  my  answer, 

but  I  am  in  so  strange  a  mood  that  even  today  I  don't  know  how  to 

arrange  the  letter,  what  to  begin  with  and  what  to  end  with  in  the 

writing  of  this  letter.     First  I  must  begin  with  the  beginning.     Well, 

'  The  wedding- festival,  like  all  ceremonies  with  a  religious  source,  has  primi- 
tively not  the  same  meaning  as  non-ceremonial  social  entertainments;  it  does  not 
involve  matchmaking.  To  be  at  a  wedding-festival  is  not  a  matter  of  choice,  but 
to  some  extent  a  matter  of  obligation.  The  only  and  important  exception  concerns 
the  best  men  and  best  maids,  who  are  usually  paired  with  regard  to  a  possible 
marriage.  This  explains  why  Hanka,  in  her  desire  to  be  absolutely  faithful  to 
Walek,  tries  to  avoid  being  a  best  maid,  while  she  cannot  refuse  to  be  at  the  festival. 

^  Postcard;   ceremonial  form. 


1058  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

ni\-  W'alok,  I  won't  describe  it  to  you  so  exactly,  for  I  should  have  to 
write  for  a  whole  week  and  there  is  not  time  enough.  And  I  am  sure 
that  you  know  already  everything,  for  probably  somebody  has  written 
to  you.  First  I  inform  you  tliat  I  was  in  Cracow.  I  should  never 
have  gone,  the  idea  would  not  even  have  come  to  my  head  to  go  to 
Cracow,  were  it  not  for  this,  tiiat  Mrs.  Rog.  went  to  bring  her  daughter 
Stasia  and  they  persuaded  me  and  I  went  with  her.  I  wished  to  see 
whether  it  is  possible  to  live  in  the  farther  world,  not  in  Rytwiany 
only.  Well,  and  it  seems  to  me  that  it  is  better  to  live  anywhere 
than  in  Rytwiany.  On  this  occasion  I  called  on  a  doctor  in  Cracow, 
for  I  caught  cold  in  the  winter,  and  I  did  not  care  for  being  cured; 
I  did  not  believe  in  it.  Then  I  went  to  the  w^edding  of  Staska  N.  and 
I  fixed  myself  better  still  [I  got  worse]  through  dancing,  for  I  had  to 
dance  more  than  the  other  girls.  I  did  not  mind  it  either  until  my 
side  began  to  ache  severely.  Only  then  a  doctor  was  called.  He 
frightened  me  by  saying  there  would  be  inflammation  of  the  lungs, 
and  talked  a  great  deal,  but  gave  me  no  medicine  at  all,  only  some 
powders  and  cupping-glasses.  But  this  helped  little.  So  the  doctor 
in  Cracow,  after  examining  me,  told  me  that  it  was  a  very  [illegible 
word]  cold  and  gave  me  medicines,  and  now  I  am  getting  much  better. 
But  since  I  came  back  whoever  meets  me  asks  why  I  was  in  Cracow. 
When  I  tell  them  that  I  called  on  a  doctor,  they  say  everywhere  that 
I  am  sick  with  consumption.  And  I  don't  say  anything,  for  what  shall 
I  say  to  stupid  people  who  think  that  since  I  went  to  Cracow  there 
can  be  nothing  else  but  consumption  ?  I  only  laugh  at  it  and  say,  let 
them  blame  me,  so  that  no  boy  will  want  to  marry  me.^  I  should  be 
very  glad,  for  I  don't  want  anybody  to  call  on  me  or  to  court  me.  And 
Stasia  Rog.  is  sick  with  a  ner^'ous  disease,  so  everybody  says  already 
that  she  has  gone  mad.  But  she  does  not  even  dream  of  going  mad, 
for  this  needs  some  time,  w^hile  she  is  already  so  bad  that  for  three 
days  she  has  been  in  convulsions.  The  doctors  say  that  if  she  Hves 
until  the  ninth  day,  this  can  pass,  but  if  not,  she  will  die  on  one  of 
these  days.  I  sit  with  her  continually,  for  she  does  not  allow^  anybody 
to  be  with  her  except  me  and  Kazia,  and  she  does  not  want  to  take 
any  medicine  from  anybody  except  me.  I  tell  you,  Walek,  people 
say  that  nobody  has  yet  seen  such  a  disease.     WTien  she  sleeps  she 

'  The  attitude  toward  sickness  seems  to  be  exactly  the  same  as  toward  some 
moral  fault  or  sin  (cf.  Fryzowicz  series).  This  evidently  goes  back  to  the  peasant 
life,  and  still  further  back  to  the  identification  of  sickness  with  possession  by  the 
evil  principle,  of  which  we  find  numerous  traces  in  the  peasant  language  and  magic. 


PIOTROWSKI  SERIES  IO59 

is  quiet,  but  she  sleeps  only  if  they  make  her  sleep  with  powders.  But 
when  she  has  slept  for  these  hours,  she  awakes  and  has  convulsions 
so  constantly  that  three  persons  have  to  hold  her  in  bed.  She  asks 
herself  to  be  held  for  she  would  kill  herself  if  she  hit  her  head.  She  is 
quite  conscious  and  knows  everything.  She  knows  that  her  nerves 
and  heart  torment  her  so,  and  when  anyone  comes  she  asks  him 
to  pray  that  she  may  die  and  suffer  no  longer.  Yesterday,  when 
she  could  still  speak,  she  called  me  and  told  me  everything,  how  she 
wanted  to  be  dressed  for  death  and  how  I  was  to  sew  her  dress.  She 
wants  me  to  do  everything.  Do  you  know,  Walek,  that  I  am  already 
so  afraid  of  her  that  instead  of  going  to  Zagloba  later  I  shall  go  perhaps 
this  week.  I  am  so  tired  with  her  that  I  am  even  afraid  of  her,  for 
she  calls  me  continually,  and  therefore  perhaps  later  she  will  come  to 
me.'  Then  I  inform  you,  my  Walek,  that  Stasia  writes  me  one  letter 
after  another,  asking  me  to  come  to  her  wedding.  The  banns  have 
been  proclaimed  already,  and  the  marriage-ceremony  will  be  on  August 
ID.  My  brother  and  his  wife  write  also,  asking  me  to  come  and  stay 
for  a  longer  time,  and  have  some  vacation.  I  intend  to  go  this  week 
and  will  remain  there  about  a  month.  You  wrote,  my  Walek,  making 
a  supposition  about  falling  in  love.  Well,  you  can  be  perfectly  calm, 
for  I  love  only  you  and  I  am  not  going  there  to  hunt  for  a  husband,  but 
only  to  get  some  rest,  and  to  give  Stasia  the  pleasure  of  being  at  her 
wedding.  I  will  not  dance  much,  for  mother  wrote  already  to  my 
brother  to  take  care  of  me  and  not  let  me  amuse  myself  too  wildly  and 
catch  cold  again.  So  even  if  I  wished  it  they  won't  allow  me.  I 
foresee  that  you  will  be  offended,  dear  W.,  with  my  going  to  this 
wedding,  but  you  see  that  I  cannot  excuse  myself.  If  I  had  not  my 
brother's  home  there  I  would  not  go,  but  since  they  write  also,  why 
should  I  not,  if  they  give  me  to  eat  ? 

I  am  sure,  my  Walek,  that  you  won't  be  satisfied  with  this  letter, 
for  I  only  worry  you.  But  I  must  describe  to  you  what  pains  me  the 
most.  It  is  this,  dear  Walek,  that  you  could  believe  some  finished 
[absolute]  fool  about  my  having  walked  with  Kawal.  and  Kacz.! 
I  don't  say  that  I  am  above  them,  but  I  tell  you,  my  Walek,  that  no 
friendship  unites  me  with  these  boys.  I  have  never  in  my  life  spoken 
with  Kawal.  and  I  am  not  acquainted  with  him  at  all.     As  to  Kacz., 

'  After  her  death,  as  a  ghost,  because  in  her  last  moments  she  has  been  particu- 
larly attached  to  Hanka,  and  because  this  attachment  itself  in  a  person  sick  witli 
such  a  strange  disease  must  have  had  some  abnormal,  "uncanny"  character. 


Io6o  PRIMARY-CROUP  ORGANIZATION 

oiuo  ho  was  in  our  house  in  the  winter  with  your  brother,  and  they 
aceompanied  the  girls  who  sew^  with  me.  Since  then  I  have  not 
spoken  with  him  at  all.  I  only  want  to  know  who  wrote  you  this 
tale.  I  would  not  treat  him  very  politely,  for  it  disparages  me  greatly 
when  it  is  said  that  a  band  of  boys  is  walking  after  me  and  moreover 
throwing  dirty  words.  Really,  Walek,  I  cannot  live  through  it.  I  am 
in  such  a  mood  that  sometimes  I  rage  with  anger,  sometimes  again 
cry.  How  can  people  speak  badly  about  me  when  nobody  ever  sees 
mo  ?  ....  If  I  am  so  lightly  treated  in  Rytwiany,  I  ought  not  to 
live  at  all,  for  why  should  I?  If  a  poor  girl  loses  her  opinion  [good 
name]  it  is  almost  as  much  as  if  she  killed  herself.'  .... 

I  kiss  you.  Hanka 

I  have  not  seen  your  mother,  but  my  parents  and  yours  were 
together  at  a  fair  and  treated  themselves  so  well  that  my  father  got 
quite  drunk. 

"716  September  10  [1913] 

My  dear  Walek:  I  will  mention  first  your  preceding  letter  in 
which  you  sent  me  a  ribbon.     I  thank  you  for  it  heartily,  my  Walek. 

'  It  is  an  interesting  problem  whether  the  origin  of  the  enormous  importance 
which  any  bad  gossip  assumes  in  the  eyes  of  the  person  gossiped  about  does  not  lie 
in  the  primitive  magical  belief  in  the  real  influence  of  words.  We  have  an  analogy  in 
the  importance  ascribed  to  the  curse.  The  expression  of  any  bad  wish  provokes 
the  utmost  wrath,  and  bad  gossip  seems  to  be  (in  addition  to  its  ordinary  social 
meaning)  a  weaker  and  less  explicit  form  of  the  curse.  This  supposition  seems  to 
be  corroborated  by  two  facts.  First,  there  is  always  an  apparent  disproportion 
between  the  content  of  the  gossip  and  the  reaction  which  it  provokes  in  the  WTonged 
person.  Even  if  we  take  into  account  the  fear  of  ridicule  which  makes  the  sting 
of  trifling  gossip  particularly  sharp,  there  remains  the  fact  that  the  reaction  is 
always  too  strong  if  judged  from  the  objective  standpoint.  The  most  vain- 
glorious man  of  the  intelligent  class  will  hardly  react  to  a  bit  of  gossip  which  would 
exasperate  a  not  at  all  conceited  peasant.  Again,  some  old  proverbs  and  customary' 
sayings,  show  a  tendency  to  neutralize  the  magical  influence  of  bad  words  by  deny- 
ing them  any  meaning,  by  treating  them  as  mere  noise,  likening  them  to  the  blowing 
of  the  wind,  by  assimilating  them  to  the  voices  of  animals  of  good  omen  (the  dog, 
the  magpie),  and  by  denying  that  they  can  reach  heaven  or  God — just  as  a  curse 
is  neutralized.  Evidently  this  neutralization  is  quite  different  from  a  negation  of 
the  fact  itself  stated  in  the  gossip. 

All  this  does  not  mean  that  the  reaction  toward  gossip  is  not  now  mainly  de- 
termined by  the  purely  social  attitude,  only  that  this  social  attitude  may  have 
been  preceded  by  a  more  primitive  magical  one  and  that  the  traces  of  this  magical 
attitude  linger  still  unconsciously  behind  the  explicit  desire  for  social  appreciation. 


PIOTROWSKI  SERIES  Io6i 

Really  I  have  not  words  enough  to  thank,  for  it  is  very  nice.  I  wished 
to  take  it  for  my  hat,  but  mother  did  not  allow  me;  she  told  me  to 
keep  it  as  a  token,  and  so  I  did.  My  Walek,  really  I  don't  know  any 
other  way  to  thank  you,  but  when  you  come,  you  can  ask  for  some- 
thing [kisses].     Is  it  all  right  ? 

Then,  you  write,  dear  Walek,  about  some  boys  of  Zagloba,  who 
are  absolutely  indifferent  to  me.  First,  G.  married  during  the 
carnival.  He  got  a  woman  like  a  cacko  [originally  child's  toy;  now 
any  small  elegant  article],  so  evidently  I  could  not  flirt  with  him  for 
his  wife  would  have  seen  it  at  once.  It  was  at  his  wedding  that 
Stacha  got  acquainted  with  her  husband,  or  rather  she  did  not  get 
acquainted,  for  they  have  known  each  other  since  last  year,  but  fell 
in  love  with  him.  I  don't  know  how  true  it  is,  but  she  told  me  that 
they  loved  each  other  very  much.  He  is  30  years  old.  Believe  me, 
Walek,  that  notwithstanding  everything  about  him,  notwithstanding 
he  is  quite  well  to  do  and  rather  fine  looking,  yet  his  character  and 
his  whole  behavior  don't  please  me  at  all.  It  must  be  a  courageous 
woman  to  risk  marrying  him.  Well,  but  they  have  Uke  characters 
and  she  is  also  energetic  and  will  not  let  herself  be  too  much  subjected. 
Well,  it  will  be  as  it  will  be.  Now  they  love  each  other  and  before 
the  wedding  they  loved  each  other  also.  When  Stacha  related  it  to 
me,  I  only  listened  and  learned  from  her.  I  wondered  whence  such 
an  innocent  being  got  so  much  boldness  and  experience.  Well,  and 
soon.  The  festival  was  very  large,  all  the  workmen  and  employees 
were  there,  and  at  the  marriage-ceremony  also,  and  they  amused 
themselves  during  the  whole  night.  Some  of  them  were  with  their 
wives,  and  the  bachelors  flirted  on  a  very  large  scale  with  whomever 
they  could.  When  I  dressed  Stacha  in  her  wedding-dress,  she  was 
so  wonderfully  beautiful,  that  I  had  to  say,  "If  Mr.  Walenty  saw  you 
now,  I  don't  know  what  would  happen."  I  teased  her  as  much  as  I 
could,  for  why  did  she  write  to  you  since  she  had  a  betrothed?  I 
minded  it  very  much.  Moreover  she  received  from  you  a  card  with 
[wedding]  wishes  which  I  stole  from  her.  I  have  it  now.  Perhaps 
some  day  I  will  adapt  a  similar  one  [to  the  occasion]  and  send  it  to  you. 

Walek,  my  dear!  You  write  me  so  much  about  this  Zagloba.  It 
is  true  that  I  wrote  you  that  I  felt  very  gay.  Tell  me,  if  I  had  written 
as  soon  as  I  got  there  that  I  was  sad  you  would  have  said,  "If  she 
was  going  to  be  worried,  she  would  not  have  gone."  Is  it  not  true  ? 
So  at  first,  in  the  circle  of  my  family  who  love  me  so  much,  I  felt  gay, 


lO()j  rRI.MARV-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

hut  m\-  thou{^hts  arc  always  directed  to  the  place  where  you  are, 
my  W.  But  what  could  I  write  upon  a  card?  Moreover,  my 
sister-in-law  could  not  live  witliout  my  giving  her  to  read  what  I 
write  to  anybody.  Therefore  I  did  not  write  a  letter  to  you,  for  as 
soon  as  I  hoi^'an  to  write  she  read  it.  Well,  what  could  I  do  ?  I  did 
not  want  to  olTond  her,  but  I  don't  want  them  to  know  either  what  I 
write  to  an\bod}-,  for  then  she  would  laugh  at  me  and  remind  me 
alwa}-s  of  what  I  wrote. 

As  to  nice  boys  whom  you  mentioned,  they  were  numberless! 
Xke  boys  flirted  with  nice  girls,  while  I  behaved  as  usual.  I  must 
boast  that  if  you  come  you  won't  know  me,  I  have  grown  so  very 
serious.  I  was  left  behind  all  the  others.  I  even  avoided  the  honor 
of  being  the  older  [first]  "  best  girl, "  but  was  the  younger  [second]  one. 
I  did  not  want  to  have  a  "best  man"  [accompanying  me],  but  to  be 
only  a  guest.  Well,  I  succeeded  in  the  house,  but  not  in  the  church, 
for  one  of  these  "nice"  boys  came  to  me  and  said  that  the  whole 
wedding  group  would  not  allow  me,  dressed  in  wedding-clothes,  not 
to  belong  to  them.  So  I  had  him  as  a  "best  man."  This  man  is  the 
second  engineer,  a  friend  of  Stacha's  husband.  But  I  did  not  amuse 
myself  much,  although  it  only  depended  upon  myself.  Whenever 
I  could  I  ran  home  for  awhile,  and  on  the  second  night  I  slept,  while 
everybody  danced  till  7  o'clock  in  the  morning.  It  was  no  novelty 
for  me ;  have  I  been  at  few  weddings  ?  So  it  was  enough  for  me  to 
have  been  there  [for  a  relatively  short  time],  because  now  no  parties 
amuse  me  any  more,  they  only  annoy  me. 

I  will  tell  you  about  your  photographs  also.  I  asked  Stacha  to 
give  them  to  me,  but  she  said  that  she  wouldn't  give  them  up  at  all, 
and  she  did  not.  She  keeps  them  hidden.  And  I  will  write  you  this 
also,  that  Stacha's  husband,  ten  days  after  the  wedding,  went  to 
[mihtary]  drill  for  6  weeks  [as  a  reservist],  and  she  went  to  him  once, 
for  it  was  not  far  away,  in  Pulawy.  She  stayed  there  for  3  days  in  a 
hotel.  She  did  not  want  to  go,  but  the  old  people  [parents]  drove 
her  out.' 

I  remain,  your  truly  loving, 

Hanka 

'  Hanka  has  apparently  throughout  no  reservations  and  no  subtlety  of  calcu- 
lation. Otherwise  she  would  have  recognized  that  this  information  would  turn 
Walek's  head  again  toward  Stasia. 


PIOTROWSKI  SERIES  I063 

717  October  8,  1913 
Dear  Walek:  I  inform  you  that  I  received  your  card  for  which — 

for  which  I  thank  you  heartily,  and  ....  and  [kiss  you].  My  dear 
Walek!  I  should  really  prefer  if  you  came.  Then  I  could  explain 
[express]  myself  once,  and  I  think  that  you  would  believe  in  my 
feelings,  while  as  it  is,  notwithstanding  my  effusions,  you  always 
imagine  something,  that  I  betray  you,  and  you  always  suspect  me. 
The  same  about  that  card  I  sent  you  from  Zagloba.  I  could  not  have 
written  otherwise,  for  Stacha  was  there,  and  I  would  not  let  her  know 
what  relations  our  correspondence  includes,  for  I  told  her  always 
that  nothing  but  friendship  unites  us,  and  therefore  I  did  not  wish  to 
betray  myself.  And  even  if  I  had  confessed,  what  could  I  boast  of, 
unless  something  of  which  I  am  not  sure  ?  Even  if  I  had  told  her  that 
I  "love"  you,  she  would  surely  have  asked  me,  "And  does  he  recip- 
rocate ?  "    What  could  I  have  answered  her,  since  I  don't  know  myself  ? 

For  in  truth,  my  Walek,  you  must  agree  with  me  that — I  don't  say 
now,  but  formerly — when  you  were  still  in  Rytwiany,  certainly  not 
the  smallest  spark  of  love  for  me  glowed  in  your  heart.  I  say  it  from 
my  own  conviction.  When  I  could  suffer  no  more,  I  resolved  to 
confess  to  you  what  had  tormented  me  for  so  long  a  time.  Well,  and 
probably  from  pity,  you  have  tried  to  reciprocate.  I  love  you  madly 
for  it,  for  not  having  trampled  my  feelings,  for  having  a  little  pity  on 
me.  And  I  will  write  you  something  more;  I  hope  that  you  will  not 
be  offended  with  me,  as  once  with  Stacha,  do  you  remember  ?  Well, 
long  ago  I  wanted  to  ask  you,  my  Walek,  but  I  had  no  courage  to  do  it 
sooner.     When  do  you  think  of  coming  back  to  our  country  ? 

You  want  me,  dear  Walek,  to  tell  you  something  about  Zagloba. 
[News  without  importance.]  I  don't  know  what  more  to  write.  If 
you  come  some  day,  I  will  perhaps  tell  you  something  fresh,  for  now  in 
Rytwiany  I  don't  see  anything  worth  communicating.  The  eyes 
ache  to  look  at  this  stupidity,  therefore  I  don't  go  for  any  walks,  but 
I  sit  of  evenings  and  read.      Even  so  I  hear  enough  of  this  gaiety 

through  the  window.     I  wait  for  an  answer. 

Your  loving, 

Hanka 

718  April  22  [1915] 
Influential  [Wielmozny]  Sir:  Wishing  to  satisfy  your  desire,  I 

hasten  to  express  my  feelings 


Io64  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

Miss  Anna  [Haiika]  was  an  ideal  girl.  She  loved  me  madly,  but 
she  was  not  loft  wiUiout  reciprocity  on  my  part.  I  loved  her  with  my 
whole  heart.  She  was  for  me  a  balm,  healing  the  wounds  of  my  heart. 
In  a  word,  she  was  everything  to  me. 

Miss  Anna  had  an  unbowed  character.  She  surmounted  every- 
thing, she  knew  how  to  provide  against  everything,  and  therefore  I 
loved  her.  She  was  given  up  to  me  with  her  whole  heart  and  soul, 
but  during  all  this  time  I  never  provoked  a  blush  upon  her  pretty  face, 
I  never  tried  to  do  it. 

As  to  proposing,  you  know  that  it  is  a  big  question!  Without 
having  a  position  suitable  to  give  one's  wife  a  more  or  less  good 
support  it  would  be  useless  to  propose.  And  in  spite  of  all,  I  have 
parents  far  advanced  in  years,  and  I  must  endeavor  to  help  them  in 
their  old  age  and  to  assure  existence  for  myself.  I  am  not  so  many 
vears  old,  and  she  was  also  young,  so  we  could  come  to  an  under- 
standing, for  she  felt  instinctively  that  I  loved  her,  that  I  would  not 
leave  her,  and  everything  would  come  in  right  time! 

And  now  I  must  mention  that  I  have  a  companion  with  whom  I 
Uved  in  one  and  the  same  idea  and  one  aspiration.  He  had  also  Miss 
Anna  in  his  eye,  but  as  he  came  from  a  richer  family  and  had  a  higher 
instruction  than  I,  she  had  in  mind  that  it  would  not  be  an  equal  love, 
and  she  kept  far  from  him.     Her  maxim  was  to  have  a  husband  of 

her  own  social  position And  I  .  .  .  .  have  temperance  and 

hmited  myseh  always  to  words,  personally  or  in  correspondence,  for 
I  knew  and  I  know  that  whatever  was  for  me  was  not  for  anybody  else. 
J  was  always  sure  of  myself. 

But,  alas!  The  beginning  is  gay,  but  the  end  is  sad.  For  on 
February  13,  1914,  my  dearest  being  bade  farewell  to  this  world  and 
evidently  to  me  also.  The  news  about  the  death  of  ]Miss  Anna  made 
upon  me  the  impression  of  a  thunderstroke.  I  lost  everything, 
nothing  is  left  for  me.     I  am  now  alone. 

You  can  see  also  from  these  letters  which  I  send  you  now  how  my 
companions  write  to  me,  how  they  express  themselves  about  Miss 
Anna  and  how  they  regret  her,  how  they  persuade  me  not  to  grieve. 
But  all  this  is  because  of  that  "tomorrow"  [probable  meaning: 
"because  I  left  the  country  under  the  influence  of  social  ideals"]. 
I  felt  particularly  bound  by  the  lack  of  [liberty  of]  "word,"  I  aspired 
for  a  "free"  word,  and  therefore  I  left  my  native  country.  But  I 
felt  deeply  this  American  loneUness. 


PIOTROWSKI  SERIES  1065 

As  to  Miss  Stanislawa,  I  did  not  know  her  until  she  came  on 
vacation  to  Miss  Anna.  She  was  then  15  years  old,  she  had  a  higher 
instruction,  was  of  well-to-do  parents,  so  I  did  not  court  her  much, 
for  I  feared  I  might  be  mistaken.  When  after  going  back  to  her 
parents  she  wrote  a  letter  to  me  first,  I  reciprocated,  and  later  I  came 
to  the  conclusion  that  Miss  Stanislawa  was  in  love  with  me.  Then  I 
doubled  my  affection  toward  her  [probably:  "the  expressions  of  my 
affection"],  but  she  was  so  naive  in  matters  of  love  that  she  simply 
obtruded  her  person  upon  me;  she  wanted  me  absolutely  to  marry  her. 
And  as  I  had  a  companion  whom  I  also  loved,  knowing  well  that  he 
had  a  feeling  for  Miss  Anna,  I  was  ready  to  yield  to  him  and  to  give 
my  heart  to  Miss  Stanislawa.  Once  I  received  from  her  a  letter  with 
the  question  whether  I  hved  still  in  "celibacy"  and  what  I  was 
thinking,  for  she  feared  to  remain  an  old  maid.  To  this  question  I 
remained  deaf  and  cold-blooded. 

Then,  I  had  her  picture  and  she  had  not  mine,  so  for  some  time 
she  urged  me  to  send  her  my  photograph.  As  I  could  not  dissuade 
her,  I  satisfied  her  wish  a  few  days  before  her  marriage  (without 
knowing  it).  And  when  Miss  Anna  went  to  Miss  Stanislawa's 
wedding  and  wanted  to  take  my  photograph.  Miss  St.  answered  her 
that  nothing  was  yet  lost,  "for  he  can  still  become  mine."  .... 
Thus  our  correspondence  finished.  Now  she  lives  with  her  husband 
well  enough,  but  she  has  me  still  in  her  heart,  for  I  received  a  post- 
card from  her  and  I  know  that  she  has  something  in  her  mind.  But 
I  remain  deaf  to  it.  Certainly  you  will  agree  that  she  was  too  naive. 
She  sacrificed  more  time  to  reflecting  about  love  than  to  widening  the 
experience  of  her  life! 

You  want  to  know,  respected  sir,  my  opinion,  how  America 
influences  the  Polish  girls.  You  may  be  sure,  not  positively,  but  a 
hundred  times  negatively.  I  have  observed  it  and  I  observe  it  still 
enough  to  get  acquainted  with  the  life  of  the  Polish  girls  in  America, 
but  I  have  not  yet  had  the  luck  to  meet  in  America  a  girl  who  would 
be  even  an  imitation  of  those  girls  whom  I  knew  in  the  old  country, 
because  few  intelligent  girls  come  from  Europe,  and  even  if  they 
happen  to  come  they  find  at  once  companions  who  impart  to  them 
information  which  will  have  a  very  bad  influence  on  their  future,  and 
they  soon  become  tools  of  demoralization,  and  so  on.  And  I  assure 
you  that  I  won't  marry  any  girl  in  America,  for  it  is  difiicult,  very 
difficult,  to  find  an  ideal  girl.     Every  girl  upon  whom  I  look  has  an 


lo66  TRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

idiotic,  not  at  all  a  lo,<:;ical,  attitude  [sk]\  I  have  not  met  in  America 
a  sini^lc  girl  to  l)e  compared  with  those  in  the  old  country^.  I  feel 
[the  lack  of]  the  pleasant  life  in  the  old  country  as  compared  with 
America,  but  I  hope  that  this  pleasant  life  will  come  back.  Perhaps 
I  shall  merit  that  friends  will  surround  me,  as  formerly.  I  hope  that 
in  the  old  countr}-  I  shall  still  lind  a  companion  by  the  side  of  whom 
I  shall  lead  a  more  pleasant  life  than  now.  I  have  been  already  long 
enough  in  America,  but  I  cannot  fmd,  even  for  a  few  minutes,  the 
pleasure  of  social  conversation  or  flirtation.  I  don't  know  how  it  is  in 
Chicago,  Detroit,  or  other  cities,  but  I  think  that  there  is  no  difference, 
for  I  can  conclude  from  papers  and  understand.  Here  I  finish, 
although  I  could  write  much,  very  much,  more,  but  I  fear  importuning 
you  too  much.  If  you  wish  something  more,  all  right.  I  won't 
remain  deaf  or  lazy.  I  would  ask  you  to  correspond  with  me  from 
time  to  time,  for  it  would  be  a  great  pleasure  for  me,  if  it  is  not  too 
difficult  for  you  and  if  it  does  not  occupy  too  much  of  your  time.  I 
receive  correspondence  from  the  old  country,  written  on  various 
subjects.  I  will  be  able  therefore  to  inform  you,  as  far  as  you  wish. 
I  had  some  other  letters,  very  important  ones,  kept  hidden,  but 
one  of  the  boarders  stole  them.  Why  ?  What  for  ?  I  don't  under- 
stand what  they  mattered  for  him.  I  have  still  over  loo  letters,  but 
they  have  very  little  content  which  could  interest  you,  so  I  do  not 
send  them.  I  have  a  girl  in  the  old  country  with  whom  I  only  began 
to  correspond,  but  now  the  post  functions  so  lazily  that  I  don't  even 
wish  to  write!  .... 

Walenty  Piotrowski 

719  SiCHOW,  December  22,  191 2 

Dear  Walenty:  ....  I  received  your  letter,  but  it  is  rather 
late,  so  that  ....  you  won't  receive  my  answer  until  after  the 
holidays.  But  since  I  write  it  before  the  holidays,  I  wash  you  first 
a  Merry  Christmas,  a  gay  and  pleasant  amusement  in  an  agreeable 
company,  then  health  and  every  good,  hght  work,  big  pay,  and  at 
last  a  big  capital  and  a  pretty  American  girl.  You  asked  me  to  write 
you  how  I  succeed.  Well,  I  succeed  pretty  well.  I  was  already  a  few 
times  in  Warsaw  [as  chauffeur-assistant].  Only,  you  know,  one  be- 
comes so  muddy  and  sometimes  so  cold.  When  we  come  to  Warsaw, 
particularly  if  there  is  rain  and  mud,  people  look  at  us  as  at  fools,  for 
we  are  hardly  to  be  seen  from  behind  the  mud,  our  automobile  is  so 


PIOTROWSKI  SERIES  1067 

spattered.  During  the  holidays  I  shall  be  at  home,  and  afterward  I 
shall  go  to  Warsaw  and  stay  there  during  the  winter  in  an  automobile 
garage,  and  sometime  in  the  spring  I  hope  to  get  a  place  somewhere 
and  to  drive  alone  [probably  as  a  cab-driver].  If  you  write 
[advise]  me  so,  as  soon  as  I  come  to  Warsaw  I  will  try  to  take  lessons 

somewhere  in  German,  or  I  will  learn  alone You  ask  what  is 

the  news  in  Rytwiany.     Well,  nothing  except  that  many  people  have 

left  for  America  since  you  went The  turbine  upon  the  dam  is 

already  working.  In  the  place  of  that  machine  at  which  you  were 
there  is  an  electric  motor,  and  in  general  motors  are  put  in  instead 

of  all  the  machines But  how  silly,  I  am!     Why  do  I  talk 

about  the  turbine  ?  What  do  you  care  there  about  any  turbine  ? 
Well,  but  Hsten.  Going  once  by  this  electric  machine  I  forgot 
entirely  that  I  should  not  meet  you  there,  and  only  when  I  saw  Nowak 

and  some  other  boy  there  with  him,  I  remembered I  ask  you 

also  whether  you  receive  any  correspondence  from  Rytwiany  ?  Ah, 
yes,  from  Miss  G.  [Hanka],  don't  you  ?  .  .  .  . 

Well,  what  more  ?  I  have  nothing  to  write  you  at  this  moment, 
only  I  send  you  greetings  from  my  parents,  my  sister,  and  my  brother- 
in-law. 

Your  loving  and  sincerely  well-wishing  friend, 

Zygmunt 

720  February  10,  1913 

Dear  Walenty:  Having  now  nothing  to  do  because  of  bad  roads, 
I  sit  at  home.  I  am  in  good  health  and  I  wish  to  you  the  same. 
Everything  is  all  right  with  me,  only  I  am  a  little  offended  with  your 
reproaches.  If  I  felt  guilty  I  would  admit  it,  but  since  I  don't  feel 
guilty  of  anything  like  this  it  is  very  painful  to  me.  I  received  3  letters 
and  3  cards  from  you,  and  I  sent  you  also  3  letters  and  one  card,  and 
in  none  I  made  any  such  reproaches  as  you  did.  Is  it  my  fault  that 
you  must  write  first  a  letter  to  me,  and  a  few  days  later,  writing 
another  letter,  you  make  reproaches  already  for  my  not  writing  to  you, 
while  your  first  letter  to  me  was  still  on  the  way  ?  Only  when,  after 
more  than  20  days,  I  received  your  first  letter,  i.e.,  the  one  which  you 
wrote  on  November  25, 1  sent  you  an  answer  which  you  received  in  the 
beginning  of  January.  So  during  this  time  you  wrote  [as  you  say] 
these  6  letters  and  7  cards,  each  full  of  reproaches  about  my  not 
writing,  as  if  I  got  these  letters  in  a  week's  time.     And  now  in  this 


lo68  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

fourth  letter  you  write  tliat  you  have  sent  already  6  letters.     I 

received  only  4  and  3  cards,  and  I  have  sent  you  also  4  letters  and  i 

card,  but  whether  these  letters  follow  one  another  every  week  or  not, 

I  don't  count,     I  know  only  that  I  answer  every  one  of  your  letters. 

So  why  do  you  fly  out,  why  are  you  angry  and  suspect  me  about  things 

of  which  I  don't  feel  guilty?  .... 

Your  companion, 

Zygmunt 

721  January  22,  1913 

Dear  Companion:  [Letters  received  and  written.]  I  am  in  good 
health  and  I  wish  you  the  same  with  my  whole  heart.  Now,  having 
no  other  occupation,  we  drive  beets  from  Lubnice  to  Rytwiany  with 
that  big  automobile  ....  day  and  night.  In  our  factory  there  was 
a  wedding  and  in  Rytwiany  also;  people  amuse  themselves,  profiting 
from  the  short  carnival. 

I  want  to  answer  more  or  less  your  letter.  Well,  being  working 
people,  oppressed  with  exploitation  in  their  fatherland,  harassed  in 
their  native  village  by  the  uncertainty  of  tomorrow,  and  hearing  about 
this  gold-flowing  America  of  their  dreams,  sure  of  an  improvement  of 
their  existence,  they  go  there.  But  what  befalls  them  ?  The  same, 
even  a  still  harder  labor,  sometimes  complete  lack  of  work,  and  then 
again  appears  this  specter  of  uncertainty  of  tomorrow,  harassing  the 
man.  And  such  people,  being  in  such  a  condition,  commit  often 
unheard-of  things;  some  of  them  poison  and  kill  themselves  in  dif- 
ferent ways,  others  attack  and  rob  merchants  and  other  rich  people, 
and  most  often  they  commit  robbery  and  murder  upon  their  own 
working  companions.  Such  people  have  still  an  ineffaceable  animality 
in  themselves.  But  we  young  men,  we  ought  not  to  look  with  cold 
blood  upon  the  wasting  of  our  bloody  labor  by  these  exploiters.  Don't 
think  that  we  alone,  tJie  Poles,  work  hard  and  are  exploited.  How 
many  working  people  are  there  of  English,  or  German,  or  of  other 
nationalities!  They  all  have  tJieir  capitalists,  their  squanderers,  and 
all  this  working  people  constitutes  a  single  invincible  power.  Only 
now  this  working  people  begins  to  know  this  power  which  it  possesses, 
and  by  the  means  of  trade-unions  it  provides  itself  with  capital,  in 
order  to  be  able  to  begin  a  struggle  with  the  exploitation 

Your,  always  the  same,  loving  companion, 

Z. 


PIOTROWSKI  SERIES  1069 

722  Rytwiany,  January  28,  1913 

Dear  Walenty:  Having  learned  about  your  present  situation,  I 
am  very  pained  ....  and  still  more  because  knowing  it  I  cannot 
help  my  dear  companion,  for  I  have  yet  no  steady  work.  I  think  that 
besides  myself  nobody  yet  knows  about  your  situation,  although 
people  know  here  that  you  have  no  work. 

So,  dear  companion,  for  you,  who  think  more  broadly  and  who 
are  in  insecurity  about  tomorrow,  may  this  present  situation  be  for 
you  an  experience  for  the  future.  May  it  be  a  lesson  for  you  that  our 
mortal  enemy  is  capitalism.  May  it  be  at  the  same  time  the  end  of 
such  a  life,  full  of  misfortune,  wandering,  and  misery.  Yes,  dear 
companion,  such  is  the  life  of  us  workers.  But  our  duty  is  not  to 
let  our  hands  drop  impotently,  but  to  make  the  strongest  resistance. 
So,  dear  companion,  accept  these  few  words  of  sympathy,  as  from 

your  true  companion 

Zygmunt 

723  Warsaw,  March  15,  1913 

Dear  Companion:  Let  it  be  so,  for  I  am  sure  that  if  I  had  with 
anybody  else  such  relations  as  with  you  he  certainly  would  not  let  me 
call  him  "  companion."'  And  now,  dear  companion,  I  want  to  answer 
more  or  less  the  series  of  your  letters,  containing  mostly  one  subject, 
to  which  I  have  never  yet  answered  you  according  to  each  letter  in 
particular.  So,  dear  companion,  don't  be  angry  with  the  truest  of 
your  friends  and  don't  give  too  much  importance  to  what  I  will  write 
you  here.  You  will  be  convinced  that  I  am  sincere.  First,  dear 
companion,  you  do  harm  to  yourself  by  this  your — how  shall  I  call  it 
- — this  absent-minded  behavior.  For  in  writing  a  letter  you  are  made 
nervous  and  distracted  by  my  half-sympathetic,  half-cold  letters. 
You  think  probably:  " I  love  you,  I  long  for  you  and  write  it  to  you  so 
often,  while  you  put  me  off  in  any  way  with  evasive  letters.  It  is  true 
that  I  have  your  word,  which  I  drew  from  you  once  near  the  machine 
during  pleasant  talks,  but  a  long  bit  of  time  has  flown  since  then  and 
I  want  to  know  with  certainty,  I  want  you  to  love  me  surely."  Don't 
you  think  so  ?  Well,  and  I,  when  I  received  your  first  letter — I  confess 
that  it  was  sincerely  awaited — after  reading  it  I  felt  such  a  sym- 
pathy that  if  I  could  I  would  have  flown  to  you  with  an  aeroplane. 

'  This  refers  probably  to  the  fact  that  Walenty  is  older  and  was  his  superior  in 
work. 


I070  PRT^r ARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

But  alas!  I  am  a  poor  man  who  knows  nothing,  so  I  hastened  at 
least  to  comfort  you  by  written  words.  Meanwhile  a  second  letter 
comes,  then  a  card,  then  a  third  letter,  then  two  more  cards,  and  all 
these  on  one  subject:  "  You  don't  write,  and  I  love  you."  I  give  you 
my  word  that  at  last  I  was  even  angry,  for  when  I  sent  you  the  answer 
after  receiving  your  first  letter,  before  this  first  letter  reached  you  I  had 
already  3  letters  and  some  cards,  all  of  them  full  of  reproaches  about 
my  not  writing.  Who  will  not  agree  with  me  that  even  enchanted 
lovers  would  be  angry  ?  So  you  see  what  results  from  too  frequent 
writing.  And  now  let  us  come  back  to  this  loving.  I  tell  you  sin- 
cerely, when  I  read  that  letter  in  which  you  wrote  that  you  would 
put  all  the  crowns  of  the  world  at  my  feet,  I  threw  the  letter  away  and 
did  not  read  further.  I  thought:  "How  is  it  possible  to  write  any- 
thing hke  this  ?"  But  after  reading  all  that  letter  and  reflecting,  I 
forgive  you,  for  I  let  myself  often  be  transported  also  by  feeling,  but 
mostly  I  prevail  over  such  feehngs.  So  you  see,  dear  companion,  after 
this  sharp  letter,  and  you  understand  it  very  well;  you  know  even 
already  my  idea,  for  I  want  you  to  know  it;  by  the  power  of  my  will 
I  want  you  to  understand  my  idea.'  And  precisely  by  it  you  see  that 
I  am  various  [in  variable  moods  ?]  and  why  I  am  various  I  will  describe 
to  you  in  another  letter  which  I  will  send  you  within  a  short  time  after 
this  one.  So,  dear  companion,  let  it  be  the  first  letter  of  our  real, 
progressive  correspondence,  for  this  past  correspondence  was  some 
strain  which  must  have  broken  in  a  short  time.  I  finish  this  letter,  for 
I  have  no  place  to  write  more,  but  even  so  you  will  have  much  to  think 
over,  although  it  is  so  short. 

Your  {variouslyY  loving  and  true  companion  and  friend, 

Zygmunt 
'  The  sense  is  clear.  Zj-gmunt  understands  the  background  of  the  other's 
"love-letters"  and  wants  him  to  understand  that  those  feelings  should  be  sup- 
pressed. He  confesses  having  had  them  himself  in  a  slight  degree.  All  this, 
nevertheless,  should  not  be  taken  too  radically;  most  certainly  there  has  never 
been  an  actual  homosexual  relation,  and  Zygmunt  does  not  allude  to  the  possibility 
of  such  a  relation,  but  merely  to  the  type  of  feelings  of  the  other  man.  Probably 
the  reason  of  his  condemning  and  controlling  those  feeUngs  is  much  more  their 
efifeminating  influence  and  the  weakening  of  the  power  of  will  which  they  cause 
and  denote  than  any  moral  judgment  of  the  homosexual  relation  to  which  they  may 
lead  and  which  is  probably  not  even  explicitly  thought  of. 

'  "Variously"  here,  as  well  as  above,  may  mean  either  that  his  feelings  are 
not  yet  quite  determined,  that  sometknes  he  yields  to  the  sentimental  friend- 
ship, sometimes  again  feels  more  manly  and  intellectual;  or  that  he  is  ready  to  be 
Walenty's  friend  only  in  so  far  as  the  sentimental  affection  is  excluded.  As  he 
never  wrote  the  promised  explanatory  letter,  we  do  not  know  which  interpretation 
is  the  true  one. 


PIOTROWSKI  SERIES  1071 

724  March  17,  1913 

Dear  Companion:  I  ask  you  whether  you  received  my  letter  of 
March  15.  This  letter  is  very  important,  although  not  finished  yet, 
so  if  you  receive  it  inform  me  at  once,  and  I  will  send  you  the  con- 
tinuation of  this  letter,  and  if  you  don't  receive  it  try  to  get  it,  for 
it  won't  be  withheld  at  the  post,  as  it  is  well  addressed  and  has  a 
stamp.  You  won't  receive  any  news  from  me  until  you  inform  me 
that  you  received  the  letter  of  March  15.  They  wrote  me  from  home 
that  you  have  sent  me  a  view  of  a  drowning  ship  [evidently  symbolic], 
but  they  did  not  send  it  to  me,  they  sent  me  only  2  of  your  letters  and 
a  card.  Remember  about  this  letter,  for  it  is  very  important.  I 
compose  already  the  continuation.  Zygmtjnt 

725  Rytwiany,  April  21,  1913 

Dear  Companion:  ....  I  will  write  you  about  one  question 
which  is  worth  being  considered  by  you.  Don't  hinder  your  brother 
from  going  to  America,  for  in  this  way  you  will  be  the  cause  of  his  bad 
future.  You  have  no  idea  how  many  people  went  to  America  and  are 
going  still.  If  you  don't  take  him,  he  will  remain  almost  alone  in 
Rytwiany,  for  all  his  companions  will  leave  soon.  You  ought  to  take 
him,  if  it  were  only  for  this  reason,  that  so  many  people  go  to  America 
this  spring  and  everybody  gets  work,  even  not  bad  work,  so  he  would 
not  perish  either.  I  don't  know  whether  it  is  true,  whether  you  know 
really  all  the  cities  and  even  all  the  localities  of  North  America  or  you 
only  write  so.  Please  don't  be  angry,  but  it  is  only  my  conclusion 
from  the  letters  which  you  write  me,  criticizing  America  in  every 
regard.'  You  ask  me  whether  Stach  [a  common  friend  who  is  in 
America]  is  working  or  not.  My  word!  I  am  really  ashamed  of  you 
both;  being  so  near  to  one  another,  in  comparison  with  the  distance 
which  separates  me  from  you,  you  want  me  to  inform  you  about  each 
other !  Really,  something  extraordinary  must  have  happened  between 
you,  since  you  are  so  angry  that  you  do  not  even  write  to  each  other.  ^ 
....  And  now  I  inform  you  that  Miss  G.  [Hanka],  according  to  your 
wish,  saw  me,  but  I  don't  understand  what  for ^  I  resent  your 

'  Another  example  of  the  difference  between  the  impressionable,  sentimental, 
and  unreflective  character  of  Walenty  and  the  more  intellectual  and  equilibrated 
nature  of  Zygmunt. 

*  Probably  some  petty  quarrel,  easily  leading  to  the  breaking  of  relations  with 
natures  such  as  Walenty's. 

3  Apparently  connected  with  Hanka's  conscientious  effort  to  report  to  Walenty 
the  opinions  current  about  him. 


I072 


PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 


absence  in  different  respects,  particularly  now  in  one,  i.e.,  that  I  am 
livifing  awfully  after  girls.  If  you  were  here  you  would  certainly 
dissuade  me  from  it.'  You  ask  me  to  send  you  my  photograph. 
What  can  I  do,  if  I  have  no  money  to  have  myself  photographed  ? 
This  is  one  [reason],  and  the  second  is  that  I  have  more  important 
things  to  buy  [books  ?]  than  to  .spend  money  on  photographs.  Excuse 
mc  for  expressing  myself  in  so  hard  a  way,  but  man  is  often  obliged  to 
accept  even  the  most  painful  things.^  Your  brother  told  me  that  you 
intended  to  send  him  photographs.  Be  so  kind  and  put  in  one  for  me. 
And  he  told  me  that  you  have  sent  already  $50,  i.e.,  100  roubles.  This 
made  me  reflect,  and  I  was  pained,  for  you  write  such  monotonous 
letters  and  never  even  mention  what  you  do,  what  work  you  have,  how 
much  you  earn.  You  omit  the  things  which  are  the  most  important 
at  the  present  time. 

Always  the  same,  your  loving  companion, 

Zygmunt 
But  there  are  moments  wheji  he  is  different. 

726  May  14,  1913 

Dear  Companion:  Since  Easter  I  have  had  no  news  from  you.^ 
I  waited  for  a  long  time  for  an  answer  to  my  last  letter  from  Warsaw, 
written  rather  at  length.  Evidently  it  did  not  reach  you.  For  two 
weeks  already  I  have  waited  for  your  wishes  [for  my  name-day]. 
But  you  could  not  guess  what  news  I  will  give  you.  Well,  you  see, 
I  intend  to  go  to  America,  evidently  not  immediately,  but  after  some 
time,  when  I  get  more  exact  information  with  regard  to  this.  During 
this  time  could  you  try  to  get  for  me,  if  possible,  work  in  some  auto- 
mobile factory  ? 

Zygmunt 

727  Warsaw,  May  29,  1913 

Dear  Coiip anion:  I  beg  your  pardon  very  much  for  not  having 
informed  you  about  anything.     It  was  because  of  different  reasons 

'  The  homosexual  background  of  the  friendship  is  evidently  strong  in  Walenty, 
but  this  passage  probably  means  no  more  than  that  th«  sentimental  friendship  of 
the  two  men  would  exclude  other  sentimental  relations. 

^  Knowing  the  importance  of  the  photograph  in  the  psychology  of  the  peasant 
and  the  working  man,  this  is  an  indication  of  the  degree  to  which  Zygmunt  is 
emancipated  from  the  traditions  of  his  class. 

3  The  effect  of  letter  723,  which  evidently  offended  Walenty. 


PIOTROWSKI  SERIES  1073 

which  happened  during  my  stay  in  Rytwiany.  So  you  see,  dear 
companion,  what  this  feverish  correspondence  can  lead  to.  You 
always  suspect  me  of  such  stupid  things,  about  which  you  ought  not 
even  to  write  me,  and  you  always  write  one  and  the  same,  as  if  it  were 
my  duty  to  listen  to  it  and  to  answer  you  correspondingly.  If  you 
feel  the  need  of  unbosoming  your  ailments  before  someone  first  reflect 
whether  it  is  possible  [suitable]  to  unbosom  them  before  anybody. 
But  I  see  that  you  don't  reflect  at  all  about  anything,  but  if  something 
does  not  please  you,  then  in  your  opinion  it  is  bad,  but  only  in  your 
opinion,  you  may  be  sure.  But  in  answer  to  these  complaints  I 
advise  you  to  get  acquainted  as  well  as  you  can  with  the  actual  prob- 
lems and  institutions,  and  in  general  to  read  scientific  works.  Advice 
like  this  has  been  given  to  me,  and  I  give  it  to  you. 

Now  I  am  in  Warsaw  and  I  work  in  a  garage.     I  earn  50  copecks 

a  day,  and  the  Prince  gives  me  lodging And  if  you  analyze  the 

whole  thing  you  won't  wonder  if  I  tell  you  that  in  the  beginning  of  my 
work  I  had  an  impression  under  the  influence  of  which  I  did  not  want 
to  live  upon  the  world.  But  it  was  only  the  first  moment,  and  after 
considering  the  matter  everything  got  changed  and  everything  goes 
on  well  enough,  only  I  have  a  very  long  distance  to  go  to  the  work. 
....  I  don't  know  whether  you  received  the  postcard  in  which  I 
asked  you  to  try  to  get  some  work  for  me  in  America.  But  I  beg  your 
pardon  now,  for  I  must  still  remain  for  some  time  in  Warsaw.  Write 
me  whether  you  will  take  your  brother  to  America  or  not.  You  have 
sent  your  photographs  home  and  to  Miss  G.  [Hanka],  while  I  asked 

you  and  you  don't  send  any. 

Your  loving  [companion], 

Zygmunt 

728  June  I,  1913 

Dear  Companion:  I  received  a  letter  from  you  sent  to  Rytwiany, 
so  I  answer  you  at  least  on  a  simple  postcard,  for  not  long  ago  I  sent 
you  a  letter.  As  to  this  that  you  write,  that  American  life  is  not 
agreeable  to  you,  it  is  to  be  seen  even  on  your  photograph  that  you  Ue, 
for  you  look  even  better  than  you  did  in  our  country.  Finally,  why 
should  we  complain  to  one  another  about  our  troubles?  We  are 
young,  so  we  ought  to  try  to  get  on  the  best  possible,  for  what  will  be 
later,  when  we  grow  older  if  we  complain  now  when  we  are  young  ? 
You  write  me  that  I  may  know  how  you  are  living.     But  if  I  write 


I074  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

\-ou  how  I  am  li\iiij,'  >ou  will  surely  say  that  you  are  better  off  in 
America  than  I  am  in  Warsaw.  Certainly,  I  earn  enough  to  live 
[to  boartl],  I  have  a  place  to  lodge.  Well,  but  I  need  clothes,  and  I 
won't  give  myself  totally  up  to  this  work  alone;  I  want  to  study,  and 
nobcHly  will  give  me  books  gratis.  I  won't  sit  [at  home  ?]  like  a  man 
who  knows  neither  how  to  write  nor  how  to  read.  Well,  and  then  I 
must  change  my  heart  into  a  stone  and  write:  "Dear  parents,  send 
me  money,"  while  I  know  that  it  is  my  duty  and  it  is  time  for  me  to 

help  my  parents,  instead So  don't  be  angry,  dear  companion, 

if  I  teased  you  sometimes,  for  \ou  know  what  it  means  to  be  forced 
against  one's  [will].  Let  us  then  stop  mutual  complaints,  for  it  does 
not  suit  us.  Instead  of  writing  bad  things  only,  rather  let  us  inform 
one  another  about  good  ones.     Describe  to  me  this  theater  in  which 

you  played  a  part 

Zygmunt 

729  August  8,  1913 

Dear  Companion:  I  beg  your  pardon  very  much  for  having 
offended  you  during  these  last  times  in  writing  you  nothing,  but 
excuse  me,  for  I  don't  depend  yet  upon  myself,  but  I  must  still  be 
subject  to  these  stupid  laws  and  absurd  institutions  for  some  time, 
because  I  am  in  training.  I  should  wish  nobody  to  be  in  training  in 
such  conditions  as  I  find  myself  at  present.  It  would  need  much 
writing  if  I  wished  to  describe  all  this,  while  I,  my  dear  Walek,  have 
as  little  time  as  you  can  ever  imagine.  Some  day  w'hen  we  meet  we 
shall  relate  to  each  other  the  impressions  and  troubles  experienced 
during  this  time.  And  now  we  ought  not  to  let  our  hands  fall  impo- 
tently,  commending  ourselves  to  destiny,  we  ought  not  to  lose  hope, 
and  w^e  ought  to  keep  a  strong  will,  for  if  we  lose  all  this  and  doubt 
everything,  then  it  wall  be  stiU  worse.  We  must  think  that  we  are 
not  alone  in  bad  conditions.  How  many  people  suffer  a  hundred 
times  worse  than  we  do,  and  nevertheless  there  are  many  among  them 
who  defend  themselves  with  energy  against  this  bad  lot.  Should  we, 
young  men,  ever  doubt  about  carrying  out  our  plans  ?  No,  we  have 
never  doubted  and  won't  doubt  that  youth  is  strength,  the  more  so 
if  it  is  organized  and  unified;  then  it  is  a  power  which  yields  before 
nothing. 

And  now,  dear  companion,  I  shall  at  last  describe  to  you  my  con- 
ditions, how  I  spend  my  time  and  what  company  I  have.     As  you 


PIOTROWSKI  SERIES 


1075 


know  already,  when  we  were  still  in  Rytwiany  we  all  three  wrote,  I, 
Stach,  and  Henryk,  to  Uncle  Wincenty.  You  know  him  probably 
from  our  talk — ^the  same  who  learned  in  Belgium  and  who  is  forbidden 
to  come  back  to  Russia.  So  we  wrote  to  him  asking  him  to  help  us, 
by  correspondence,  in  self-education.  He  had  a  job  and  probably  no 
time,  but  he  sent  us  the  address  of  a  lady,  his  good  friend  and  com- 
panion from  old  times,  who  is  now  a  private  teacher.  The  lady 
showed  a  great  readiness  to  give  us  advice  and  information;  she  even 
sent  us  to  Rytwiany  a  few  very  good  books.  But  although  I  knew 
her  by  letters  for  more  than  half  a  year,  I  never  had  any  occasion  to 
see  her;  when  I  was  in  Warsaw,  she  was  abroad.  Now  she  is  also 
abroad  occupying  the  place  of  a  teacher.  Not  long  ago  she  made  me 
acquainted  by  letter  with  one  of  her  friends  here  in  Warsaw.  It  is  a 
young  man  of  20,  son  of  an  official;  his  father  is  no  longer  alive,  only 
the  mother  is  left  and  receives  the  pension.  This  young  man  has 
two  younger  brothers,  they  are  all  studying,  and  he,  although  so 
young,  has  finished  8  classes  already  [a  gymnasium].  But  I  got 
acquainted  with  him  before  he  went  away  for  the  summer  to  the 
country,  and  now  we  only  correspond  with  each  other.  After  so 
short  an  acquaintance  we  are  already  "companions."  And  if  you  are 
curious  in  what  way  we  became  companions,  write  to  Stach  and  let 
him  send  you  a  letter — the  first  which  I  got  from  this  companion — in 
which  he  expresses  himself  for  the  first  time  as  my  companion,  and 
at  the  same  time  informs  me  about  different  questions.^  I  had  no 
time  to  describe  to  Stasiek  my  acquaintance  with  this  companion  and 
sent  him  that  letter,  but  I  don't  know  whether  he  received  it  or  not, 
for  I  send  him  letters  without  stamps,  in  the  same  way  as  to  you.  So, 
as  you  see,  I  have  relations  with  good  men.  For  think  of  it,  how 
should  such  a  highly  educated  man  enter  into  relations  with  such  a 
dirty  and  moreover  ignorant  boy  as  I  am  ?  And  nevertheless  he, 
being  such  a  man  and  coming  from  a  higher  family,  was  not  ashamed, 
but  came  to  the  shop  and  in  getting  acquainted  with  me  shook  my 
dirty  hand.  So  it  is  possible  to  conclude  that  there  are  still  good  men 
in  the  world,  since  such  a  man  became  more  generous  through  his 
studies.     For  usually  men  now  get  instruction  for  business,  in  order 

to  exploit  the  ignorant  ones,  which  is  ignoble 

'  The  importance  attached  to  these  apparently  trifling  facts — the  use  of  the 
term  "companion,"  and  the  condescension  of  the  student  in  shaking  hands — by  a 
young  man  of  Zygmunt's  solid  character  shows  how  profound  J6  the  dilTerence 
between  even  the  middle  class  and  the  workman  class. 


1076  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

You  ask  me  how  I  spend  my  moments.  If  I  only  had  as  much  of 
ihi-so  moments  as  I  need!     You  can  guess  that  if  I  had  more  of  them 

1  would  write  to  you  more  often And  now  excuse  me  for 

making  a  small  remonstrance.  But  don't  be  angry.  You  write  me 
that  you  belong  to  an  amateur  theater,  but  that  you  don't  find  in  it 
good  company  [amusement  ?]  because  of  some  feeling.  This  reminds 
me  of  romantic  novels  from  old  times,  when  men  did  not  know  yet  how 
to  govern  their  feelings;  but  men  who  are  in  such  conditions  as  ours 
ought  to  govern  any  feeling,  particularly  for  such  a  good  thing  as  an 
amateur  theater.  All  associations,  amateur  theaters  as  well,  are 
useful  for  our  end;  it  is  our  duty  to  give  them  as  much  good  will  and 
energy  as  we  can.     You  see  I  receive  advice  like  this  from  my  new 

companion  who  does  not  spare  it  to  me 

I  remain  your  loving  companion, 

Zygmunt 

How  about  your  romance  with  Miss  Stasia  or  Miss  Hanka  ? 

730  August  15,  1913 

Dear  Walek:  I  cannot  take  part  in  the  solemnity  of  our  parish- 
festival.  I  wish  at  least  to  write  a  few  words  home  on  this  day  of 
August  15.  How  painful  it  is  to  spend  the  time  far  away  from  our 
native  country,  and  still  more  painful  on  a  day  which  is  solemnly 
celebrated  in  our  native  country.' 

And  precisely  while  writing  these  few  words  to  my  parents  I 
received  your  card,  in  which  you  inform  me  about  the  wedding  of 
Miss  Stasia.  But  probably  the  wedding  is  already  over,  for  it  was  to 
be  on  August  10.  You  guess  probably  that  this  news  made  upon  me 
not  a  small  impression.  But  precisely  on  that  account  write  me  what 
she  could  have  written  you.     I  am  very  curious. 

You  ask  me  to  write  you  something  about  Warsaw.  I  can  write 
you  only  this,  that  Warsaw  is  full  of  various  kinds  of  revelry  and 
drinking.  If  a  woman's  body  can  be  bought,  well,  then  you  can  get 
ever>'thing  for  roubles.  But  besides  all  this  Warsaw  has  also  good 
men  and  good  things,  as,  for  example,  this  companion  ....  about 

whom  I  wrote  you  already 

Your  loving  companion, 

Zygmunt 

'  This  par.^^aph  discloses  Zygmunt's  attitude  toward  religion,  as  stated  in  the 
introduction.  'A  socialist  like  S.  Jasinski  (cf.  that  series)  would  certainly  profit 
from  the  occasion  of  this  parish-festival  to  write  a  declamatory  invective  against 
the  stupidity  of  the  people — the  priests  keeping  them  in  "darkness"  etc. 


PIOTROWSKI  SERIES 


1077 


731  September  18,  1913 

Dear  Companion  Walek:  I  beg  your  pardon,  but  I  will  make 
a  reproach.  Why  have  you  written  nothing  for  so  long  a  time? 
Are  you  embittered  against  me,  or  do  you  want  to  vex  me  in  this  way, 
or  perhaps  to  gratify  me  ?  Oh,  don't  ever  think  that  you  will  gratify 
me  in  such  a  way;  be  sure  that  slowly  we  should  get  accustomed  to  it 
and  at  last  we  should  forget  each  other.  So,  dear  Walek,  I  beg  your 
pardon,  for  I  am  conscious  that  sometimes  I  forget  you,  but  I  forget 
you  only  to  remember  you  again,  to  remember  those  times  of  our 
acquaintance  and  of  our  friendship  then  so  strongly  linked.  But 
these  times  passed,  opening  before  us  the  road  of  our  life,  wide  but 
full  of  thorns.  But  are  we  to  let  our  hands  drop  impotently  and 
commit  ourselves  to  the  will  of  fortune  ?  No !  We  are  young,  we  have 
great  strength  and  energy,  therefore  we  ought  to  go  forward  boldly 
and  perseveringly,  pulling  the  thorns  aside  from  our  road.  Yes,  dear 
companion,  a  hard  fate  threw  us  away  from  our  native  country,  so  far, 
leaving  us  a  remembrance  pleasant  and  dear  to  our  heart.  But  if 
we  want  to  understand  all  this  and  to  give  ourselves  an  account  of  it, 
we  need  learning. 

My  training  goes  on  well  enough.  If  I  can  only  hold  out  for  some 
time  everything  will  be  well.  Now  I  have  inscribed  myself  for  the 
"evening  courses  of  a  technical  school. 

Stach  wrote  to  me  that  everything  is  not  well  with  him,  and 
nevertheless  he  does  not  lose  his  hope,  but  looks  always  confidently  at 
the  intended  aim.  Oh,  how  unjust  fortune  is  for  having  thrown  us 
about  the  world  so  far  from  one  another!  Nevertheless,  we  shall  be 
able  to  bear  everything. 

So,  dear  companion,  let  us  renounce  all  these  suspicions,  all  these 
[complaints  about]  pains  caused  by  one  to  another.  Have  we  not 
pains  enough  in  our  struggle  about  tomorrow  ?  We  have  even  too 
much  of  these  different  contrarieties  and  misunderstandings,  and  it 
would  be  bad  of  us  if  we  continued  to  act  so.  What  wonder  if  in  the 
present  conditions  one  does  not  write  to  another  for  some  time  ? 
Instead  of  it,  one  writes,  after  a  longer  interruption,  really  sincerely, 
truly,  with  effusion,  rapidly  and  longingly. 

So — I  beg  your  pardon  once  more — be  cheerful,  don't  ever  lose 
hope  and  strong  will.  You  know,  I  am  very  curious  and  I  should 
be  glad  if  you  described  to  me  your  whole  romance  with  Miss  S. 
[Stacha]  G.,  and  how  it  ended.     Or  perhaps  it  is  not  end^d  yet 


107S  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

I  send  greetings  for  all  our  acquaintances  from  Rytwiany,  our 
native  nest,  hut  still  dark  enough.  The  function  of  spreading  our 
enlightenment  in  our  native  nest  belongs  to  us,  as  to  its  sons,  who 

look  upon  the  wider  world I  send  you  a  hearty  handshake. 

Your  loving  companion, 

Zygmunt 

732  October  27,  1913 

Dear  Companion:  I  received  your  letter  in  which  you  express 
[relate]  to  me  your  secret.  I  was  very  grieved,  dear  companion,  and 
I  sympathize  with  you.  Forgive  me,  please,  if  I  recall  something 
from  the  past.  Do  you  remember  at  one  of  our  meetings  upon  the 
dam  I  said  to  you  something  in  this  sense  about  your  romance,  which 
had  only  begun  then,  while  you  assured  me  that  nothing  like  this 
would  happen — that  I  should  not  even  think  of  it?  And  still  my 
guesses  were  just,  though  I  never  guessed  that  anything  might  happen 
like  this  which  has  happened  now.  I  did  not  guess  it,  for  I  counted 
more  upon  her.  Who  could  indeed  have  suspected  anything  like  this 
from  such  a  serious  young  person  ?  But,  dear  companion,  I  confess 
that  I  don't  wonder.  Knowing  already  life  more  or  less  and  human 
relations,  it  does  not  seem  to  me  strange  at  all.  But  in  any  case 
notice  how  weak  in  spirit  are  these  women.  Only  consider  it  well  and 
you  will  see  that  any  of  them  is  as  weak  as  any  other.  Oh,  excuse 
me,  dear  companion,  but  I  express  myself  Hke  some  conservative 
critic  of  love,  of  these  youthful  impulses,  of  this  beauty  of  youth. 
But,  on  the  contrary,  I  am  a  partisan  of  it.  How  beautiful,  how 
simple  it  is!  Should  I  be  a  persecutor  of  love  ?  Oh,  no,  lam  not  this! 
And  do  you  know,  dear  companion,  that  when  I  received  that  letter 
from  you  I  had  such  a  wish  to  write  her  a  letter  that  would  give  her 
back  the  past  assurance  which  now  has  fled  away,  a  letter  which 
would  render  her  more  firm,  more  strong  in  love,  a  letter  which  would 
incite  her  to  confront  the  greatest  impediments  and  dangers  in  order 
to  reach  the  point  where  the  heart  beats  warmer.*  But  after  con- 
sidering it  reasonably  I  could  not  do  it.  And  you  consider  it  also 
reasonably  and  act  as  you  think  the  best. 

•  The  whole  paragraph  refers  to  the  marriage  of  Stasia.  We  may  be  sure  that 
Walenty  in  appeaUng  to  Zygmunt  for  sympathy  did  not  represent  the  incident 
frankly.  To  him,  indeed,  any  preference  of  another  man  would  seem  in  Stasia 
infamous.         -' 


PIOTROWSKI  SERIES 


1079 


As  to  myself,  besides  the  usual  work,  all  the  evenings  of  the  week 
are  occupied  with  study,  so  I  have  often  not  even  time  enough  to 
satisfy  the  indispensable  needs.  Forgive  me,  therefore,  if  I  don't 
answer  your  letters  at  once.  Do  you  know,  dear  companion,  how 
attractive  science  is,  how  great,  how  much  it  forces  us  to  think  about 
ourselves?  Great  things,  simply  miracles,  can  be  seen  in  science, 
things  which  in  the  future  will  be  of  ordinary  use  to  men.  But 
evidently  it  must  be  first  more  or  less  known. 

As  to  my  environment  and  society,  I  have  a  good,  intelligent,  and 
instructed  society,  which  I  imitate  and  benefit  much  from,  for  I 
receive  from  those  generous  men  scientific  help.  But  bad  environ- 
ment is  not  lacking  either;  I  find  myself  in  it  during  whole  days 

[Your]  l[oving]  c[ompanion], 

Zygmunt 

733  December  7,  1913 

Dear  Companion:  [Excuses  himself  for  not  writing.]  You  will 
wonder  probably  why  I  complain  so  continually  about  lack  of  time. 
I  must  inform  you  at  least  partly  about  all  this.  You  know  already 
that  we  have  a  [maternal]  uncle  who  finished  the  university  while 
he  was  a  simple  locksmith.  He  read  many  books,  knew  intelligent 
men,  he  benefited  much,  understood  the  necessity  of  learning,  and 
decided  to  go  on  in  this  direction.  Really  he  undertook  great  labors, 
but  with  the  help  of  very  generous  and  instructed  men  he  attained  his 
aim.  And  now,  as  a  licensed  engineer,  he  advises  me  and  wishes  me, 
since  I  want  to  learn,  not  to  wear  myself  out  working  for  my  bread 
and  at  the  same  time  learning  of  evenings,  as  I  do  now.  He  was  able 
to  finish  the  university  although  he  began  to  learn  when  he  was 
already  about  30  years  old,  and  only  with  the  help  of  strangers  who 
lent  him  money  for  living  and  instruction  and  to  whom  he  now  pays 
back,  in  parts,  the  debt  contracted.  And  I  am  still  so  young,  and  I 
don't  need  the  help  of  strangers,  since  I  have  so  rich  a  [paternal]  uncle. 
So  why  should  I  weary  myself  so,  while  I  could  go  to  some  technical 
school  and  after  finishing  it  be  an  instructed  and  intelligent  pro- 
letarian ?  I  should  really  not  even  be  a  proletarian  any  longer,  but 
being  from  proletarian  extraction,  I  would  not  be  ashamed  even  then 
of  proletarians.  But  you  see,  my  uncle  refused  me  this.  I  am  even 
ashamed  to  confess  that  I  have  such  an  uncle.  Although  we  know 
how  much  he  has  he  was  able  to  say  that  he  had  only  <??Jlough  to  give 


loJ^  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

instruction  to  his  son  and  to  live  in  his  old  days.  And  I  did  not  want 
any  gift  from  him;  I  wanted  only  as  much  as  I  need  for  studying  and 
for  living  during  my  studies.  After  fmishing  the  studies  I  would  have 
paid  hack  the  deht  either  to  himself  or  to  his  son.  And  would  it  not 
have  been  very  profitable  for  me  and  a  noble  act  of  citizenship  from 
him  ?  I  am  ver>^  pained,  not  so  much  because  he  does  not  want  to 
help  me  as  because  he  does  not  understand  it;  he  is  still  so  dark  and 
backward.  Therefore  I  must  wear}^  on  now  in  this  way.  The  studies 
take  my  time  until  12  or  i  o'clock  in  the  night  and  in  the  morning  I 
must  rise  at  6:30,  for  although  my  work  begins  at  8,  I  have  so  far  to 
go  that  I  must  rise  sooner. 

Well,  enough  of  these  complaints  and  these  contrarieties  of  which 

our  life  is  composed The  Christmas  holidays  are  not  far  away, 

holidays  which  awaken  in  all  of  us  children,  far  away  from  their 
families,  dear  remembrances  of  the  past  years,  of  the  moments  spent 
in  the  family  circle.  But  things  are  now  taking  such  a  turn  in  the 
world  that  not  all  children  can  spend  the  holidays  in  their  native 
homes.  I  am  ver}'  pained  to  think  that  you  and  Stach  belong  to  these. 
And  so  on  the  approach  of  the  holidays  I  wish  you  to  spend  them 
merrily,  and  also  I  wish  you  that  thought  which  comforts  you  when 
you  remember  that  you  are  so  far  away  from  your  home.  Excuse  me 
for  expressing  my  wishes  upon  ordinary  paper,  but  be  sure  that  they 
are  warmer  and  more  sincere   than   others,   written   upon   sho^^•y 

material 

Your  loving  companion, 

Zygmtjnt 

734  March  5,  1914 

Dear  Companion:  ....  I  am  now  in  Warsaw,  I  am  working  as 
before,  only  in  another  shop.  The  conditions  are  somewhat  better 
and  the  work  much  nearer 

I  think  you  know  already  that  Miss  G.  [Hanka]  is  dead.  I  was 
leaving  for  Warsaw  on  the  very  day  of  her  funeral.  It  was  very 
painful  for  me  not  to  be  at  the  funeral,  but  nothing  can  be  done; 

duties  and  conditions  obHge  a  man  to  act I  regret  Miss  Anna 

very,  very  much,  for  she  was  one  of  the  good,  model  girls.  Well,  but 
nothing  can  be  done,  we  must  persuade  ourselves  of  it  in  some  way. 
And  now  I  will  mention  to  you  something  about  Kalina.  As  I  wrote 
you,  we  met  Snce  accidentally  at  Rytwiany.     We  walked  for  a  long 


PIOTROWSKI  SERIES  Io8i 

time  about  the  factory,  talking  a  little  about  old  times.  When  I 
asked  him  whether  he  was  corresponding  with  you,  he  answered  that 
he  had  not  corresponded  for  a  long  time.  I  did  not  ask  him  why. 
....  He  then  told  me  only  that  Miss  G.  had  been  very  sick,  but 
was  already  better.  But  I  learned  afterward  that  he  called  on  Miss  G. 
during  the  whole  time  of  her  sickness,  and  before  her  death,  i.e.,  a  few 
days  after  our  meeting,  was  there  very  often.  I  have  been  told  that 
she,  feeling  very  feeble,  asked  him  to  go  away.  Then  he  began  to  cry, 
so  that  later  they  both  cried  about  themselves  [or  "about  each 
other?"].  Really  a  very  painful  role  was  played  if  he  was  really  in 
love  with  her. 

Well,  but  enough  of  these  sad  things.  Now  I  will  write  you 
something  about  myself.  First,  I  go  to  courses  in  the  school,  and  for 
3  subjects  to  my  acquaintances  who  are  absolutely  good  to  me.  I 
have  one  course  in  the  school  about  machinery,  another  under  the 
title  "How  to  Keep  Health  during  Work,"  i.e.,  in  general  a  course  in 
hygiene.  It  is  very  curious  and  interesting.  Besides  this  I  receive 
from  my  acquaintances  very  scientific  books  and  papers  containing 
many  things  of  which  I  knew  nothing.  Only  now  I  begin  to  take  a 
wider  look  about  the  world.  If  we  met  somewhere  I  should  have 
much  to  tell  you.  It  is  difficult  to  write  all  this.  So  I  only  advise 
you  with  my  whole  heart,  don't  waste  your  time,  but  try  to  read 
social  things,  for  in  reading  about  any  science  you  will  be  able  to 

explain  to  yourself  many,  many  contradictions  of  life ^ 

Zygmunt 

735  April  7,  1914 

Dear  Companion:  After  so  long  a  silence  at  last  I  bring  it  about 
to  write   a  letter It  could  seem  as  if   the  subject  of  our 

'  This  and  the  following  letters,  except  for  the  reference  to  Hanka,  do  not 
contribute  any  new  incidents  but  show  the  progressive  development  of  Zygmunt's 
self-consciousness  and  social  idealism,  and  thus  help  to  understand  the  type  of 
man.  This  type  is  and  was  very  frequent  in  Poland  in  association  with  the  develop- 
ment of  national  and  socialistic  ideas.  Up  to  the  last  quarter  of  the  nineteenth 
century  it  was  limited  almost  exclusively  to  the  intelligent  classes,  and  the  social 
idealism  assumed  mainly  the  form  of  nationalism.  Since  1870-80  the  type  has 
become  frequent  among  workmen,  in  connection  with  socialism.  Since  about 
i8go  it  has  become  more  and  more  frequent  among  peasants  and  assumes  the  forms 
found  in  the  newspapers  Gazcta  Siviateczna  and  Zaranie  (cf.  Part  II).  But, 
as  our  collection  shows,  it  is  both  less  frequent  and  less  thoroughly  developed 
among  peasants,  probaiily  because  of  the  stronger  economic  and  traditional 
determinism.  This  type  and  the  corresponding  type  among  women  will  be 
more  systematically  treated  in  Part  II. 


1  o8_'  rRLMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

correspondence  were  exhausted,  as  if  our  correspondence  were  declining. 
It  happens  thus  with  most  friends  who  after  separating  for  some  time, 
got  aicusionu'd  to  it  and  finally  forget  about  each  other,  about  the 
friendship  which  united  them  formerly.  But  this  happens  only 
between  friends  who  are  not  conscious  of  themselves,  who  gave  them- 
selves too  much  up  to  fate  and  fate  precisely  tears  the  bonds  of  their 
friendship.  But  you,  dear  companion,  don't  suppose  that  this  should 
ever  haj)pen  between  us.  You  see,  I  was  silent  because  just  now  is 
the  time  of  my  great  effort  to  understand,  i.e.,  I  am  reflecting  about 
all  the  phenomena  which  are  found  in  the  course  of  the  day  and  which 
interest  me  very  much.  Up  to  the  present  I  am  able  to  explain  many 
things  to  myself,  to  judge  many  things  and  to  appreciate  those  which 
are  good. 

I  am  only  pained  that  whenever  I  receive  a  letter  from  you  it  is 
always  full  of  some  sadness,  always  full  of  a  great  longing.  It  is 
therefore  not  strange  if  every  such  letter  influences  me  painfully.  So 
it  is  my  duty  to  provide  against  it,  realizing  that  I  am  your  friend  but 
one  whom  fortune  set  upon  a  different  way. 

Well,  dear  Walek,  give  an  account  to  yourself,  of  what  circum- 
stances obliged  you  to  emigrate.  Did  you  go  of  your  own  wish  or  were 
you  really  forced  to  it?  Then  reflect  well  what  was  the  difference 
between  your  home  and  your  new  system  of  life,  and  if  you  suffered 
because  of  it  was  it  not  possible  to  remedy  it,  and  in  what  way.  You 
see,  you  can  draw  a  lesson  from  your  own  life.  Meanwhile  you  grieve 
and  complain  so  endlessly  that  even  a  man  burdened  with  a  wife  and 
children  would  complain  less.  I  know,  my  dear,  that  you  are  pained 
by  the  actual  relations  between  men  and  by  all  this  arrangement.  But 
you  can  persuade  yourself  that  it  is  a  powerful  strain  due  to  the 
development  of  everything,  and  without  this  development  nothing 
could  be  done.  Capitalism  develops,  immorahty  and  degeneration 
develop  also,  but  at  the  same  time  science  develops  on  a  great  scale,  a 
great  self-consciousness  develops  among  workmen,  and  in  general 
everything  develops.  Should  we  stand  with  broken  hands  and  grieve  ? 
It  would  be  absolutely  unsuitable.  It  is  time  to  shake  off  these  old 
prejudices.     Why,  you  are  young,  and  true  youth  is  not  subject  to 

these  prepossessions If  you  can,  read  some  day  Mickiewicz's 

"Ode  to  Youth"  and  reflect  well  about  it,  for  it  serves  as  a 
watchword  for  the  young  people   of  lower  and  higher  schools  in 

Warsaw ^ 

Zygmunt 


PIOTROWSKI  SERIES  1083 

736  May  4,  1914 

Dear  Companion:  I  inform  you  that  I  received  two  of  your 
letters  which  I  answer  only  now,  for  they  were  at  a  short  interval. 
....  In  the  first  you  write  me  about  your  trouble,  your  loneliness, 
and  every  letter  is  full  of  some  sorrow,  some  doubt  in  your  force  and 
your  intentions.  Is  it  not  time  to  leave  this  sorrow?  It  is  of  no 
benefit  to  us  at  all,  but  on  the  contrary,  we  lose  much  through  it.  I 
repeat,  dear  companion,  we  lose  much  through  it,  for  even  if  our 
tendency  were  realizable  it  would  never  come  to  an  effect  through  our 
doubts  of  its  realization.  In  the  same  way,  you  remember  perhaps, 
when  Moses  led  the  IsraeHtes  and,  wanting  to  do  a  miracle  before  the 
Israelites,  struck  three  times  a  rock  from  which  water  gushed  out. 
Why  did  he  need  to  strike  three  times,  since  the  water  could  have 
gushed  out  the  first  time  ?  If  you  have  learned  it  you  remembe: 
probably  that  Moses  doubted  the  first  and  the  second  time  that  the 
water  could  gush  on  his  order.  This  comparison  will  appear  strange 
to  you,  for  Moses  was  an  envoy  of  God  to  liberate  the  people  from 
slavery  (I  suppose  you  will  think  so).  I  don't  deny  it,  but  does  slavery 
not  exist  now  ?  Still  worse,  for  there  exists  a  spiritual  slavery  of  whole 
masses  of  people,  and  thus  a  man  conscious  of  this  slavery  has  to  wait 
for  this  mission.  The  main  cause  of  our  sorrow  is  that  we  always 
think  and  complain  about  our  own  distress.  But  if  we  saw  not  only 
our  distress  but  also  that  of  other  people  and  if  we  tried  to  help  them, 
we  should  forget  absolutely  our  own.  In  that  case  we  should  say 
that  we  think  socially.  O  dear  companion,  it  is  very  beautiful  and 
lofty  to  think  socially.  The  people  who  think  socially  and  give  them- 
selves up  to  social  problems,  forgetting  about  their  own,  reach  great 
things.  I  should  like  very  much,  dear  companion,  to  make  you 
understand  as  well  as  possible,  so  that  you  might  think  differently  and 

not  grieve,  but  one  is  not  always  able  to  express  what  he  wishes 

Zygmunt 

737  Rytwiany,  February  14,  1913 

Dear  Walek:   ....  I  thank  you  for  not  forgetting  me 

I  beg  you,  dear  W.,  be  so  kind  and  write  me  a  letter  and  describe  the 
news  there  in  America  ....  and  whether  it  seems  to  you  better 

than  in  Rytwiany,  for  I  am  tired  of  staying  in  Rytwiany I 

work  in  the  same  shop,  but  it  is  very  boresome,  for  you  know  that  old 
beggar  [his  superior],  how  he  is;  so  there  is  not  a  single  quiet  day.     I 


UxS4  rRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

must  bear  all  this  for  some  time  still,  and  next  month  ....  I  will 
ask  for  an  ailvance.  I  don't  know  how  I  shall  succeed,  but  it  seems 
to  me  that  they  will  give  whatever  I  ask,  for  in  winter  good  work 
opens  up,  and  they  have  no  men.     And  now  you  know  perhaps  that 

Wlailek  M.  got  married The  wedding  was  first  rate,  people  of 

higher  class  alone,  few  friends,  for  that  Hela  of  his  wanted  it  so 

The  music  was  the  kind  we  had  a  better  variety  of  sometimes  years 
ago.  Three  musicians  played,  two  violins  and  a  drum.  I  don't 
write  you  any  more  about  it,  for  I  don't  know;  they  got  married, 
they  embrace,  and  it  goes  on  well  up  to  the  present;  what  the  future 
will  be  we  don't  know.  I  don't  know  whether  you  received  the  cards 
which  I  sent  you,  two  of  them.  In  one  I  wrote  you  that  I  intended 
to  marry  during  carnival,  but  it  was  only  because  I  had  nothing  to 
write  upon  such  a  small  card  where  there  is  not  even  space,  and  I  wrote 
you  this  in  order  that  you  might  have  something  to  laugh  at,  for  I 
know  how  you  talked  to  me  about  my  intentions.  But  up  to  the 
present  I  still  remain  the  same.  If  I  go  away  I  don't  know  what  will 
happen  with  us  both,  for  up  to  the  present  we  love  each  other  madly 
and  when  we  meet  we  give  a  kiss.  But  now  we  don't  meet  often,  and 
I  don't  go  to  her  home;  we  meet  only  upon  the  street,  or  when  she 
goes  to  the  church.  And  all  this  because  many  misunderstandings 
happened  with  her  mother,  and  my  sister  does  not  go  there  and  she 
says  that  she  probably  won't  ever  go  again 

Now  I  inform  you  about  the  illness  of  Rog.  She  was  very  sick 
because  she  wanted  to  poison  in  herself  a  small  engineer  who  is  to  come 
into  the  world.  The  younger  of  those  two  who  were  in  Rytwiany  in 
\-our  times  made  it.  He  promised  to  marry  her  and  did  whatever  he 
wished  with  her.  At  last,  when  he  could  not  get  rid  of  her  after  this, 
he  had  to  go  to  Warsaw  and  calmed  himseh  ["gave  no  news"  or 
"died"  ?]  and  so  she  was  left  a  widow. 

And  now  I  inform  you  that  we  both,  I  and  Zygmunt,  wiU  receive 
books  from  my  brother,  who  was  in  a  school  in  Belgium.  These 
books  are  to  be  instructive  in  our  specialities.  So  now  I  think  more 
about  studying  a  little,  and  later  perhaps  I  will  go  to  him,  or  if  not, 
then  to  you  to  America.  We  haven't  the  books  yet,  but  we  expect 
them  from  day  to  day,  and  if  I  receive  them  I  will  begin  again  to  love 
books  and  will  think  about  them  more  than  about  my  girl.     But  I 

won't  leave  her  as  long  as  I  am  in  Rytwiany 

Henryk 


PIOTROWSKI  SERIES  1085 

738  March  15,  1914 

Dear  Companion  Walek:    I  beg  your  pardon  for  not  having 

answered There  is  no  news  in  Rytwiany  ....  only  I  inform 

you,  though  probably  you  know  it  already,  that  Miss  G.  [Hanka] 

is  dead.     I  was  at  the  funeral I  saw  Kalina,  for  he  was  also 

there.  We  talked  a  little  about  you,  among  others.  He  asked  how 
you  are  succeeding  there  in  America,  for  he  said  he  had  had  no  letter 

from  you  since  you  left As  to  Stach  [the  writer's  cousin],  he 

certainly  has  forgotten  about  me  already,  for  I  don't  know  what  he  is 
doing  there  and  why  it  is  so  difficult  for  him  to  write.  But  I  am  not 
eager  either  to  write  him  the  first,  and  positively  it  won't  happen,  for 
I  know  that  now  one  can  sooner  profit  from  a  stranger  than  from  one's 
brother.  But  I  don't  care  for  it  at  all;  let  him  do  what  he  wants,  I 
won't  go  to  him  for  anything.     [News  about  work  and  factory.] 

And  now,  as  to  the  girls,  they  all  sit  like  hens  upon  eggs  and  wait 
to  see  how  soon  the  happy  moment  will  appear  for  them.  But  it  is 
not  so  easy.  They  will  sit  for  some  time  still.  I  am  still  with  my 
Halka  as  before — sometimes  bad,  sometimes  good,  moments,  but  still 
nothing  is  certain  in  our  affair,  for  we  have  many  impediments.  So 
I  behave  as  I  can  and  as  is  suitable  for  me,  although,  as  you  know,  I 
am  very  much  in  love  with  her  and  I  should  like  the  things  not  to  pass 
away  so  lightly,  for  now  she  begins  already  to  confess  a  little  her 
reciprocation.  But  her  mother  does  not  please  me,  for  she  has  a 
mouth  rather  too  big,  and  therefore  she  likes  sometimes  to  cause  a 
misunderstanding.  If  anything  results  from  it  you  will  learn  it,  for 
I  shall  write  you  everything,  but  only  about  May  or  June.  Up  to  the 
present  I  don't  know  anything,  only  I  guess,  but  nobody  can  know 
somebody  else's  thoughts.  Well,  but  probably  it  will  end  about 
those  months,  one  way  or  the  other.  ....  And  now  I  inform  you 
also  about  her  sister,  that  in  May  will  be  her  wedding  with  Mr.  C. 
There  is  yet  no  certainty,  for  the  divorce-suit  is  to  be  ended  this 
month,  but  he  is  sure  to  win,  and  we  shall  dance  in  May. 

I  have  nothing  more  to  write,  for  you  will  be  even  weary  with 
reading  this;  you  will  say  that  these  are  only  trifles,  nothing  serious. 
Well,  don't  believe  that  I  think  it;  I  described  all  this  precisely 
because  I  know  that  you  like  to  read  and  to  know  everything. 

Your  loving  c[ompanion], 

Henryk 


ioS6  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

739  t^P^i^'  ^913] 
Dear  Walek:    ....  I  received  your  card  and  letter 

I  inform  you  now  about  my  success.     I  work  as  before.     I  received 
an  advance  on  April  i;   ....  I  have  now  20  roubles  instead  of  16. 

.  .  .  .  I  asked  for  25,  but  they  gave  me  only  20  for  the  present 

I  must  still  push  my  misery  before  me  for  some  time  in  Rytwiany. 

As  to  you,  dear  Walek,  you  tell  me  that  you  have  already  heard 
there  that  people  here  speak  badly  about  you.  I  am  astonished,  how 
you  know  immediately  in  America  what  is  going  on  in  our  country. 
I  won't  write  you  much,  for  you  would  think  that  I  laugh  at  you,  but 
it  is  true  that  I  myself  heard  people  saying  that  you  are  nowhere 
satisfied,  when  you  were  in  Rytwiany  you  only  looked  for  easy  bread, 
and  just  so  they  think  that  if  you  are  in  bad  conditions  there  it  is 
because  you  don't  wish  to  work.  They  say  that  you  do  nothing 
there,  that  you  loaf  about  and  think  that  it  will  drop  from  heaven. 
But  excuse  me  if  I  dare  to  write  so  about  you.  I  won't  say  any  more, 
for  you  w'ould  be  very  angry.  But  don't  mind  at  all  what  they  say 
about  you,  for  now  you  can  w^histle  at  them  and  they  can  do  nothing 
against  you  there. 

As  to  me  ....  I  was  a  little  angry  with  my  betrothed,  as  you 
call  her.  For  a  month  we  did  not  speak,  but  during  the  holidays  w^e 
made  apologies  and  now  everything  goes  on  well,  as  before.  But  we 
see  each  other  ver>'  seldom,  only  on  holidays,  for,  as  you  know  already, 
....  Zygmunt  brought  books  from  Warsaw,  and  now  I  don't  loaf 
about  any  more  of  evenings,  but  read.  I  don't  go  to  her  house,  but 
when  we  meet  on  the  street  we  talk  a  little,  and  nothing  more.  Her 
older  sister  is  marrying  ....  that  German  engineer  who  was  here 
when  you  were  still  at  home,  ....  and  if  I  don't  leave  Rytwiany 
my  wedding  will  be  next  spring,  and  only  then  I  shall  live  with  a  wife. 
But  if  I  leave,  then  everything  will  be  lost,  like  a  stone  in  water,  for 

I  hope  to  go  to  my  brother  abroad 

Your  loving, 

Hexryk 

740  April  16,  1914 

Dear  Companion  Walek:  ....  You  say  that  it  is  painful  for 
you  that  I  don't  write,  but  I  wrote  2  letters,  ....  so  certainly  letters 
don't  reach  you.  In  my  first  letter  there  was  much  news,  among 
other  things  that  Miss  G.  was  dead,  and  in  the  second  various  local 


PIOTROWSKI  SERIES  I087 

news I  don't  forget  either  what  we  talked  before  separating. 

Don't  think  that  I  am  forgetting  you.  I  considered  you  my  first 
companion  when  you  were  in  Rytwiany,  for  as  to  these  companions 
whom  I  have  now,  I  don't  care  much  for  them,  except  Miciek.  I 
keep  very  little  company  with  them.  I  stay  mostly  at  home,  and  if 
not  in  my  own  home,  then  with  my  girl.  But  things  go  on  very 
badly  with  us;  every  short  time  some  anger  comes.  Just  tonight, 
when  I  am  writing  this  letter  to  you,  there  is  again  some  misunder- 
standing with  her.  But  I  don't  know  how  it  will  be  further.  Some- 
times, when  it  is  all  right  with  us  she  arouses  in  me  so  much  love  that 
I  should  be  glad  to  give  my  life  for  her.  I  don't  understand  whether 
she  only  excites  me  thus  or  it  is  a  fact  [that  she  loves  me].  But,  as  it 
seems  to  me,  she  has  fallen  very  much  in  love  with  me,  for  if  I  go 
anywhere  or  talk  with  any  other  girl,  I  don't  know  what  becomes  of  her 
and  then  she  gets  angry.  I  won't  write  any  more  about  her,  for  I 
don't  know  how  it  will  turn  out.     [Indifferent  news.] 

And  now  I  beg  you,  tell  me  about  America  in  general,  everything. 
How  do  the  workmen  stand  there,  how  do  our  Poles  behave  in  America, 
what  girls  are  there,  whether  they  are  worth  something  or  nothing. 
....  I  have  heard  here  that  you  have  there  very  good  [pleasant] 

society And  inform  me  whether  it  is  calm  there  or  they  are 

thinking  about  some  trouble,  for  there  is  alwa^y  s  something  new 

Henryk 

741  October  26  [1913] 

I  begin  my  letter  with  these  godly  words  "P[raised]  b[e]  T.  Ch." 

I  sit  to  the  table, 

I  unfold  the  paper. 

And  I  write  a  letter. 

I  don't  write  it  with  pen  and  ink  alone, 

But  with  a  sweet  heart,  a  dear  diamond. 

My  pen  wrote 

My  heart  wept 

For  it  has  not  seen  you  since  long  ago. 

[Generalities  about  health  and  success.]  We  wish  you  also  health 
and  good  success  from  God's  Mother  of  Sulislawice,  whom  you  did  not 
see — how  she  was  crowned.  May  this  God's  Mother  help  you  in  that 
America.  We  received  your  letter  on  October  24,  for  which  we  thank 
you  heartily When  I  read  this  letter  I  wept  so  that  I  hardly 


io88  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

could  read  it,  and  father  and  mother  also,  for  [we  were  touched  that] 
vou  don't  forget  us.     [News  about  family  and  friends.] 

I  describe  to  you  what  a  church  festival  we  saw,  such  as  perhaps 
nobody  will  li\e  to  see  any  more.  Our  Lord  God  allowed  you  to  live 
at  this  time,  but  nothing  can  be  done,  since  you  did  not  see  it.  But 
I  was  there  and  I  will  describe  everything  to  you,  as  to  my  dear 
brother.  There  were  250  priests,  two  bishops,  and  so  many  people 
that  it  was  impossible  to  see  over  them.  They  conducted  the  Holiest 
Mother,  and  four  orchestras  played  behind  the  procession  when  they 
brought  her  to  a  pavilion  beyond  Sulislawice.  And  the  pavilion  was 
so  beautifully  adorned  that  the  heart  burst  open  with  regret  [emotion]. 
The  priests  sang  alone  and  the  bishop  crowned  God's  Mother,  and 
the  whole  people  lay  crosswise  [arms  extended]  upon  the  earth. 
Priests. carried  this  image,  and  lords  and  peasants,  everybody  a  Uttle. 
I  am  unable  to  describe  to  you,  dear  brother,  this  miraculous  festival.^ 
Our  vicar  was  with  the  company  [of  pilgrims  from  the  village].  We 
lead  him,  in  a  crown.  We  have  now  such  a  nice  [handsome]  vicar. 
Priest  Kow.  went  away.  He  said  a  mass  for  the  whole  parish  and 
asked  us  to  greet  all  you  who  are  in  America.  He  wept  during  the 
mass,  and  the  people  in  the  church  wept  so  and  were  so  crow^ded 
around  him  that  he  could  hardly  leave  us.^ 

Remember,  dear  brother,  don't  marry  in  America,  for  I  should  like 
to  be  at  your  wedding,  for  I  rejoice  about  you  as  about  my  own  brother, 
and  still  more.  I  should  be  glad  if  you  were  at  my  wedding,  but  I 
don't  know,  for  mine  will  be  probably  during  the  carnival.  And  to 
your  brother  girls  come  themselves — ^such  luck  he  has  among  girls. 
We  were  at  his  name-day  in  his  house,  but  we  said  to  ourselves:  "It 
is  not  the  same  as  with  Walus."  There  were  guests  enough,  but  he 
is  not  the  same  as  you  are 

[A.  P.] 

'  This  part  of  the  letter  is  one  of  the  best  expressions  of  religious  feelings  which 
we  have.  Particularly  the  influence  of  the  ceremonial  and  that  of  the  crowd, 
leading  almost  to  ecstasis,  is  most  naively  manifested.  It  shows  the  extent  to 
which  the  influence  of  religion  in  peasant  life  depends  upon  aesthetic  and  social 
factors. 

'  The  personality  of  the  priest  plays  an  important  role  in  religious  life.  We 
have  seen  in  other  series  the  influence  of  the  personal  factor  upon  the  attitude  of  the 
peasant  toward  church  and  religion;  this  influence  is  still  more  manifest  in  the 
letters  to  the  newspapers,  for  it  grows  with  the  modern  religious  evolution. 


PIOTROWSKI  SERIES 


1089 


742  January  3,  1914 

Dear  Brother  [Cousin]:  [Usual  greeting,  wishes;  letter  and 
photograph  received.]  I  am  very  glad  that  you  look  so  beautiful 
upon  the  photograph.  Everybody  wonders  much.  Please  inform 
me  whether  you  look  really  so  as  upon  the  photograph,  or  not,  for 
my  father  takes  it  always  and  looks  [wondering]  that  you  don't  seem 
like  yourself.  Only,  dearest  brother,  you  look  very  sad  and  I  was 
grieved  that  you  were  sick.  I  beg  you,  dear  brother,  when  do  you 
intend  to  come  to  our  country  ?  For  I  should  like  you  to  be  at  my 
wedding,  and  if  not,  then  perhaps  at  my  funeral,  for  this  is  more 
probable  than  the  wedding.  But  I  beg  you,  write  me.  I  long  for 
you,  dear  brother,  for  we  have  not  seen  one  another  for  very  long  and 
I  should  like  to  see  you  alive.  Although  I  see  you  upon  the  paper, 
you  don't  speak  to  me.  [Weather;  holidays;  news  about  friends.] 
Come,  dear  brother,  to  our  country,  for  it  is  our  beloved  country,  and 
perhaps  you  are  homesick  there  and  sad,  and  here  you  will  have 
whatever  you  need  for  eternity.  Our  priest  said  that  there  is  not  long 
to  wait  until  the  end  of  the  world.  You  have  a  father  who  is  old ;  it 
would  be  sad  if  you  were  not  at  his  funeral,  for  your  brother  is  not 
like  you;  everybody  regrets  you,  while  many  complain  about  him. 
[Greetings.] 

A.  P. 

743  May  26,  1913 

Dear  Swat:^  I  speak  to  you  with  these  words:  "P[raised]  b[e] 
J.  Ch.  and  Mary,  the  Holiest  Mother,  queen  of  the  Polish  crown." 
[Health,  wishes;  letter  received.]  And  now  I  inform  you  that  there 
is  no  news  with  us,  everything  is  as  it  was,  only  Rytwiany  seems  empty 
and  sad.  But  on  the  other  hand  in  this  beloved  month  of  May  we 
borrow  mirth  and  a  soft  comfort  at  the  feet  of  God's  Mother  of 
Incessant  Help  and  we  live  with  hope  from  day  to  day.  Dear  swat, 
you  did  not  write  whether  the  May  service^  is  performed  there,  at 
least  on  Sundays.  And  then,  you  look  very  sad  on  the  photographs. 
[News  about  family.]  I  have  nothing  more  of  interest  to  write,  dear 
swat,  for  there  is  nothing;   sad  and  tedious,  as  usually  in  Rytwiany. 

•Literally  "matchmaker,"  "bridesman,"  swat  is  used  here  to  indicate  an 
indefinite  near  relation. 

^  A  religious  service  performed  in  the  evening  during  the  whole  month  of  May, 
in  honor  of  Mary. 


10)0  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

(I  have)  no  beauty,  no  money,  it  is  difficult  to  get  married,  but  may 

thy  will.  O  Lord,  be  done 

Describe  to  us  everything  in  detail  after  receiving  this  letter, 
what  is  the  news,  did  }ou  marry,  and  who  got  married  there.  [Greet- 
ings and  wishes.] 

JULA 

744  July  12,  1913 
Dear  Walenty:   [Beginning  as  in  the  preceding  letter;   health, 

wishes.]  Praise  be  to  God  for  your  good  success.  As  to  the  longing 
[homesickness]  about  which  you  complain,  this  longing  will  leave  you 
soon,  for  people  say  that  wherever  is  bread  and  well-being  there  the 
man  has  delight.  [Weather;  crops.]  I  am  always  equally  bored  in 
this  Rytwiany.     I  should  like  also  to  go  to  America,  but  they  [the 

parents]    won't   permit    me You    promised    us    to    describe 

exactly  the  conditions  in  America,  but  you  don't  seem  to  be  in  a  hurry. 
You  did  not  deign  to  write  us  either  in  what  sort  of  factory  you  work 
and  what  your  work  is  at  present.  Excuse  me,  dear  swat,  for  requiring 
too  much,  but  all  this  is  because  if  one  is  not  somewhere  one  would 
like  to  do  everything.  I  am  very  curious  why  Mar}4ka  does  not 
write  to  me,  for  I  have  had  no  letter  from  her  since  long  ago.  Surely 
she  has  a  big  society.     You  must  also  have  a  large  society,  and  it  is 

very  praiseworthy 

[Greetings  from  the  whole  family.]  Greet  Marylka  also  from  us 
all,  embrace  her  and  kiss  her  in  my  name  as  many  times  as  she  will 
let  you 

JULA 

745  *  September  12,  1913 
Dear   FRrEND:     [Beginning  as  before.]     We  inform  you,  dear 

friend,  that  there  is  a  papal  jubilee  appointed  for  a  whole  month, 
from  August  15  till  September  15,  and  in  the  diocese  of  Sandomierz 
full  absolution  is  granted  for  being  6  times  in  a  church  and  confessing. 
And  then,  on  the  solemn  day  of  birth  of  God's  Mother  [September  8] 
a  crowning  of  the  image  of  God's  Mother  in  Sulislawice  has  been 
performed.  The  weather  w-as  splendid,  and  the  meeting  numerous. 
There  were  3  bishops,  150  priests  who  took  part  in  the  crowning,  and 
180  companies  [of  pilgrims]  came  from  all  the  sides  of  the  world.  The 
cro waning  of  the  image  was  performed  in  the  field,  a  pavilion  was 
built  1 1  versts  from  the  cloister.  The  image  was  taken  away  from 
the  altar,  and  with  great  solemnity  and  ceremony  they  proceeded  to 


PIOTROWSKI  SERIES  1 091 

the  pavilion — the  whole  train  of  clergy,  princes,  nobility,  and  all. 
The  bishop  of  Sandomierz  celebrated  the  full  service  and  delivered 
the  sermon  in  that  pavilion,  and  after  the  ceremony  of  crowning  the 
image  was  taken  back  to  the  cloister.  We  send  you  a  small  image 
[photograph]  in  the  new  crown;  you  will  learn  better  details  about 
this  crowning  from  the  papers.  And  then,  dear  Walenty,  our  friend, 
we  inform  you  that  Rytwiany  will  be  scattered,  for  they  are  making 
"colonies"  already  and  they  are  very  much  against  us,  the  komor- 
niks;  they  want  absolutely  to  drive  us  away  from  these  sands  and 
from  Rytwiany  in  general,  so  we  don't  know  what  will  happen  with  us. 
You  say  that  I  have  a  boy  and  don't  write  you  anything  about  it. 
Well,  I  know  nothing,  and  I  am  very  curious  whence  you  got  the 
news.  As  to  Marylka,  I  answer  every  letter,  but  she  is  now  occupied 
with  her  boy  and  does  not  deign  to  write  me.  Please  congratulate 
her  privately  from  me  about  her  [future]  marriage 

JULA 

746  June  18,  1913 

....  "Praised  be"  [etc.,  usual  beginning;  health;  wishes.] 
Dear  Son:  We  inform  you  that  we  received  2  letters,  ....  for 
which  we  thank  you  heartily,  for  we  learned  many  curious  things 
from  these  letters.  Dear  son,  you  write  us  that  you  have  no  money. 
How  could  you  have  money,  since  on  the  letters  alone  which  you  write 
about  the  world  you  spend  perhaps  3  or  4  dollars  a  week.  Write  to  us 
as  often  as  possible,  but  don't  send  letters  everywhere  about  the  world. 
Only  think  how  much  money  has  gone  already  on  these  letters. 
Dear  son,  you  grieved  us  in  writing  that  you  had  no  money.  It  is 
bad,  dear  son.  As  it  seems,  therefore,  you  won't  send  your  debt 
back  in  time,  for  the  end  of  the  year  [since  you  borrowed  it]  is  not  far, 
and  you  write  that  you  have  no  money.  We  are  glad  that  you  are  in 
good  health  and  that  you  earn  more  now,  but  this  grieves  us,  that  you 
have  no  money.  For  if  you  put  a  few  dollars  aside  and  instead  of 
keeping  them,  send  them  here,  you  would  have  more.  Having  $50,  if 
you  send  them  here,  you  would  have  100  [roubles].  Dear  son,  you 
write  that  your  boss  likes  you.  Surely  you  must  treat  him  with 
drink  very  much,  and  therefore  he  Hkes  you.  Whatever  you  earn, 
you  pour  out  [liquor]  for  this  money  into  him,  and  therefore  he  likes 
you,  and  therefore  you  have  no  money.  You  tell  me  not  to  send  you 
either  a  pillow  or  tea.  I  should  have  a  great  pleasure  in  sending 
them  to  you,  I  should  like  to  gratify  you,  but  what  can  I  do  when  there 


1092  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

is  nobody  through  whom  [I  can  send].  Maiika  and  Stefan  S.  intend 
to  go.  but  they  prepare  themselves  for  the  journey  like  Jews  for  a  war 
[proverb:  slowly  and  unwillingly].  And  even  if  I  sent  it  through  her 
.<;he  would  do  the  same  as  Szym.  did,  for  she  is  a  terrible  idiot,  totally 
stupid. 

Dear  brother,  you  write  me  to  leave  my  work  here.  But  if  I 
leave  this  work  who  will  work?  Father  is  old,  and  he  works  hard. 
Evervbody  tells  him:  "You  ought  not  to  work  so  hard,  you  have 
two  sons,  one  here,  the  other  in  America.  You  ought  to  sit  at 
home.".  .  .  . 

Dear  son,  don't  be  openhearted  [generous],  for  openhearted  people 
have  empty  pockets.  You  write  us,  dear  son,  about  your  dream,  but 
I  don't  know  what  I  dream  and  I  don't  describe  it  to  you,  for  it  is 
not  to  be  described.  Once  already  I  opened  the  door  [in  a  dream],  for 
you  called  through  the  window,  but  you  did  not  want  to  come  in. 

Then  I  cried  till  the  morning ^Your  mother], 

W.  P. 

747  November  9,  1913 

De.\r  Son:  ....  You  write  that  the  food  does  not  taste  good 
to  you.     But  from  this  consumption  may  seize  you  in  a  short  time, 

so  put  some  money  aside  and  come  back  to  our  country 

You  write  us  that  you  are  in  good  conditions.  What  is  the  goodness 
if  you  cannot  eat  ?  We  inform  you,  dear  son,  that  from  America  there 
came  back  [enumeration],  and  that  on  November  3  at  noon  2  houses 
were  burned,  Chmiel's  and  Jastrz^b's.     On  Monday  they  were  burned 

down,  and  on  Tuesday  Chmiel  got  his  son  married They 

baked  cakes  and  smoked  sausage  during  the  whole  night,  and  probably 
from  this  the  fire  arose. 

But  if  you  knew,  dear  brother,  how  much  groaning  and  weeping 
there  wasl  You  have  no  idea.  The  hair  stood  upon  one's  head. 
The  people  of  whole  Piaski  knelt  and  begged  for  a  change,  that  our 
Lord  God  might  stop  the  calamity.  But  nothing  helped,  what  was 
to  burn  was  burned,  and  we  saved  the  other  houses,  for  I  am  now  in 

the  fire-guard Three  days  later  a  man  died  who  had  been 

frightened  by  the  cries  of  the  wailing  people. 

Wojtus  wrote  that  S30  has  been  stolen  from  him  in  America,  so 
be  on  your  guard  lest  somebody  circumvent  you.     If  you  have  money, 

hide  it;  let  nobody  know  about  it,  not  even  your  companion 

W.  P. 


LIPNIACKI  SERIES 

Letters  from  a  manor-owner,  G.  T.,  to  his  former  em- 
ployee, Lipniacki,  probably  a  farm-clerk,  who  must  have 
played  some  part  in  the  revolution  of  1905-6  obliging  him 
to  go  to  America. 

This  kind  of  relation  between  a  manor-owner  and  his 
servant  can  arise  only  if  the  manor-owner  is  unmarried.  The 
woman  introduces  at  once  the  question  of  class-distinction, 
which  makes  such  an  intimacy  impossible  and  removes  the 
main  factor  of  familiarity — the  solitude  of  country  life.  In 
this  particular  case  the  intimacy  is  favored  by  the  fact  that 
the  manor-owner  is  old  and  sick,  does  not  leave  his  house, 
and  receives  few  guests.  Perhaps  the  revolution,  in  which 
both  are  interested — the  servant  openly,  the  master  secretly 
— creates  a  new  tie  between  them. 

748-56,  FROM  A  MANOR-OWNER  IN  POLAND,  TO  HIS  FORMER 

SERVANT,    IN    AMERICA,    AND    TWO    LETTERS    FROM 

A   FARM-MANAGER   TO   THE   LATTER 

748  Rysiow,  July  3,  1908 

Mr.  Jan:  I  received  your  last  letter  from  Swansborough,  .... 
and  then  for  some  months  there  has  been  no  news  at  all,  so  that  we 
made  different  suppositions  ....  — that  you  went  to  Australia, 
were  sick  or  even  dead.  In  the  winter  the  blacksmith  M.  started*the 
rumor  that  he  had  met  you  one  evening  in  the  forest.  We  thought 
that  you  had  returned  secretly  and  didn't  show  yourself,  wishing  to 
learn  first  what  is  the  news.  Your  father  came  to  us,  thinking  that 
perhaps  you  were  hidden  here.  Only  at  the  end  of  March  or  in  April, 
Stanislaw  [the  farm-manager]  received  the  works  of  Sienkiewicz  and 
we  guessed  that  they  were  from  you,  for  there  was  not  a  word,  and 
the  wrapping  was  so  torn  that  only  the  address,  written  by  a  strange 
hand,  remained  intact.  No  wonder,  for  they  tore  it  first  at  the  fron- 
tier, then  in  the  censure  through  which  all  the  books  must  pass.     We 

1093 


I004  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

could  not  liiul  c\cii  the  stamp.    Only  a  few  weeks  ago  we  received  7 
cards  from  you  from  Baltimore 

Vou  write  that  in  ()ctol)cr  you  will  go  to  school.  All  right,  learn, 
for  learning  is  al\va\-s  usiful.  Hut  your  project  to  join  the  army  does 
not  sconi  j^tiod  to  nic.  First,  the  time  spent  in  the  army  is  lost. 
Then,  in  the  United  States  military  service  does  not  pay,  they  consider 
the  army  to  be  a  throng  of  sluggards  and  spongers.  Finally,  in  a  few 
years  a  war  between  the  United  States  and  Japan  will  surely  break 
out,  as  a  result  of  commercial  rivalry,  so  you  may  lay  down  your  head 
[perish]  for  a  foreign  business.  [Death  of  the  writer's  friend  and 
neighbor.] 

In  our  neighborhood  things  are  more  quiet,  although  in  the  King- 
dom and  in  Warsaw  attacks  still  happen.  Every  town  is  full  of 
constables.  In  Michow  there  are  12,  in  Kamionka  12,  in  Firlej  8. 
The  suit  about  Kaluzyiiski  is  not  yet  settled.  I  hear  that  [the  accused] 
excuse  themselves  by  saying  that  it  was  you  who  made  most  of  the 
trouble  in  Firlej.'  You  are  searched  for  by  [advertisements  in] 
papers.  Near  Lublin  there  are  still  attacks  of  bandits.  A  week  ago, 
during  a  fair,  a  dozen  farmers  were  robbed  and  one  killed. 

Stanislaw  has  sold  a  part  of  your  clothes  for  about  40  roubles,  and 
lent  the  money  at  interest.  He  still  has  the  rest.  People  say  that  he 
asks  too  much,  and  don't  buy.  In  your  home  everything  is  well. 
[Describes  his  sickness.]     Now,  after  4  months,  it  is  better,  but  I 

cannot  stand;  two  men  raise  me  and  seat  upon  a  rolling-chair 

My  fingers  are  quite  cramped  ....  but  I  can  still  hold  a  pen  or  a 

spoon But  probably  all  this  will  end  soon 

/  G.  T. 

749  .  August  13,  1908 

JVIr.  Jan:   I  received  your  letter  yesterday  and  I  answer  you  at 

once As  to  "Kazio,"  I  would  not  advise  you  to  write  about 

him  for  two  reasons.  First,  I  have  no  possibility  of  ascertaining 
whether  it  was  he  or  somebody  else  among  this  company  who  talked 
about  you,  and  what  was  said  about  you  in  general.  What  I  heard 
comes  from  different  persons  who  may  for  some  reasons  tell  untruth, 
but  there  is  a  great  probability  that  [the  prisoners],  wishing  to  defend 
themselves  and  counting  upon  it  that  the  government  can  do  nothing 
against  you  and  that  you  won't  come  back  to  this  country,  put  their 
'  It  was  usual  in  political  trials  to  put  the  blame  on  any  one  of  the  number  who 
succeeded  in  escaping  the  authorities. 


LIPNIACKI  SERIES 


1095 


own  guilt  upon  you.  ....  And  then,  it  seems  to  me  that  ["Kazio"] 
in  particular  has  some  favors  from  the  authorities,  for  his  affair  stuck 
in  some  strange  way  and  nothing  is  to  be  heard  about  it,  and  there  are 
also  other  things  which  show  that  he  belongs  to  the  s[pies].  People 
say  so;  perhaps  it  is  not  true. 

In  the  beginning  of  July  there  appeared  in  Firlej  5  young  men  two 
of  whom  killed  a  police  officer  and  a  constable,  ....  the  third  killed 
the  lawyer  M.,  and  the  last  two  fired  at  other  constables  in  the  town, 

but  without  result Some  dozens  of  men  have  been  arrested 

in  Michow  and  the  neighborhood,  and  all  of  them  have  been  taken 
to  Warsaw  in  irons.  Probably  they  won't  return  any  more,  at  least 
not  soon. 

If  people  say  here  different  absurd  things  about  you  it  can  be 
explained  by  two  causes.  First,  your  going  to  America  makes  them 
think  that  you  ran  away  from  some  punishment,  and  again,  you  have 
quarrelled  with  many  people,  so  they  speak  absurdities  from  anger. 
There  is  one  man,  and  of  the  intelligent  class,  who  says  that  all  these 
who  have  served  with  me  [on  my  estate]  became  bandits.'  Whence 
such  an  opinion  ?     He  has  been  no  more  than  a  year  in  this  country. 

In  your  home  there  is  no  news.  Your  father  was  here  and  asked 
about  you.  I  told  him  you  had  written  that  everything  was 
well  with  you.  Your  friend,  the  locksmith  Zdunek,  is  dead  of 
consumption.     You  ought  also  to  be  careful,  for  remember  that  in 

your  family  two  persons  died  of  consumption 

I  greet  you  heartily, 
G.  T. 

750  October  17,  1908 

Mr.  Jan:   ....  I  have  sent  you  60  roubles.     There  was  not  so 

much  money  got  for  your  clothes,  but  I  sent  more,  supposing  that 

slowly  more  will  be  gathered After  this  card  which  you  wrote 

about  the  slaughter  in  Firlej  a  new  police  officer  came  to  us  and  asked 

Stanislaw  who  wrote  it.     Stanislaw  answered  that  he  did  not  get  any 

such  letter  and  did  not  know  who  wrote  it.     But  the  policeman  said 

that  they  knew  that  you  had  written  it.     What  wrong  had  these  men 

who  were  killed  done  to  you  ?     Why  did  you  rejoice  in  their  death  ? 

So  be  more  careful  in  the  future.     You  wrote  it  without  thinking,  and 

'  During  and  after  the  revolution  of  1905-6  many  plain  robbers  assumed  the 
role  of  revolutionists  and  many  revolutionists  (especially  after  the  execution  of 
their  leaders)  dropped  into  banditism.     This  situation  will  be  treated  in  Part  II. 


l0C)(i  PRIMARV-GROUr  ORGANIZATION 

luTi-  tlu'v  annoy  the  persons  to  whom  you  wrote.  The  information  of 
the  papers  about  the  murderers  in  Firlej  was  false.  In  two  houses 
near  Lubhn  some  bandits  were  killed,  some  arrested,  and  among  the 
latter,  two  confessed  that  they  had  killed  the  constables  in  Firlej;  the 

revolver  of  a  dead  constable  was  found  with  them Lately 

there  was  an  attack  upon  the  manor  in  Krasinin.  They  stole  some 
money  and  jewelry  and  wounded  the  proprietor  with  his  own  gun. 
The  attacks  upon  governmental  liquor-shops  and  upon  inhabitants 
in  their  houses,  and  highway-robberies  do  not  cease 

Whv  do  you  spend  money  in  subscribing  to  a  paper  for  Stanislaw  ? 
Probably  you  have  not  much  money  to  spend  yourself,  and  Stanislaw 
cannot  demand  such  gifts  from  you.  [Weather;  crops  and  harvest; 
cholera  in  Russia;  farming  news.] 

Jas  Gornik  [a  manor-servant]  became  stubborn  and  went  away 
for  the  second  time.  Later  on  he  wanted  to  come  back,  but  I  thanked 
him  [refused].  Now  he  is  marrying  a  widow  of  36  and  will  have  at 
once  a  boy  6  years  old  (there  were  more,  but  they  are  dead).  But  the 
widow  has  600  roubles,  people  say.  Well,  may  he  only  not  be 
deceived,  and  get  the  money  of  which  he  is  so  greedy.  The  woman,  I 
hear,  is  a  loafer  and  in  spite  of  her  36  years  runs  to  musics  [dancing 
parties]  and  after  boys.  But  he  seems  not  to  mind  it  if  only  she  has 
money.'  May  he  not  be  deceived  like  Kozik,  who  was  to  get  500 
roubles  with  his  wife,  got  nothing,  and  now  beats  his  wife  for  it. 
[Enumerates  his  house-servants;  news  about  neighbors.] 

The  new  priest  in  Rudno,  Tel,  is  very  kind,  and  people  like  him. 
They  decided  to  give  money  for  repairing  the  two  houses  and  building 
a  new  one  for  him j  greet  you 

G.  T. 

751  January  11,  1909 

Mr.  Jan:  Being  in  bed  for  three  months,  I  have  had  no  possibility 

of  answering  you.     Now,  sitting  again  in  the  rolling-chair,  I  take  my 

pen  to  thank  you  for  your  last  long  letter  in  which  you  describe  the 

farming  in  America.     Well,  the  customs  change  from  land  to  land,  but 

evidently  the  people  work  better  than  in  our  country.     [Describes 

new  murders  and  robberies.] 

'  As  a  farm-servant,  particularly  a  teamster  like  this  one,  has  little  chance  to 
put  enough  money  aside  to  buy  land,  and  as  land-hunger  is  a  prevalent  feature  of 
the  true  peasant,  such  a  marriage  does  not  prove  that  the  man  is  avaricious,  for 
the  idea  of  land-property  is  not  a  purely  economic  factor. 


LIPNIACKI  SERIES  IO97 

Gornik  has  married  the  widow,  almost  twice  older  than  himself 
....  and  now  he  loafs  about  and  weeps  for  marrying  her. 

The  priest  Tel.  left  Rudno  and  moved  to  Opole,  to  a  better  parish. 
He  began  to  repair  the  houses  but  did  not  finish  it.  Another  priest 
came,  an  old  man  with  a  numerous  family — with  the  organist  and 
beadle  18  persons.  He  does  not  enjoy  a  good  opinion.  The  parish- 
ioners did  not  want  him  and  say  that  they  won't  give  any  money  for 
repairing.'  And  one  of  the  houses  is  almost  ruined.  The  other  is 
without  doors,  windows,  floors,  stoves,  or  ceilings.     I  don't  know  how 

it  will  end 

G.  T. 

752  February  24,  1909 

Mr.  Jan:  I  received  your  letter In  the  post-office  there  is 

a  parcel  for  Stanislaw  and  they  make  trouble  about  delivering  it. 
Perhaps  it  is  books  from  you.  But  why  do  you  spend  money  in 
sending  gifts  ?  .  .  .  . 

The  affair  of  "  Kazio"  &  Co.  was  judged  a  month  ago  by  the  court- 
martial  in  Warsaw.  They  were  all  declared  not  guilty  in  this  affair, 
but  have  been  sent  to  Russia  for  belonging  to  the  socialistic  party, 
except  "Kazio,"  who  did  not  belong  to  any  party.  [New  robberies; 
some  bandits  caught.]  It  is  only  strange  that  all  these  bandits  are 
caught  by  the  detachment  of  police  sent  from  Lublin,  while  the 
local  police  ....  has  never  yet  discovered  any  of  them  [because 

bribed] 

Stanislaw  has  sold  of  your  clothes  to  the  amount  of  54  roubles 
68  copecks;  there  are  still  left  25  collars,  5  pairs  of  cuffs,  i  bedsheet, 
5  pillowcases,  a  yellow  waistcoat,  a  summer  overcoat,  green  trousers 
and  vest,  4  neckties,  almost  all  the  shirt-buttons,  a  pair  of  scissors, 
a  comb,  envelopes,  photographs  of  girls  [probably  actresses],  a  hat, 
a  box,  a  valise,  a  pillow,  a  lamp,  the  books.  Secretary  [models  of 
letters],  Sexual  Life,  Atlas  of  Russia,  The  Honeymoon,  and  5  small 
booklets.^  .... 

I  greet  you, 

G.  T. 

'  This  paragraph,  connected  with  the  corresponding  one  in  No.  750,  shows  to 
what  an  extent  the  attitude  of  the  peasants  toward  the  priest  depends  upon  the 
personality  of  the  latter. 

'The  enumeration  shows  clearly  that  the  man  was  a  coxcomb  in  his  social 
sphere.     This  is  typical  for  a  farm-clerk,  who  is  generally  an  unmarried  man  (when 


i(»S  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

ye^  May  2,  1909 

Mr.  Jan:  ....  Stanislaw  will  buy  the  books  for  which  you 
asked  when  he  goes  to  LubUn.  But  why  do  you  need  the  book 
Bez-wyzminiincoSc  ["Freethinking";  Hterally,  "being  without  a  con- 
fession"]. Whoever  does  not  beheve  does  not  need  the  book,  and  I 
think  it  is  not  you,  for  since  you  ask  the  priest  in  Firlej  for  a  mass,  you 
must  belong  to  the  believers 

For  a  month  there  has  been  a  new  judge  in  Michow,  sent  by  the 
government,  a  Russian,  Mr.  Trabuchow,  elder  of  the  Don-Cossacks. 
He  walks  dressed  like  a  Cossack,  with  a  sword  at  his  side.  He 
punishes  severely.  He  fined  Okon  [a  peasant]  20  roubles  for  having 
taken  a  piece  of  wood  from  the  governmental  forest  in  Lubartow, 
besides  the  value  of  the  wood.  A  peasant  said,  "Thief"  to  another. 
He  got  a  month  of  prison,  etc.  But  as  it  is  a  Russian  judge,  and 
moreover  a  soldier,  the  peasants  sit  quiet  and  say  nothing.  He  called 
on  me  and  said  that  he  would  keep  the  court  in  order.  He  forbids  the 
assistants  to  go  to  beerhouses  with  the  parties,  he  dismisses  constables 

when  they  don't  keep  order.     In  short,  he  is  full  of  energy 

The  peasants  now  regret  the  deceased  Mr.  Zaleski.     As  long  as  he 

lived  they  did  with  him  whatever  they  wanted Only  now  they 

understand  what  they  have  lost. 

Katarzyna,  our  cook,  whom  you  certainly  remember,  was  often 
sick  and  wished  to  leave.  Stanislaw  searched  for  another  in  her  place. 
When  Mr.  K.  called  once  upon  me  Stanislaw  asked  him  about 
Marcela,  whether  she  was  in  Jawidz.  He  answered  that  she  had 
found  a  boy  and  must  leave,  because  she  expected  an  addition  [child]. 
I  tried  to  learn  what  became  of  her,  according  to  your  wish.  I  heard 
that  she  went  to  Kock,  where  she  is  now,  and  whether  there  was  or 
will  be  something  [immoral],  people  don't  know.  At  any  rate,  what- 
ever has  been,  such  things  are  usual 

I  greet  you, 

G.  T. 

he  marries,  he  tries  to  get  an  advance  and  to  become  a  farm-manager)  and  being 
in  a  superior  position  and  better  dressed  and  educated  than  the  simple  teamster, 
has  a  good  chance  with  the  farm-girls.  He  wears  clothes  and  ties  of  the  most 
extraordinary  colors,  uses  very  strong  perfumes,  has  always  a  stiflF  collar,  which  the 
peasant  wears  only  on  Sundays,  uses  pomade  on  his  hair  and  beard,  copies  pre- 
tentious love-letters  from  special  handbooks,  etc.,  and  by  these  means  exerts  a 
great  influence  upon  girls. 


LIPNIACKI  SERIES 


1099 


[The  following,  No.  754,  is  composed  of  passages  selected  from  letters 
of  various  dates.] 

754  October  18,  1909 

Mr.  Jan:   ....  I  have  been  in  bed  again  until  yesterday,  and 

therefore  I  did  not  write  to  you What  was  the  reason  of  the 

bluff  about  your  coming  back  ?  If  you  wished  to  make  a  joke  with 
other  people,  never  mind;  but  why  did  you  lead  me  into  error?  I 
was  troubled,  thinking  that  after  your  return  you  might  be  arrested. 
I  don't  say  that  you  are  guilty.'  But  you  emigrated  to  America,  and 
people  immediately  concluded  that  you  must  have  taken  part  in 
something.  And  as  you  did  not  lack  various  enemies,  who  pretended 
to  be  your  friends  as  long  as  you  were  here  but  attacked  you  as  soon 
as  you  left,  you  might  have  been  arrested  and  kept  in  prison  for  a  few 
or  for  many  months,  until  the  matter  was  cleared,  for  although  the 
state  of  war  is  abolished,  there  is  still  a  state  of  "strengthened  pro- 
tection," which  is  almost  the  same 

[June  25,  1910] 

Although  you  are  already  a  grown-up  man  and  you  have  your  own 
reason,  don't  be  angry  if  I  warn  you  about  your  matrimonial  inten- 
tions. Remember  that  you  may  easily  wander  alone,  in  case  of 
necessity,  from  place  to  place,  but  with  a  wife  and  children  it  is 
difficult,  often  quite  impossible.  And  then  one  does  not  know  what 
to  do  with  this  pawn.  It  is  easy  to  get  married,  but  it  is  very  difficult, 
if  not  impossible,  to  get  unmarried  again 

[February  8,  191 1] 

Your  preceding  cards  informed  us  laconically  that  you  traveled, 
but  you  did  not  write  what  for.  It  is  very  agreeable  to  travel  for  the 
pleasure  of  it,  but  I  know  from  my  own  experience  that  it  costs  very 
much.  Did  your  financial  position  allow  you  to  do  it  ?  We  are  not 
curious  to  investigate  your  mysteries,  but  if  it  is  not  a  secret  we  should 
be  glad  to  learn  where  you  have  been  and  why 

Different  people  ask  here  sometimes  for  your  address.  We 
answer  that  we  don't  know.     Shall  we  give  it  or  not  ?  .  .  .  . 

Among  the  people  who  are  serving  with  us  probably  you  don't 

know   many  now Perhaps  you   remember   that   small   boy 

Konrad  who  came  to  Marysia  from  Lukowiec.     Now  he  is  18  and  is 

'  He  evidently  was  so  in  political  matters,  but  the  writer  pretends  to  be  ignorant 
or  writes  in  this  way  fearing  the  letter  will  be  opened  by  the  police. 


1  KX)  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

niv  waiter,  totjothcr  with  another  man.  He  is  a  good  and  clever  boy. 
Wojtowiczowna  married  Koziol  from  Baran  [pun:  the  man's  name 
means  "buck,"  the  village's,  "ram"]  and  they  get  on  miserably,  for 
they  are  both  poor.  Andzia  launches  herself  powerfully  [is  dissolute]. 
Her  younger  sister  Felka  is  serving  here  since  New  Year,  but  surely 
she  will  go  home,  for  she  is  in  a  very  romantic  mood  and  I  am  afraid 
it  will  happen  as  with  Kukrzycka,  who  left  on  January  i,  thick 
[pregnant] '  q  -p 

755  Jurie  5,  1909 

Respected  Sir:  ....  There  is  nothing  new  and  nothing  good 
with  us.  The  judge  [the  manor-owner]  is  very  bad;  he  coughs  worse 
and  worse,  he  complains  about  pain  in  the  lungs,  and  in  general  he  is 
downhearted  and  dissatisfied.  For,  indeed,  everything  is  going  on  so 
badly.  The  spring  is  awful.  Nobody  remembers  such  an  other. 
The  flowers  and  tomatoes  froze  on  May  24,  there  was  such  a  frost. 

....  My  bees  are  almost  wasted  through  this  accursed  cold 

Now  it  is  a  little  warmer,  but  what  of  it  since  there  is  no  rain  and  the 
wind  blows  and  dries  everything,  ....  and  it  is  to  be  expected  that 
the  whole  summer  will  be  awful.  But  w^hat  can  w-e  do  against  it  ? 
We  are  not  strong  enough,  and  we  must  wait  for  God's  mercy 

Your  father  is  in  good  health.     I  hear  that  he  is  plowing  the  new 

land I  see  him  seldom.     Sometimes  he  comes  to  learn  whether 

you  wrote  to  me.  He  asked  for  your  address,  but  I  could  not  give  it 
to  him  for  I  did  not  know  myself,  and  I  think  that  even  now  I  won't 
tell  him,  for  perhaps  you  don't  wish  it 

Mr.  Zaborski  lived  in  the  winter  in  Oziora's  house.  He  complains 
much,  the  poor  man,  about  his  wife;  he  says  that  he  is  the  most 
unhappy  man  in  the  world.     Well,  he  chose  her  himself  and  had  known 

her  perfectly,  and  he  was  caught  in  this  way He  has  bought  a 

place  in  Sobolew  ....  built  a  rather  nice  house,  fenced  the  garden, 
moved  the  beehives.  Sobolew  looks  now  very  nice  from  far  away, 
for  seen  from  near,  there  is  enormous  misery,  stupidity,  and  igno- 
rance.   It  does  not  go  forward,  but  backward,  to  the  oldest  savage 

customs 

Stanislaw  L. 

'  Dissolute  sexual  life  in  manors  is  much  greater  than  in  villages,  partly 
because  the  opinion  of  the  community  is  not  so  strong,  since  the  community  is 
unstable,  partly  because  the  girls  are  more  independent  of  their  families,  and,  in 
general,  because  the  opportunity  is  greater  and  the  control  looser. 


LIPNIACKI  SERIES  iioi 

756  January  24,  1913 

Respected  Sir:  I  will  give  you  a  little  information,  whatever  I 
can.  [News  about  acquaintances,  such  as]  Madejska  got  a  boy; 
the  child  is  dead,  and  she  married  some  man  from  Kock.  Stefan  G. 
went  to  the  army  and  did  not  come  back ;  people  say  that  he  married 
a  Russian.  Julka  B.  married  Majcher  and  lives  on  poorly  in  the 
colony.  Her  brother  Stefan  is  finishing  the  eighth  class  [gymnasium]. 
He  is  very  clever,  and  will  probably  go  to  the  university 

I  send  you  inclosed  a  letter  from  your  father.  I  did  not  give  him 
your  address.  He  comes  often,  asks  about  you  and  complains  that 
you  never  write  to  him.  You  could  do  him  this  pleasure.  Why,  it 
is  always  a  father's  heart  [in  spite  of  his  faults]. 

Two  months  ago  the  priest  of  Firlej  died  suddenly.  His  parish- 
ioners have  stolen  everything.  A  woman  took  even  his  trousers,  and 
when  they  were  taken  away  from  her  she  said  that  she  took  them  as  a 
remembrance  of  the  priest.     Such  is  the  culture  in  our  country 

Stanislaw  L. 


JASINSKI  SERIES 

The  particular  interest  of  these  letters  is  connected  with 
the  fad  that  their  author  is  a  peasant  who  through  his 
instruction  and  his  social  and  political  ideals  has  gotten 
comi)letcl>-  outside  of  the  peasant  class  and  has  degenerated, 
ph>sically  and  morally,  the  double  strain  of  intellectual  life 
and  of  a  complete  change  of  social  and  moral  attitudes 
having  proved  too  much  for  him.  The  question  whether  a 
peasant  will  be  able  to  keep  his  equilibrium  upon  a  new  basis 
of  life  depends,  of  course,  upon  the  rapidity  and  the  char- 
acter of  the  change.  A  peasant  like  Waclaw  Markiewicz 
has  indeed  an  entirely  new  sphere  of  intellectual  interests 
and  convictions,  but  through  his  occupation  and  his  family- 
relations  he  retains  enough  connection  with  the  peasant  life 
to  preserve  his  balance.  A  man  like  Maks  Markiewicz, 
or  any  peasant  who  by  his  culture  and  occupation  passes 
into  a  higher  class,  even  if  he  loses  his  connection  with  the 
peasant  life,  gets  into  an  environment  which  has  a  moral  and 
social  organization  different  from  that  of  the  peasant  class 
but  still  strong  enough  to  keep  the  new  member  from  de- 
generating. (See  Markiewicz  series.)  Zygmunt,  the  friend 
of  Walenty  Piotrowski,  was  already  prepared  to  accept  to 
some  extent  many  of  the  new  ideals  which  were  given  to  him, 
and  continued  to  adapt  himself  gradually.  (See  Piotrowski 
series.)  And  again  in  other  cases  there  are  elements  in  the 
new  environment  w^hich  were  already  latent  in  the  old. 
Thus,  for  example,  peasants  and  workmen  do  not  lose  their 
moral  self-control  when  belonging  to  revolutionary  parties 
with  a  patriotic  character,  because  patriotism  is  always 
latent  in  the  lower  classes.  But  in  the  case  of  Jasinski 
none  of  the  factors  which  are  able  to  preserve  equilibrium 

1 102 


JASIIsrSKI  SERIES  1 1 03 

in  a  new  sphere  of  intellectual  and  moral  life  was  present. 
Unlike  Waclaw,  he  has  no  connection  with  the  peasant  life; 
unlike  most  of  the  climbers,  he  did  not  get  into  a  class  with 
a  strong  traditional  organization  to  which  he  could  adapt 
himself,  but  into  a  circle  of  sociahst-revolutionaries  whose 
norms  of  conduct  are  still  somewhat  fluid  and  whose  set  of 
ideas  is  not  elaborated  thoroughly  enough  to  organize 
intellectual  life  as  completely  as  it  is  organized  by  religion 
among  the  peasants.  Jasinski  was  a  country  teacher,  and 
as  the  schools  provide  no  preparation  for  change  he  was 
probably  introduced  into  a  new  sphere  of  life  without  the 
proper  preadaptation.  In  this  respect  he  differs  from 
Zygmunt,  who  introduced  himself  into  a  new  sphere  infor- 
mally, and  through  the  selection  of  his  personal  relations. 
Finally,  the  system  of  Polish  national  ideals  does  not  seem 
to  influence  Jasinski  strongly.  Note  his  relation  to  the 
Russian  socialists. 

The  matter  is  quite  different  with  a  man  of  a  higher 
social  class  who  becomes  a  socialist.  He  is  accustomed  to  a 
greater  individual  autonomy  in  intellectual  and  moral 
problems  and  is  therefore  much  more  able  to  keep  his 
equilibrium  upon  the  slippery  ground  of  revolutionism. 
But  the  peasant's  intellectual  and  moral  life  has  always  been 
so  absolutely  controlled  by  public  opinion  that  individual 
autonomy  cannot  take  the  place  of  social  control  if  the  latter 
is  lacking.  And  Jasinski  in  this  respect  is  in  a  worse  position 
than  most  of  the  socialists,  for  he  is  for  long  periods  isolated 
from  his  companions. 

It  is  interesting  to  observe  how  the  peasant,  in  a  kind  of 
half-conscious  moral  self-defense,  endeavors  in  every  new 
environment  to  find  some  substitute,  however  imperfect, 
for  the  lost  system  of  social  traditions;  how  he  tries  to  have 
some  kind  of  social  opinion  upon  which  he  can  lean.  In 
the  present  case  Jasinski  is  in  his  socialistic  ideas  a  perfect 


1I04  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

echo  of  his  party.  His  very  words  are  typical  formulae, 
re]X'ated  identically  innumerable  times  by  socialists  from 
the  lower  classes,  particularly  by  women,  who  share  with 
the  peasants  this  imitative  tendency.  Not  a  single  personal 
note  rings  in  them.  It  seems  as  if  the  peasant  wished  to 
extract  and  to  assimilate  from  socialism  everything  that  is 
fixed,  determined,  commonplace,  traditional — as  if  he  sought 
in  this  fluid  milieu  the  greatest  possible  stability.  And  at 
the  same  time  he  adapts  himself  rapidly  to  a  new  socialistic 
group  (to  the  Russian  sociaHsts  during  his  exile),  which 
shows  precisely  that  the  choice  of  his  ideas  is  not  determined 
by  rational  consideration,  but  merely  by  his  environment. 

757-64,  FROM  S.  JASINSKI,  IN  POLAND  AND  RUSSIA,  TO 
WACLAW  MARKIEWICZ,  IN  AAIERICA.  NO.  764  IS  A 
LETTER  TO  MARKIEWICZ  FROM  ANOTHER  SOURCE,  COM- 
PLETING THE  CHARACTERIZATION  OF  JASINSKI 

757  Zdworz,  May  17,  1906 

Dear  Mr.  Waclaw:  I  don't  know  what  it  means.  Have  you 
forgotten  about  me  or  what  ?  Neither  letter  nor  even  greeting.  One 
sees  at  once  that  you  are  changed  into  an  American,  occupied  only 

with  calculations  about  your  business But  never  mind,   I 

like  it.  We  all  ought  to  break  the  stupid  and  simply  idiotic  European 
ice  and  [stop]  lying,  because  no  honest  understanding  can  be  reached 
by  formalities,  only  empty  lying  to  one  another,  and  imbecility.' 

And  now  I  describe  to  you  my  lot. 

I  left  the  prison  of  Mokotow  after  3  months,  on  April  20.     I  have 

suffered  since  then  real  torments.     First,  I  was  obliged,  against  my 

convictions,  to  send  a  petition  that  my  place  might  be  restored  to 

me,  for  people  gave  me  no  job.^     It  is  true  that  they  had  none.     Then 

'  This  ideal  of  absolute  sincerity  and  abandonment  of  formalities  was  developed 
among  Polish  socialists  under  the  influence  of  Russian  socialism,  which  was  rather 
strong  during  the  revolution  of  1905-6.  American  life  is  here  viewed  through  the 
prism  of  this  ideal. 

'The  sending  of  the  petition  was  "against  his  conviction"  as  a  socialist,  for 
the  position  depended  either  upon  the  government,  or,  more  probably,  upon  the 
National  Democratic  and  Conservative  parties,  for  it  seems  that  the  school  was 
supported  by  the  Polish  School  Association,  which  was  controlled  by  these  parties. 


JASII^^SKI  SERIES  1 105 

in  Z.  I  had  trouble  with  the  old  mean  and  abject  beast — old  Palimoda, 

who  uses  different  arms  against  me.     As  he  could  do  nothing  else 

against  me,  he  slandered  me  to  the  mayor,  whose  boots  he  Ucks  [in 

original  an  indecent  expression],  because  he  wants  to  borrow  money 

from  the  communal  bank.     Then  he  contrived  with  the  manorial  spies 

and  wrote  a  complaint  against  me  to  the  National  Democratic  party. 

In  short,  it  would  take  whole  quires  of  paper  to  describe  the  meanness 

of  such  a  man-beast.     And  why  ?     I  feel  no  guilt  in  myseh,  unless  it  is 

that  I  wanted  the  good  of  the  community.'     In  a  word,  a  general 

"reaction  had  set  in;   the  National  Democratic  party  was  victorious 

at  the  elections  in  Poland,  in  Russia  the  Constitutional  Democrats. 

But  the  end  is  not  yet.     The  devil  knows  what  will  follow. 

I  always  want  to  go  to  America.     I  thought  I  should  go  surely 

now,  but  since  I  got  the  place  again,  I  am  waiting  from  moment  to 

moment.     But  the  wish  remains  to  go,  to  go  the  soonest  possible.     If 

some  misfortune  befalls  me — for  different  things  can  happen — I  shall 

go  at  once.     When  I  come  I  will  send  a  telegram  to  you  asking  you 

kindly  to  meet  me.     Meanwhile  please  answer  me  whether  it  is  easy 

to  find  a  job,  what  are  the  conditions — lodging,  boarding,  work,  pay, 

journey.     Could  I  hold  out  [at  the  work]  or  would  it  be  difficult  ? 

Please  tell  me  this,  for  in   our   shriveled  and  impotent  Europe  a 

somewhat  more  energetic  man  has  nothing  to  do.     In  order  to  live, 

one  must  have  the  mind  of  a  goose,  the  patience  of  a  stone,  and  be  an 

ox — devout,  obedient,  polite,  etc _     ,.      . 

'  .  St.  Jasinski 

758  Kadnikow,  Province  of  Vologda  [Russia] 

February  i,  1907 

Dear  Companion  Waclaw:    Only  yesterday  I  received  your 

letter  written  in  June  last  year As  you  probably  know,  after 

2^  days  of  Hberty — if  this  can  be  called  Uberty — I  was  arrested  once 

more,  and  this  time  condemned  to  be  exiled  to  the  government  of 

Vologda,  [the  exact  place]  at  the  decision  of  the  governor.     I  passed 

during  this  time  through  different  prisons,  etapes,  and  adventures, 

starting  from  Gostynin,  via  Kutno,  Warsaw,  Praga,  Minsk,  Smolensk, 

to  Moscow,  where  I  remained  for  a  month,  lying  sick  in  the  central 

prison  Butyrki.     There  I  had  the  time  to  get  acquainted  with  many 

'  The  story  concerns  probably  some  local  struggle  between  socialists  and 
National  Democrats  and  is  exaggerated  by  the  writer  who  seems  to  be  somewhat 
hysterical  and  to  have  a  slight  mania  of  persecution. 


I  lo('>  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

Russian  revolutionists  and  parties.  On  June  30,  I  was  transported  to 
Vologda.  Hero  I  was  at  first  designated  to  live  in  Solwyczegradsk 
[far  to  the  north],  but  I  made  a  petition  and  the  governor  sent  me 
instead  to  Kadnikow,  47  versts  from  Vologda.  Here  I  have  lived 
for  S  months,  without  any  occupation,  like  all  the  political  exiles. 
There  are  1 70  of  us  here  and  70  more  escaped.  I  should  have  done  it 
long  ago  if  I  had  money.  In  the  beginning  we  got  from  the  police 
:;  roubles  70  copecks  monthly  for  Uving,  but  after  a  demonstration 
from  all  the  colonies  of  the  province  of  Vologda  they  began  to  give 
us  8  roubles,  then  7  roubles  70  copecks,  and  today  only  7  roubles  40 
copecks.     Live,  as  you  can,  upon  this 

It  is  difficult  to  describe  what  I  passed  through  during  this  time. 
I  mention  that  I  was  near  to  sending  a  bullet  through  my  head  to  end 

this  once  for  all  and  to  get  peace But  slowly  aU  this  cleared  up 

a  httle,  and  now  I  Uve,  giving  myself  quite  up  to  the  study  of  social 
and  political  sciences  and  of  Esperanto.  I  already  read  novels  and 
newspapers  in  this  language.  I  sit  the  whole  day  in  the  cabin,  for  the 
cold  here,  falling  to  40°  R.  below  the  freezing-point,  no  longer  permits 
even  walking,  for  the  feet  and  ears  freeze.  I  expect  to  remain  here 
not  longer  than  2  months.  We  shaU  see  what  the  new  duma  does, 
and  then  I  shall  give  myself  amnesty.  Even  if  we  get  it  I  could  by 
no  means  Hve  in  our  country,  for  I  cannot  even  earn  enough  for  black 
bread.  I  have  Parana  still  in  view,  but  to  go  there  one  must  have  at 
least  300  roubles,  while  I  haven't  even  a  single  spare  rouble 

Your  condition  there  is  now  probably  good  enough,  for  the  strikes 
have  passed  and  the  factories  are  going  full  speed.  Moreover  you 
are  better  acquainted  with  the  conditions  and  you  belong  to  the 

socialist  club Could  you  not  do  as  the  Russian  proverb  says: 

"Take  a  thread  from  ever>'body  in  the  community,  and  the  naked 
man  has  a  shirt,"  and  send  me  a  ship-ticket  to  my  old  address  ? 

You  will  say  that  it  is  not  noble  of  me  to  fly  from  the  battlefield. 
But  I  answer  that  the  field  for  activity  is  as  wide  there  as  here,  and 
I  can  do  much  more  there  than  here,  being  half-legal  or  illegal  [under 

suspicion].     Think  and  answer  me  the  soonest  possible 

St.  J. 

P.S.  You  complain  of  capitalistic  oppression  and  religious  and 
national  separatism.  It  is  true.  And  therefore  the  Russian  revolu- 
tion won't  limit  itself  to  taking  only  the  liberty  of  which  you  know  the 
consequences,  but  will  have  the  people  take  all  the  land,  the  factories, 


JASIlSrSKI  SERIES  1 1 07 

the  capital,  and  will  introduce,  first  in  the  east,  holy  socialism.  After 
it  the  other  nations  will  follow.  A  near  future  will  show  it  to  us,  and 
we,  the  proletarians,  shall  yet  admire  and  Hve  in  a  socialist  society, 
which  for  tens  and  hundreds  of  years  has  been  screened  from  us  by  all 
the  religions  with  their  gods,  and  the  states  with  their  laws  and 
armies.'  I  am  very  much  astonished  that  the  people  there  [in 
America]  are  still  so  religious  and  on  the  side  of  the  pops,^  at  the 
mention  of  whom  I  think  of  the  middle  ages  and  the  holy  inquisition. 
Is  it  so  difficult  to  overcome  this  with  the  liberty  you  have  ?  I  don't 
think  so.  It  is  true  that  English  people  are  very  religious,  but  today 
this  ardor,  I  believe,  is  subdued  even  among  them.  I  should  like  to 
write  you  very  much  here,  but  unhappily  the  lack  of  space  does  not 
permit  me,  so  I  limit  myself  to  what  I  can  put  here.  Do  you  cor- 
respond with  anybody  ?  Do  you  learn  ?  Did  anybody  write  you 
about  me  as  about  a  heretic,  a  godless  man,  a  socialist-revolutionist  or 
even  anarchist,  whom  in  the  name  of  God  the  base  old  Paliwoda  and 
Bala  delivered  into  the  hands  of  justice  ?^  So  it  goes  on  in  the  world, 
my  dear.  Not  long  ago  we  were  almost  all  together,  and  today  Mil. 
is  in  W[arsaw],  Zal.  and  Zold.  in  Argentine,  you  in  the  United  States, 
I  in  Vologda,  etc.  What  a  fate!  Does  there  not  stick  one  general 
cause  of  all  behind  this — liberty  and  bread! 

Yours, 

St.  J. 

759  March  16,  1907 

Dear  Waclaw:   I  received  your  letter  just  now I  thank 

you  heartily  for  having  ....  offered  me  your  help  in  such  a  difficult 
moment  of  my  life.  I  did  not  write  to  you  sooner,  ....  first 
because  I  did  not  know  your  address  ....  and  then  I  believed  that 
upon  American  soil  you  had  become  an  idealist  of  the  dollar,  as  most 
of  the  Americans  ....  and  I  thought  that  it  was  not  worth  while 
writing.     I  was  very  much  mistaken;   I  got  a  lesson,  never  to  judge 

anybody    beforehand It    would    be    better    to    send    money 

instead  of  a  ticket,  for  if  I  should  not  go  I  could  easily  later  send  the 

'  Socialism  became  in  Poland  (still  more  in  Russia)  a  new  and  perfectly  typical 
religion.     Here  this  is  quite  naively  expressed. 

'  Pop  is  the  Russian  popular  name  for  an  orthodox  priest.  In  Poland  it  is 
now  an  extremely  contemptuous  word  for  priests  in  general. 

3  Here,  as  in  the  quarrel  in  the  last  letter,  we  have  a  trace  of  the  mania  of 
persecution. 


,uiS  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

rnoiioN-  back  to  your  jiarcnts,  and  if  I  should  go,  I  could  choose  the 

ship  I  wantod Then  write  whether  I  could  get  some  job  there, 

manual  or  intellectual,  be  for  example,  a  teacher,  a  clerk,  or  perhaps 

an  agitator,  a  reporter If  not,  I  shall  direct  my  eyes  toward 

Parana,  New  Zealand,  or  Australia I  should  advise  you  to  get 

acquainted  with  some  Russian  colony  in  America  and  to  study  the 

last  works  of  Tolstoi,   and  many  other  things About  any 

amnesty  and  in  general  any  peaceful  negotiations  with  the  govern- 
ment there  is  no  question  at  all Soon  the  judgment  of  the 

people  on  the  bureaucratic  and  bourgeois  order  of  things  will  begin. 
....  Now  a  moment,  a  great  moment  is  coming  for  Russia 

Stanislaw  Jas[inski] 

760  Petersburg,  July  21,  1907 

De.ar  Companion:  I  write  this  letter  to  you,  but  you  don't  know 
what  is  going  on  at  this  moment  with  me.  You  see,  I  am  in  Peters- 
burg. I  came  here  hoping  to  go  abroad,  but  as  far  as  matters  have 
cleared  up  during  my  journey,  I  cannot  go  further.  I  see  it  myself. 
I  have  entirely  given  up  the  plan  of  going  to  America,  for  I  see  myself 
that  there  is  no  place  for  me  either  there  or  in  South  America.  I  am 
totally  "out  of  tune"  nervously,  my  memory  does  not  act  at  all,  I 
cannot  work,  I  am  quite  unfit  for  the  struggle  for  life.' 

As  you  know,  I  was  accustomed  to  Hve  in  a  different  manner,  and 
today  I  am  obliged  to  adapt  myself  bitterly.  It  is  painful  indeed,  but 
never  mind,  I  count  this  as  Hfe's  experience.  I  am  looking  for  an 
occupation.  It  is  a  question  whether  I  shall  find  it,  and  even  if  T 
find  it  there  is  the  other  question  of  the  passport.^  I  am  lying,  but 
I  don't  know  how  long  I  shall  succeed.  I  have  still  10  days'  time,  and 
I  have  some  hope,  though  very  small,  that  I  shall  get  something  by 
lying.  If  I  don't  succeed,  I  shall  be  obliged  to  return  and  to  sit 
quietly  [in  exile]. 

Almost  one-half  of  the  money  which  you  sent  me  will  be  spent. 
What  shall  I  do  if  I  don't  find  a  place?  Will  you  abuse  me  very 
much  if  I  cannot  give  it  back  ?  Say,  I  don't  want  to  wrong  you,  but 
what  can  I  do  ?    I  am  convinced  that  if  I  dare  to  go  to  you  there  will 

'  The  breakdovra  is  rather  sudden,  and  the  explanation  seems  to  be  that 
however  miserable  the  conditions  of  life  in  exUe,  he  did  not  in  fact  have  to  struggle 
for  life,  but  when  suddenly  faced  by  the  problem  of  work  he  collapses. 

»  A  political  exile  has  a  passport  which  permits  him  to  live  only  in  a  designated 
place,  and  he  must  report  to  the  police  on  appointed  days. 


JASIIsrSKI  SERIES  1 1 09 

be  nothing  of  me.  I  shall  be  totally  unable  to  work,  and  why  should 
I  be  a  burden  or  a  trouble  to  you  ?'  I  fear  it,  and  I  prefer  to  die  here, 
for  things  are  bad  with  me.  I  live  meanwhile,  waiting  for  something, 
with  a  companion-runaway  who  has  something  Uke  a  job,  but  the  gods 
pity  him!  What  is  his  life  worth?  He  is  a  clerk  in  a  bourgeois 
lawyer's  office  for  20  roubles  a  month,  and  for  this  he  must  be  every- 
thing also  in  the  line  of  pohteness,  for  [the  employer]  asks  him  to 
reach  him  cigarettes,  etc.     It  is  sad,  but  true.    To  be  a  servant,  a 

'  The  relation  of  the  two  men,  the  "intellectualist"  and  the  workman,  is  here 
perfectly  typical  for  certain  kinds  of  characters  and  conditions.  The  high  appre- 
ciation which  the  half-educated  or  uneducated  Polish  peasant  or  workman  shows 
of  any  intellectual  superiority  (particularly  when  the  latter  is  not  allied  with  a  too 
marked  class-distinction,  which  makes  it  then  appear  too  natural)  and  in  general 
the  importance  which  instruction  receives  in  Polish  society,  makes  this,  kind  of 
relation  rather  frequent  when  an  instructed  man,  even  if  poor,  weak,  or  immoral, 
comes  into  a  near  relation  with  rich  peasants  or  with  workmen.  The  result  is 
parasitism  in  various  degrees.  The  case  has  been  witnessed  hundreds  of  times 
among  socialists.  The  workmen  supported  their  leaders  and  speakers  quite 
disinterestedly  and  individually  (not  from  the  party- funds).  On  emigration  to 
the  United  States,  to  Brazil,  to  Western  Europe,  almost  every  colony  of  workmen 
or  farmers  has  such  temporary  or  permanent  parasites — half-instructed  "intel- 
lectuals" who  scorn  or  are  unfit  for  any  physical  labor  and  live  at  the  expense  of 
the  laboring  people.  The  case  is  particularly  frequent  on  emigration,  because  in 
that  case  a  man  can  hardly  earn  anything  by  intellectual  work,  and  because  the 
intelligent  Poles  who  emigrate  are  recruited,  with  a  few  exceptions,  from  the  least 
valuable  elements.  The  attitude  of  the  peasant  or  workman  toward  such  an 
intelligent  parasite  is  very  curious.  It  is  a  mixture  of  real  generosity,  compassion, 
admiration,  contempt,  calculation,  and  vanity,  in  the  most  various  proportions, 
depending  upon  the  character  of  the  parasite,  his  conditions,  the  degree  of  appre- 
ciation which  the  uninstructed  man  shows  for  instruction,  etc.  In  general  the 
uninstructed  man  (besides  purely  disinterested  motives,  which  are  never  lacking) 
is  at  the  same  time  glad  to  show  off  before  his  companions  his  intimate  relation 
with  a  superior  man,  and  in  his  relation  with  the  latter  is  glad  to  show  his  own 
superiority  in  economic  matters  while  acknowledging  the  intellectual  superiority 
of  the  other.  Sometimes  there  are  also  services  which  the  intelligent  man  is 
expected  to  give  in  exchange — letter-writing,  some  teaching,  entertainment.  But 
mainly  the  benefit  which  the  peasant  or  workman  expects  to  draw  from  him  is  the 
enlightening  influence  of  his  company.  Unfortunately  the  same  attitude  is  often 
assumed  toward  really  useful  and  intellectual  men  who  come  into  contact  with  the 
peasant  and  workman — teachers,  agricultural  instructors,  journalists,  etc.,  with 
the  exception  of  the  priests.  This  is  manifested  most  typically  in  Brazil,  where 
every  man  who  goes  with  ideal  purposes  is  treated  by  the  colonists,  more  or  less 
benevolently,  as  a  parasite,  and  thus  loses  the  opportunity  of  exerting  a  serious 
influence.  In  Poland  itself  this  attitude  is  found  wherever  the  consciousness  of  the 
value  of  instruction  is  only  half-developed. 


mo  rRIMARY-GROl'P  ORGANIZATION 

slave  for  a  few  poor  grosz— it  docs  not  conform  with  my  character. 
Anil  whose  servant  ?     Some  exploiter's.' 

I  will  see  what  can  be  done,  but  please  don't  consider  it  a  crime 
in  me  if  it  hapj^ens  that  I  cannot  give  you  [the  money]  back.  I  did 
not  wish  to  cheat  you,  I  intended  to  do  without  begging  anybody,  but 
unhappily  I  cannot  get  on  any  further.  You  know  me,  that  I  never 
wisheii  and  don't  wish  any  wrong  to  anybody.  Write  me,  please,  how 
you  are  succeeding.  I  am  pained.  I  have  paid  back  the  whole 
amount  of  money  borrowed  from  the  priest.     Perhaps  I  shall  pay 

back  vours  also 

St.  J. 

761  August  3,  1907 

Dear  Friend  and  Co^rPANiON:  Two  weeks  ago  I  sent  you  a 
letter  with  news  of  the  breaking  up  of  my  plans.     Now  I  have  received 

your  letter My  health  does  not  improve,  I  live  in  a  "black 

melancholy"  or  neurasthenia,  which  expresses  itself  in  a  physical 
weakness  of  the  organism.  I  am  terribly  nervous,  I  get  easily  tired 
and  every  trifle  annoys  me.  WTien  I  am  in  such  a  state  nothing 
interests  me;  I  can  do  nothing.  Even  writing  a  letter  is  difficult. 
....  I  consulted  a  physician,  he  advised  me  to  nourish  myself  well, 
but  alas!  He  said  that  it  came  from  abnormal  conditions.  I  expected 
to  change  my  conditions  by  leaving  Kadnikow,  but  it  proved  that 
I  cannot  go  further  than  Petersburg.  I  have  been  here  for  2  weeks 
waiting  for  my  passport.  I  got  it  by  lying,  but  what  is  the  benefit 
if  I  have  no  job  and  cannot  get  any.  There  are  hopes  for  some  15  to  20 
roubles  [a  month],  but  imagine  whether  it  is  possible  to  exist  upon  it, 
when  lodging  alone,  a  corner  [in  a  room  with  others]  costs  5  roubles. 
I  was  at  the  teachers'  association.  They  told  me  it  was  possible  to 
get  a  place  as  teacher,  but  near  the  [North]  sea-shore,  in  the  province 

'  It  is  a  peculiar  feature  of  many  men  with  high  social  ideals  in  Poland — and 
not  alone  in  Poland — that  while  talking  and  even  acting  most  sincerely  in  the 
interest  of  a  high  social  end,  and  while  making  sacrifices  for  it,  they  neglect  simple 
duties  of  honesty  in  everyday  life.  They  seem  to  feel  exempted  from  the  common 
morality  by  the  fact  of  their  superior  morality.  In  Russia  the  same  feature  can 
be  observed  in  an  exaggerated  degree.  The  source  of  this  discrepancy  seems  to  lie 
in  the  loss  of  moral  equilibrium  which  new  ideals,  particularly  re\-olutionary  ideals, 
brings  to  an  unprepared  and  msufhciently  preadapted  consciousness.  The  radical 
and  drastic  expression  of  the  loss  of  this  equilibrium  is  found  in  the  conversion  of 
revolutionism  into  banditism — a  situation  treated  in  Part  II. 


JASIISrSKI  SERIES  1 1 1 1 

of  Archangel  ....  among  Samoyeds,  or  in  the  province  of  Vologda, 
among  Zyrans,  for  12  roubles  a  month.  And  what  a  place!  I  did 
not  even  thank  them  for  such  a  proposal.  I  will  still  appeal  for 
protection  to  one  place  which  is  not  very  promising.  If  I  don't 
succeed  I  think  of  going  back  to  Kadnikow,  adding  something  to  the 
governmental  expenses  and  living  there  for  some  time.  In  the  King- 
dom [of  Poland]  it  is  very  difficult  to  earn  one's  living,  and  I 
don't  think  at  all  of  going  back.     As  to  Galicia,  it  is  a  good  place  to 

learn,   but  only  for  those  who  have  money And  so,   dear 

Waclaw  ....  here  it  is  bad,  there  it  is  not  good Were  it  not 

for  your  money,  I  would  have  taken  to  stealing  long  ago.  I  cannot 
"expropriate "  [rob],  for  I  don't  know  how  to  shoot.  It  is  bad  to  be  a 
man  good  for  nothing.  As  to  Petersburg,  it  is  a  colossus  gUttering 
with  gold,  but  on  the  other  hand  terrifying  with  its  misery  and  drunk- 
enness. There  are  good  things,  schools,  hbraries,  but  [the  influence 
of]  all  this  is  not  to  be  noticed  among  the  public.  Everything  govern- 
mental smells  of  mihtarism,  everything  private  of  exploitation,  cyni- 
cism, and  frantic  enjoyment  of  life.  I  don't  wish  to  insult  the 
Russian  civilization  and  culture,  but  except  the  samovar  and  the 
rysak  [Russian   breed   of   trotting-horses]   nothing  else  pleased  me. 

These  two  things  merit  attention.     Well,  yes,  and  the  singing 

The  song  about  Stenka  Razin  ....  lives  up  to  the  present  among 
the  people,  ....  as  well  as  about  Pugaczow.^  The  revolution  of 
today  waits  for  precisely  a  hero  like  these  two.  We  hope  that 
moment  will  soon  come,  for  time  feeds  the  masses  with  hate  which 
grows  at  every  moment  and  which  must  express  itself  at  last  in  terror 
and  destruction.  And  then,  although  many  will  fall,  a  new  world  will 
blossom,  and  there  will  be  bread  enough  for  everybody,  no  more 
misery  upon  the  streets,  fewer  weak  and  sick  people.  I  believe  in  it; 
this  is  my  religion.  I  believe  in  science,  the  leader  of  mankind.  I 
believe  in  the  brotherhood  of  peoples.     Let  us  work  as  long  as  we  can. 

Yours, 
St.  J. 

Don't  be  angry  and  don't  abuse  me  if  I  spent  one-half  the  money 
without  your  permission.  If  I  Uve,  I  will  give  it  back,  and  if  not, 
then,  although  you  won't  speak  well  of  me,  don't  speak  badly.  I  kiss 
you  and  embrace  you. 

'  Leaders  of  popular  Russian  revolutions  in  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth 
centuries. 


1 1 12  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

y52  Kadnikow,  March  lo,  1908 

Dear  Friend  and  Companion:  I  received  your  letter  .... 
which  was  for  me  a  true  surprise,  for  I  thought  that  you  were  angry 
with  me  for  Hfc  and  death.  All  this  [friendship]  is  very  well,  but  up 
to  some  time  [to  a  certain  point]  particularly  when  the  question  is  a 
material  one.  Then  friends  become  enemies,  and  states  make  wars. 
I  thought  it  likely  that  you  occupied  the  same  standpoint  with  regard 
to  me,  for  I  got  no  answer  to  two  of  my  letters  from  Petersburg, 
except  this  letter,  in  which  you  don't  mention  whether  you  received 
those  letters  or  not.  You  must  know  that  this  question  is  not  yet 
settled,  and  even  today  I  am  delaying  about  sending  this  money  back, 

for  in  the  spring  I  think  of  going  away  from  here My  health 

is  much  improved,  and  one  of  these  days  I  will  go  to  Vologda  and 
ask  the  physician  ....  whether  I  shall  be  able  to  go  to  Brazil,  to 
Parana.     In  that  case  I  will  go  in  the  beginning  of  May  or  at  the  end 

of  April You  sit  there,  silly  people  in  North  America,  groaning. 

Go  to  South  America.  You  will  be  better  off  immediately.  The 
Brazilian  government  ....  is  beginning  to  colonize,  the  Poles  are 
very  much  wanted.  A  special  office  is  even  organized  in  Warsaw  to 
this  end,  and  our  press  speaks  much  about  it  and  even  advises  [going], 
although  the  gentlemen  of  the  National  Democratic  party  shed 
crocodile  tears  that  our  fatherland  wall  remain  without  working  hands. 
\'ive  Brazil!     You  have  only  to  go  with  a  woman  and  you  will  get 

a  ready  farm  with  a  house  and  farm-buildings The  Macierz 

[PoUsh  school-association*]  has  been  closed;  you  know  it  certainly. 
As  to  myself,  even  if  I  returned  to  our  country  I  could  get  no  place, 

for  I  remain  here  under  the  "special  care"  of  the  poUce 

St.  J. 

763  WOLA  Serocka,  July  29,  1 9 13 

Dear  Mr.  Waclaw,  Companion  and  Friend:  A  few  days  ago 
I  received  your  letter  from  which  I  understand  that  it  is  bad  with  you. 
I  guess  you  must  be  seriously  wounded,  since  you  lost  the  abihty  to 
work  and  you  he  in  the  hospital  for  some  months,  without  knowing 

whether  you  will  ever  recover Something  like  this  has  been 

going  on  with  me  for  4  years  already.  At  the  end  of  my  exile  and  on 
the  way  back  I  caught  cold,  I  began  to  cough,  but  I  did  not  heed  it. 
They  called  me  to  the  army,  I  served  for  5  months,  but  I  came  back 
so  ill  that  I  did  not  expect  to  recover.     It  was  in  19 10.     But  during 


JASIIsrSKI  SERIES  III3 

the  summer,  doing  nothing,  only  walking  through  fields  and  forests,  I 
grew  somewhat  stronger,  and  in  the  winter  I  began  to  give  private 
lessons.  Evidently,  being  already  experienced,  I  was  so  economical 
that  I  put  aside  50  roubles  in  6  months.  I  resigned  about  this  time 
the  hope  of  going  to  America,  for  with  such  health  it  was  impossible 
to  go.  But  the  opportunity  of  a  great  future  presented  itself  to 
popular  teachers  in  acting  as  emigrant  guides — a  second-class  passage 
to  Brazil,  with  the  return  passage  paid  if  you  do  not  like  Brazil.  I 
wrote  a  letter  to  the  Emigration  Society  in  Cracow  which  arranged  the 
trip  for  me,  but  third  class  and  without  the  provision  for  return.  I 
went  therefore  to  Brazil  in  July,  191 1  and  I  settled  in  Parana.  Cer- 
tainly my  hopes  and  rosy  expectations  were  broken  and  pulverized. 
Why  ?  The  main  cause  was  my  bad  health,  so  that  after  10  months 
I  resolved  to  come  back  to  Europe — after  having  spent  2  months  in  the 
hospital  of  Curityba.  My  material  situation  was  such  that  I  received 
help  for  the  journey  back  from  voluntary  contributions  of  companion- 
workmen.     In  short,  I  returned  home  to  die After  my  return 

[June,  191 2]  I  lay  down  and  I  am  lying  the  whole  time I  rise 

sometimes  now,  in  the  summer,  in  order  to  warm  myself  in  the  sun. 
I  feel  better,  but  I  cannot  walk,  for  my  lungs — oh,  these  lungs! — are 
very  small  today  and  I  am  afraid  of  the  winter — whether  I  shall  hold 
out.  Such  is  the  state  of  my  health.  My  material  state  is  no  better, 
for  besides  my  debt,  about  300  roubles  in  all,  I  have  4  roubles  in  cash, 
which  I  would  send  you  at  once  if  you  were  here  in  our  country.  I 
have  no  moral  right  to  the  inheritance  [from  my  father],  and  even  if 
I  have  a  legal  right  it  gives  me  only  the  possibility  of  living  and  board- 
ing with  my  brother.  If  I  wanted  to  tear  these  150  roubles  away 
from  him,  I  should  then  be  obliged  to  go  and  beg  my  hving.  So 
imagine  my  situation.     And  my  brother  himseK  has  not  much  more 

besides  debts;   the  misery  is  the  same  as  in  your  home Write 

me,  what  do  you  want  me  to  do  ?  I  know  that  you  have  earned  this 
money  in  bloody  sweat,  but  ....  I  wanted  to  pay  first  my  debt  to 
those  who  did  not  earn  it  so  hard  and  lent  it  to  me,'  but,  alas,  I  can 
do  no  more.     I  don't  know  what  you  will  think  of  me. 

Yours  sincerely, 

St.  Jasinski 

'  It  is  a  matter  of  "pride"  among  socialists  not  to  remain  under  an  obligation 
to  a  member  of  a  class  sharing  other  convictions,  and  in  this  respect  his  attitude 
is  normal.  At  the  same  time  his  "pride"  did  not  prevent  his  accepting  obligations 
from  this  class. 


1114  PRIMARY-GROUP  ORGANIZATION 

764  March  8,  1907 

Dear  Mr.  Waclaw:  ....  I  am  in  Ojcow.  I  don't  know  what 
will  be  further.  Jasinski  writes  to  me  sometimes,  but  whether  he  is 
crazy  or  something  else,  I  don't  understand.  Once  he  wrote  me  a 
letter  adxising  me  to  get  from  Moscow  or  Petersburg  Russian  papers 
and  hooks — as  he  says,  very  good  ones.  What  do  I  want  with  them  ? 
I  am  not  even  yet  perfectly  well  acquainted  with  the  Polish  Uterature. 
....  I  try  to  avoid  any  mention  of  politics  in  my  letters  to  him,  for 
I  know  that  if  anybody  does  not  agree  with  him  he  is  furious  at  once. 
Not  long  ago  I  got  a  postcard  from  him,  full  of  dirty  calumnies.  In 
this  postcard  he  calls  me  a  denouncer. 

I  don't  know  why.  He  says  that  I,  together  with  some  society 
whose  activity  he  conjectures,  betrayed  him.  It  fell  upon  me  like 
thunder  from  a  clear  sky.  I,  who  correspond  with  him  and  send  him 
a  few  roubles  from  time  to  time,  I — to  denounce  him?  And  to 
denounce — what  ?  A  few  days  afterward  he  writes  another  postcard 
in  which  he  does  not  mention  that  affair  at  all 

W.  GOSZEWSKI 


INDEX  TO  LETTER  SERIES 


PAGE 

Arciszewski 975 

Barszczewski 634 

Borek 317 

Borkowski 86g 

Butkowski 782 

Cugowski 615 

Dobiecki 799 

FeliksP 807 

Fryzowicz 988 

Gosciak 451 

Halicki 647 

Hejmej 961 

Jablkowski 932 

Jackowski 556 

Jankoski 835 

Jasinski 1 102 

Kalinowicz 675 

Kanikula 574 

Kazimierz  F 971 

Kluch 854 

Konstancya  Walerych 803 

Kowalski 981 

Koziowski 527 

Krupa 1009 

Kukielka 829 


PAGE 

Lazowska 837 

Lipniacki 1093 

Makowski 606 

Markiewicz 455 

Olszak 842 

Osiniak 995 

Osinski 394 

Pawlak 824 

Pedewski 967 

Piotrowski 1029 

Porzycki 901 

Raczkowski 706 

Radwanski 792 

Rembienska 775 

Rzepkowski 665 

S^kowski 587 

Serczynski 690 

Starkiewicz 847 

Stelmach 379 

Strucinski 858 

Terlecki 696 

Topolski 579 

Wickowski 684 

Winkowski 809 

Wroblewski 325 


1115 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CAMFORMA   LIBRARY 

Los  Antics 
1  liis  hook  is  UL'E  on  (he  lust  duCe  .N(;iiii|>t-(l  Ik-Iow. 


ID 

URL 


FEB    415T5 
FEB     4  1975^ 


JUN  2  3  1976 
H  SEP  2  7 137? 

lECmCD-ORf 

'JAR-V5J977 

,  -11  tO-t)B 
11     JUN2y)9IJ.- 


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DEC    iJ  ^ 

■VKL 


J  Ah' 


^'>Hn 


JAN  b 11980 
DiSCH/'.RGE-URt 

PR    71980  . 


LD 
URL 


'&im 


1339 


-     i 


•iVf 


02O3  6993 


/ 


DK 

T36 

1927 

v.l 


